Massive Royal Caribbean ships have been unable to visit San Juan, Puerto Rico, for months due to ongoing improvements to the pier infrastructure. Most recently, more sailings aboard Icon of the Seas have replaced their visits to San Juan with other Caribbean ports. 

The new string of changes affects cruises through July 2025. Guests booked on the May 3, June 7, June 21, and July 19 sailings received an email indicating they're no longer scheduled to call at San Juan. 

"Before your vacation begins, we wanted to inform you about some changes to our itinerary. Due to ongoing improvements to the pier infrastructure in San Juan, the port operators have advised us that the port will not be ready in time for our visit," the email begins. 

Three out of four of the voyages will now call at Ponce, Puerto Rico, while the July 19 voyage is skipping Puerto Rico entirely and heading to Phillipsburg, St. Maarten. 

The email continues, "We'll now enjoy a visit to Philipsburg, St. Maarten on Day 4. We'll still visit Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, now on Day 5 instead of Day 4. Thank you for your understanding - it's exciting to share this new destination with you."

Instead of nixing Puerto Rico from the itinerary completely, the May 3, June 7, and June 21 voyages will visit Ponce instead of San Juan. 

"Ponce has a captivating history as Puerto Rico's second-largest city is full of laid-back vibes and nostalgic charm. Enjoy a stroll through Plaza de las Delicias or unwind like a true Ponceño along La Guancha boardwalk," reads the email sent to booked passengers. 

"Want to dine like a local? Set your sights on cocina criolla, a blend of Spanish, Taino, American and African flavors - be sure to try Puerto Rico's national dish, mofongo (fried [plantains] mashed with garlic and olive oil). Finish the day with a scoop of hand-churned, tropical-flavored, ice cream at King's Cream, open since 1964. Whatever you choose to do on your adventure, you're sure to have a memorable time."

Guests with pre-paid shore excursions in San Juan will receive an automatic refund to their original form of payment. No other compensation is being provided. 

Read more: Icon of the Seas Cruise Ship: Review, Photos

Symphony of the Seas changes

Passengers aboard Symphony of the Seas' April 6, 2025, cruise were also notified that they'll be skipping San Juan. 

"We’ll still visit Perfect Day at CocoCay, as originally planned. You’ll now get to explore the beautiful, Labadee, Haiti and Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. [And] We’re dialing up the fun by adding an extra port to your itinerary! We’ll now visit Nassau, Bahamas on Day 3 of our sailing," reads the email. 

The original 7-night Eastern Caribbean & Perfect Day cruise was scheduled to call at Perfect Day at CocoCay, San Juan, and St. Maarten, respectively. This means that other than CocoCay, the entire itinerary has been updated. 

Ongoing issues docking in San Juan

Oasis and Icon Class ships have not visited San Juan since November 2024 because of ongoing construction with Pier 3-West. 

The issue hasn't impacted all ships, as San Juan has more than one pier for cruises. For example, Adventure of the Seas, an older Royal Caribbean ship measuring 137,276 gross registered tons (GRT), successfully docked in San Juan on Tuesday, February 24, 2025. 

In comparison, Icon of the Seas comes in at 248,663 GRT. Because of her size, Icon—and other Oasis Class ships—can only dock at Pier 3-West. 

According to Cruise Mapper, Scarlet Lady, Sun Princess, Marella Discovery, and Viking Sea also arrived in San Juan on Tuesday, Feb. 25 without issue. 

Large cruise ships, such as Symphony of the Seas, have been diverted from San Juan to alternative ports, including Labadee, Haiti; Falmouth, Jamaica; and Nassau, leading to dismay from guests. 

"These are major downgrades of ports…both Falmouth and Nassau suck and I tried to avoid them when initially booking the cruise," wrote one disappointed passenger on Reddit.

In January, local media outlet El Vocero reported that the Coast Guard was making progress in its repair efforts and claimed the pier could be fixed by late January. This, however, did not come to fruition. 

The issue began in April 2024 when MSC Meraviglia collided with the pier and caused "catastrophic damage." San Juan Cruise Port recently filed a lawsuit against MSC, as well as its insurers, to recover some of the costs associated with the damages and repairs, as reported by The Street. 

MSC is being accused of negligence for operating MSC Meraviglia with excessive speed and failure to follow proper docking procedures, including not using the available tug assistance or successfully aligning the vessel with the mooring dolphin. 

A dolphin is a group of pilings that serve as a protective hardpoint along a dock and help secure a cruise ship to the pier. 

The ongoing repairs are out of Royal Caribbean's hands, and the work is managed by the Puerto Rican authorities and is subject to Coast Guard approval. 

More sailings through all of February have had their visits to San Juan, Puerto Rico replaced with other plans.

Royal Caribbean canceled another month of visits to Puerto Rico after pier repairs couldn't be completed in January. 

Oasis Class ships haven't called at San Juan since November 2024 because of the ongoing problem with Pier 3-West. Instead, the massive vessels have been routed to other ports. 

Note that the issue hasn't impacted all cruise lines because San Juan has more than one pier for cruise ships. Oasis Class ships are some of the largest in the world, measuring well over 220,000 gross registered tons (GRT). In comparison, Carnival Venezia, which successfully docked in Puerto Rico on Thursday, January 23, comes in at just 135,225 GRT. 

Last week, local media outlet El Vocero reported that the Coast Guard was working on repair efforts, indicating the pier could be fixed and ready to safely welcome guests later in January. The news relieved many who were anxiously awaiting to see whether San Juan would remain on their itineraries. 

However, guests aboard the February 23 cruise on Symphony of the Seas received an email stating they'll skip their scheduled visit to San Juan. 

"Due to ongoing construction at the pier in San Juan, the port authority has advised us that the port will not be ready in time for our visit," the notice reads.

"You will now get to explore the beautiful Labdadee, Haiti. Although we need to skip our visit to Phillipsburg, St. Maarten, you will get the enjoy the charming Falmouth, Jamaica...Thank you for your understanding. We're excited to share these wonderful destinations with you."

Other impacted voyages include the February 9 and February 16 sailings. 

The February 2 cruise remains unchanged because San Juan isn't on the Eastern Caribbean itinerary. The 7-night cruise is scheduled to visit Perfect Day at CocoCay, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten. 

Labadee is one of Royal Caribbean's private destinations

Though not a private island like Perfect Day at CocoCay, the remote area is only available to Royal Caribbean guests. The private beach area is walled off on a peninsula in northern Haiti. It is located 130 miles north of the capital, Port-au-Prince.

Visits were suspended last year due to civil unrest. However, Royal Caribbean resumed sailings to Labadee in October 2024 after a 7-month hiatus and was met with criticism. 

"The high, hill positions would make it easy to fire down on people at Labadee; it would be difficult to defend for Royal’s security forces," commented David on a Royal Caribbean Blog post.

"As far as the problems being only in Port au Prince, that’s what the media is reporting. No one really knows if it is safe in Cap-Haitian. And Cap-Haitien is not that far [from] Labadee, so that = a no-go for me."

Amy added, "There's no way that Royal Caribbean can repel an attack and protect passengers visiting the island or the cruise ship should it happen. People can be kidnapped, [raped, tortured], taken hostage, and killed."

"It's extremely irresponsible for any cruise line to continue to visit Labadee, Haiti falsely thinking for some reason, that Labadee is completely insulated from the extreme violence in the country, just on the other side of the fence!"

Disappointed guests

It's important to be open to change on a cruise vacation. Weather, medical emergencies, and other unforeseen circumstances can disrupt itineraries. That, however, doesn't mean you can't be disappointed. 

"These are major downgrades of ports…both Falmouth and Nassau suck and I tried to avoid them when initially booking the cruise," wrote wormy1996 on Reddit. 

"[I'm] more upset about St. Maarten, not sure why they are skipping it. I like Labadee but Nassau and Falmouth are both terrible options."

AnswerGuy301 added, "'Charming' Falmouth, Jamaica?! Ha! It’s just a mall in the middle of nowhere."

"This happened [to] us on Symphony over New Year’s. Labadee is fine, but yes, the others are major downgrades. Unfortunate, but we still had a great time," said Educational_Sky_1136.

Royal Caribbean has cancelled more scheduled visits to San Juan, Puerto Rico on one of its largest cruise ships, and cruisers are not happy.

Symphony of the Seas - measuring at 228,081 gross registered tons - was scheduled to visit San Juan on the two upcoming voyages, including the December 28, 2024 and January 12, 2025 sailings. However, due to ongoing construction at the pier, large cruise ships have been unable to dock for months in the capital city.

Cruisers sailing on both itineraries were alerted recently about itinerary changes because the Oasis class ship is still unable to dock in San Juan. However, both itineraries have been significantly altered due to the port change.

For the December 28 sailing, guests received the following email from Royal Caribbean:

“We wanted to inform you about some changes to your upcoming cruise. Due to ongoing construction at the pier in San Juan, the port authority has advised us that the port will not be ready in time for our visit. We understand how important each destination is to your vacation, so we have worked diligently to find the best alternatives for you.”

The 7-night itinerary will visit Perfect Day at Coco Cay as planned, but visits to St. Maarten and San Juan are cancelled. Instead of visiting San Juan, Puerto Rico, the revised itinerary has Symphony of the Seas will now be visiting Labadee, Haiti.

As one of Royal Caribbean’s private destinations, Labadee was recently reopened following violence in the country this year. The cruise line suspending visits to Labadee when tension began to rise in the spring; however, the private destination’s location is completely operated by the cruise line.

Royal Caribbean also added a new port stop in Nassau, Bahamas on the December 28, 2024 sailing, which will replace one of the sea days.

In addition, vacationers on the January 12, 2025 sailing onboard Symphony of the Seas received a similar email from Royal Caribbean about itinerary changes. The 7-night Eastern Caribbean sailing was meant to visit San Juan, Puerto Rico on January 15, 2025.

The Oasis class vessel was scheduled to visit Perfect Day at CocoCay and Phillipsburg, St. Maarten on a roundtrip itinerary from Miami, Florida. However, the continuous issues with San Juan have caused the cruise line to revise this itinerary too.

Guests booked on the impacted itinerary were told the cruise would no longer sail an Eastern Caribbean itinerary. Although Symphony of the Seas will visit Perfect Day at CocoCay as planned on January 13, 2024, the rest of the port visits are altered.

Instead of visiting Puerto Rico, the ship will now dock in Labadee, Haiti. Additionally, the new itinerary features a port visit to Falmouth, Jamaica instead of St. Maarten. The remaining two sea days on the itinerary remain unchanged. Symphony of the Seas will return to Miami, Florida as scheduled.

Ongoing issues docking in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Prior to these recent changes, Royal Caribbean also adjusted Symphony of the Seas’ itineraries in December that were meant to dock in San Juan. Sailings throughout November and December were also altered significantly to replace San Juan, Puerto Rico because of the pier issues that persist.

Unfortunately, there is no end in sight for the port cancellations in Puerto Rico due to “technical issues” with San Juan’s pier.

Royal Caribbean explained in communication earlier this month, “We’ve recently been advised by the port authority in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that due to technical issues with the pier and the work that must be done and cleared by the United States Coast Guard for accepting a ship our size, we’ll have to adjust our itinerary for our sailing.”

Currently, there is no timeline for when the pier will be completed. The dock is located in San Juan’s old town, making it one of the more popular destinations for cruisers in the Caribbean. Neither the Port Authority in San Juan nor Royal Caribbean have stated when the pier will be cleared for larger vessels, indicating the pier might not be fixed for some time.

According to local reports from elnuevodia, San Juan’s Pier 3 was damaged by MSC Meraviglia in April 2024. This forced the port to close down the west side of the facility until further notice because of the extensive damage to the pier. Neither Royal Caribbean nor the Port of San Juan have confirmed the pier damage by MSC Meraviglia.

Luckily, San Juan has two docks for cruise ships to use. Smaller ships are able to use the Pan America pier; however, Oasis class ships are only able to use the damaged pier due to the large size. As such, Royal Caribbean is technically at the mercy of San Juan to repair the damaged pier before they can resume normal operations.

Disappointment and frustration from many impacted cruisers

Although Royal Caribbean is technically not responsible for the damaged pier repairs, many cruisers are frustrated by the continued last-minute changes. The repeated itinerary adjustments are disappointing for most cruisers scheduled to vacation on Symphony of the Seas.

Cruisers impacted by the sailing have taken to social media to voice their frustrations, including a thread on Reddit and forum post on Royal Caribbean Blog.

In particular, some have expressed their dismay with Royal Caribbean choosing to replace San Juan, Puerto Rico with less-desired ports. For example, the U.S. State Department has Haiti as a “Level 4: Do Not Travel” advisory for the region. Others are not pleased with the elimination of St. Maarten for Falmouth, Jamaica.

“Skipping St. Maarten for Jamaica, Haiti and Nassau would make me cranky,” commented one user on Reddit.

Others found the wording of the communication comical considering the political unrest in Haiti. “[Haiti is] so stunning that there are armed guards who stop you from leaving the private port,” responded one commenter.

“Telling us that being diverted to Haiti (during a level 4 do not travel advisory) is suddenly safe is an insult. RC stopped visiting Labadee in March, 2024… but now 'the safety and security of our guest remains our main priority' — and just like that it’s safe again?” commented one frustrated cruiser.

“Ugh. Nassau and Falmouth in exchange for San Juan and St. Martin? That’s the downgrade of downgrades,” responded another user.

“Love how they try to make roses out of turds,” exclaimed one responder.

Others are frustrated by Royal Caribbean’s lack of planning considering the ongoing issue, especially considering the cruise line continues to advertise Oasis class cruises visiting San Juan in early 2025:

“RCCL continues to look bad on this issue. They have to know the pier issue is going to take time to get back to operations that support Oasis class ships. Rhapsody docked just fine this morning. Highly recommend the itinerary she is running right now.”

The poster replied, “Definitely knew, feels like a bait and switch to private islands. The money grab from Covid downtime is so very apparent. At least try to substitute with another eastern island.”

Which Royal Caribbean ships are impacted?

Reports of issues with docking in San Juan, Puerto Rico were reported by Royal Caribbean cruisers as early as April 2024. Guests sailing on Wonder of the Seas reported the captain chose to divert the ship from San Juan and Dominican Republic to visit St. Thomas and St. Maarten instead. At the time, guests were told the pier was damaged by an MSC ship and Oasis class ships could not dock.

After the diversion of Wonder of the Seas, Royal Caribbean’s Symphony of the Seas has faced the greatest impact. Since the spring, every itinerary that included a stop in San Juan has been modified.

Looking ahead to next year, Symphony of the Seas has planned visits to San Juan, Puerto Rico, throughout early 2025. While January itineraries have already been modified, no updates have been shared regarding changes to additional sailings. If the pier’s repair timeline remains unclear and adjustments continue, more itineraries could be affected.

For instance, Royal Caribbean’s Odyssey of the Seas, a Quantum class ship measuring 167,000 gross registered tons, is also scheduled to visit San Juan on January 30, 2025. Currently, this sailing has not been impacted.

Finally, Rhapsody of the Seas is home-ported in San Juan and sails roundtrip itineraries from the capital city to the Southern Caribbean. Because Rhapsody of the Seas is one of the cruise line’s smallest ship, the vessel operates at the alternative San Juan dock. Therefore, the Vision class ship has not been impacted and continues to operate as scheduled. 

Are impacted cruisers receiving compensation?

Even with the adjusted sailings, cruisers on impacted itineraries are not being offered the opportunity to cancel for a refund. This has created additional frustration for vacationers who are visiting ports of call they did not originally plan to visit. 

"They sold and marketed this New Years Holiday Cruise as an Eastern Caribbean itinerary knowing that it was unlikely that the San Juan port would be fixed,” argued another cruiser online.

Itinerary changes are not uncommon in the cruise industry, especially for weather-related changes. However, because cruise lines have the power to make itinerary changes as needed for any reason, guests are not currently being offered any sort of refund or compensation for the change.

For previous itinerary changes caused by the pier issues in San Juan, Royal Caribbean announced that guests would automatically be refunded to their original form of payment for any prepaid excursions at the canceled ports. Additionally, new excursions will likely be offered through Royal Caribbean for ports of call in Falmouth (Jamaica), Nassau (Bahamas) and Labadee (Haiti). 

Royal Caribbean is facing challenges with the cruise pier in San Juan, Puerto Rico, resulting in unexpected itinerary changes for one of its largest ships.

San Juan is one of the most popular cruise ports in the Caribbean with its rich history and vibrant culture; in addition, the capital of Puerto Rico is also used as a homeport for Royal Caribbean. Royal Caribbean offers many sailings that visit San Juan as a port of call. However, itineraries onboard Symphony of the Seas have been particularly affected by this port issue because of the ship's massive size.

In an email sent to guests booked on the December 1, 2024 sailing onboard Symphony of the Seas, Royal Caribbean explained the situation regarding "technical issues" with San Juan’s cruise pier.  Royal Caribbean 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, Oasis class ships will be unable to dock. 

The cruise line said, “We’ve recently been advised by the port authority in San Juan, Puerto Rico, that due to technical issues with the pier and the work that must be done and cleared by the USCG for accepting a ship our size, we’ll have to adjust our itinerary for our sailing.”

At this time, it’s unclear when the pier - which is located in the heart of San Juan’s old town - will be cleared by authorities to accept larger vessels. Neither Royal Caribbean nor the Port of San Juan have stated when the issue is expected to be fixed. 

Symphony of the Seas is one of the largest ships in the world, measuring 228,081 gross registered tons. Originally, the ship was scheduled to sail on a 7-night Eastern Caribbean itinerary from Miami on December 1, 2024. Because of the unforeseen port issues in San Juan, the itinerary was adjusted at the last minute. 

Symphony of the Seas was scheduled to visit San Juan, Puerto Rico and Philipsburg, St. Maarten, along one day at Royal Caribbean’s Perfect Day at CocoCay. Guests were notified that Symphony of the Seas will instead visit Falmouth, Jamaica and Labadee, Haiti with an adjusted itinerary. However, the ship will also keep its scheduled visit to Perfect Day at CocoCay as planned.

Royal Caribbean stated that guests will receive an automatic refund to their original form of payment for any prepaid excursions booked for San Juan and Philipsburg. Additionally, excursions will also be available to book for the new ports of call in Jamaica and Haiti.

Only Symphony of the Seas has been impacted.

This isn’t the first Royal Caribbean itinerary to be impacted by San Juan’s pier issues. The cruise line was forced to drop San Juan from Symphony of the Seas’ itinerary earlier this month as well. The ship's November 17, 2024 itinerary was originally scheduled to dock in San Juan, St. Maarten and Perfect Day at CocoCay before the adjustment was made. 

In communication sent to passengers, Royal Caribbean stated, “After exploring all options, and to provide you with the best experience, we'll now enjoy visits to our private destination, Labadee, Haiti, and to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, instead. To help make up for these changes, we've added a visit to Nassau, Bahamas!”

It’s also important to note that San Juan, Puerto Rico has two different ports utilized by cruise ships. The current issue is only impacting Royal Caribbean’s largest ships when docking for the day at the Port of San Juan near the old town. The second port in San Juan is found across the harbor, known as Pan American Pier, and is unaffected. This terminal is used as a homeport for ships that are departing from San Juan.

Currently, Rhapsody of the Seas is sailing round-trip itineraries from San Juan and has not experienced any itinerary adjustments. No other Royal Caribbean ships are departing from San Juan in the coming months, although multiple ships are scheduled to visit the city as a port of call. 

Looking forward, Symphony of the Seas is scheduled to visit San Juan again on December 22, 2024. The ship also has more sailings featuring the port into January 2025. The cruise line has not announced any further changes at this time for future itineraries. If the pier remains damaged, Royal Caribbean's Oasis class ships could continue to be impacted for months to come. 

How was the pier in San Juan damaged?

Guests on Royal Caribbean sailings from earlier this year started to report issues with San Juan’s pier in the spring. In April 2024, people started posting online about docking issues in Puerto Rico, supposedly due to damage caused by an MSC cruise ship.

According to guests onboard at the time, Wonder of the Seas was forced to change course due to the damage caused in San Juan in April 2024. Oasis class ships can only dock at the damaged pier due to their size. Therefore, Royal Caribbean is at the mercy of the port to repair the damaged pier in order to resume normal operations.

In April 2024, user @Brooke posted on our site’s forum, “On the Wonder of the Seas and just got diverted from going to San Juan, Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. [Now we are] going to St. Maarten and St. Thomas. They said a ship crashed into the port in San Juan. Does anyone have information on that?”

User @Austin commented, “Just to clarify for anyone on a Puerto Rico itinerary on an Oasis class ship, Captain said the [pier] that Oasis ships use is unstable from the MSC ship striking it in Puerto Rico.”

Continuing, the cruiser shared, “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)."

In addition, a headline from elnuevodia, a local news source, confirmed the incident back in April. The headline reads, “MSC Meraviglia cruise ship hits Pier 3 in San Juan”. The article continued to explain how the San Juan Cruise Port was forced to close the west side of the facility until further notice, due to the damage caused by the accident. Neither Royal Caribbean nor the Port of San Juan have confirmed the pier damage by MSC Meraviglia.

Most guests are unhappy with the last-minute itinerary changes.

Impacted guests are understandably upset by the itinerary changes. Last-minute changes to an itinerary are always disappointing, especially when guests book sailings to visit specific destinations. While cruise lines attempt to replace cancelled ports of call, the itinerary updates are not always considered sufficient.

Royal Caribbean expressed to its guests, “We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused by these changes. Nevertheless, we’re excited to visit our private destination and a new port with you!” Even still, impacted passengers are frustrated by the changes.

“I’m pretty upset about it. I was really excited to take my kids to San Juan as they’ve never been and St. Martin looked nice as well. I feel like the ports they switched us too are not on the same level as the ones we had before. Both cruise pricing wise and activity wise,” commented one impacted guest on a Reddit thread.

Royal Caribbean only recently started sailing again to its private island in Haiti, which is being used as a substitute port for San Juan. Although Labadee is a secure, remote and private area operated entirely by Royal Caribbean, the country of Haiti has been in turmoil recently.

Due to civil unrest in the spring and over the summer, Royal Caribbean suspended operations for months "out of an abundance of caution". Citing safety concerns, the cruise line removed Labadee from Caribbean itineraries throughout the spring and summer. Royal Caribbean only returned to Labadee in October 2024, although unrest continues in the country.  

Even after three commercial planes were struck by gunfire in the country’s capital this month, Royal Caribbean confirmed there were no planned changes for itineraries visiting the private destination. Therefore, it's not surprising to see Labadee being used as a replacement port for altered itineraries. 

One guest stated online how they would not be comfortable with Symphony's itinerary changes considering the violent situation in Haiti. The commenter stated, “Man, I’d personally be so upset at the changes; Skip San Juan but keep St. Maarten. I personally wouldn’t feel safe in Haiti right now."

“I'm on this cruise right now. It was a major bummer, but we adapted. We booked our St. Martin excursion through a 3rd party, and they refunded us after notifying them of the last-minute itinerary change,” stated one cruiser that was onboard the impacted November 17 sailing.

Continuing, the poster stated, “As far as the change goes, a lot of people were very upset about the change, but the terms and conditions you agree to when booking a cruise with Royal state that they can change the itinerary for any reason at any time, and without prior warning. Of course they will let you know as soon as possible, as a matter of good business practice.”

“So based on the other comments in this thread, it sounds like this has been a known issue since April, and basically there’s no hope in sight of getting it repaired? We picked this specific itinerary for Puerto Rico and St. Maarten,” exclaimed another cruiser online.

There are no changes to Royal Caribbean's cruise schedule following a magnitude 6.4 earthquake on Tuesday morning.

The cruise line confirmed on Twitter that were have been no changes to scheduled cruises to or from Puerto Rico.

Hi, Corvin. We're set to sail or visit Puerto Rico but if any changes are made we'll make sure to advise our guests right away. -Mari

— Royal Caribbean (@RoyalCaribbean) January 7, 2020

The U.S. Geological Survey said the shaking began about 4:24 a.m. and was followed by intense aftershocks, including a 6.0-magnitude shock wave that was also felt across the U.S. territory.

Royal Caribbean characterized local news reports from Puerto Rico that the cruise line will make halt many scheduled visits to the island as, "incorrect."

In a statement to travel agents, Royal Caribbean issued the following statement:

Royal Caribbean reviews and adjusts itineraries and deployments every year.

The rumors regarding cancellations of sailings departing between April 2020 – March 2021 from San Juan are incorrect. We have not cancelled any of our ships visiting or homeporting in San Juan.

Though we have not yet announced our full 2021-2022 deployments, we do expect fewer calls from San Juan for the 2021-2022 season and we will be able to provide more details once we have announced our itineraries. 

No decisions regarding deployment beyond those dates have yet been made.

On Tuesday, some news outlets in Puerto Rico began reporting Royal Caribbean was planning to cancel 90 calls to San Juan, Puerto Rico for the 2020 and 2021 season.

A second Royal Caribbean ship has skipped a scheduled visit to San Juan, Puerto Rico earlier today due to political demonstrations in the capital.

Yesterday, Empress of the Seas also skipped a visit to San Juan because of the ongoing protests. 

Protests began over the weekend after the Center for Investigative Journalism published nearly 900 pages from Rosselló's private group chat via Telegram. The messages uncovered a vengeful approach to government, attacks on journalists, threats to turn over political opponents to the police as well as homophobic and misogynistic remarks.

The next scheduled visit to San Juan is Allure of the Seas on Thursday.

The number of cruise passengers that arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico increased 84% over the same month last year according to the executive director of the Tourism Company Puerto Rico (PRTC), Ingrid Rivera.

During the month of August 2013, 65,101 cruise passengers arrived in San Juan thanks mostly to Royal Caribbean's Jewel of the Seas.  That number compares to just 35,291 in August 2012.

The cruise industry has an economic impact of about $185 million annually to Puerto Rico, according to the PRTC.

"We are very pleased with this trend and are working for it to hold as Puerto Rico regains its standing as the largest port in the Eastern Caribbean," said Rivera.

After an avalanche of negative comments concerning Royal Caribbean's decision last week to strand over 100 of its passengers in San Juan without any compensation, Royal Caribbean has decided to offer those who didn't make the ship a compensation package.

The incident occurred when Hurricane Irene threatened San Juan, Puerto Rico where Royal Caribbean's Serenade of the Seas was docked.  Port officials needed to have the ship leave early, so Serenade was forced to leave a few hours early and subsequently left 145 passengers and refused to offer them any compensation.

Royal Caribbean spokeswoman Cynthia Martinez confirmed that a compensation package was indeed being offered but declined to provide specifics.

The aftermath of the incident spilled over when people heard of what happened and were upset over Royal Caribbean's indifference to the plight of those left behind.  Despite earlier saying the cruise giant would not offer anything (they claimed they were within their rights to do what they did), Royal Caribbean is hoping to reverse the negative perception that has taken hold in the court of public opinion.

UPDATE: Here is a statement from Royal Caribbean:

 “As a gesture of goodwill, and in recognition of the time they missed on board Serenade of the Seas, Royal Caribbean provided each guest who was not able to arrive to the ship before it departed San Juan but met the ship later, with a future cruise certificate for 30% of the cruise fare paid for their sailing.

“We are in the process of contacting those guests who were not able to sail with us at all to inform them of their compensation, and would prefer that the impacted guests learn of the amount directly from the line before it is disclosed publicly.

“We are compensating these passengers because we understand that this was an unusual situation, and we want to provide our guests with another opportunity to sail with Royal Caribbean International in the near future.” 

We first told you about passengers who missed their Royal Caribbean cruise earlier this week when Royal Caribbean was forced to depart San Juan, Puerto Rico earlier than scheduled due to the impending threat of Hurricane Irene.  

Today, Royal Caribbean has denied any responsibility for leaving 145 passengers at port to get Serenade of the Seas of the way of the storm three hours early.  Royal Caribbean contends that port officials began to limit harbor traffic at 12:30 pm on Sunday, forcing the ship to depart early.

Of the passengers left behind, 15 had purchased their airfare through Royal Caribbean and were subsequently given a hotel stay for two nights and flown to Aruba to join the cruise on the rest of its voyage.  The other 130 passengers, however, were on their own.  The reasoning, according to Royal Caribbean is, "Independent guests were advised of hotel availability in the area, but the expense was on them given that it was a weather-related event."

Furthermore, Royal Caribbean says there was simply no way of contacting the passengers in time to alert them to the change, “There was no way to notify our guests of this change in departure time. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused our guests, but this decision was made by the Port of San Juan to ensure the safe transit of all guests and crew through the port.”

It turns out Royal Caribbean isn't alone in this.  Another 300 passengers missed their Carnival Cruise when Hurricane Irene prompted the Carnival Victory to leave port four hours early.