Magic from San Juan April 23 -- Port Arrival

I am sailing on the Magic out of San Juan for Southern Caribbean on April 23. It will be my tenth DCL cruise, but I've only sailed out of Port Canaveral. I'm well versed in port arrival times vs boarding times and the general process of open boarding at Port Canaveral. I know they'll have a similar process in San Juan, but in San Juan the earliest port arrival time available is 11:00 and all aboard is at 5:00, so the times move down in the day.

I am sailing with two other couples and we have a mix of port arrival times. I'm attempting to extrapolate when general boarding will start (only for interest and to occupy myself while I wait for cruise time). Given that port arrival times don't start until 11:00, I'm thinking open boarding won't be until 1:00pm or later.

Anyone have an educated guess to geek out with me?

And while we're at it, does anyone want to share anything about sailing from San Juan that I might not know or would find interesting?

I would also to know this. I would also like to know if most people fly in the same day as boarding or do they come in the day before and stay at a hotel?

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We're flying in on Friday because we want to spend the time in San Juan. Our travelling companions are flying in Friday and Saturday.

I'm risk averse in this area, but generally it's a better idea to fly in the day before a cruise no matter what time it leaves.

I would also to know this. I would also like to know if most people fly in the same day as boarding or do they come in the day before and stay at a hotel?

 

 

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OK, in fairness, I despise San Juan as a port. We've had horrible experiences there, none of which were DCL's fault.

That said, open boarding there is usually at the 1-1:30 time frame. You are a classic ship, so the passenger count will be about 2500. That flows better than 4000. My guess is that the PATs are later because the disembarkation process is much slower than at PC. The general workings of the port are not as efficient as at PC. This problem seems to be specific to San Juan. We've embarked/disembarked at Dover, Barcelona, California (San Diego, I think), Port Everglades (emergency situation), etc. in addition to PC. My experience with those ports is that the first cruise or two may not be as efficient as PC, but they quickly get up to speed. San Juan just never seems to get any better.

In San Juan, the forts/old city are worth a visit.

It is ALWAYS a good idea to fly in a day before a cruise. Anything can happen that would cause a flight to be delayed or a connection to be missed. People always think about weather, but we've had delays for mechanical issues, crew issues, and in one case a control tower that was responsible for most of the southeast US was struck by lightning--that was about 100 miles north of our embarkation point and we were flying to Florida, but it still messed up most of the departures in a large section of the country. If you fly in the day before, even if you get an "after work Friday evening" flight, you greatly increase your options in the event of a "situation."