The Port of San Juan ( es, Puerto de San Juan) is a seaport facility located in the metropolitan area of San Juan, Puerto Rico. The "Port of San Juan" is the general name used to call various passenger and cargo facilities located in lands around the San Juan Bay (''Bahía de San Juan''). The port is composed of a total of sixteen piers, of which eight are used for passenger ships and eight for cargo ships. The port's facilities, in addition to, Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport and the Cataño Ferry "''Lancha de Cataño''" services, are property of the Puerto Rico Ports Authority. The bay and its docks are located along San Antonio Canal, a narrow navigable section of San Juan Bay lying south of Old San Juan and San Juan island, and north and west of the Puerto Rico Convention Center District and

Isla Grande Airport Fernando Luis Ribas Dominicci Airport , also commonly known as Isla Grande Airport, is an airport in Isla Grande, a district in the municipality of San Juan, Puerto Rico. It is owned by the Puerto Rico Ports Authority and is adjacent to the Puer ...

. The municipalities of Cataño, Guaynabo and

San Juan San Juan, Spanish for Saint John, may refer to: Places Argentina * San Juan Province, Argentina * San Juan, Argentina, the capital of that province * San Juan, Salta, a village in Iruya, Salta Province * San Juan (Buenos Aires Underground), ...

compose the south side of the bay and port.

Cargo facilities

The Port of San Juan's cargo facilities are located on the southern portion of San Juan Bay. Of the approximately eight cargo terminals, five are located in the Puerto Nuevo district of San Juan and the other three are located in the neighboring municipality of Guaynabo. The cargo facilities allow for more than 500,000 square feet (46,000 m²) of space for loading and unloading cargo. The location of the port's cargo facilities give it immediate access to Puerto Rico's vast expressway system and several major local routes, this allows for the fast and efficient transportation of goods throughout the Metropolitan Area and the rest of the island.

Passenger facilities

The Port of San Juan's passenger facilities are located along San Antonio Canal. Of the 15 piers in the channel, four accommodate cruise ships while others serve cargo vessels and the Cataño Ferry.

Ferry service

The Cataño Ferry (''Lancha de Cataño'') provides multiple daily round-trips from San Juan to Cataño. During the late 1980s, ferry service covered the San Juan area and the trip lasted approximately one hour. The service departed and arrived at the Old San Juan docks, but its popularity was short lived and thus this service was stopped during the early 1990s.

Cruise service

While most cargo ships dock on the south side of the bay, cruise ships arrive at one of the four cruise piers located along San Antonio Canal. This arrangement allows tourists to walk to major attractions such as Old San Juan and the Puerto Rico Convention Center District. The short distance between the Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport and the cruise ship docks is 7 miles and makes the area a prime location for cruise companies. Cruise ship companies, such as Carnival Cruises and Royal Caribbean prefer this setting, and have made the San Juan one of their ports of call. Some of the most recognized ships to have docked at the Port of San Juan during the late 1970s and early 1980s, were the Carla C, and Cunard's Countess and Princess ships.

Ships based out of San Juan

The following cruise ships are homeported at San Juan: * Carnival Fascination * Freedom of the Seas * Celebrity Summit (seasonal) * Jewel of the Seas (seasonal) * Norwegian Dawn (seasonal) *

Norwegian Epic ''Norwegian Epic'' is a cruise ship of the Norwegian Cruise Line built under that line's F3 Project by STX Europe Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in Saint-Nazaire, France. When built she was the third largest cruise ship in the world. Two ...

(seasonal) *

Silver Wind ''Silver Wind'' is a small cruise ship operated by Silversea Cruises, a luxury cruise line. The ship entered service in 1995 and is the second ship of her class, the first being her sister ship ''Silver Cloud The Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud ...

(seasonal) depart from San Juan to Fort Lauderdale *

Vision of the Seas ''Vision of the Seas'' is a Vision-class cruise ship, Vision-class cruise ship operated by Royal Caribbean International, the last of her class. Her maiden voyage was on May 2, 1998, following which she sailed for a year in Europe before being ...

(seasonal) *

Sea Dream II The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Se ...

(seasonal)

Future ships based out of San Juan

* Disney Magic * Star Pride * Viking Sea

Operators that visit San Juan

The following operators visit San Juan: * AIDA Cruises *Azamara Club Cruises *

Carnival Carnival is a Catholic Christian festive season that occurs before the liturgical season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March, during the period historically known as Shrovetide (or Pre-Lent). Carnival typi ...

* Celebrity *

Costa Crociere S.p.A. (), operating as Costa Cruises, is an Italian cruise line founded in 1854 and organized as a wholly owned subsidiary of Carnival Corporation & plc since 2000. Based in Genoa, Italy, the cruise line primarily caters to the Italian cruise ...

* Crystal Cruises * Disney Cruise Line * Holland America Line *

MSC Cruises MSC Cruises ( it, MSC Crociere) is an Italian global cruise line registered in Switzerland and based in Geneva, with operations offices in Naples, Genoa and Venice. It was founded in 1989 in Naples, Italy, as part of the Mediterranean Shipping C ...

Norwegian Cruise Line Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), also known in short as Norwegian, is an American cruise line founded in 1966, incorporated in Bermuda and headquartered in Miami. It is the fourth-largest cruise line in the world by passengers, controlling about 8.6 ...

* Oceania Cruises * Princess Cruises * Regent Seven Seas Cruises * Royal Caribbean *

SeaDream Yacht Club SeaDream Yacht Club is a private cruise line with its headquarters in Oslo, Norway. It was founded in 2001 by Atle Brynestad, the Norwegian founder of Seabourn Cruise Line. Market position According to ''USA Today'', "SeaDream Yacht Club deliv ...

Silversea Silversea Cruises is a luxury cruise line headquartered in Monaco. Founded in 1994 by the Vlasov Group of Monaco and the Lefebvre family of Rome, it pioneered all-inclusive cruising with its first ship, ''Silver Cloud''. Since July 2020, it ha ...

Viking Ocean Cruises Viking (formerly Viking Cruises) is a cruise line providing river, ocean, and expedition cruises. Its operating headquarters are in Basel, Switzerland,Adam H. Graham"The Rising Tide: How Viking Changed Cruising" '' Departures'', 21 November 201 ...

* Windstar Cruises

Destinations

The following is a listing of the majority of the locations served by passenger ship and ferry routes. *

Aruba Aruba ( , , ), officially the Country of Aruba ( nl, Land Aruba; pap, Pais Aruba) is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands physically located in the mid-south of the Caribbean Sea, about north of the Venezuela peninsula of ...

Antigua Antigua ( ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the native population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua and Bar ...

* Bahamas * Barbados * Bermuda *

Bonaire Bonaire (; , ; pap, Boneiru, , almost pronounced ) is a Dutch island in the Leeward Antilles in the Caribbean Sea. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk, on the west ( leeward) coast of the island. Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao form the ABC i ...

* British Virgin Islands *

Curaçao Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...

* Dominican Republic *

Dominica Dominica ( or ; Kalinago: ; french: Dominique; Dominican Creole French: ), officially the Commonwealth of Dominica, is an island country in the Caribbean. The capital, Roseau, is located on the western side of the island. It is geographically ...

Grenada Grenada ( ; Grenadian Creole French: ) is an island country in the West Indies in the Caribbean Sea at the southern end of the Grenadines island chain. Grenada consists of the island of Grenada itself, two smaller islands, Carriacou and Pe ...

* Florida * Jamaica * Mexico *

St. Kitts and Nevis Saint Kitts and Nevis (), officially the Federation of Saint Christopher and Nevis, is an island country and microstate consisting of the two islands of Saint Kitts and Nevis, both located in the West Indies, in the Leeward Islands chain of ...

* St. Lucia *

St. Maarten Sint Maarten () is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in the Caribbean. With a population of 41,486 as of January 2019 on an area of , it encompasses the southern 44% of the divided island of Saint Martin, while the north ...

* Trinidad and Tobago * Turks and Caicos * US Virgin Islands * Venezuela

Operations during Hurricane Maria

After Hurricane Maria devastated the communications and electricity network in Puerto Rico on September 20, 2017, the Port could not get enough truck drivers to distribute containers of relief supplies. The landslides, floods, lack of gasoline, water and food, caused a "vast humanitarian and logistical challenge" and a FEMA rep said on October 3, "We are currently developing a strategy to reach the center of the island.”

References

External links

Puerto Rico Port Authority's page

Estuario de la Bahia de San JuanNorwegian Cruises to San Juan
{{coord, 18.4622, -66.1120, type:landmark, display=title, format=dms Ports and harbors of Puerto Rico Buildings and structures in San Juan, Puerto Rico