After more than a year’s closure, San Juan’s Pier 3 cruise terminal is now fully open again for mega cruise ships.
It had been closed to ships for more than 13 months after MSC Cruises’ ship Meraviglia struck and damaged a mooring structure, rendering the dock unusable.
Pier 13 is used to accommodate the largest cruise ships which has impacted Royal Caribbean more than any other cruise line.
San Juan has been a regular stop for Royal Caribbean ships but due to their sizes were unable to call at the pier.
Other cruise lines were mostly unaffected due to deploying smaller ships in the region.
The delay in getting the pier operational has been due to safety sign off between the port authority and the US Coast Guard.
Due to the uncertainty of when it would get final approval to handle large ship again, Royal Caribbean was forced to cancel Puerto Rico calls at the last minute on a number of occasions.
“Pier 3 West has been officially restored, after completing a rigorous structural assessment in accordance with US Coast Guard requirements. The restriction is lifted and the full use of the facility is enabled,” San Juan Cruise Port said in a Facebook post.
