San Juan cruise port said ready for high season

Ports Authority Executive Director Joel A. Pizá Batiz says the winter cruise season will be a very active one thanks to the fact that 12 cruise ships chose San Juan as their homeport.

By The Star Staff

Puerto Rico Ports Authority Executive Director Joel A. Pizá Batiz announced earlier this week the actions taken by Ports to meet the infrastructure needs in the Port of San Juan (PSJ) for the peak winter cruise season.

The season will be a very active one thanks to the fact that 12 cruise ships chose San Juan as their homeport, the Ports chief said Wednesday.

Pizá Batiz noted that for this season he is confident that the work done to optimize the tourist docks in the Port of San Juan will meet the operational needs of the cruise ships scheduled to arrive during the next six months.

“The peak cruise season begins in November and runs through April. Among the work done on infrastructure and port security are improvements and repairs to services related to the structural capacity and berthing of ships, such as mooring points, fenders and passenger gangways,” the official said. “In addition, there were other miscellaneous repairs such as the electrical installation in docks 3 and 4, for the location of a tourist orientation booth; improvements to the signage; improvements to the pavement of the access road and the parking of the docks; the repair of access gates to the platform and the improvements to the water intakes of cruise ships, among others.”

Pizá Batiz said work continues on other projects such as the dredging of the port, the installation of security cameras in San Juan Bay, and the creation of the Port Security Advisory Board for San Juan Bay, “actions that will help us keep the Port of San Juan in the eyes of the world, in the fields of both cruise and cargo operations.”

He stressed that as a preview of the high season, last Saturday, Oct. 15, the Celebrity Millennium docked at the PSJ, a cruise that has three homeport visits in October and will have another 17 during the 2022 winter season. Other cruises that will homeport in the Port of San Juan during the season: the Star Pride cruise, of Wind Star Cruises, which will open the high season on Nov. 3 (20 visits); the Voyager of the Seas, of Royal Caribbean (26); the Disney Magic, of Disney Cruises (5); the SeaDream I (6) and the SeaDream II (9); SeaDream Yacht Club; Viking Sea, from Viking Cruises (6); the Evrima, from The Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection (6); Norwegian Epic, Norwegian Cruise Line (17); Silversea’s Silver Dawn (3); Virgin Voyages’ Scarlet Lady (2); and Seven Seas Splendor’s Seven Seas Splendor, with a visit in November.