Ports of Florida vs San Juan, PR

[dmk]

Can anyone, who is in the know, explain to me the attraction of using San Juan as a Departure Port. I don't know how others feel but I find flying into SJ too expensive to make the cruise worthwhile to me. Yet, there are more and more lines using SJ as a Departure Port.

[BOB AND PINKIE]

Advantage as I see it is that good weather is virtually gruanteed from day one (after hurricane season , of course)

Also you are closer to Southern and Eastern Caribbean if you want to vist different ports than those usually visited from Ft Lauderdale cruises.

(eg. Aruba, South America, etc. )

Clearly cheaper and easier to get to Ft L than to SJ.

To my mind, no such thing as a bad X cruise, only good and great

[richsea]

Personally, the attraction for me in sailing from San Juan was always getting to spend a few extra days in Puerto Rico prior to cruising. We have always enjoyed our stay there. In the past it was, for us at least, very economical to fly to San Juan; not much more than flying to Florida. However, now, with the reduced flights & increased airfare to PR, we look for sailings from Florida, just to keep the airfare down.

 

I think that the reason that there are so many cruises from San Juan, particularly in the fall & winter, is that there are so many ships sailing the Caribbean during those seasons, that there is just not enough berths to accommodate all the ships in Florida. Sailing from San Juan also makes it easier to reach the southern Caribbean ports such as Aruba, Bonaire, Curacao, etc.

[jollyjones]

Can anyone, who is in the know, explain to me the attraction of using San Juan as a Departure Port. I don't know how others feel but I find flying into SJ too expensive to make the cruise worthwhile to me. Yet, there are more and more lines using SJ as a Departure Port.

 

There are a lot of cruisers who do not actually live in mainland US of A, and for us it often costs very little extra to fly to SJU . Plus, at busy times, SJU may be easier to deal with than FLL or MIA - I'll never forget queueing for 5 hours to check in at FLL one day when seven big ships came in at once and there was a computer problem at the airport ...

 

And, as I always fly in a day or two pre-cruise, where would you rather be? Old San Juan or downtown Miami? No brainer, really.

[thatbloominplace]

when we cruise the caribbean, we always try to depart from san juan if possible. there are several reasons for this.

 

1. we love puerto rico so we go in early, as much as 5 days.

 

2. good weather. when leaving from u.s. ports in the winter, the weather can be "iffy". noithing worse than starting your cruise in 60 degrees and having the first sea day too cool to go on deck. we have had this happen several times.

 

3. less days at sea. usually cruises out of fll, miami and new orleans have one or two sea days at the beginning and the end of the cruise. i would rather be in a port than sailing to them.

 

4. better itinerary. the cruises out of the u.s. ports are few in number of varieties compared to the southern caribbean. there you have more ports to choose from so there are more various itineraries to avoid repeating all the ports.

 

these are our reasons for choosing southern routes for departing out of puerto rico . i am sure a list could be made the other way, but these work for us.

 

steve

[dmk]

Now I see where the main difference applies for me. That is flying out of Canada. The airfare is much more expensive from Montreal.

Some of you made mention of better itineraries: southern and eastern Caribbean ports. I have compared the ships leaving Florida and Puerto Rico. Florida offers the same ports.

Sea Days: Well, I love sea days so having more is a plus for me..

[bamboo29]

I have been researching choices out of Ft. Lauderdale and one big advantage is the possibility of decent but cheaper hotels, esp. if you use priceline. A few hotels even offer both airport shuttle and port shuttle (but you can not count on that if use priceline).

[darrencantwait]

Some of you made mention of better itineraries: southern and eastern Caribbean ports. I have compared the ships leaving Florida and Puerto Rico. Florida offers the same ports.

Sea Days: Well, I love sea days so having more is a plus for me..

 

This may be true...but I don't believe it is true for 7 night itineraries...especially on X. Most 7 nighters out of Florida don't go much South of St. Maarten/St. Kitts.

[YOW]

Now I see where the main difference applies for me. That is flying out of Canada. The airfare is much more expensive from Montreal.

 

It is a lot more indeed. However we're flying to SJ out of Syracuse this time, and saving $500 between the two of us, even when factoring in the drive and parking (actually we'll save more, as there will be some cross-border shopping before we drive home)... comparable fares can be available from Burlington VT.