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What are things like on these islands


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We are cruising on Veendam in three weeks.

Has anyone visited any of our islands recently?

What are things like there?

Is it still possible to enjoy our days ashore?

 

We are coming a long way to take this cruise and hope we can still enjoy our ports of call (all but one of which I have visited before - some many times)

 

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

St Thomas, USVI

Basseterre, St Kitts

Castries, St Lucia

Bridgetown, Barbados

Saint Georges, Grenada

Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe

St John's, Antigua

San Juan, Puerto Rico

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Hi, Carol. Happy to provide a rundown, and for those that are constantly being updated, check out our Caribbean hub: https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/2017-caribbean-open/

 

Anyway, here's what we know at this point:

 

*St Kitts, St. Lucia, Barbados, Grenada, Guadeloupe and Antigua were either not affected by any of the hurricanes or whatever effects have been fixed, so it should be the usual experience.

 

*Ships began calling at St. Thomas, USVI, in earnest this week. One of editors is visiting today and will write a report; in the meantime, here's a news story that launched this week: https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=8207.

 

*Puerto Rico's San Juan reopens to some cruise ships in late November; others are waiting until January to return. We'll keep you posted on what it's like once ships are back.

 

Anyone have additional insights for Carol? Please share 'em.

 

Carolyn

 

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Chief Content Strategist

Cruise Critic

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Any news about when the National Parks Service visitor centers in San Juan, Puerto Rico and St. Thomas, USVI will reopen? Our family loves visiting our national parks, collecting NPS passport stamps and having the kids participate in each Park's Junior Ranger program. We are on the 12/2 RCI Anthem sailing and are crossing our fingers that will be an option at one or both of those ports.

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Hi, Carol. Happy to provide a rundown, and for those that are constantly being updated, check out our Caribbean hub: https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/2017-caribbean-open/

 

Anyway, here's what we know at this point:

 

*St Kitts, St. Lucia, Barbados, Grenada, Guadeloupe and Antigua were either not affected by any of the hurricanes or whatever effects have been fixed, so it should be the usual experience.

 

*Ships began calling at St. Thomas, USVI, in earnest this week. One of editors is visiting today and will write a report; in the meantime, here's a news story that launched this week: https://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=8207.

 

*Puerto Rico's San Juan reopens to some cruise ships in late November; others are waiting until January to return. We'll keep you posted on what it's like once ships are back.

 

Anyone have additional insights for Carol? Please share 'em.

 

Carolyn

 

Carolyn Spencer Brown

Chief Content Strategist

Cruise Critic

 

Thank you for your update.

 

It looks like things will probably be ok although I still have my doubts about Puerto Rico.

 

I was sad to lose St Martin from our itinerary as I was planning to sprinkle my husbands ashes and plant a plant in his memory at his favourite restaurant (Kakao Beach at Orient Bay).

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Any news about when the National Parks Service visitor centers in San Juan, Puerto Rico and St. Thomas, USVI will reopen? Our family loves visiting our national parks, collecting NPS passport stamps and having the kids participate in each Park's Junior Ranger program. We are on the 12/2 RCI Anthem sailing and are crossing our fingers that will be an option at one or both of those ports.

 

I just saw this on the facebook national parks

 

Hawksnest Beach and Honeymoon Beach are officially open! Vault toilets or port-o-potties are in place. A huge amount of debris was removed from the beaches themselves and park divers removed submerged debris from the swim areas. Even so, continue to be cautious when swimming anywhere in park waters. As you well know, a lot of "stuff" ended up blowing into the water around here!

 

Trunk Bay is not open

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We are cruising on Veendam in three weeks.

Has anyone visited any of our islands recently?

What are things like there?

Is it still possible to enjoy our days ashore?

 

We are coming a long way to take this cruise and hope we can still enjoy our ports of call (all but one of which I have visited before - some many times)

 

Half Moon Cay, Bahamas

St Thomas, USVI

Basseterre, St Kitts

Castries, St Lucia

Bridgetown, Barbados

Saint Georges, Grenada

Pointe-a-Pitre, Guadeloupe

St John's, Antigua

San Juan, Puerto Rico

 

We returned 2 weeks ago and went to all of these islands except Bahama. As CC said, most of these islands were not greatly affected by the hurricanes but some have taken in residents of the devastated islands. PR and St. Thomas have the worst conditions but it did not affect our visits there. I would not count on eating at a restaurant or stay on either of those islands, although things change daily. Don't worry and don't second guess your decision to go. Just GO.

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Any news about when the National Parks Service visitor centers in San Juan, Puerto Rico and St. Thomas, USVI will reopen? Our family loves visiting our national parks, collecting NPS passport stamps and having the kids participate in each Park's Junior Ranger program. We are on the 12/2 RCI Anthem sailing and are crossing our fingers that will be an option at one or both of those ports.

 

We too love to collect the Park stamps in our book. As of last weekend the parks offices were closed. You could still get out and walk around, have a picnic etc but no access to the museums etc. We were able to drive by a couple of them on our way to Bacardi and then back to the airport last weekend

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