Earliest flight San Juan

[katyringo]

What is the earliest flight you would book home from San Juan? We have a 1:45 flight booked right now. We can change to an 1145 at no cost. Is that cutting it too close? It gets us home 4 hours earlier, but don't want to be stressed. We planned to take an uber to airport but would also be willing to switch to Disney transportation.

 

[OKW Lover]

I would think the earlier flight will work for you assuming the ship docks at 7-ish. The airport is not far from the dock so it won't take a lot of time to actually get there.

 

[MillauFr]

1145 is fine

 

[CaseyCruiser]

I had an 11:30 earlier this year. No plans at all.

 

[CaseyCruiser]

I had an 11:30 earlier this year. No plans at all.

No problem at all

 

[tvguy]

If you don't want to be stressed, keep the 1:45 pm flight. A lot of travel experts now recommend 6 hours from anticipated first disembarkation to departure flight as a rule of thumb for all cruises from all ports.

 

[hrhdhd]

If you don't want to be stressed, keep the 1:45 pm flight. A lot of travel experts now recommend 6 hours from anticipated first disembarkation to departure flight as a rule of thumb for all cruises from all ports.

Can you name two or three of them? I've never heard this.

 

[tvguy]

Can you name two or three of them? I've never heard this.

Princess cruise line for one. That warning came up when I went to book my flights for my September cruise on their website. I think if you take some time reading cruise forums you will see its just common sense too.

 

[hrhdhd]

Princess cruise line for one. That warning came up when I went to book my flights for my September cruise on their website. I think if you take some time reading cruise forums you will see its just common sense too.

Princess has recommendations for passengers who book flights with Princess, likely because they don't want to deal with a lot of rebookings for missed flights. Reading through their recommendations, I'd be hard pressed to follow them in most ports. They are padded to the extreme. But if your comfort level requires a lengthy wait in an airport, book what you're comfortable with.

 

[tvguy]

Princess has recommendations for passengers who book flights with Princess, likely because they don't want to deal with a lot of rebookings for missed flights. Reading through their recommendations, I'd be hard pressed to follow them in most ports. They are padded to the extreme. But if your comfort level requires a lengthy wait in an airport, book what you're comfortable with.

I think you find many experienced cruisers have found this to be the best practice. Poster is only talking 2 hours difference.

 

[hrhdhd]

I think you find many experienced cruisers have found this to be the best practice. Poster is only talking 2 hours difference.

Well, I just took my 40th cruise, so I guess I'm not one of the many.

And I'm still waiting for "experts" who provide this advice.

 

[tvguy]

Well, I just took my 40th cruise, so I guess I'm not one of the many.

And I'm still waiting for "experts" who provide this advice.

Pick any travel agent, call them. 2 hour delay will buy you a lot of piece of mind. 44 year cruiser here.

 

[Mle8308]

Well, I just took my 40th cruise, so I guess I'm not one of the many.

And I'm still waiting for "experts" who provide this advice.

You may not be one of the many, and if that is your travel style, then it works for you. Some like a little extra time. The OP did not say where they would be flying to or when. If it is a busy travel time, an extra hour or two is not unreasonable at all. And if a large party size... there are a lot of variables we do not know - Pre-check or not, checking bags, finding bags when disembarking (Celebrity misplaced our bags on one cruise and it took over an hour for them to locate where they had been placed, we had extra time before our flight and it was okay, but if we had less time, we would have not made it). The earlier time might work out just fine, but the later flight might alleviate any additional stress. No need to be snippy, @tvguy was just offering another opinion - which is what the OP asked for.

 

[tvguy]

You may not be one of the many, and if that is your travel style, then it works for you. Some like a little extra time. The OP did not say where they would be flying to or when. If it is a busy travel time, an extra hour or two is not unreasonable at all. And if a large party size... there are a lot of variables we do not know - Pre-check or not, checking bags, finding bags when disembarking (Celebrity misplaced our bags on one cruise and it took over an hour for them to locate where they had been placed, we had extra time before our flight and it was okay, but if we had less time, we would have not made it). The earlier time might work out just fine, but the later flight might alleviate any additional stress. No need to be snippy, @tvguy was just offering another opinion - which is what the OP asked for.

Sorry if I came off snippy. Just didn't want OP to not go into the decision making process without their eyes wide open.

 

[hrhdhd]

You may not be one of the many, and if that is your travel style, then it works for you. Some like a little extra time. The OP did not say where they would be flying to or when. If it is a busy travel time, an extra hour or two is not unreasonable at all. And if a large party size... there are a lot of variables we do not know - Pre-check or not, checking bags, finding bags when disembarking (Celebrity misplaced our bags on one cruise and it took over an hour for them to locate where they had been placed, we had extra time before our flight and it was okay, but if we had less time, we would have not made it). The earlier time might work out just fine, but the later flight might alleviate any additional stress. No need to be snippy, @tvguy was just offering another opinion - which is what the OP asked for.

Hence my remark in post #9: "But if your comfort level requires a lengthy wait in an airport, book what you're comfortable with."

 

[Mle8308]

Sorry if I came off snippy. Just didn't want OP to not go into the decision making process without their eyes wide open.

No, you were absolutely not the one being snippy, I apologize if you thought that! I completely agree with you! It was the other person I thought was a little out of order!

 

[MrMagoo]

You would be fine with an earlier departure.

The Disney website recommends an earliest departure of 11:15 and your 11:45 is well after that.

It is only about a 15-20 minute drive from the port to the airport.

We were just there in November and we used private transportation from the port to the airport.
It will probably take as much time getting off the ship to your transportation as it does to get to the airport!
There is also a TON of taxis waiting to pickup people. But there is a separate line for taxi people and another line for private transportation people.

The taxi wait line was somewhat long.

We were not impressed with disembarkation at San Juan. It took a long time. I believe it took us about half an hour from the time we got in line until we were off the ship.
That said, we were still off the ship and in our car by 8:30 and at the airport before 9!
And we did not eat breakfast at Cabanas but in the main dining room.

But if you would still be worried about making your flight, you can do express walk off and take your luggage with you instead of
putting it out the night before and then trying to find it in the terminal after disembarkation.

So I would go ahead and book the earlier flight!