Is Celebrity pulling out of San Juan again?

[fedexretiree]

I was looking to book a 7 night out of San Juan on the Millennium for Oct 2023. It appears that after April 2023 there are no more sailings from San Juan listed anywhere.

 

 

[NutsAboutGolf]

Not sure if anyone has insider info, it does still have port of calls in 2024.  I was on the Millie's Panama canal repositioning sailing from San Diego to PR and spoke to many passengers.  Nearly everyone including myself, hates flying to/from PR.  It also seems unless you flying to very limited direct airports, you'll have out of the way flights which increase the overall travel time.  For myself on my return flight to LAX, Houston was an option but the layover was 7 hours.  My alternative was to fly from PR to Newark, have a super short 47min layover then fly to LAX.  Was 12+ hours overall travel time, 10+ hours sitting on a plane.  Flight time from LAX to FLL or MIA is around 5 hours.

 

Other ships, like the Equinox, have identical itineraries as the Millie's southern Caribbean, they go out of FLL and have two seadays on the front and back end.

[jean87510]

14 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

Not sure if anyone has insider info, it does still have port of calls in 2024.  I was on the Millie's Panama canal repositioning sailing from San Diego to PR and spoke to many passengers.  Nearly everyone including myself, hates flying to/from PR.  It also seems unless you flying to very limited direct airports, you'll have out of the way flights which increase the overall travel time.  For myself on my return flight to LAX, Houston was an option but the layover was 7 hours.  My alternative was to fly from PR to Newark, have a super short 47min layover then fly to LAX.  Was 12+ hours overall travel time, 10+ hours sitting on a plane.  Flight time from LAX to FLL or MIA is around 5 hours.

 

Other ships, like the Equinox, have identical itineraries as the Millie's southern Caribbean, they go out of FLL and have two seadays on the front and back end.

San Juan is one of the places other than Barcelona that is great to fly into a few days before as it has so much to do pre cruise plus it's usually port intensive which is fun.  We luckily fly in from PHL or EWR direct so we can sometimes get a good price.  We were on the Summit in January 2020 that did a loop down to Grenada, St. Vincent, the ABCs and other stops out of San Juan.  I think it was 9 ports in 11 days.  It's why I've been on the Summit 6 times!  

[Alakegirl]

Port calls use the downtown docks, not the terminal used for embarkation/disembarkation.

[kayehall]

7 minutes ago, jean87510 said:

San Juan is one of the places other than Barcelona that is great to fly into a few days before as it has so much to do pre cruise plus it's usually port intensive which is fun.  We luckily fly in from PHL or EWR direct so we can sometimes get a good price.  We were on the Summit in January 2020 that did a loop down to Grenada, St. Vincent, the ABCs and other stops out of San Juan.  I think it was 9 ports in 11 days.  It's why I've been on the Summit 6 times!  

Sailing in and out of PR is awesome.  One of my favorites.  ABC islands are great

 

[Honolulu Blue]

1 hour ago, fedexretiree said:

I was looking to book a 7 night out of San Juan on the Millennium for Oct 2023. It appears that after April 2023 there are no more sailings from San Juan listed anywhere.

I was on the Millie a few weeks ago on one of its current San Juan sailings.  I noticed this.  Royal has a ship there in late '23 through early '24.  I'm not sure of its exact dates.

17 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

I was on the Millie's Panama canal repositioning sailing from San Diego to PR and spoke to many passengers.  Nearly everyone including myself, hates flying to/from PR.  It also seems unless you flying to very limited direct airports, you'll have out of the way flights which increase the overall travel time.  For myself on my return flight to LAX, Houston was an option but the layover was 7 hours.  My alternative was to fly from PR to Newark, have a super short 47min layover then fly to LAX.  Was 12+ hours overall travel time, 10+ hours sitting on a plane.  Flight time from LAX to FLL or MIA is around 5 hours.

 

Other ships, like the Equinox, have identical itineraries as the Millie's southern Caribbean, they go out of FLL and have two seadays on the front and back end.

I don't mind flying to/from PR from DTW.  It usually involves a connection, true, but I've never had it go too far out of the way.  

 

But I may be an exception.  That Millie cruise I was on a few weeks ago felt like it was half full.  On one hand, the lack of crowds was great.  On the other hand, it's hard to justify half-full ships these days.  Maybe that's the reason they're thinking of leaving?  It would make me very sad if they pull out.

[NutsAboutGolf]

Been to PR 3 times now and will be there on a Carnival sailing in a few weeks.  

7 minutes ago, kayehall said:

Sailing in and out of PR is awesome.  One of my favorites.  ABC islands are great

 

 

Several X ships departing from FL visit the ABCs

[Jeremiah1212]

Millennium repos from San Juan in April 2023. In the fall of 2023/early 2024 Millennium will be in Asia and Summit will be doing short Caribbean routes from Miami. Summit will eventually take over the San Juan routes on the 24/25 schedule.

[RichYak]

17 minutes ago, kayehall said:

Sailing in and out of PR is awesome.  One of my favorites.  ABC islands are great

 

Agree, I love San Juan. Sailing from there again in March on Millennium. 

[garyl62]

24 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

Millennium repos from San Juan in April 2023. In the fall of 2023/early 2024 Millennium will be in Asia and Summit will be doing short Caribbean routes from Miami. Summit will eventually take over the San Juan routes on the 24/25 schedule.

If I read your comment correctly it sounds like there won't be any departures in 23/24, but they will start up again for 24/25.  I realize you may have more information based on your work relationship so I assume you've seen some information with these details outlined.

[garyl62]

34 minutes ago, NutsAboutGolf said:

 

Several X ships departing from FL visit the ABCs

True, but for some of us limited to a 7 day trip we need to start in PR to get down there and back so FL trips are not an option.

[NutsAboutGolf]

7 minutes ago, garyl62 said:

True, but for some of us limited to a 7 day trip we need to start in PR to get down there and back so FL trips are not an option.

 

It does appear you're getting a ship there in '24, I'm just pointing out the Equinox does have 8 night sailings out of FLL, two sea days, the ABCs and two sea days back

[fedexretiree]

56 minutes ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

Millennium repos from San Juan in April 2023. In the fall of 2023/early 2024 Millennium will be in Asia and Summit will be doing short Caribbean routes from Miami. Summit will eventually take over the San Juan routes on the 24/25 schedule.

Great to hear that the Summit will be back in 24/25.  Love Summit and Millennium...Whew..had me nervous ..

[fedexretiree]

1 hour ago, jean87510 said:

San Juan is one of the places other than Barcelona that is great to fly into a few days before as it has so much to do pre cruise plus it's usually port intensive which is fun.  We luckily fly in from PHL or EWR direct so we can sometimes get a good price.  We were on the Summit in January 2020 that did a loop down to Grenada, St. Vincent, the ABCs and other stops out of San Juan.  I think it was 9 ports in 11 days.  It's why I've been on the Summit 6 times!  

 My friend and I love the port intensive  Caribbean itineraries.  I love waking up being  on a different island everyday not a fan of sea days I get bored quickly.  We fly out of Houston so easy peasy for us.  Been on Summit at least 6 times.   I think we were on the same trip with you January 2020 too.

[cw2go]

Re: Southern Caribbean and the The ABC's

 

I prefer 7nt sailings out of SJU rather than 9/10 out of Fl... I'll take the layover flight with immediate sunshine/warm weather during winter from Ohio over the extra sea days with a risk of being cloudy/chilly any day.

So much so, I have NCL Viva booked w/refundable deposit. Waiting to see what Celebrity puts out because they are my preferred cruise line but sometimes you have to take what you can get. 

 

Patty 

[cw2go]

1 hour ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

Millennium repos from San Juan in April 2023. In the fall of 2023/early 2024 Millennium will be in Asia and Summit will be doing short Caribbean routes from Miami. Summit will eventually take over the San Juan routes on the 24/25 schedule.

This is great news! Hope to see the Southern Caribbean sailings released soon. 

[wrk2cruise]

I'm not sure when those schedules will be released.   We are still waiting on the release of the rest of the summer 2024 Europe season.

[Happy Cruiser 6143]

43 minutes ago, cw2go said:

This is great news! Hope to see the Southern Caribbean sailings released soon. 

 

I believe they are scheduled to be released December 12.  Would be great to have the Summit sailing out of San Juan again--love sailing on her.

[davekathy]

2 hours ago, RichYak said:

Agree, I love San Juan. Sailing from there again in March on Millennium. 

Agree. Port intensive intinaries out of OSJ. Less sea days the better. But we probably won't be cruising out of OSJ any more. 

[RichYak]

1 hour ago, davekathy said:

Agree. Port intensive intinaries out of OSJ. Less sea days the better. But we probably won't be cruising out of OSJ any more. 

Are you still on the same sailing with me in March?

[Guest TopoChico]

I’m on Millennium right now. We are soooo highly disappointed with the food. Lunch buffet is particularly bad.  Beef stew, leftover chicken in mushroom sauce, over cooked roasted potatoes. Steamed vegetables…..not lunch foods - and the same Indian food  entrees every single day and night.  
They have huge blocks of sweaty unrefrigerated cheeses and mortadella…but they  don’t have a knife there to slice yourself some.  So you have to hunt down someone to cut off some cheese.  There’s a pasta bar that has the same three sauces and the same uninspired weird add-ons every. Single. Day. day. night. They heat the watery pasta in pan with sauce and I’ve had WAY better at food at Applebee’s. The pizza is mediocre but always there because it’s cheap to make, and some little sandwiches with literally no lunchmeat and a slice of tomato with cheese. Weird.
The salad bar that doesn’t have any lettuce 😂 has no proteins to add like chicken or shrimp.  Today the girl put a cup of caesar dressing on 1/4 cup of romaine. When I said that’s a bit much, she added two more leaves of lettuce. When I asked if there was anywhere to get chicken, after 10 minutes, they said nope.  So I left it. 
 

Dinner tonight is exactly the same thing as lunch was today and yesterday….but they have a fatty beef they’re carving and some tiny old waxy baked potatoes.  They should really be ashamed of what they’re serving. 
The dining room food has been uninspired small portions of banquet quality foods that I would expect in a cheap hotel.
 

They’re cutting corners and saving money and it shows. Would not book this ship again, which is sad because we love San Juan departures.  This is the first cruise I’ll be losing weight. 
 

Edited November 30, 2022 by TopoChico

[jean87510]

5 hours ago, fedexretiree said:

 My friend and I love the port intensive  Caribbean itineraries.  I love waking up being  on a different island everyday not a fan of sea days I get bored quickly.  We fly out of Houston so easy peasy for us.  Been on Summit at least 6 times.   I think we were on the same trip with you January 2020 too.

That was a great trip.  It was memorable as the earthquake happened in Puerto Rico while we were in Culebra pre cruise then we started hearing about this weird virus in China.  Who knew in 2 months....?!  The ports were just great.

[jean87510]

6 hours ago, Jeremiah1212 said:

Millennium repos from San Juan in April 2023. In the fall of 2023/early 2024 Millennium will be in Asia and Summit will be doing short Caribbean routes from Miami. Summit will eventually take over the San Juan routes on the 24/25 schedule.

That is great news.  I really love the Summit.  Only ship I've ever done on Celebrity.  We board the Equinox in February and the Beyond next December both in AquaClass.  Maybe I'll see if a repo pops up to go to San Juan on the Summit in 2024 and do a b2b 😁

[rmalbers]

I'm so out of touch I didn't know they are back in PR after the cruise port building 'arguments'.  I agree with the person about this port town being a great place to go early (or stay after). 

[NutsAboutGolf]

17 minutes ago, TopoChico said:

I’m on Millennium right now. We are soooo highly disappointed with the food. Lunch buffet is particularly bad.  Beef stew, leftover chicken in mushroom sauce, over cooked roasted potatoes. Steamed vegetables…..not lunch foods - and the same Indian food  entrees every single day and night.  
They have huge blocks of sweaty unrefrigerated cheeses and mortadella…but they  don’t have a knife there to slice yourself some.  So you have to hunt down someone to cut off some cheese.  There’s a pasta bar that has the same three sauces and the same uninspired weird add-ons every. Single. Day. day. night. They heat the watery pasta in pan with sauce and I’ve had WAY better at food at Applebee’s. The pizza is mediocre but always there because it’s cheap to make, and some little sandwiches with literally no lunchmeat and a slice of tomato with cheese. Weird.
The salad bar that doesn’t have any lettuce 😂 has no proteins to add like chicken or shrimp.  Today the girl put a cup of caesar dressing on 1/4 cup of romaine. When I said that’s a bit much, she added two more leaves of lettuce. When I asked if there was anywhere to get chicken, after 10 minutes, they said nope.  So I left it. 
 

Dinner tonight is exactly the same thing as lunch was today and yesterday….but they have a fatty beef they’re carving and some tiny old waxy baked potatoes.  They should really be ashamed of what they’re serving. 
The dining room food has been uninspired small portions of banquet quality foods that I would expect in a cheap hotel.
 

They’re cutting corners and saving money and it shows. Would not book this ship again, which is sad because we love San Juan departures.  This is the first cruise I’ll be losing weight. 
 

 

Be sure give the food quality an 1 on the survey.  Was on the Solstice earlier this month, the Millie last month and the Equinox the month before.  It's all the same complimentary food.  I've had rants before about the complimentary food being in decline and that I'd prefer food from a chain restaurants.  I live in the L.A. area where if your restaurant doesn't produce good food you go out of business, unfortunately that isn't the case here.  I'd LOVE for the chef that partnered with X, Daniel Boulud, to dress in disguise and dine in the MDR and buffet.....