8/9 cruise St. Thomas schedule warning

[andybear]

Just checked the cruise-ship schedule, and the Magic is scheduled to be at anchor, NOT at Havensight dock on wednesday the 13th. For those of you scheduling your own shore activities, this will make a difference, as you will have to be tendered ashore into Charlotte Amalie - this is a much slower process. We are going scuba diving, and the dive operator now has to e-mail me as to where we will meet.

Steve

 

[Favorite Auntie]

We tendered in January at St Thomas. I had signed up for an excursion to St John, and they picked us up right at the ship, thank goodness!! The tendering process was a nightmare! When we were there the tenders brought you right to downtown Charlotte Amalie, not Havensight. We had to take a tender back, and waited in line for over an hour! We heard all sorts of horrible stories about people trying to get off the ship too.

 

[jrabbit]

Why are they tendering at St. Thomas? Is it all of the time or just on selected cruises?

 

[musicgirl]

How did you find out that they would not be docked at Havensight?

 

[Favorite Auntie]

They only have to tender at St Thomas a couple of times a year. According to the Cpt on my cruise, it depends on which ships are scheduled to be in that port that day. I guess some ships/lines have "seniority" and Disney can get bumped....

 

[andybear]

There are several sites where you can check the cruise ship schedules for various ports...........over the years I've used them to avoid crowds when in the islands, but they also tell you where a ship is scheduled to dock. These are subject to change, but I checked 3 different ones and all had the Magic at anchor in the Charlotte Amalie harbor.

 

[Dana D]

I actually prefer anchoring. I am a shopper and I like that we are tendered right to the main shopping area! Our past cruises when we were tendered we didn't have any problems. Enjoy!

 

[dbond]

Just know that if you rent a car at St. Thomas, the car rental place is close to the Havensight dock, it's about a 2 mile hike around the port from where the tender comes ashore. Get a cab! DH thought it was just around the corner like they described to him on the phone when we made our reservations from home. He didn't realize what the problem was until he had jogged the whole way thinking it was just up ahead and we were beside ourselves with worry about it taking so long. We didn't have any problems getting to and from the ship on the tenders, they were frequent. It's just nice to know before you get there what your situation will be since the locations you come ashore are so far apart.