Saturday 2:30pm departure or Sunday 9:30am from SJU?

[PartyAllDaTyme]

I've seen a number of posts on how crowded the San Juan airport gets on Sunday with cruisers from a number of ships back in port, all trying to fly out. Standing in lines for three hours, barely making midafternoon flights, and so on. I'm mulling a choice between 2:30pm Saturday flight or an overnight stay and a 9:30am Sunday flight.

 

Is Saturday any better than Sunday for flying out? Is 9:30am early enough to beat the crowds? DW hates to cut things close, and insists on a 2 hour minimum, so I figured we'd get to the airport around 7:30 to give us plenty of time.

 

While I would welcome the opportunity to spend an extra day on vacation, I figure the money we would save on a hotel/extra cab ride/meals would be that much more into the savings account for the next cruise. The price difference on flights is minimal; flying Sunday would save us about $20. Is it worth it to try and leave Saturday, or would we be better off staying the extra day?

 

Complicating this is the fact that all the flight combinations that I found yesterday seem to have almost all mysteriously disappeared today. So this may be a moot point, but while there's a chance we can still get our choice of flights, I need more info.

[sadie8]

Sunday was equally busy in the airport. Unless you booked a really early AM flight before the Sunday cruise ships arrived.

[StaceyCT]

We did a Saturday 2:15 departure and it was fine - I did not find the airport particularly crowded (I, too, had read what a zoo it can be and was surprised). I do know that many more ships are in San Juan for Sun.-Sun. itineraries (cabbie told us seven I think) than Sat.-Sat. (two were in port). So, it makes sense that Saturday is calmer in the airport. I'd do the Saturday flight and save a little money unless you're intent on seeing San Juan for an extra day. Here's a clip from my cruise review about our flight home:

 

We were probably off the ship by 9 AM. The airport in San Juan seemed fine (I’ve read here that it’s a zoo and don’t understand these comments; it seemed like every other airport I’ve ever been in, except with more Spanish).

A really cool thing in this airport: they have a ton of video game machines where you can choose to play either Ms. PacMan or Galaga, two old favorites of mine. There must have been a hundred of these machines in the airport – one in each waiting area, plus in some dining venues. A great way to spend the few hours we had before our 2 PM flight!

Note to self: next time, either book an earlier flight or one that’s late enough(like 4 PM) that we can do a ship tour first. The non-Galaga-playing members of our party were not thrilled with waiting so long at the airport.

[PartyAllDaTyme]

We did a Saturday 2:15 departure and it was fine - I did not find the airport particularly crowded (I, too, had read what a zoo it can be and was surprised). I do know that many more ships are in San Juan for Sun.-Sun. itineraries (cabbie told us seven I think) than Sat.-Sat. (two were in port). So, it makes sense that Saturday is calmer in the airport. I'd do the Saturday flight and save a little money unless you're intent on seeing San Juan for an extra day. Here's a clip from my cruise review about our flight home:

 

We were probably off the ship by 9 AM. The airport in San Juan seemed fine (I’ve read here that it’s a zoo and don’t understand these comments; it seemed like every other airport I’ve ever been in, except with more Spanish).

A really cool thing in this airport: they have a ton of video game machines where you can choose to play either Ms. PacMan or Galaga, two old favorites of mine. There must have been a hundred of these machines in the airport – one in each waiting area, plus in some dining venues. A great way to spend the few hours we had before our 2 PM flight!

Note to self: next time, either book an earlier flight or one that’s late enough(like 4 PM) that we can do a ship tour first. The non-Galaga-playing members of our party were not thrilled with waiting so long at the airport.

 

Thanks, that helps. We always bring along a cribbage board and a deck of cards to while away the hours waiting for a flight, so we would hopefully be able to stay on board later on Saturday morning (until they have to drag me off, kicking and screaming:D) and still have plenty of pad available at the airport while we wait for our flight. I'd love to stay an extra day, but if I can't justify a Sunday departure by it being necessary to avoid "the zoo", we'd just as soon draw the line at returning Saturday.

 

Any other opinions?

[MDSue]

I don't think SJU is any worse than other major US airports. We had an 11:00 am flight last time and had no problems catching our flight. Taxi's are plentiful so there are really no worries about waiting to catch a cab.

[texancruzer]

Perhaps it was one of my older posts regarding SJ airport you are referring to.

 

The day we left it was a zoo !!

 

REALLY long lines and no order to them. Once we checked in via kiosk it got worse. Seems once the baggage tags were printed out they just yelled out names......EVERYONE was talking so it was loud and pronunciation was not the best..... just seemed to escalate into a big mess. Once thru the check in process/baggage drop, it got better. Security was no big deal since the "trickle" of people coming from check in kept the lines for security from being long. We were there quite early for our flight and sat in the lounge and played Texas Hold Em with pretzels :D (I bring cards too)

[Clubber]

The airport is much better than it used to be since it's expanded and remodeled. In addition, if you checkin at the pier, then it's even easier. You'll already have your boarding pass and then you just need to get through security. We were at the airport at 8:30 am last Saturday and it was a ghost town. Breezed through security in about 2 minutes. It helped that we were the first group off the ship. So if you do that early morning flight on Sunday, it will be a piece of cake. Personally, I'd just rather get home on Saturday to have Sunday as a day of relaxation at home.

[PartyAllDaTyme]

Thanks, all, it's decided, then. We're going for the Saturday 2:30 departure. If we end up in a mob, we'll make the best of it. After all--

 

"There's a party all the time for them what choose!"