October 30 Zuiderdam Schedule

[Fit Heart]

Greetings,

I am sure all of you leaving on the Zuiderdam on October 30 for the Eastern Caribbean are counting the hours until your departure. I'm still counting the days for our December 4 departure on the Z. The October 30 cruise is supposed to be the first trip with the return of St. Thomas until 11:00PM on Tuesday and Tortola on Wednesday, after months of Tortola on Tuesday and a shortened St. Thomas stay on Wednesday. I am looking forward to hearing if they stick to switching those ports back (the switch is still indicated on the HAL website). There was a lot of discussion on this in much earlier posts, and many thought the switch back wouldn't happen until next year. HAL has stuck by this October 30 switch, saying that more cruise ships have now returned to the Caribbean. For those of you on the October 30 cruise, keep us posted....THANKS! Happy Sailing!

[peaches from georgia]

I was just looking at the St. Thomas docking schedule for November which begins next week. Yes, the Zuiderdam is going there on Tuesdays, but is docking at Crown Bay, not WICO (Havensight). A number of other HAL cruises also are docking at CB, depending on day of the week they are in StT.

I have never docked at CB, so others will have to give comments, but my memory says pax who docked there have not been happy? Someone will explain, I'm sure.

[MandyGirl]

Crown Bay is closer to Red Hook for the ferry to St John, correct? (I've never docked there but have been tendered in before directly into downtown Charlotte Amalie)

[MandyGirl]

Also, here is a camera of the ships in St Thomas (Havensight area)
http://www.usvi.net/usvi/stt.html (http://www.usvi.net/usvi/stt.html)
Hard to see those in port at Havensight but gives an idea possibly? Could look on Tuesday just in case...

A few months ago I had looked at online cruise sites to try to figure out how many ships were going to be in St Thomas with the Zuiderdam when we are there (11/20 sailing) - and it was basically the same either day (as scheduled or with a switch) - and I also looked at # of pax each ship carries. However, Tortola has two scheduled on our current schedule (Wed - including the Zui) but only one on Tuesday if a switch occurred (it would be only the Zui).

I'm still hoping the schedule is as the HAL email to me stated and as our docs say - St Thomas followed by Tortola. We are totally looking forward to the entire day in St John without being rushed back. Thank goodness our St John wedding isn't on THIS cruise!!! I'd be pulling my hair out by now not knowing which day...

[MandyGirl]

Just FYI... This is the other thread (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=93256) where I had copied/pasted my email from HAL explaining the switch and why it occurred...

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=93256 (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=93256)

[peaches from georgia]

Mandygirl- You can go to www.********** and get the present and coming month's schedule. It will tell you all the ships in StT and whether they dock at WICO (Havensight), CB, or tendering. Just click on Cruise Ship Schedules.

[gizmo]

Crown Bay is closer to Red Hook for the ferry to St John, correct? (I've never docked there but have been tendered in before directly into downtown Charlotte Amalie)No, Crown Bay is not closer to Red Hook it is in the opposite direction. I have been there 3 times. People dislike it because there are no shops. On the positive side there is less traffic between Charlotte Amalie and the Crown Bay. I have no problem with a ship docking there.

I think it is better than having to anchor. A couple of years ago the ship anchored and it was horrible. Immigration cleared all the docked ships first. It took forever to get our ship cleared. Immigration would not allow any tenders to leave until the entire ship was cleared. Some pax did not get on shore till close to noon and they were waiting with tender passes since early in the morning. There was a lot of grumbling in the lounges that night. Lots of pax had problems with private excursions since they were hours late getting on shore.

[MandyGirl]

Thanks gizmo - I had just read similar info on another posting. We tendered the last time we were in St Thomas - and a dock is definitely so much better. The only reason we were on the first tender was because we had a morning wedding on St John and the ship staff was good about accommodating us (wouldn't want a bride/groom to miss their wedding - much less their family/friends who were attending!).

Looking at that cruiseship schedule on VINOW it looks like five ships in port on Tuesday (including Zui) or if HAL switched us it will still be five ships in port on Wednesday if moving us. A bonus is that we'll be able to see the QM2 on Tuesday. And... having the long port time on Tuesday means we can actually enjoy St Thomas after the crowds leave - whether it's sunset at Paradise Point tram, on mountain top, shopping some before the shops close, dinner on the waterfront, etc. :) And for us it shall be a drink in Cruz Bay after a long enjoyable day in St John!!

[carabou1]

We have arranged for a rental car in Havensight but we are now unsure what to do.

Does anyone know how far Crown Bay is from Havensight? Are we still on the same side of Downtown or is Crown Bay on the other side?

Thanks for the help.

[MandyGirl]

http://**********/stthomas/getting_around_stt/taxi_stt/taxi_general_areas.php
Looks like a taxi from Crown Bay to town is about $3.50 each.

I'm thinking Crown Bay is west of town and Havensight is east of town? Someone on another thread had said CB was west - and I think from previous visits Havensight is east (towards Paradise Point).

[gizmo]

It is West. Here is a link to a map. http://www.st-thomas.com/week/stt-island-map.html
Click on the map to enlarge it and you will see Sub Base.
It depends on where you click, as to which part of the map enlarges. This might work also.
http://www.st-thomas.com/week/images/island-town.gif

[Esme]

We've docked at Crown Bay a number of times and we have been fine with it. There aren't as many ships docked there - think it only takes 2 at the present time, so it's not as congested. Apparently they are building a shopping centre there like they have at Havensight but I don't know if it is open for business yet or not.

Gizmo - that's a great map.

[MandyGirl]

Thanks gizmo! I hadn't seen that map before!:)

Esme - thanks for your insight. Very nice to know it's not congested (my sailing is currently only showing the Zui at that dock). Our plan is to get to St John ASAP - we contracted the same chef who made our wedding cake to make a replica. This will be our first visit back since our wedding last year, so we are meeting the chef at the dock in Cruz Bay and taking the cake to our wedding beach. ;) Of course this time we're going by dinghy from Cruz Bay to our old wedding beach (that we rented for the day) so we're very excited!

[gizmo]

Thanks Esme, it was not easy to find one with Crown Bay or Sub Base marked on it.

I have also read about plans to build a shopping area like Havensight but haven't heard anything about it in a while.