Private Island

Has anyone heard anything concrete or have any thoughts on MSC's Private Island?

 

Its like it fell off the radar..Especially after all the initial fanfare.

At the first announcement of ocean caye- I tossed out 2025 as a completion date and was ridiculed by the MSc lovers. I’m sticking to my original estimation :).

 

 

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It is scheduled to open October 2018!

At the first announcement of ocean caye- I tossed out 2025 as a completion date and was ridiculed by the MSc lovers. I’m sticking to my original estimation :).

 

 

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Oh wow. Well i hope you are wrong on that one. That being said Im not not hazarding any guess at all 😉

It is scheduled to open October 2018!

 

I dont think that is happening if you read the below quote from Talking Cruise magazine

 

..."MSC Cruises’ private island Ocean Cay Marine Reserve in the Bahamas has been mysteriously removed from all open sailings until March 2019"....

We are booked on Seaside for April 2019. I would love to think it would be open for then, but i will not hold my breath.:(

Has anyone heard anything concrete or have any thoughts on MSC's Private Island?

 

Its like it fell off the radar..Especially after all the initial fanfare.

I was just thinking the same thing yesterday ..... Not a peep on it from MSC in a long time. Really silly to come out with this if they couldn't even come close to delivering it on a reasonable date. It'll probably have 20 date delays.

Oh wow. Well i hope you are wrong on that one. That being said Im not not hazarding any guess at all [emoji6]

 

 

I hope I’m wrong too, but I hate to see anyone get their hopes up. I don’t even blame this one on MSc. I’ve closely followed multiple ground up operations in the Caribbean. Each involving multiple delays and ocean caye is a huge undertaking. Heck, it took sandals nearly a decade past projected opening to get the over-water villas open and butch/Adam stewart have a long standing history in Jamaica.

 

The First projected opening of ocean caye was fall 2017 (someone correct me if I’m wrong on that date). April 2019 is a super lofty goal. As long as you book thinking ocean caye would be a lovely bonus you’ll be ok :)

 

 

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......"As long as you book thinking ocean caye would be a lovely bonus you’ll be ok "......

 

Thats excatly what we did.:D We have a slightly unique itinerary on the sailing as they (mostly only in April) do 2 Mexican stops and no Nassau at all. Now if they swap out one of those for the private island then i will be very happy and if they dont no big deal either. Im just happy to miss Nassau for a change. Its all good :cool:

It is scheduled to open October 2018!

 

I dont think that is happening if you read the below quote from Talking Cruise magazine

 

..."MSC Cruises’ private island Ocean Cay Marine Reserve in the Bahamas has been mysteriously removed from all open sailings until March 2019"....

We are booked on Seaside for April 2019. I would love to think it would be open for then, but i will not hold my breath.:(

Saturday November 9, 2019 when the MSC Meraviglia relocates from NYC to Miami is the first tenatively scheduled date at this time.

As Paul Harvey used to say, "And now for the rest of the story." I'm sure most of you saw the photo ops of the beginning of the construction and the promises of completion by certain dates. Well, that certainly was their original intention.

 

However, once work was actually started on the island, they realized they had a serious problem. Much of the sand and soil was completely contaminated with residual chemicals from the previous operations on the islands. Certainly not something they were aware of nor expected when they purchased the island and gave preliminary timelines.

 

So now, looking at probably millions of extra dollars for removal and cleanup of contaminants, things suddenly had no timeline and the safety and security of the guests came first. Someone pointed out it is finally appearing on itineraries nearly two years late. I would much rather that happen than wonder what chemicals I was being exposed to had they not taken the time, money and effort to do it right.

 

Bret

As Paul Harvey used to say, "And now for the rest of the story." I'm sure most of you saw the photo ops of the beginning of the construction and the promises of completion by certain dates. Well, that certainly was their original intention.

 

However, once work was actually started on the island, they realized they had a serious problem. Much of the sand and soil was completely contaminated with residual chemicals from the previous operations on the islands. Certainly not something they were aware of nor expected when they purchased the island and gave preliminary timelines.

 

So now, looking at probably millions of extra dollars for removal and cleanup of contaminants, things suddenly had no timeline and the safety and security of the guests came first. Someone pointed out it is finally appearing on itineraries nearly two years late. I would much rather that happen than wonder what chemicals I was being exposed to had they not taken the time, money and effort to do it right.

 

Bret

 

Thanks Brett thats really interesting and makes total sense on the one hand.

 

Passengers safety and workers too are paramount.

 

The one thing i dont understand though: a multimillion dollar company purchasing and making a multimillion dollar investment - Did they not do their homework and have all that stuff checked out first before they purchased?

 

And if they did and knew about it thus going in with their eyes wide open did their building engineers just underestimate how long a fix this would be to clear the contamination?:confused:

Wow! I’m surprised to read that MSc is admitting the island is contaminated. After the first delay (from the origins 2016 date to 2017) I did a bit of research on ocean caye. This little man made island has had a pretty contentious past dating back to 1970 where this was written...

 

“Although it bears the appealing name Ocean Cay, this new island is not, and never will be, a palm-fringed paradise of the sort the Bahamian government promotes in travel ads. No brace of love doves would ever choose Ocean Cay for a honeymoon; no beauty in a brief bikini would waste her sweetness on such desert air.

 

Of all the 3,000 islands and islets and cays in the Bahamas, Ocean Cay is the least lovely. It is a flat, roughly rectangular island which, when completed, will be 200 acres and will resemble a barren swatch of the Sahara. Ocean Cay does not need allure. It is being dredged up from the seabed by the Dillingham Corporation of Hawaii for an explicit purpose that will surely repel more tourists than it will attract.....”

 

Anyone interested in reading about the history of ocean caye can start by simply googling “ocean caye aragonite mining”. There are endless pages about the transition of the island right up until MSc purchased it.

 

However; regardless of the Islands torrid history, or current contamination, there is absolutely nothing MSc could tell it’s agents that would make me believe ocean caye ever had a snowballs chance of opening in 2016! And, if MSc is telling their agents that the reason for the delay is solely contamination I call BS on that too. Things simply don’t work that fast in the islands. I’ll gladly eat these words if ocean caye does open in after its third delay (2019), but I’m holding firm.

 

Of course, I have no “proof” that ocean caye won’t open after its third delay, but history is not in its favor and my motivation is simply to prepare travelers for the possibility of further delay. If it opens on time- no harm no foul.

 

Btw- for those interested in following the progress at Ocean Caye, google Earth has reasonably frequent updates. The coordinates to look up ocean caye are

25°25'01.2"N 79°13'01.2"W

 

I mean no

Personal disrespect, and

hope to just agree to disagree.

 

 

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