San Juan chooses cruise ships over art

In 2006 the Puerto Rican port installed a vast sculpture that looked like a folded paper plane. This week the steel structure, part-funded by the cruise line Royal Caribbean International, was subject to a controlled explosion as part of a demolition programme. The artwork coast £15 million, and was meant to add a notable feature to the port, but it blocked larger cruise ships from entering the quayside area and so has been removed.

Back in December 2009, an embarrassing situation arose when the tourist office had to relocate a news conference that they had planned to run on Carnival Dream because the ship could not dock. In the end Carnival Dream had to sail on to the Turks and Caicos Islands because the only dock that could have held it was already occupied by another superliner.

Once the sculpture has gone, all ships will be able to dock either in one of the Old San Juan berths, or at Frontier Pier, which is about ten minutes drive from Old San Juan. If you happen to be in the port at night a boat trip to the bioluminescent bay at Las Cabezas de San Juan Nature Reserve is a must, and there’s no problem docking there!