Boarding Adventure tomorrow - we made it!

Honestly, I️ can’t believe we are here in San Juan. The last few months since the catastrophic hurricane hit Puerto Rico have been fraught with changes in flights and hotels and coming very close to not having a flight home at all when Air Canada pulled their planes out of SJ and neglected to tell us!

Let me be clear, my travel drama is NOTHING compared to what the citizens of this lovely island have to endure.....

I️ know many of you with upcoming cruises out of SJ are probably eagerly waiting for updates like I was, so I️ want to pay it forward and hopefully lend some insight.

We flew on American Airlines from Toronto to Miami, with a 2 hour stopover, then on to SJ. The flights were great.

Just as we were starting to descend into SJ I️ was looking out the window and noticing most homes seemed to have pools in their backyard- kinda hard to see from 10,000 feet but it looked like many pools. As we continued our descent it became sadly apparent that I wasn’t looking at pools at all, what I was seeing were blue tarps covering the majority of roofs of people’s homes [emoji853]

The devastation is very apparent from the air, and it’s heartbreaking.

The airport itself is running on full power, with shops and restaurants operating normally. They are also in the process of installing slot machines in the departure terminal!

Taxi ride to our hotel was quick, and we are very fortunate to be staying at La Concha which has full power. I️ know that hotels are canceling reservations all the time and we were very stressed that we may not have anywhere to stay. We feel very lucky.

The Condado area has many shops and restaurants open, although many are running on generator power. We ate dinner in the hotel tonight, and it was great. The lobby is full of people with live music.

I’m so excited to board the Adventure tomorrow, and look forward to a fun week on my favorite ship! [emoji16]

I’m happy to answer any questions..

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Good to hear that you made it. You picked a great time to leave with our first taste of winter (snow and -10 here today)

Have a great cruise.:)

Yay! Thank you for this update neighbour. I'm looking forward to my cruise in a couple weeks.

You missed the cold front this morning - lucky you!! Have an amazing cruise :)

Nice to know things went well for your flight and hotel for SJ. Must have been a lot of concern before that.

Enjoy your cruise!

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Thanks for taking the time to post. Bon Voyage. :champagne-toast:

I’ll look forward to your posts! We board next month. Smooth sailing wishes...

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Thank you. We are in the Royal Suite in a few weeks and flying in Sat morning. Do you know if they were still doing the complimentary shuttle from the airport.

Thanks and have great trip.

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Thanks for this update. We are booked at La Concha late December so glad your reservation was good.

Enjoy your cruise.

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Great to hear you made it and actually have a room. What a whirlwind build up with all the uncertainty.

So sad that so much was lost for the people but I am sure they are very happy to have tourists and cruise ships in town.

Perfect timing for you, winter has arrived it was -20 here in Ottawa today with the wind chill. Wish I was where you are.

Have a fantastic trip!

Thank you. We are in the Royal Suite in a few weeks and flying in Sat morning. Do you know if they were still doing the complimentary shuttle from the airport.

 

Thanks and have great trip.

 

 

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Yes as of our sailing there are still shuttles to and from the airport. I’m not sure how long that’s for?

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Yay! Thank you for this update neighbour. I'm looking forward to my cruise in a couple weeks.

 

You missed the cold front this morning - lucky you!! Have an amazing cruise :)

It was freezing when we got to the airport at 4 am! Glad I’m missing most of the cold though! [emoji41]

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Here’s the gorgeous beach at La Concha

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Very good to hear Robyn. We are 8 days out from San Juan and this is good info for all of us currently on JW. Thanks!

Very good to hear Robyn. We are 8 days out from San Juan and this is good info for all of us currently on JW. Thanks!

You’re welcome [emoji106]

The last few months have been crazy stressful, so I’m hoping to ease some worry!

I️ can only speak for the condition of La Concha though...... not sure about other hotels?

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I am interested in hearing more about the (free?) shuttle bus from the airport to the cruise port. Where can I find more information about this. We sail Dec 2, is this because there are limited taxis?We may save us from having to bring out car seats for the children if we don't have to travel by taxi.

Thank you

I spent last night covering a football game in 20 degree temps. with a 25 mph wind adding a nice little chill to the air. It will be nice to spend the next week.... sort of.... in the Caribbean.

I am interested in hearing more about the (free?) shuttle bus from the airport to the cruise port. Where can I find more information about this. We sail Dec 2, is this because there are limited taxis?We may save us from having to bring out car seats for the children if we don't have to travel by taxi.

Thank you

Our travel agent contacted Royal Caribbean and signed us up for the free transfer for our Nov 19 cruise on Jewel. They are offering this to keep the traffic off the streets of San Juan. We were told there will be someone in the airport with a sign for the ship to lead us to the buses. Not sure if it is necessary to register in advance though.

Our travel agent contacted Royal Caribbean and signed us up for the free transfer for our Nov 19 cruise on Jewel. They are offering this to keep the traffic off the streets of San Juan. We were told there will be someone in the airport with a sign for the ship to lead us to the buses. Not sure if it is necessary to register in advance though.

good to hear. We are on the Jewel Dec 3rd and would love to hear from you on how your cruise goes.

Our travel agent contacted Royal Caribbean and signed us up for the free transfer for our Nov 19 cruise on Jewel. They are offering this to keep the traffic off the streets of San Juan. We were told there will be someone in the airport with a sign for the ship to lead us to the buses. Not sure if it is necessary to register in advance though.

If it's free, you just have to show the representative your set sail pass. We were on the October 28 sailing. The luggage line was long and somewhat disorganized, but somehow we got in the right line for a change. We landed at 11:55 and were on the ship at 1:50.

The return trip was even worse once we got to the airport and had to wait for the luggage to be unloaded from the truck. Here's the thing. We were last on the shuttle at the port so our luggage was last on the truck. When we got to the airport, the representative yelled at everyone to get to the back of a long line. Naturally our luggage was offloaded first. The line didn't move because the people at the front of the line were waiting for their luggage which was at the front of truck and had not been unloaded yet. Several people persuaded the line monitor to let us get our luggage which was unloaded and sitting there. It was early and we zipped through the airport after that.

Someone from our roll call had the exact situation on the later shuttle. He was last on the shuttle like us, but had to wait for the whole truck to unloaded to get his luggage. He could also see his luggage but could not pick it up. He got to his gate at the end of final boarding.

I would suggest taking the shuttle to the port and a cab back to the airport.

Thanks for the update. We'll see you in 20 days. We just got an email this morning that our hotel was cancelled, again. Now we have a room at the Olive Boutique. Our friends are at La Concha so it's good to hear they are up and running. We might end up on their sofa.

Thanks for the info on the cab/shuttle issue. We are on the Jewel heading that way now. They have offered the free shuttle but I think we will do a taxi so as to not have the hassle with luggage.

I spent last night covering a football game in 20 degree temps. with a 25 mph wind adding a nice little chill to the air. It will be nice to spend the next week.... sort of.... in the Caribbean.

Are you Doctor turned Reporter now? [emoji3]

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We made it onboard by noon [emoji3] There were long lines waiting to get into the terminal building, but once inside things moved along. We boarded on deck 1, my guess is the escalators aren’t working which is why we didn’t get to board on deck 4?

They also made one of the centrum elevator banks “up only” to transport passengers from deck 1. No big deal, but it was raining when we boarded so we got a bit sprinkled on [emoji849].

There are some nice changes/reno’s to the public areas - I’ll do some more exploring later on I’m sure.

Just so happy to finally be onboard [emoji106]

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Are you Doctor turned Reporter now? [emoji3]

 

 

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I'm the physician for our school district and high school football team.

I'm the physician for our school district and high school football team.

[emoji106]

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