AHH! 5 cruise ships at 1 port?!

[aczi16]

I will be on the Caribbean Princess departing Oct. 29th. We will dock at St. Thomas on Nov. 2 along with 4 other cruise ships! This is going to be complete maddness! :eek:

 

RCCL Allure of the Seas

RCCL Jewel of the Seas

HAL Eurodam

Norwegian Epic

Caribbean Princess (my cruise ship)

 

Just letting everyone know be careful of the traffic especially on the main beaches of St. Thomas and the Red Hook ferry to St. John. Make sure you get a ferry back to St. Thomas at least 3 hours before your ship leaves. I for 1 will be taking a ferry from Red Hook to St. John, and going to a more secluded beach, other than the most likely over crowded famous Trunk Bay. Good luck all!

[oceanbums]

Wow, that's a lot of people in port; when we were there in 08 there were 3 ships docked and I thought that was busy. That's one good thing about the Mexican Riviera-don't have to worry about an overload of cruise ships.

[clockwork58]

I will be on the Allure during that time.

 

I'll be applying crazy glue to the doors to all the other ships in the morning.

 

My wife will have to fight extra hard for shopping deals that day.

[aczi16]

oceanbums- I saw a thread about 7 ships in St. Thomas at once! I feel bad for those thousands of people, but it also makes me feel relieved that 5 ships isn't the largest swarm at one port. True about the mexican riveria, but I love my eastern/southern caribbean.

 

good luck clockwork! and uh-oh i better get out of the Caribbean Princess before you do!:eek: I bet she will. Since there will be so many people shopping the sellers may increase their prices or be very strict with their pricing..

[clockwork58]

good luck clockwork! and uh-oh i better get out of the Caribbean Princess before you do!:eek: I bet she will. Since there will be so many people shopping the sellers may increase their prices or be very strict with their pricing..

 

I don't think they'll increase their prices, but say you want a watch. if the norm for the brand you want is 15% cheaper than US retail, I can see them doing the stupid discount with the calculator and prob not budge on the price they give you.

 

But last yr we struck a good deal at a store in St. Maarten with 2 other ships docked and it was close to the time of getting back onto the ship. lol.

 

so you never know.

[aczi16]

I don't think they'll increase their prices, but say you want a watch. if the norm for the brand you want is 15% cheaper than US retail, I can see them doing the stupid discount with the calculator and prob not budge on the price they give you.

 

But last yr we struck a good deal at a store in St. Maarten with 2 other ships docked and it was close to the time of getting back onto the ship. lol.

 

so you never know.

That makes a lot of sense. I see that happens sometimes in my local Price Chopper, but instead all they do is move the items up to the front of the store and/or say 2 for $1 when the original price for 1 item alone is 50 cents...

Congrats! I love finding good deals at the end of the day. It makes you feel like all the work you put into bargaining finally paid off.

 

 

Back to the subject...

My schedule for the day will be to get off the boat at around 9:00am or 10:00am. Catch a 20-30 minute taxi ride for about $20 roundtrip to Red Hook. Wait for a ferry ($15 rt) (15 min. ferry ride 1 way) and head over to Cruz Bay. From the boat to St. John will be about 1 hour. Leave 2-3 hour cushin from leaving the beach to your debarktation time. Also, cell phones work in USVI since it is a US territory. Be careful, as you may pick up a signal from a neighboring island tower, which may cost you roaming fees. When you get home, I'm sure you can just straighten it out with your phone company. *Verizon charges roaming fees for USVI.* Not sure why Verizon doesn't consider the Virgin Islands part of the US...Make sure you have the local taxi numbers and cruise ship information/numbers.

[chesquinn]

It could be worse Jan 4th 2012 8 ships total guests 24,380

[Jacob's Mom]

How do you check how many ships will be in port with you?

[WriterOnDeck]

I've seen 12 in Cozumel....

[chesquinn]

Ships in Port

http://www.cruisett.com/

[iratherbesailing]

It could be worse Jan 4th 2012 8 ships total guests 24,380

 

That many ships in port is ridiculous. There is less than 4,000 the following day. Won't be a fun day for anybody except the vendors.

[aczi16]

I agree. The number of people at one place at a time, especially with limited space is going to be maddness.

12 cruises?!?! Oh my....

[lovetocruise2020]

I will be on the Caribbean Princess departing Oct. 29th. We will dock at St. Thomas on Nov. 2 along with 4 other cruise ships! This is going to be complete maddness! :eek:

 

RCCL Allure of the Seas

RCCL Jewel of the Seas

HAL Eurodam

Norwegian Epic

Caribbean Princess (my cruise ship)

 

Just letting everyone know be careful of the traffic especially on the main beaches of St. Thomas and the Red Hook ferry to St. John. Make sure you get a ferry back to St. Thomas at least 3 hours before your ship leaves. I for 1 will be taking a ferry from Red Hook to St. John, and going to a more secluded beach, other than the most likely over crowded famous Trunk Bay. Good luck all!

 

The Eurodam Docks in Crown Bay, not in Charlotte Amalie-

Pretty far from Charlotte Amalie in fact.

[Ms411]

Most of the ports getting the big ships have more than one dock, so the traffic isn't congested into one area. The beaches on the western side of STT are now getting more cruise passengers, and the taxi drivers have modified their tours that originate on that side of the island so as to avoid traffic.

[WarmWaters]

We were in St Thomas on a day when there was at least 6 ships in port and I also read the warnings on here of complete madness and congested streets and were worried.

 

Once there I didnt see huge crowds or very congested streets at all. We went to Sapphire beach for the afternoon and was worried about the traffic coming back and allowed enough time and yet all was fine. We had tons of time on the way back to stop at the flea market and browse and then leasurely made our way back to Crown Bay.

 

Dont be alarmed by what people say on here.. its not that bad !

[Pennhoo]

Dont be alarmed by what people say on here.. its not that bad !

 

We'll be in St. Thomas on the Epic on Nov 23... with 6 other friendly ships... and a total of 20680 passengers!! :eek:

 

I hope you are right about "it's not that bad!" ;)

[retiredtogolf]

We were in St. Thomas in April on the Equinox with 5 other ships(one tendered and two were docked in another area). We were docked downtown and it wasn't too crowded. Only a little slow on the bus back to the ship, but it was our driver that was the problem. You should be fine....

[sail7seas]

I will be on the Caribbean Princess departing Oct. 29th. We will dock at St. Thomas on Nov. 2 along with 4 other cruise ships! This is going to be complete maddness! :eek:

 

RCCL Allure of the Seas

RCCL Jewel of the Seas

HAL Eurodam

Norwegian Epic

Caribbean Princess (my cruise ship)

 

Just letting everyone know be careful of the traffic especially on the main beaches of St. Thomas and the Red Hook ferry to St. John. Make sure you get a ferry back to St. Thomas at least 3 hours before your ship leaves. I for 1 will be taking a ferry from Red Hook to St. John, and going to a more secluded beach, other than the most likely over crowded famous Trunk Bay. Good luck all!

 

 

 

We've been in St. Thomas with more ships than that. That is not complete madness for this port. They handle it. Yes, that's a lot of people and allure is an 'invasion' rather than a port call but you'll be okay.

 

What is interesting about the list of ships is where they will dock.

Princess and HAL almost always dock at Crown Bay but if Allure is in, she will take up a big space.

 

One ship may tender from inner harbor........ JUST pure speculation on my part but about 4 years ago, we were on Noordam when St. Thomas was packed and we tendered. It actually worked out well and seeing the tender dropped us downtown, was not as inconvenient as it first sounded when we learned we were tendering.

[sail7seas]

We were in St. Thomas in April on the Equinox with 5 other ships(one tendered and two were docked in another area). We were docked downtown and it wasn't too crowded. Only a little slow on the bus back to the ship, but it was our driver that was the problem. You should be fine....

 

You were docked downtown? :confused: What ship could dock downtown?

But then you mention a bus back to the ship? Or do you mean the tender docked downtown? :confused:

 

Sorry but I must be 'dense' this morning and am not understanding.

[m steve]

unless they send the Princess ship to Havensite as we have experienced in the past. Now problem with the numbers as the island is used to handling thousands every day. Charlotte Amalie is the main town and the docks are on either side and not in the center. Open cabs will move you to wherever you want to go and there is shopping at each dock. With the 2 dock areas I don't expect any tendering will be needed.

[bbbradk]

We are in port Sept 23 on the Carnival Miracle.

We are the only ship in port