AOS - Bacardi Rum Tour & Airport Drop Off

[RiverTP]

Has anyone that has actually taken the Bacardi Rum Tour with transfer to airport know if the total tour time of 2.5 hrs. includes the driving/transfer time?

 

The tour starts at 8am and would supposedly end at 10:30.

We have a 1:45pm flight and I'm wondering if this gives us enough time to go through check-in etc.

 

The brochure said you should have a 2:30pm or later departure which seems late. It seems that if tour ends at airport at 10:30am, it should be plenty of time for a 1:45pm departure.

[ETski]

The Bacardi Factory doesn't even open till 9 am and 10 on Sunday.

Prior to boarding the tour bus you need to claim your luggage. Then you need to bring the luggage to a truck. The truck will bring your luggage to the airport. You then board a tour bus. This all takes time. At the San Juan airport you have to go though an agriculture check prior to going though security. This can take some time, depending on how busy the airport is. Also if you do the tour the bus driver might ask if anyone wants to go to a restaurant for food. Depending on flight times most will want to do this. I know the airport is boring but I wouldn't chance it. Too many things could go wrong.

""

Edited February 5, 2015 by ETski

[Russ Lomas]

The Bacardi Factory doesn't even open till 9 am and 10 on Sunday.

Prior to boarding the tour bus you need to claim your luggage. Then you need to bring the luggage to a truck. The truck will bring your luggage to the airport. You then board a tour bus. This all takes time. At the San Juan airport you have to go though an agriculture check prior to going though security. This can take some time, depending on how busy the airport is. Also if you do the tour the bus driver might ask if anyone wants to go to a restaurant for food. Depending on flight times most will want to do this. I know the airport is boring but I wouldn't chance it. Too many things could go wrong.

""

We did this exact tour with Celebrity last year (I assume it is the same since RCCL owns Celebrity). We did it as a time killer and way to get to the airport and avoid cabs. Here is what I happened.

 

We left the ship in a group and our luggage was taken, put on a truck and sent to the airport for us to pick up when we arrived there later after the Bacardi Factory tour. We sat on a bus and had to wait about 20 minutes for the late comers to arrive on the bus for the tour. It took about 20 minutes or so I believe to reach the factory. We visited on the Saturday. I looked at the time stamps on my photos for the times following....We arrived at the factory at 8:44 am. We disembarked the bus and had to wait for the first tour to go out, which was at 9 am that day. By the time the tour was finishing, my final photo says 9:46 am. We did the gift shop thing, had a few sample drinks for which they give you 2 tickets each and were on the bus before 11am.

 

We were in the airport between 11 and 11:30 am. All of our luggage was left in rows with a staff member in a chair watching over it. You just took your bags and walked about 5 minutes to the check in area. It was a madhouse in there and I thought it would take hours to get through. It took 10 minutes to clear agriculture and about 30 minutes to check in. We still had about 3 hours to wait after that til our 2:30pm flight left.

 

We had wanted to do the rainforest tour, but Celebrity refused to sell us tickets saying it would be too tight to make our flight. That is why we did the Bacardi tour. They said we would likely have about an hour at the airport. In reality, we had almost 3 hours to kill there after the tour. I think they really include a LOT of extra time in their estimates to cover themselves if circumstances delay your arrival back at the airport to cover themselves.

Edited February 6, 2015 by Russ Lomas