Galveston to San Juan

[Captainkate]

Has anyone ever done the Galveston to San Juan Cruise? It goes one way to San Juan and then one way to Port Canaveral. We would just have to fly back to Texas from Florida. I have a question about the arrival at the San Juan port.

Would we have to disembark? We are not interested in seeing San Juan. The ship leaves the same day to go to Port Canaveral. Does anyone know anything about the ports and procedures in San Juan?

 

[Captainkate]

Has anyone ever done the Galveston to San Juan Cruise? It goes one way to San Juan and then one way to Port Canaveral. We would just have to fly back to Texas from Florida. I have a question about the arrival at the San Juan port.

Would we have to disembark? We are not interested in seeing San Juan. The ship leaves the same day to go to Port Canaveral. Does anyone know anything about the port
and procedures in San Juan?

 

[Captainkate]

This cruise is in January leaving Galveston the 20th and arriving San Juan the 26th. Leaving San Juan the 26th for a 3 night cruise to Port Canaveral.

 

[Captainkate]

I'm sorry. Looks like I somehow posted this twice

 

[czmom]

Unfortunately you are not allowed to do both cruises. I'm not exactly sure why. We are on the cruise to San Juan, and then will fly home from there.

 

[quickcat]

Unfortunately you are not allowed to do both cruises. I'm not exactly sure why. We are on the cruise to San Juan, and then will fly home from there.

We are on the same cruise from Galveston to San Juan as well. We booked the San Juan to Port Canaveral and we got a call that said exactly what czmom stated, it is not allowed. We had to pick one or the other, not both. I am not sure why either, it would have been a great 9 night cruise!

I am hoping Disney will hold our luggage because I would love to do a tour of San Juan before heading to the airport.

 

[dclpluto]

We are on the same cruise from Galveston to San Juan as well. We booked the San Juan to Port Canaveral and we got a call that said exactly what czmom stated, it is not allowed. We had to pick one or the other, not both. I am not sure why either, it would have been a great 9 night cruise!

I am hoping Disney will hold our luggage because I would love to do a tour of San Juan before heading to the airport.

There's a old law is why you can't do both. Forget the name of it now.

 

[MPS516]

Since there is no stop at a foreign port a back to back would not be allowed on this route.

 

[rcchello]

The Disney ships are not registered in the US, so they cannot transport you between two different US ports. They can round trip from the same port or start or end in a US port, but not start in one US port and end in another. No faking the rules by stopping in Puerto Rico in the middle and calling it an end and then a start if there are some people who are the same all the way through.

 

[MickeyEarrings]

The Disney ships are not registered in the US, so they cannot transport you between two different US ports. They can round trip from the same port or start or end in a US port, but not start in one US port and end in another. No faking the rules by stopping in Puerto Rico in the middle and calling it an end and then a start if there are some people who are the same all the way through.

But that's what the Panama Canal cruise does.....

 

[PrincessShmoo]

For some clarification - it's the Passenger Vessel Services Act. It states that a foreign-flagged ship may not transport passengers from one US port to a different US port without a stop in a DISTANT foreign port. A distant foreign port is described as "any port NOT in North America, Central America, the Bermuda Islands, or the West Indies (including the Bahama Islands, but not including the Leeward Islands of the Netherlands Antilles, i.e., Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao).

The Panama Canal cruise typically calls at Cartegena, Columbia (a distant foreign port). The repo cruises Galveston to San Juan and San Juan to Port Canaveral only stop at a nearby foreign port.

Even though the two cruises B2B are separate cruises, the PVSA views them as one continuous cruise from Galveston to Port Canaveral, if you book them back to back.

If anyone is interested in reading the whole act:
https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/pvsa_icp_3.pdf

 

[rcchello]

I knew I was missing some point, but I knew someone would jump in with the clarifying point. Thank you PrincessShmoo. Nice to hear from an Lil Abner fan. I always liked the Shmoo ☺

 

[MPS516]

San Juan is a US Territory Port. The same situation occured in Hawaii, when they broke it into 2 cruises B2B was not permitted.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

San Juan is a US Territory Port. The same situation occured in Hawaii, when they broke it into 2 cruises B2B was not permitted.

w
Well, you could do the Vancouver/Hawaii B2B with the Hawaii/Vancouver cruises.

What you couldn't do was the San Diego/Vancouver B2B with Vancouver/Hawaii or the Hawaii/Vancouver B2B with Vancouver/San Diego.

There is an exception for cruises from Puerto Rico to US ports. Until such time as a qualified vessel makes that trip regularly, Puerto Rico to any US port (or vice versa) is allowed without a distant foreign port stop.

 

[Ange176]

There's a old law is why you can't do both. Forget the name of it now.

It's the "Jones Act" that prevents you from doing these cruises back to back. I also booked both and thank god someone in here pointed it out to me, as my travel agent booked it all in and said there was no problem!!! I've now booked another 3 night cruise so I can have 9 nights cruising still...just one day break in between.

 

[Ange176]

Sorry to hi jack your post, does anyone in here, that is cruising from Galveston to San Juan know how to start a fb group for us to all join? Or is there a fb group already for this cruise? I'd love to chat to some fellow cruisers.

 

[clten]

It's the "Jones Act" that prevents you from doing these cruises back to back. I also booked both and thank god someone in here pointed it out to me, as my travel agent booked it all in and said there was no problem!!! I've now booked another 3 night cruise so I can have 9 nights cruising still...just one day break in between.

It is actually not the Jones Act -- although many people refer to the Jones Act when meaning the Passenger Vessel Services Act (which as PrincessShmoo indicated is the law that prevents non-US flagged vessels from transporting passengers between two US cities without a distant foreign port call. The Jones Act is a commerce based act.)

Sorry to hi jack your post, does anyone in here, that is cruising from Galveston to San Juan know how to start a fb group for us to all join? Or is there a fb group already for this cruise? I'd love to chat to some fellow cruisers.

Don't know if it is spelled out in the Disboard rules but you can't use this forum to discuss creating a group on another social media site. If you are interested in a cruise group that may or may not exist in another site, you would have to go there and search. You can join or create a group here on the Disboards. If you go under Cruise Meets, there is a thread that lists cruises for the Magic. There would be a link there to your cruise group's thread, if it exists.

 

[bumbershoot]

We are not interested in seeing San Juan.

No sure if you're still going to San Juan since you changed a cruise, but if so I hope you reconsider. SJ was very lovely and we have 5 days there in December before leaving in a cruise.

The "ports of call" board on cruisecritic's message boards are great for ideas.