Flying in the day of the cruise in SJ

How many people risk flying into San Juan on the day of the cruise? I've done it in Florida almost every time. Not sure about San Juan. It would be a direct flight.

Thanks in advance.

I will never risk flying in the day of a cruise no matter what port!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

Depends how far away you’re flying from. If you’re flying from Florida or Dallas, or somewhere with a direct flight that leaves early in the morning and will get you to San Juan in the morning, you could probably risk it if you wanted to. I know you can get a flight from Orlando at 6am-ish that gets you to San Juan around 10am or 11am, for example.

I would also make sure there are a couple additional flight times later in the day in case for some reason you miss your flight or it’s cancelled, that way there are more options of flights to jump on as an alternative. You don’t want to book the last flight out for the day.

If you’re flying from somewhere that requires a connection and won’t get you to San Juan until 4 or 5pm. No way.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

We are coming from Chicago. The flight would arrive in SJ at 1:22pm. And yes, a direct flight.

Thank you for the advice.

Like you, I’ve flown in same day many times. I think with a direct flight you would be fine. I know that goes against the grain around here but I would be comfortable with it.

We are coming from Chicago. The flight would arrive in SJ at 1:22pm. And yes, a direct flight.

Thank you for the advice.

The real risk to flying to San Juan is leaving for most of the year. During hurricane season, then arrival becomes a risk- but if that happens, the actual cruse departure will also be a risk.

So it really depends on what time of year you are planning on flying- do you risk a snow storm (like we had two weeks ago?), or some big thunderstorm system that delays your flight into Chicago (which then delays your departure)?

Once in the air to San Juan- there's not much that will delay you.

We've flown into a cruse to San Juan on the day only once, and ironically, we had plane problems at DTW. The original rebook would have meant we missed the ship, but we were able to move to a better flight we wanted anyway, and made it.

A little too stressful for us, but it's entirely why ships leave San Juan so late.

We are coming from Chicago. The flight would arrive in SJ at 1:22pm. And yes, a direct flight.

Thank you for the advice.

I think that’s doable. Like another person mentioned, time of year can matter since weather can delay flights.

It would make me pretty nervous to fly in right before boarding time, but I have considered it for San Juan because I wasn’t sure how the hurricane damage would affect our stay there, and figured we’d be safe coming in the day-of because of the late sail away.

Ultimately I decided not to do that and we’ll be there for a couple days before our cruise leaves this June and I feel more comfortable with that choice, but I can understand why some people would rather not have to stay there overnight, as hotel prices are pretty expensive and that may be prohibitive for some families. Vacation time off work can make it hard for people to take the extra days off as well, and since some ships leave on Saturday, there would be no choice but for people to take at least 1 extra day off work.

If you have a contingency plan in the case of bad weather, and feel comfortable with those options, I think you’ll be just fine flying in by 1:30. There are plenty of airlines with flights that could get you there if something happened to your original flight plan.

Sent from my iPhone using Forums