Port in San Juan

[bandjwayne]

We are going on the Adventure this coming weekend and we are not sure what port the ship departs from! I think that there are two of them, but I can not find out what one we leave from :confused:

[HappyRev]

Look at your cruise documents

[NH Cruiser]

Ship is at the Pan-American pier. All taxi drivers know where to take you. Just give them the name of the ship. It was a long wait to board earlier this month. It's a good idea to get there around 11:00 so if you have to wait it will be inside and not standing out in the heat.

[bandjwayne]

Ship is at the Pan-American pier. All taxi drivers know where to take you. Just give them the name of the ship. It was a long wait to board earlier this month. It's a good idea to get there around 11:00 so if you have to wait it will be inside and not standing out in the heat.

 

Thank you! I did read that about the waits, good thing that I like to be early to things :D How long does it normally take from Old San Juan (SJ Suites)? Thank you again

[cruiseguy1016]

There are two piers in San Juan. The Adventure and Serenade both depart and retun from/to the Pan American pier.

[NH Cruiser]

I'm not sure how long it will take from Old San Juan, but I don't think it's that much farther than from our hotel and we were about 10 minutes to the entranceto the port. The big bottleneck was entering the port itself. There were two large ships (Adventure and Caribbean Princess) in port at the same time and sharing the same entrance, which was just a two-lane road. Traffic was a nightmare. The good thing is taxis in San Juan are a fixed rate by area, so we didn't have to pay for the hour it took us to drive less than a mile once we were at the terminal. Call you hotel and ask them how much it is the pier and how long it will take; then add about 45 minutes to what they tell you because of the traffic. Enjoy your cruise.

[stacis64]

Don't forget to look for the line to drop off your luggage. Can get confusing if it's really busy. It will be the outside line. Just ASK when you get there. You drop your luggage off with the porters then get in line to enter the terminal. And I agree with the other poster. Get there by 11 to get inside. We were on the ship by 11:30 having lunch. Have fun!

[Sequim88]

How long does it normally take from Old San Juan (SJ Suites)? Thank you again

 

Unless hotel is way deep in older part of OSJ it won't take long at all. 15 minutes tops. Sometimes on busy weekends and in afternoon it can take a LONG time to just get out of OSJ due ot gridlock. But in morning leaving for port piece of cake. We too got to Pan Am pier at 11am and were onboard well before Noon (except for my father - long story) and eating in WJ.

 

Bigger issue for OSJ is for people post-cruise with late flights who go there for afternoon and need to allow plenty of time to get to airport.

[Teeara]

Here's what we experienced last April going from OSJ to the Pan America Pier (this is from my CC cruise review). Note that we left OSJ about 9:45 a.m. for the Pier:

 

On embarkation day it took us about ten minutes to get from OSJ to the port which was great. Caribbean Princess was also at the Pan American Pier with Adventure. We were let off in front of the area where we were to drop off our luggage (to the right of the building). There were two lines to stand in at this point. It doesn’t matter which line you stand in. You keep your luggage with you at this point. We got in the baggage line and waited until a little after 11 a.m. before they started collecting the luggage. It quickly became mass pandemonium in front of us. The people in line in front of us couldn’t get their act together and were trying to fill out the health forms, juggle food they had bought five minutes earlier, and move their luggage. While they were off to the side dealing with this we turned over our luggage and then moved to a new line created to the left of the baggage line. Some of the women from the group that had been in front of us tried to cut in to be in front of us again. I don’t think so! The second line started moving and we were eventually split into two lines to go through security. No one had told me I would need to have my laptop out of my bag for security and I panicked because my reading glasses had already gone through the scanner. I had to have a security officer open the lock to get the computer out. It was a nightmare. After that we were directed to another line to stand in before we were called to a counter for check in. At least that part went easy.

 

After we received our Sea Passes we were directed to some white plastic chairs to sit in. It was a tight fit with my bags but I made it. We had to wait about 20 minutes because four passengers on the ship hadn’t disembarked or been located yet. Finally a cheer went up at the front of the room and people started moving. We got up when told to and followed the long line into a larger room and up an escalator. We got off that and were then split into two groups, one forward and one aft of the ship in order to board the ship. We took our boarding photo before moving up to the ship itself to get our photo taken for our Sea Pass. Then it was a simple matter of getting an elevator to take us up to Deck 11 for lunch in the Windjammer.

 

Note that if you are a Platinum member or above you have a separate waiting area inside the terminal after check in.

Theresa

[Watermanfunari]

bandjwayne, why don't you come over and join us on our 2/5/12 roll call board?

We have lots of info that we found

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1206642&page=55

 

Sue

[stacis64]

We had to wait about 20 minutes because four passengers on the ship hadn’t disembarked or been located yet.

Theresa

 

Exact same thing happened to us in Feb! Our dinner mates were on a B2B and saw two couples wandering the pool area with their luggage as the ship kept requesting they disembark!

[davekathy]

Here's what we experienced last April going from OSJ to the Pan America Pier (this is from my CC cruise review). Note that we left OSJ about 9:45 a.m. for the Pier:

 

On embarkation day it took us about ten minutes to get from OSJ to the port which was great. Caribbean Princess was also at the Pan American Pier with Adventure. We were let off in front of the area where we were to drop off our luggage (to the right of the building). There were two lines to stand in at this point. It doesn’t matter which line you stand in. You keep your luggage with you at this point. We got in the baggage line and waited until a little after 11 a.m. before they started collecting the luggage. It quickly became mass pandemonium in front of us. The people in line in front of us couldn’t get their act together and were trying to fill out the health forms, juggle food they had bought five minutes earlier, and move their luggage. While they were off to the side dealing with this we turned over our luggage and then moved to a new line created to the left of the baggage line. Some of the women from the group that had been in front of us tried to cut in to be in front of us again. I don’t think so! The second line started moving and we were eventually split into two lines to go through security. No one had told me I would need to have my laptop out of my bag for security and I panicked because my reading glasses had already gone through the scanner. I had to have a security officer open the lock to get the computer out. It was a nightmare. After that we were directed to another line to stand in before we were called to a counter for check in. At least that part went easy.

 

After we received our Sea Passes we were directed to some white plastic chairs to sit in. It was a tight fit with my bags but I made it. We had to wait about 20 minutes because four passengers on the ship hadn’t disembarked or been located yet. Finally a cheer went up at the front of the room and people started moving. We got up when told to and followed the long line into a larger room and up an escalator. We got off that and were then split into two groups, one forward and one aft of the ship in order to board the ship. We took our boarding photo before moving up to the ship itself to get our photo taken for our Sea Pass. Then it was a simple matter of getting an elevator to take us up to Deck 11 for lunch in the Windjammer.

 

Note that if you are a Platinum member or above you have a separate waiting area inside the terminal after check in.

Theresa

 

Good to know info.