Above: The Bay of San Juan (CJ Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Puerto Rico is “ready” to receive the new wave of “mega” cruise ships, according to Governor Alejandro Garcia Padilla.

Old San Juan’s port recently completed a project to extend the cruise pier an additional 183 feet into the Bay of San Juan.

That means the city will be able to receive the new class of large ships like Royal Caribbean’s Quantum of the Seas, which will first arrive on the island on Dec. 4 with more than 7,000 passengers.

In the summer cruise season, San Juan welcomed about 250,000 passengers, according to Garcia Padilla, up from 102,000 passengers in the summer quarter of 2012.

“We hope that during this fiscal year the tourism sector will break all the previous records,” he said in a statement. “We are working very hard as part of our agenda of tourism development.”