San Juan Repositioning

[Lesverts]

I am looking at the San Juan to Galveston repositioning cruise for 2024. But I have pause to book it because there is a nagging feeling that this might not be a good choice

Pros:
San Juan is an easy port to depart from
Houston is an easy city for me to leave since United is hubbed there
The price is very attractive
Visits both private islands
2 sea days

Cons? What would be some drawbacks of this choice that I am not seeing.

I have been on the Wonder. So the Magic is going to be nice enough to me I think.

 

[soniam]

What’s the itinerary? Have you been to San Juan or Galveston? What month?

 

[Cheburashka]

I did a 3-night repo from San Juan last month and vowed not to sail from there again due to the behavior of some of the passengers (11th DCL cruise in 8 years, so it wasn't like I just didn't know what to expect from DCL). YMMV.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/p...uan-to-fort-lauderdale.3934559/#post-65167904

 

[Lesverts]

What’s the itinerary? Have you been to San Juan or Galveston? What month?

Been to San Juan before. First cruise was out of San Juan on a Southern Caribbean cruise. We didn't see much of the city because our flight was delayed so much we didn't get into Puerto Rico until like 8pm. November. 6 night on the Magic sea day, Castaway Cay, Lookout Cay or whatever it is now, sea day, sea day. Never been to Galveston or Houston.

 

[soniam]

Been to San Juan before. First cruise was out of San Juan on a Southern Caribbean cruise. We didn't see much of the city because our flight was delayed so much we didn't get into Puerto Rico until like 8pm. November. 6 night on the Magic sea day, Castaway Cay, Lookout Cay or whatever it is now, sea day, sea day. Never been to Galveston or Houston.

Galveston might be chilly or foggy. It's really random. There's some interesting stuff there, but I wouldn't spend more than a day. Houston has NASA; I highly recommend it. It's different than Kennedy. There are some good restaurants near NASA. Houston itself is huge and has a ton of different things, but nothing I would specifically point out as a must see tourist thing. Definitely go around the Old Town in San Juan. It's like a bit of Europe closer to home. My friends like the off-the-beaten path stuff in Puerto Rico. With Lookout Cay on it, that would be the only reason I would do it. We live in Texas; although, I do love San Juan.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We are on the cruise! We have family in Houston, and we enjoy visiting PR. The Magic has Tangled, that’s a great show.

 

[motherdaughtercruisers]

The biggest con I have (and we have cruised out of San Juan 4 out of 5 of our cruises - we prefer Southern Caribbean cruises) is that the port is insane on embarkation day. No one follows the PAT and it ends up being a complete cluster… people arrive early because they think that will help them get on the ship earlier, but it causes the worst problems and the exact opposite outcome than they wanted to begin with. This was the first year we noticed it being THAT bad… it was a serious safety hazard. That said, this won’t stop us from sailing out of San Juan again, but we have decided we will choose one of the latest PATs available because we want to avoid that chaos in the future and we hope that one of the latest PATs will have allowed the masses to get through. I will also say that we did pick what we thought was one of the later times this past time because we don’t like the chaos that can inevitably happen at the port even when people do follow the directions, but it wasn’t late enough…

Other than that, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be a great cruise!

 

[SnowWhite2]

did a 3-night repo from San Juan last month and vowed not to sail from there again due to the behavior of some of the passengers (11th DCL cruise in 8 years, so it wasn't like I just didn't know what to expect from DCL). YMMV.

I was on the Southern Caribbean cruise right before your cruise. I know what you are talking about and I've sailed out of PR several times. This last time was awful. The good thing about this cruise is that it leaves from Galveston and not San Juan. I'm pretty sure I'm going to do this cruise

 

[katyringo]

I'm looking at this similar
Cruise for 2025...

 

[brentm77]

The biggest con I have (and we have cruised out of San Juan 4 out of 5 of our cruises - we prefer Southern Caribbean cruises) is that the port is insane on embarkation day. No one follows the PAT and it ends up being a complete cluster… people arrive early because they think that will help them get on the ship earlier, but it causes the worst problems and the exact opposite outcome than they wanted to begin with. This was the first year we noticed it being THAT bad… it was a serious safety hazard. That said, this won’t stop us from sailing out of San Juan again, but we have decided we will choose one of the latest PATs available because we want to avoid that chaos in the future and we hope that one of the latest PATs will have allowed the masses to get through. I will also say that we did pick what we thought was one of the later times this past time because we don’t like the chaos that can inevitably happen at the port even when people do follow the directions, but it wasn’t late enough…

Other than that, I don’t see why it wouldn’t be a great cruise!

What time would you recommend for PAT? Is there any downside to just getting the earliest time available and showing up later?

 

[motherdaughtercruisers]

What time would you recommend for PAT? Is there any downside to just getting the earliest time available and showing up later?

I’m not sure how it would work getting the earliest time and then waiting, but I know if we ever cruise out of the port again, we’d go with like a 1:45 pm PAT or later. But that’s just us.

 

[auntlynne]

Sounds great.

If you can get to San Juan a day or two early, you could visit Old San Juan (love the historical architecture) or take a trip to the rainforest, El Yunque (I just saw some limitation to visiting it; definitely look for info before planning this in your itinerary.). Eat some PR food or drink a Pina Colada if you imbibe (they originated here).

Cons: Hotels are expensive. No hotel shuttles. But Pros in response: hotels seem plentiful. (I used points to stay at a new Marriott-family property with a great swimmable pool at a great points rate.) Rideshares and taxis are available. Public bus if you want to get to some places.

The two biggest challenges I hear about Galveston are fog (mentioned above) and distance to Houston airports (but more so when sailing from Houston). Perhaps book a later flight home in case fog causes a late docking.

San Juan and both DCL beaches. Nice itinerary. And no wasted time in Nassau

 

[auntlynne]

What time would you recommend for PAT? Is there any downside to just getting the earliest time available and showing up later?

Only in bumping someone to the next arrival window. Which might do them a favor.

We were late for our PAT in San Juan. They just walked us forward in the line when we arrived (we were not Concierge). I wish we had been really late.

 

[Shikedants]

I am looking at the San Juan to Galveston repositioning cruise for 2024. But I have pause to book it because there is a nagging feeling that this might not be a good choice

Pros:
San Juan is an easy port to depart from
Houston is an easy city for me to leave since United is hubbed there
The price is very attractive
Visits both private islands
2 sea days

Cons? What would be some drawbacks of this choice that I am not seeing.

I have been on the Wonder. So the Magic is going to be nice enough to me I think.

I've used the San Juan port for 4 DCL cruises (two round trips from San Juan, two NYC - San Juan repo).

This con is not that big a deal, but something to think and plan for none the less. It concerns flights to/from San Juan. Although it's always wise to arrive a day early, it's all the more important for San Juan since flights in and out of there are limited, at least compared to Orlando, or any other major airport on the mainland. It's not that you can't find a flight, but if there is any kind of delay or cancellation, you're options and your ability to scramble are reduced. On both my round trip cruises, we had snowstorms hit near the day we were to fly down. We made it but not without a lot of stress.

That said, I wouldn't hesitate to use San Juan. It's especially nice in Jan/Feb since the you have guaranteed warm weather for all 7 days when you're on the southern itineraries.

 

[AquaDame]

The only thing I don't like about sailing from San Juan is bad return times for us on the west coast. We always seem to get stuck with 4-5 hours before our plane departs after wasting as much time as possible before heading off the ship. There is not a lot to do in that airport...

Getting down there in January is also the only time in my life I've had flights cancelled. Once flat out about an hour before boarding and they just refunded our money, the second was on the return. We were rerouted to O'hare of all places instead of Charleston and ended up grounded for a day there as their crew ran out of hours while the plane was being deiced. All I had was a sweatshirt in a snowstorm and that airport was COLD. They did pay for the hotel (had to take a shuttle so we went out in the elements) but not meals. *shudder*

 

[brentm77]

What is the adult-to-kid ratio typically like out of San Juan? Pretty much the same as Port Canaveral?

Edit - I realized I posted this on the repositioning thread, but we are just doing the 7-day out of San Juan.

 

[motherdaughtercruisers]

What is the adult-to-kid ratio typically like out of San Juan? Pretty much the same as Port Canaveral?

Edit - I realized I posted this on the repositioning thread, but we are just doing the 7-day out of San Juan.

I feel like it’s the same. But I don’t know that.

 

[Gdes1]

I did a 3-night repo from San Juan last month and vowed not to sail from there again due to the behavior of some of the passengers (11th DCL cruise in 8 years, so it wasn't like I just didn't know what to expect from DCL). YMMV.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/p...uan-to-fort-lauderdale.3934559/#post-65167904

I know this is a very old thread, but, if you see this, can you elaborate? We're thinking of the 6-night San Juan to Galveston because we love the Magic so much and because of the itinerary (Disney islands and sea days only). Are you saying the passenger make-up was that different from other DCL cruises? Or maybe it was because it was a 3-night? And are you saying you had problems with how disorganized the Port was? Or that people behaved poorly on the ship the entire time?