There are dozens of islands in the Caribbean that cruise ships use as ports of call, but one logistical problem when trying to fit several interesting ports into a week-long cruise is that some of them are far.
Just to name a few examples, islands such as Barbados and Aruba in the Southern Caribbean take several days to get to. Now, if the islands are close enough, it’s possible to do a couple of sea days, a few port days in a row, and a couple of sea days back.
This is generally the case with cruises that visit the “ABC islands” – Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao. All three are close enough to each other that a ship could potentially travel between them in just a few hours.
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On the other hand, if a cruise line wants to visit two exotic islands in the same cruise, that aren’t right near each other, it can present a logistical impossibility. For example, it would be challenging for a cruise departing from, say, Port Canaveral (Orlando) to visit St. Thomas, Barbados, and a few other islands in the same trip unless it was scheduled for 10 or more nights.
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For this reason, while San Juan, Puerto Rico, is extremely popular as a port of call for Caribbean cruises, some cruise lines use it as an origination port.
Carnival Cruise Line has a wide range of Caribbean itineraries.
Image source: Dan Kline/Come Cruise With Me
The perks of a San Juan cruise
In other words, by flying to San Juan and then boarding a cruise ship, you’ll already be well on the way to the southern islands. And as a result, you might be surprised at how much can be stuffed into a week-long cruise.
As an example, Royal Caribbean offers an itinerary aboard Rhapsody of the Seas, departing from San Juan, that features port days in St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. Maarten, Antigua, and Barbados — all in a 7-night cruise.
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In short, using an origination port located so far south (about 1,045 miles southeast of Miami) saves roughly 50 hours of sailing time each way for a cruise ship that averages about 20 miles per hour. Therefore, far more time can be spent visiting exotic places than sailing to those places. Of course, there’s the cost of airfare to consider, but many cruisers apparently find it well worth the added expense.
Will Carnival add San Juan as a home port?
While Royal Caribbean uses San Juan as an origination port, Carnival does not.
Recently, Carnival’s brand ambassador John Heald ran an informal poll on his popular Facebook page to gauge interest. The poll had two options related to the idea of a cruise originating in San Juan:
“I know airfare is expensive, but I hope Carnival Cruise Line puts a ship in Puerto Rico as a port soon so that we can visit Southern Caribbean places. I am not the only one who would love this” I AGREE (This option was likely a direct quote from a question a follower asked Heald.)I would not be interested in flying to Puerto Rico to get on a ship.
It might surprise you to learn that the responses were almost evenly divided between the two options, with slightly more cruisers voting for the first option. Heald follower Susan Natale, who sailed from San Juan previously (Carnival used to offer cruises from there), said of her trip, “My first cruise was on the Fascination out of Puerto Rico. It is to this day still one of my favorite cruises!” And many people who have also sailed from Puerto Rico commented in agreement.
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Similarly, Vanessa Garcia commented, “I did a southern Caribbean from PR with Carnival in 2009. A port everyday. 23 cruises in and that one is still my favorite!”
There were many other comments from past cruisers on San Juan itineraries who had nothing but positive things to say about the itinerary. A few of the hundreds of comments on Heald’s post were not in favor – mostly not negative, just people who simply aren’t interested in flying to a cruise port. But the positive responses about potential San Juan sailings far outweighed the negatives.
As of now, the only way to visit five or more southern Caribbean destinations on a Carnival cruise is to book one of the line’s Journeys cruises, which are usually at least 10 days in duration. But it seems like there might be sufficient interest for Carnival to consider making a change in the future.
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