PR pier damage

[Brooke M]

On the wonder of the seas and just got diverted from going to San Juan Puerto Rico and DR. now going to st. Marteen and St. Thomas. They said a ship crashed into the port in San Juan. Does anyone have information on that?

[Austin]

Currently on WOS and itinerary has been changed from Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic to St. Marten and St Thomas due to pier damage per captain. Labadee was cancelled earlier in the month.

[Brooke M]

Also wondering what happened here!

[smokeybandit]

Looks like it's existing pier damage from an MSC ship a couple weeks ago. But Oasis ships can only use that pier.

 

But I'd rather do the new itinerary than PR/DR

[smokeybandit]

An MSC ship apparently caused some damage to that pier a couple weeks ago making it not possible for an Oasis class ship to dock there.

[JGuz12]

I’ve been trying to find information on this and can’t find any information anywhere. Not too happy about the change, really put a damper on our honeymoon. We were very excited to go to PR & DR.

[monctonguy]

Sorry to hear that..although  I would be pretty happy with  itinerary change as I think much better stops imho.

 

But i didn't hear anything abut it either.

[smokeybandit]

2 hours ago, JGuz12 said:

I’ve been trying to find information on this and can’t find any information anywhere. Not too happy about the change, really put a damper on our honeymoon. We were very excited to go to PR & DR.

Honestly, I think St Maarten and St Thomas are better.

[WorldCruiser5]

First time on Royal, trying to find good cruise line for world cruising. Folks chose cruises in large part on itineraries. To just drop the D.R. is unconscionable. We are now on the exact cruise we just took in January and would otherwise not have booked. Royal has now delivered on 25% of the destinations we purchased. 

[CanHardlyWait]

2 hours ago, JGuz12 said:

I’ve been trying to find information on this and can’t find any information anywhere. Not too happy about the change, really put a damper on our honeymoon. We were very excited to go to PR & DR.

No port is guaranteed. You will have a wonderful time and won't even miss it. The real fun is always onboard. Enjoy and congratulations. 

[smokeybandit]

14 minutes ago, WorldCruiser5 said:

First time on Royal, trying to find good cruise line for world cruising. Folks chose cruises in large part on itineraries. To just drop the D.R. is unconscionable. We are now on the exact cruise we just took in January and would otherwise not have booked. Royal has now delivered on 25% of the destinations we purchased. 

They dropped DR due to geography with the replacement ports. Plus DR is pretty overrated as a cruise port.

[OCSC Mike]

6 minutes ago, CanHardlyWait said:

No port is guaranteed.

This. Can't blame Royal for either cancelling Labadee or not being able to dock in PR... which then caused them to have to switch out the DR as well. They can't control civil unrest, dock damage, or geography.

10 minutes ago, CanHardlyWait said:

The real fun is always onboard.

While I largely agree with you, some people are more interested in the ports than the ship so I can understand being disappointed, just not to the extent of the OP. We missed the port we were most looking forward to once (high winds) and had a great time overall, yes, but we were disappointed even with the full understanding that it was no one's fault. We also had a port swapped not too long ago and were happier with the replacement (and fortunately had a couple days notice so we could book a 3rd party excursion in the new port). Many people were unhappy with the switch. Lots of personal preference involved in cruising.

[Austin]

DR is one of the few places in the Caribbean that I’ve never been so I think that is where some of the disappointment is. We were actually going to be there two days due to the Haiti issue. Puerto Rico is probably one of my favorite stops because all of the culture and there are a ton of things you can do (I’ve stayed and cruised here). Some parts of the Caribbean (especially Eastern) when cruising seem the same. For me, St Thomas is less interesting since you still feel like you are in the US.

Some of the less cruised itineraries tend to command a higher booking price (this original itinerary was Nassau, PR, DR, Haiti). So now it’s back to the usual itinerary (St Marten/Thomas) without Coco Cay. Also, most people probably purchase excursions on sale, whereas now all of them are last minute full price.

 

Either way, we are still cruising and this is our first suite experience so an extra sea day means more time to enjoy ship amenities.

[Austin]

Just to clarify for anyone on a PR itinerary on an Oasis class ship, Captain said the dolphin Oasis ships use is unstable from the MSC ship striking it in PR. They tried to work with the port authority to dock on the east side of the pier instead of the usual west side, but the port authority rejected this option and told them that we cannot dock until the dolphin is repaired (unknown downtime). No mofongo for me this cruise, but will have to do conch fritters and coconut shrimp.

[msgeueke]

We are on the WOS cruise and very disappointed with the itinerary change from Puerto Rico. This stop was one of the main reasons we selected this cruise. We have travel insurance on the cruise and probably would have cancelled this one and booked a new one. My question is why did RC wait to announce this change if they knew there was port damage from weeks ago?? Doesn’t add up. If they knew we couldn’t dock there, why did they wait?

[smokeybandit]

44 minutes ago, msgeueke said:

We are on the WOS cruise and very disappointed with the itinerary change from Puerto Rico. This stop was one of the main reasons we selected this cruise. We have travel insurance on the cruise and probably would have cancelled this one and booked a new one. My question is why did RC wait to announce this change if they knew there was port damage from weeks ago?? Doesn’t add up. If they knew we couldn’t dock there, why did they wait?

Because maybe San Juan ensured them it'd be fixed by now and yet it wasn't.

[Austin]

This is Wonders first stop in PR for 2024 and they were not sure of repair timing. She was switching between the two common eastern/western itineraries previously(similar to Icons current itineraries). Also Royal tried to convince PR port authority to allow WOS to dock on the other side of the pier but the port authority waited awhile to respond and eventually declined per the captain’s video detailing the reasoning.
 

I’ll take an itinerary change rather than having a cruise cut short or cancelled like some of the other recent events across the cruise universe lately.

[smokeybandit]

Unless it's a bucket list thing that you really only have one chance at (say, Panama Canal or Greenland), cruising is a lot less stressful when you just prepare yourself that port changes may happen and mentally adjust when they do.

 

[Matt]

4 hours ago, Austin said:

Just to clarify for anyone on a PR itinerary on an Oasis class ship, Captain said the dolphin Oasis ships use is unstable from the MSC ship striking it in PR. They tried to work with the port authority to dock on the east side of the pier instead of the usual west side, but the port authority rejected this option and told them that we cannot dock until the dolphin is repaired (unknown downtime). No mofongo for me this cruise, but will have to do conch fritters and coconut shrimp.

Thanks for posting this. Someone else shared a video of Captain Rob explaining this onboard.

What's not clear is WHEN it occurred.

I was in Puerto Rico on Icon of the Seas for her inaugural, so clearly it has to have happened since then.

It's strange there's no reports of the MSC ship hitting the pier.

[mom2mybugs]

18 minutes ago, Austin said:

This is Wonders first stop in PR for 2024 and they were not sure of repair timing. She was switching between the two common eastern/western itineraries previously(similar to Icons current itineraries). Also Royal tried to convince PR port authority to allow WOS to dock on the other side of the pier but the port authority waited awhile to respond and eventually declined per the captain’s video detailing the reasoning.
 

I’ll take an itinerary change rather than having a cruise cut short or cancelled like some of the other recent events across the cruise universe lately.

We were on Majesty going to Cuba.  The only reason we were on that ship was for Cuba, and I'd have rather had them cancel it when we weren't allowed to sail there.  We ended up with horrible weather on a very tiny ship and got switched to Nassau.  It wasn't a win.  We still made lemonade outta lemons, but I'd have been happy with a cruise credit for sure.  But this is a very unique case...Though I'm starting to sail more smaller ships for itinerary not ship.  Jane

[FionaMG]

1 hour ago, Matt said:

Thanks for posting this. Someone else shared a video of Captain Rob explaining this onboard.

What's not clear is WHEN it occurred.

I was in Puerto Rico on Icon of the Seas for her inaugural, so clearly it has to have happened since then.

It's strange there's no reports of the MSC ship hitting the pier.

According to this article in Spanish, it was the Meraviglia. It appears to have happened on the 11th of April (the article is dated 12th April and reports the incident as happening "ayer" ("yesterday"). Otherwise, there's really very little detail at all in the article. Apparently the ship was undamaged and the Puerto Rican authorities are supposedly going to provide updated information as and when.

https://www.elnuevodia.com/negocios/turismo/notas/crucero-msc-meraviglia-impacta-el-muelle-3-en-san-juan/

[Donna W]

So Royal Caribbean knew a couple of weeks ago about the damage. About the same time our stop in Haiti was cancelled. Not happy!! Every port we paid for was cancelled except for Nassau. We just went to St. Thomas and St. Maarten last year. Certainly did not want to go again!!!