cruise our of SAN JUAN, PR..PLEASEPLEASE HELP!!!

[aprilmay85]

ok so we want to book our honeymoon on the victory out of san juan puerto rico. we have been on many cruises but always out of ft. lauderdale & just use southwest from NY to FL. my question is..how do we fly to san juan?!!? what airline do you use to get over there ?? pleaseplease help!! any experience will be helpful!! thank you

[islandwannabee]

just google, flight from your airport to SJU.

 

I used American Airlines.

 

Cindy

[mizLORInj]

From what NY airport will you fly? There are non-stop flights to San Juan; we get them out of Newark.

[oceanxbreeze89]

My family always uses American Airlines (b/c we have milage through them) and we used them for our flight to SJU this past summer for our cruise on the Carnival Victory. However, I am going on a cruise out of San Juan this Jan and we are taking a non-stop flight on Delta because of the price. Delta, AA, Jet Blue, US Airways (I believe), Continental (I believe) all have flights to San Juan. The reason that we chose Delta was because of the price (it was $300-400 cheaper than AA and $200 cheaper than Jet Blue) for that timing. We found this out by going on expedia.com/orbitz.com and did a search from the airport of choice (our choice was JFK) and viewed all of our options. However, we bought the tickets on the actual airline website. You can also fly through Miami and get a connection to SJU. The pier is about a 15 minute drive from the airport. I hope this helps!

 

Helen

[crp640]

Where in NY are you flying from? I'm guessing somewhere upstate - since NYC to San Juan is pretty easy - lots of direct flights, albeit, price varies greatly depending on when you flying.

 

I'm cruising out of San Juan this January. My parents live near Syracuse and will be taking the train or bus down to NYC to fly out with my brother and I on Jet Blue - it's around the holidays, so works out much better fare wise. Also, discovered flying home from San Juan on a Sunday sucks - lots of flights leave too early, and anything that does fall at a good time is expensive - so we are flying back super early monday morning - 3am to be percise - another Jet Blue flight. Sounds crazy, but it allows my parents to connect with the 7:30pm flight to Syracuse, so everyone is happy with it.

 

I know AirTran also flies from Rochester and Buffalo to San Juan.

I usually use http://www.kayak.com to search for airfares...I have friends who swear by bing.com.

[joeandaimeesmom]

Hi from Central NY!! A group of us are taking Continental out of Syracuse.. Where will you be flying from?

[Toddcan]

Use any of the many travel booking websites out there to do a search for flights to PR. There are LOTS of them.

[aprilmay85]

thank you for all your quick responses!! we would be flying out of albany airport. I have never flown out of the US so I didnt know if I had to take connection flights...Ill try searching!! does anyone have any past experiences or stories about taking a cruise out of san juan?? the price was pretty cheap & we want to take our honeymoon on a southern cruise!!! thanks again!!!

[Kurbanfan]

thank you for all your quick responses!! we would be flying out of albany airport. I have never flown out of the US so I didnt know if I had to take connection flights...Ill try searching!! does anyone have any past experiences or stories about taking a cruise out of san juan?? the price was pretty cheap & we want to take our honeymoon on a southern cruise!!! thanks again!!!

 

San Juan is part of the U.S.

[sliderturk99]

my gf and i are talking this cruise jan 9th 2011, we are flying to san juan airport on delta leaving from JFK, and coming back we are taking jet blue to JFK. i would definitely look into multiple airlines.

[wdnoble9999]

We've sailed out of SJ a few times, most recently this past March. Flew Delta and had no problems. As other poster's have said, purchase your flights just as you would any other flight. You're really not 'leaving the country' as Puerto Rico is a territory of the US, although you will, of course, be flying outside of the mainland. I would recommend that you arrive at least a day before, though, and especially if you'll be marrying/honeymooning in the winter. While we've never had problems with flights arriving on time into SJ, I know that others have. For example, in our sailing last March, there were a whole lot of folks flying out of JFK who missed the sail off due to weather delays even though the held the ship in port until close to midnight. Those folks ended up joining up with the ship the next day in St. Thomas.

 

Believe me, you will love this cruise, and especially for a honeymoon!

[zqvol]

San Juan is a MAJOR hub. There are literally dozens of airlines flying non stop from the mainland. Try a booking engine like kayak to find your best deal, or, since it is your honeymoon, just pay a TA to arrange all of it for you. You have too much else to worry about.

[excalwop]

Arrive early there is so much to see in PR like Old San Juan.

DW and I took three cruises from there and have a habit of arriving two to three days early.

To date used US Air, American and Air Tran out of DC/ Balt. area .The US Air flight(Our 1st time there) was the only problem flight. Was suppose to leave SJU around 2:00 PM did not get out until 10:00 PM

Paul

[wrf2e]

Also...One airline that may not come up on alot of the booking websites would be Spirit. They are pretty cheap. I work for an airline so I fly free but I almost bought a ticket on Spirit because they were so cheap and I would have felt better having a confirmed flight.

[saintscruisefool]

I used US Airways.

[scotlady]

I second the suggestion to use Kayak. Gives you lots of options.

 

Regarding San Juan itself - be aware that the hotels tend to be very expensive there, secondly, if you go out at night - they like to dress up!

No t-shirts or tennies if you want to get into the nice clubs!

 

Great city, though - wonderful restaurants - hope you have a great time!

[caribbean dreams]

I use american to SJ but thats only because they usually have the lowest price for me...I would be just as happy flying on any airline that would get me there cheap!

 

go to any travel site, it will automatically will get you to SJ, then choose the best route & price.

[caribbean dreams]

thank you for all your quick responses!! we would be flying out of albany airport. I have never flown out of the US so I didnt know if I had to take connection flights...Ill try searching!! does anyone have any past experiences or stories about taking a cruise out of san juan?? the price was pretty cheap & we want to take our honeymoon on a southern cruise!!! thanks again!!!

 

San Juan is in the US, you will NOT be making an international flight.

 

You are going to be taking the best itenerary cruise Carnival has to offer..have a great time!

[hancogran]

We sailed the Victory last month and this was our third Southern Caribbean cruise. We loved the Victory itinerary and had an awesome time!

 

We've used United and also Jet Blue to fly to PR. We fly from Buffalo to JFK, then on to San Juan.

 

Good luck finding cheap airfare and enjoy your cruise.:)

[Relayer]

Congrats! We loved our Victory cruise as well as spending time in San Juan. No problem finding many choices in flights. A few other comments from our trip:

Flying out of San Juan on a Sunday can be a very trying experience. Many ships are returning on Sundays so there are an impossibly large number of people departing. I would not recommend trying to get an early flight out and remember to present your baggage for the agricultural inspection, another time killer. Best case leave on Monday and enjoy San Juan. At least fly in the day prior to sailing. Old San Juan is a great place to spend a day and evening.

 

Hotels can be a bit pricey. I recommend the Condado Plaza Hotel. Not inexpensive but an awesome property.

 

Happy Sailing!

[Tapi]

I have never flown out of the US so I didnt know if I had to take connection flights..

 

As others have mentioned, flying to San Juan is considered a US domestic flight, so it's just as flying to (for example) Cleveland, OH. No customs, no passports (although you'll need proof of citizenship for the cruise portion).

 

I did a quick search from Albany to San Juan, and I found flights on United (connecting in Washington Dulles), Delta (connecting in Atlanta), and US Airways (connecting in Philadelphia or Charlotte).

[Sumo83]

I used Delta nonstop from Atlanta to San Juan. I usually use priceline to help me find the cheapest rate for airfare and they don't have any extra fees on flights. I also checked the dates that would be cheaper and although the hotels in San Juan are pricey, It was the same for us for flight and 2 night to stay one night before and one night after then to fly in and out on the Sundays that Victory embarks/debarks. So, we took advantage and are staying in Old San Juan to explore the city before and after the cruise.

Also, I used priceline for the Radisson Ambassador for the night prior and got it for $80 and used Hotwire for the night after and got the Sheraton Old San Juan (walking distance from ship) for $90. It does take some time to plan out, but hey that's what got us the deals....

We leave in about a week and I am pumped!:cool:

[Sumo83]

The price for airfare from ATL to SJU was $238.

[wentworth]

Trying to find flights to SJ from Boston right now for 2/19/11 cruise.

Flights with decent flying times are hovering around $ 900+ -:(

Balcony cabin did not cost this much. If cost doesn't come down

we may be looking at an all inclusive this year.

[crp640]

Trying to find flights to SJ from Boston right now for 2/19/11 cruise.

Flights with decent flying times are hovering around $ 900+ -:(

Balcony cabin did not cost this much. If cost doesn't come down

we may be looking at an all inclusive this year.

 

I wouldn't panic yet - it's the holiday's so flights will be more than they'd otherwise be - but some airlines, like Jet Blue hasn't even opened up their schedule for December 2011 yet. And once more flights are up, the prices will drop a bit. We booked the December 2010 leg of our flight from NYC to Puerto Rico in April, i think, within days of the Jet Blue schedule opening up. Cruising Jan 2nd, so we were able to fly the during the week between Xmas and New Years and had a bit of flexibility about when and where we flew to. At the time, I thought we'd do even better with our return flight as it would be a week after the holidays - but it turns out it's really challenging to find a good flight out of San Juan on a Sunday cause that's when everyone is leaving.