I was on a cruise in January and the day in San Juan left a bad impression. There were eight ships in port. Other affected ports only had two ships and everything else was dedicated to recovery. There was a festival going on in San Juan. I get it that a few ships should be there to bring back the tourism industry as recovery was done. But so many? A festival draining resources and effort that could've been used toward recovery?
The ship I was on had a real good passenger base. So many wanted to learn about the recovery and help if we could. The other two impacted-area stops gave us that. It isn't the fault of the good people of PR; I know that. But somehow, you've got to get better leadership.
FWIW, I was scheduled for a walking tour of Old San Juan with a lunch at a small local restaurant. It was cancelled. With any innovation from liason with the cruise ship, the owners could've been brought on board to supervise a meal for us. In another port, a school full of children took a tour of the boat. Cruisers shared boat transportation to a beach that was available to taxi both residents and cruisers to a beach that had been cleaned up. That kind of connection was real healthy.
Sorry that you had a bad impression about your visit, but a very important goal after the storms was to restart the tourism industry ASAP, and that’s what you saw. Most of the damage on the island was up in the mountains. San Juan fared quite well, and its harbor is huge and can handle eight cruise ships while at the same time handling cargo on the non-tourist piers. If those eight cruise ships hadn’t been there, the disaster for many people would have been worse. Above all, we needed jobs, and that’s what you, unwittingly perhaps, helped provide. And thank you, btw.