San Juan becomes a cruise hot spot

Posted on 27 November, 2016 by Spacejunkie2

The Monster zipline at Toro Verde adventure park, at 1.57 miles long, has been certified as the world’s longest by the Guinness Book of Records.

Blessed with a natural harbor, San Juan has been working on attracting more cruise traffic and is having success with new calls and turnaround operations scheduled from several lines.

One of the most awaited is a visit from Royal Caribbean’s Harmony of the Seas, the world’s largest cruise ship, in December.

Norwegian Cruise Line has several week long cruises for the Norwegian Gem scheduled from San Juan in November and plans to return to seasonal home porting there from next November to early January 2018.

Windstar Cruises is in its second year of San Juan winter departures, after expanding its fleet in 2014.

Piers 3 and 4 can accommodate up to four large ships at a time, such as Royal Caribbean’s Oasis-class vessels. And starting in October, Viking Cruises began regular calls in San Juan, sailing its 930-passenger Viking Star on 10- and 11-day southern Caribbean itineraries.

“We’re super-excited about that,” said Mari Jo Laborde, chief sales and marketing officer for the Puerto Rico Tourism Co. “It’s their first immersion into [Caribbean] sea cruises, and they’re doing it out of Puerto Rico.”

San Juan is a traditional gateway to the southern Caribbean because it is well positioned geographically and has the biggest airlift in the Caribbean. Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean International have long had seven-day ships in the market. Currently they are the Fascination for Carnival and the Adventure and the Jewel of the Seas for Royal.

In 2014-15, Puerto Rico hosted a record 1.5 million cruise visitors. “It’s looking like we’re going to break it again in two years, in 2017-18, at 1.6 million,” Laborde said, as 2017 visits from Norwegian, Viking and others are added up.

San Juan has been paving the way for new arrivals with improvements to its piers and facilities.

In 2014, Pier 3 was lengthened for use by Royal Caribbean’s Oasis-class ships, including the Harmony. During the recent Florida-Caribbean Cruise Conference, Puerto Rico Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla said that Duty Free Americas would be investing $8 million to add a two-story building at Pier 3 that will offer duty-free shopping, restaurants, galleries and entertainment for arriving passengers.

Four large ships can be docked simultaneously at Pier 3 and the adjacent Pier 4, which is mostly used by Carnival.

Piers 3 and 4 can accommodate up to four large ships at a time, such as Royal Caribbean’s Oasis-class vessels.

Once ashore, there are new things to do, Laborde said. An exciting new zipline called the Monster has been added at the Toro Verde adventure park, in Orocovis, about 90 minutes from San Juan by motor coach. The 1.57-mile cable has been certified as the world’s longest by the Guinness Book of World Records. The zipline ride costs $135, and the park draws 80% “excellent” reviews on TripAdvisor.

Another new attraction closer to town is the Vivo Beach Club, in San Juan’s Isla Verde neighborhood near the airport. “That’s been doing very, very well among cruise lines, because they offer packages for passengers to go and spend the day,” Laborde said.

A redevelopment of the former Tropimar Beach Club, it features a pool, a beach area, a restaurant and an event space for concerts as well as a microbrewery, Laborde said. She said prices vary by cruise line.

Another arrival in San Juan is the Mall of San Juan, which opened in 2015 and has a lineup of high-end retailers such as Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue, putting it a step above the Plazas las Americas mall.

Also new in the Condado tourist area are several stands that offer bike rentals and stand-up paddleboard tours, Laborde said.

Close to the port is the Bahia Urbana, a redevelopment of some old piers into a park that opened in 2013. Bike rentals are offered by a shop in a condo across the street.

The pool at the Vivo Beach Club, a popular shore excursion in San Juan’s Isla Verde neighborhood.

There are also several new places to stay, mostly around the 10-year-old Puerto Rico Convention Center, the largest in the Caribbean. Additions in the last few years include a Hyatt Place and a Hyatt House, which complement a Sheraton that adjoins the convention center building.

“You basically walk to the convention center,” Laborde said. “It’s so much easier.”

The FCCA convention and trade show in September, held for the first time in five years in San Juan, attracted 1,000 delegates and resulted in between 2,500 and 2,700 room nights, with an estimated economic impact of $2 million, Laborde said.

The convention will go to Mexico next year and then return to San Juan from 2018 to 2022. That’s a departure for the organization that has previously rotated the event each year around the Caribbean.

“The FCCA is basically changing its strategy,” Laborde said.

San Juan’s facility affords the show the chance to grow, with an eventual target of 3,000 delegates, Laborde said. Just on hotel bookings alone, Puerto Rico could see an impact of up to $25 million during the four-year run, she said.

By the time the convention returns in 2018, San Juan will also be receiving calls from the 4,140-passenger MSC Seaside. Royal Caribbean also plans more regular visits with its Oasis-class ships, Laborde said.

Carnival switching the Liberty and Valor

Posted on 14 November, 2016 by Spacejunkie2

Carnival Liberty

The Carnival Liberty’s propulsion problems persist, so Carnival Cruise Line said it will continue to operate modified cruises from Galveston, Texas, through the month of November to account for the ship’s inability to reach maximum speed.

The five-day cruise departing Nov. 26 will be the Liberty’s last from Galveston, as the ship will enter a previously scheduled drydock after that sailing and then be redeployed to Port Canaveral, Fla., to operate short Bahamas cruises starting Dec. 15. The Carnival Valor, meanwhile, will reposition to Galveston from Port Canaveral.

“This change is being made since Carnival Valor is better suited to operate at the higher speeds required for the four- and five-day Mexico itineraries from Galveston while Carnival Liberty is well equipped to handle shorter duration cruises from Central Florida,” Carnival said in a statement.

Carnival said its technical team, with the help of outside contractors, “continue to work to fully resolve” the Liberty’s propulsion problem.

Carnival canceled two Liberty cruises, the Oct. 31 and Nov. 5 departures, because of the technical issue, and it has modified the Nov. 10, 14, 19 and 26 departures.

For the four- and five-day cruises, Carnival is canceling calls at Progreso, Mexico. During the seven-day cruise departing Nov. 19, calls in Grand Cayman and Falmouth, Jamaica, have been scrubbed. All of the modified cruises’ departure and return times have been adjusted.

Guests sailing on these voyages will receive a $50-per-person credit to their shipboard accounts and a 25% discount on a future Carnival cruise. Guests also have the option of canceling and receiving a full refund.

To allow sufficient time for the Valor to reposition to Galveston, the ship’s four-day cruise departing Port Canaveral on Dec. 11 will be shortened to three days. Guests sailing on this voyage will receive a one-day, prorated refund of their cruise fare and a $25 per-person credit to their shipboard account. Guests also have the option of canceling and receiving a full refund.

Carnival will automatically transfer reservations for guests on the Liberty to the Valor and vice versa. Carnival noted that the Valor and Liberty are sister ships with similar accommodations and public venues, including Guy’s Burger Joint, the BlueIguana Cantina, the RedFrog Rum Bar and the BlueIguana Tequila Bar.

Alabama port gets another chance to woo cruisers

Posted on 10 November, 2016 by Spacejunkie2

Carnival Cruise in Alabama,

You might think that a city with its own Carnival Museum, like Mobile, Alabama, would be a good bet for Carnival Cruise Line.

However, Carnival pulled out of Mobile five years ago, citing poor financial results. This year, the line decided to give the city another try, returning this week for at least a year with one of its oldest ships, the 2,056-passenger Fantasy, to offer 4- and 5-day cruises to Mexico.

The move will bring at least 100,000 visitors over the next year to Mobile, which has many of the same charms as New Orleans, and a lot to offer anyone who wants to tack on a pre- or post-cruise stay.

Take that Carnival Museum, for example. While New Orleans has the most famous and well-attended Mardi Gras in the United States, the Carnival celebration in Mobile pre-dates it and claims to be the oldest in the country. Like New Orleans, Mobile was in French and Spanish colonial territory until being annexed by the U.S. in 1813. There are many antebellum homes and seven historic districts within Mobile recognized on the National Register of Historic Places.

The No. 1 tourist attraction in Mobile, according to TripAdvisor, is the USS Alabama, a World War II battleship that became a museum after it was retired in 1962. It is about three miles from the cruise terminal.

New since Carnival last sailed from Mobile is the GulfQuest National Maritime Museum. Opened in 2015, the five-story attraction has more than 90 exhibits based on the Gulf of Mexico, and is walking distance from the dock.

Also new since 2011 are a Duck amphibious vehicle tour; an historic trolley tour; and a Mobile River/Port of Mobile boat tour from WildNative Delta Safaris that will run only on cruise departure days.

And baseball fans know Mobile’s minor league ballpark is named after native son Hank Aaron, but may not know that it hosts a Christmas light pageant in the off season.

Stacey Hamilton, vice president of marketing and communications for Visit Mobile, said the agency’s Very Important Cruiser program provides discounts to almost twenty attractions to anyone that shows a boarding pass.

Mobile is also trying to liven things up on Sunday for cruisers staying overnight before Monday departures.

Hamilton said Visit Mobile is working with the Mobile Arts Council and the Downtown Mobile Alliance to host an arts and crafts market in the historic Cathedral Square and has asked downtown area shops, museums and art galleries normally closed on Sundays to open on those days.

“We’ve branded this ‘Sunday Funday’ and will promote this heavily as a reason to come to town on Sundays and have some fun,” Hamilton said.

All of these additions helped make Carnival’s decision to return to the city.

“Since we were in Mobile in 2011, the Mobile officials have done a tremendous job of creating thousands of new jobs and business investments in the region,” said Terry Thornton, senior vice president of itinerary planning at Carnival.