Docking in St. Maarten at 9:00 AM. Will I be able to make a Catamaran excursion starting at 10:00 .

[hrmkr]

Trying to see if we will be able to make a catamaran excursion with Eagle Tours at 10:00 AM.  They said it is about a 15 minute walk from the port to where we will check in and get on the tour.

 

Thank you for your advice.

[annmarz]

Possibly.  I personally would be too stressed - cutting it too close.

[GeezerCouple]

2 hours ago, hrmkr said:

Trying to see if we will be able to make a catamaran excursion with Eagle Tours at 10:00 AM.  They said it is about a 15 minute walk from the port to where we will check in and get on the tour.

 

Thank you for your advice.

 

Why don't you ask the tour operator about this?

They have a lot of experience about how often ships arrive on time and passengers get to their tours, etc.

They may suggest it's not worth it, or perhaps something like that the ship almost always arrives much earlier, etc.

Also, perhaps there are others on your ship and they could arrange to pick you all up.

And if you book the tour, find out in advance what their refund policy is if the ship is too late for you to make their tour.

 

GC

[Homosassa]

Also be very careful about how close to all on board time the excursion returns. 

 

The port has a narrow two lane road that leads in and out of the port that is backed up with traffic when all the cruise ships in port dump their passengers ashore.

 

The walkway from the port area to town is also congested and can be slow due to all the people  plodding along.

 

The fifteen minute walk will be quicker than attempting to grab a taxi.

 

 

[sanger727]

IF you dock on time you should be ok. The one time we did something like this with a quick pickup in a marina a short walk from the port, we were an hour late to start disembarking. Def check what the cancellation policy is with the company. Make sure you would get a refund or are ok with losing any deposit paid if the ship misses port or is late. 

[Oceansaway17]

This is why I book excursions only through the ship.  I do not think the difference in money warrants having to worry about time of arrival.   

[GeezerCouple]

1 hour ago, Oceansaway17 said:

This is why I book excursions only through the ship.  I do not think the difference in money warrants having to worry about time of arrival.   

 

 

It's not necessarily a matter of cost.

We tend to book private excursions (and often invite others from Roll Call) that are not available through NCL, or we prefer to have something changed (such as extra time "here", and no time "there"...), or just have a smaller group.

 

We've never had a problem with missing a ship, or missing an excursion.  Also, when they are private, it's easy to make sure they'll wait just in case the ship is late, etc.

 

GC

[DCGuy64]

I agree with those who've said to contact the tour operator. We've done excursions in SXM twice, both times with the same company. They were very understanding and waited for us to begin the tour since they knew we were on a ship and not already in Sint Maarten. Ask the tour operator, and good luck. Have a good time, too! Sounds fun. 🙂

[Oceansaway17]

8 hours ago, GeezerCouple said:

 

 

It's not necessarily a matter of cost.

We tend to book private excursions (and often invite others from Roll Call) that are not available through NCL, or we prefer to have something changed (such as extra time "here", and no time "there"...), or just have a smaller group.

 

We've never had a problem with missing a ship, or missing an excursion.  Also, when they are private, it's easy to make sure they'll wait just in case the ship is late, etc.

 

GC

yea but the OP is stressing just a bit and if they had a ship excursion, then they would not be.

[NauticalOtter]

On 8/11/2022 at 9:31 PM, annmarz said:

Possibly.  I personally would be too stressed - cutting it too close.

I’ve learned to just add 30 minutes to the posted port time as a base.  Rarely have I seen the gangway opened sooner than that, usually later (especially post covid).

 

I personally wouldn’t book something that tight (though truth be told I don’t often do excursions in the Caribbean anyway, too hot for me 😂). Maybe someday I’ll book my dream Alaska cruise and be inspired to leave the ship for more than a lap around the port.

[YVRteacher]

I missed a shore excursion in Puerto Vallarta in March because NCL’s facial recognition software is soooooo slow and they seemed to be inexperienced with it at the time. It took 1.5 hours to get off the ship (and this is with priority disembarkation!)