Cunard: Update on ports affected by Hurricane Irma.

Cunard is cutting fares on the 12-night QM2 November Caribbean trip.

BZ is $1659, BB is $3299.

P1 is $3999

Q7 is $5199.

From the damage I have seen posted, I suspect there will be even lower offers soon. Or cancellations.......A huge problem they share with Houston and Florida is that all sorts of competent technicians/tradesmen are fully booked. The lack of capable help, not to mention supplies, is holding back recovery in the hard hit areas. I feel very badly for them especially since we went through many situations very similar in 35 years living in Florida. They will be back and in some cases even better but look up the NASA satellite pictures of the BVI. There is no green showing anywhere on the islands. Stripped bare. It will take some time for the vegetation to come back too. One of my fave places, the Soggy Dollar Bar on Jost van Dyke is a wreck. I know they will be back, just not in the very near future.

I would think anyone having booked a cruise to the caribbean before the event would be offered the chance to cancel with a full refund.

I would also like to think that if they were to change more than one or two ports they would offer something to those who had booked.

Not a good situation either way.

It would be nice, but I think that if you're within the cruise line penalty period, they have the right to change itineraries. If you aren't yet there, just cancel. We're on the Silhouette on November 26, and I fully expect to be "treated" to some unplanned ports like Costa Maya and Falmouth.

I know the cruise lines are at present still evaluating the situation but I read in a newspaper that someone was trying to cancel a Christmas cruise and they were told they would lose a large percentage of the fare, "Come ON", by Christmas the place might look like a hurricane hadn't even hit as communities can build very quickly.

So I was just saying that if the cruise lines do resume their services to the islands then do something for the communities especially at Christmas, take something for the children, they will love it. You will find it will be one of the best cruisers you have done.

I've visited some Caribbean islands recently where hurricane damage that occurred in 2008 hasn't been repaired yet.

I've visited some Caribbean islands recently where hurricane damage that occurred in 2008 hasn't been repaired yet.

Yes I found the same in 2015, we also had a great Caribbean trip as most of those islands worked around the previous damage still needing repair, I guess that will always be the case to a degree with less affluent economies sitting within hurricane regions but the lovely islanders worked hard to ensure it did not impact greatly on tourists. This time apart from the re building and replanting I wonder how long it will take badly effected islands to green up again, I hope not long for their sake. Meanwhile we are just greatly looking forward to life on board, some warm weather and hopefully seeing dolphins and flying fish again during our QM2 November Caribbean trip and whatever ports we visit will be just fine with us.

Cunard have updated their website, still no detail on port changes

http://www.cunard.co.uk/caribbeanupdate/

The most significant takeaway from the latest update is that they intend to inform passengers of necessary itinerary changes by the end of next week.

(To me this suggests that the islands most affected will be passed over, but that's just my guess.)

We are on the QV in Nov. Cunard have said that the new itineries will be out next week. I think they will only change St Maarten possibly for Guadaloupe. Other islands seem ok . We did the cruise 2 years ago and it's fantastic. Hope the islands recover .

http://sxmheadlinenews.com/cruise-ports-st-maarten/

Cruise Ports in St. Thomas and St. Maarten Could Open Sooner Than Expected

Officials in both St. Thomas and St. Maarten have given timetables for their cruise ports to reopen much sooner than expected after damage caused by Hurricane Irma.

Gene Sloan at USA Today is reporting that cruise ships may possibly return to St. Thomas and St. Croix as early as October 15, 2017. Local business leaders in St. Thomas have stated that The Havensight area as well as Main Street are ready for cruise ships to return. The cruise pier itself was not damaged by the hurricanes.

The Daily Herald in St. Maarten reported that the first cruise ship to return to the island is expected to be on November 11, 2017. While the island reported widespread damage following Hurricane Irma, port officials said that 62% of water based tours and 80% of land based tours are currently operational.

Just had an email from Cunard. For the November QV Caribbean voyage St Maarten is replaced with Martinique. The order of other ports is slightly changed with St Kitts first and then Martinique.

Just looked at Cunard website and they are now advertising Nov 19th 2017 (26 day roundtrip) without St Thomas and St Martin. Instead we will go to Amber Cove and St Lucia. Has anyone been to Amber Cove, as I have not been before?

Jennie

Just looked at Cunard website and they are now advertising Nov 19th 2017 (26 day roundtrip) without St Thomas and St Martin. Instead we will go to Amber Cove and St Lucia. Has anyone been to Amber Cove, as I have not been before?

 

 

Jennie

Amber Cove is ok. Not much to do really as it's more of a purpose built resort destination with pools, bars etc. The resort itself is ok if you like swimming and lazing about in the sun. There are a couple of water slides and a nice large pool, mostly dominated by crew members when we were there.

A trip into the nearby city of Puerto Plata is worth it. A nice place to look around for an hour or two, but not for any longer. You can't walk there, despite what any information on the ship says, but the local taxis are cheap, more so if you share. We did go there only a week or two after it opened so it's possible things have changed slightly, but that's it in a nutshell. I'd certainly take it over St Martin, but we aren't shoppers.

Stopped of at Amber Cove on a 2015 QM2 Caribbean cruise. If your not on a tour you can walk off the ship straight to a very conservative resort where there is a water park and a lovely purpose built high point you can walk up to. Here you can stop, admire the scenic views and have cocktails at the shady bar while looking out over the bay where the QM2 is moored (which makes for great photos). There are duty free shops, a restaurant and bar, a large park area (with seats and hammocks which we liked) and water bungalows you can hire for the day. You can also return to the ship easily as the resort is so close to the moorings. We also prefer Amber Cove for St Maarten and will regard it as a fun start to our new itinerary. Well done Cunard.

I'm surprised that QM2 will only take two sea days to arrive at Amber Cove from New York, given how much they've reduced her cruising speed over the years. Does anyone know whether the ship will arrive early, like 8 AM, or closer to noon?

I'm surprised that QM2 will only take two sea days to arrive at Amber Cove from New York, given how much they've reduced her cruising speed over the years. Does anyone know whether the ship will arrive early, like 8 AM, or closer to noon?

This Amber Cove port schedule is showing QM2 in port from 9:00 to 17:00 on November 29, 2017.

http://www.ambercove.com/Port-Schedule.aspx

Regards,

John

Thanks for info on Amber Cove, sounds a bit like Grand Turk. Lets hope for good weather.

Jennie xx

Just looked at Cunard website and they are now advertising Nov 19th 2017 (26 day roundtrip) without St Thomas and St Martin. Instead we will go to Amber Cove and St Lucia. Has anyone been to Amber Cove, as I have not been before?

 

 

Jennie

I had email notification confirming the itinerary changes today.

I have been to St Thomas and St Maarten before so the changes are OK for me, although disappointed that we will miss our Americas Cup Yacht trip at St Maartens. Hopefully the relatively unaffected Caribbean islands will help the islands who are missing out on the cancelled tourist revenue.

I hadn't heard of Amber Cove before today but it looks like a fun and relaxing place to start in the Caribbean and I haven't been to St Lucia before so another island to tick off. Also now having 1 stop, then a day at sea, then 4 stops to me is preferable to 5 day stops in a row.

I got an email today about the Christmas QM2 cruise, but it was just a "countdown" email. The email suggested I could browse excursions but they haven't been loaded yet. No other update on the itinerary so far.

On the QV this November, but to date, no notification of change by email or otherwise. On the Cunard Facebook, the new advisory of today re change of ports , both QM2 and QV, appears to have the ships itineraries muddled!

On the QV this November, but to date, no notification of change by email or otherwise. On the Cunard Facebook, the new advisory of today re change of ports , both QM2 and QV, appears to have the ships itineraries muddled!

Cunard's "Update on ports affected by Hurricanes Irma and Maria" page seems to have the QM2 and QV itineraries muddled as well for their November voyages to the Caribbean. I won't copy what that page is saying here so as to avoid any further confusion. At least the itineraries for the voyages themselves seem to have been updated correctly when one retrieves those specific voyages on Cunard's web site.

Regards,

John

Looks like Cunard spotted the mistake with the muddled itineraries. Cunard's facebook page and their "Update on ports affected by Hurricanes Irma and Maria" page have now been corrected to read as follows which I believe is the correct information.

"Queen Victoria (V727) will now call at Fort de France, Martinique as St Maarten is still recovering and Queen Mary 2 (M744) will replace calls at St Thomas and Philipsburg, St Maarten with Amber Cove, Dominican Republic and Castries, St Lucia."

Regards,

John

The excursions for M801 (QM2 Caribbean Christmas, 22 Dec 2017) went on sale within the last few days. Based on those excursions, they're still planning to sail the originally planned itinerary, including both St. Thoma and St. Maarten.