After cancelling multiple visits to San Juan, Puerto Rico because of a damaged pier, many passengers want to know when cruise ships will be able to visit there again.
Royal Caribbean has been forced to cancel visits to San Juan and re-route ships away because of damage to Pier 3 West.
Ships have been sent to other destinations, including Royal Caribbean's private destination in Labadee, Haiti. The result has been a lot of outrage by cruisers who got a last-minute itinerary change.
One family spoke with a local news outlet to share their shock at the change. They actually thought it was a joke at first.
Royal Caribbean's giant cruise ships cannot dock in San Juan because the US Coast Guard declared the facility remains closed to cruise ships until further notice.
The damage first occurred in April 2024 when allegedly it was broken after the MSC Meraviglia was involved, however, specific details are not known.
The loss of a dolphin mooring structure just off the main pier is the primary issue, and the Coast Guard is working on it.
Seatrade News said the Coast Guard work is "pending requested satisfactory assessment studies followed by a Coast Guard on-site inspection of the facility."
"Once the satisfactory assessment studies are presented to the Coast Guard, Sector San Juan Prevention port facilities personnel will conduct an on-site inspection of Pier 3 West to corroborate the findings in the assessments and determine whether the operational control may be lifted. To date, the Coast Guard has not received the requested studies, and the operational control remains in effect."
A representative of the Coast Guard went on to say that the agency is working with local authorities to determine if cruise ships can safely use the pier.
On Thursday, the San Juan Cruise Port issued a statement saying it is working "diligently with regulatory agencies to restore service to Pier 3 West."
Royal Caribbean has made it clear the issue is out of their control. Until the damaged pier is repaired and subsequently cleared by the United States Coast Guard, its ships cannot safely go there.
Canceling stops for now
As of now, Royal Caribbean has cancelled visits on two different Symphony of the Seas visits to San Juan.
The December 1 cruise is the latest sailing to have its itinerary changed, and because a ship the size of Symphony of the Seas cannot safely dock, there's no choice but to change itineraries.
Compounding the problem for cruise ship passengers are the ports that replace the original itinerary.
In the case of Symphony, they dropped San Juan and St. Maarten, and replaced with Labadee and Falmouth, Jamaica.
Visits to Labadee have been mired in controversy because technically the private beach destination is in Haiti. Haiti has experience a recent uptick in violence, with three commercial planes shot at in November. That prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to prohibit U.S. airlines from flying to Haiti for at least 30 days.
That's on top of a U.S. State Department also recommends that Americans do not travel to the country.
However, Labadee is in a remote area, walled off from the country. It's not near any urban centers, and Royal Caribbean has been monitoring the situation carefully.
Moreover, dozens of Royal Caribbean ships have visited Labadee recently with no incidents.
Will your cruise skip San Juan too?
It's too early to tell which other upcoming cruises scheduled to visit San Juan will be impacted.
Royal Caribbean has taken a "wait and see" approach to determining if a change is needed to an itinerary. This could be because the situation is so fluid, if the Coast Guard were to allow ships back in, it's more difficult to change back an itinerary than keep it in place until it's clear a change is needed.
It's disappointing for passengers to be notified of an itinerary change, but the issue is firmly out of Royal Caribbean's hands while the local authorities and the Coast Guard sort it out.
That doesn't mean passengers are okay with these changes. Royal Caribbean Blog member Frank47 posted, "After customers have paid in full for their cruise RC alerts them they will have to divert to Labadie Haiti. That is totally wrong."
A commenter wrote, "My biggest ‘concern’ is that there’s no timeline for fixing this issue. Will it take a week, month, or year to fix? Some expectation setting from Royal would be appreciated."
Royal Caribbean is stuck in the middle of all of this, as the repair work and progress are all being handled by third parties. Properly estimating or being made aware of progress is not as easy as it sounds when you have different companies and government agencies all working together.
If your cruise is scheduled to visit San Juan in the coming weeks or months, there's a chance your itinerary could be changed. Given the complexity of the work being done and the parties involved, there's no firm timeline to share as of yet.
