Jump to content

Dominica still a port! Why?


Scubaqn
 Share

Recommended Posts

So our itinerary to Dominica still hasn't been changed.....sailing in less than 60 days. WTH Windstar?

From the internet dated today:

2) Hurricane Maria killed 27 people in Dominica — where even the prime minister was left homeless: An island to the east of Puerto Rico, Dominica was also shredded by Maria. Its prime minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, said there’s not a single street that wasn’t damaged by the storm, according to the BBC, and 27 of Dominica’s 73,000 inhabitants were declared dead as a result of the storm, with dozens more missing.

https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/9/26/16367410/hurricane-maria-2017-puerto-rico-caribbean-barbuda-dominica-virgin-islands-cuba-st-martin

Sounds like a place I want to go from 8:00 am to 10:00 PM!

Really?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At least your cruise already received a revised itinerary. Our Star Pride sailing out of San Juan on Nov 25th has not received any changes in itinerary at all. We're still supposedly sailing to St. Maarten, St. Barts, Jost Van Dyke, and Virgin Gorda. All destroyed by Irma. Vieques as well, which was equally destroyed by Maria. When I called up Windstar, I was told they plan to sail this itinerary until they decide otherwise. No timeline given.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's more than likely driven by the following: based upon your departure date you're now less than 60 days out....

* 20-90 days before commencing travel – 15% of gross fare (deposit);

* 89-60 days before commencing travel – 35% of gross fare;

* 59-30 days before commencing travel – 50% of gross fare;

* 29-0 days before commencing travel – 100% of gross fare.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We are on the Star Breeze for 28 days - 14 of them around the Caribbean. We got the change after Irma, but haven't heard anything since Maria went through. We also wonder about Dominica, they scheduled us for two stops there (one time in each of the 7 day cruises that we combined). We are assuming they are still trying to work things out, but we are trying to schedule dives on some of the islands, and I don't want to finalize anything until we know where we are going.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's more than likely driven by the following: based upon your departure date you're now less than 60 days out....

* 20-90 days before commencing travel – 15% of gross fare (deposit);

* 89-60 days before commencing travel – 35% of gross fare;

* 59-30 days before commencing travel – 50% of gross fare;

* 29-0 days before commencing travel – 100% of gross fare.

My thought as well. Many seem to choose Windstar because of the unique itinerary, but whatever changes they make will most likely make the itinerary much more pedestrian. Stalling as long as possible will prevent cancellations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's more than likely driven by the following: based upon your departure date you're now less than 60 days out....

* 20-90 days before commencing travel – 15% of gross fare (deposit);

* 89-60 days before commencing travel – 35% of gross fare;

* 59-30 days before commencing travel – 50% of gross fare;

* 29-0 days before commencing travel – 100% of gross fare.

 

My thought as well. Many seem to choose Windstar because of the unique itinerary, but whatever changes they make will most likely make the itinerary much more pedestrian. Stalling as long as possible will prevent cancellations.

 

I'll give a slightly less cynical scenario. We dealt with WS after the Pride had the little oopsie a couple years ago. Clearly, they were totally overwhelmed by just that one event. And that's being polite, no one know who was on first. Now, we have multiple hurricanes affecting multiple ports on multiple itineraries and the region itself is still sorting out what the situation is. I'm sure WS is beyond overwhelmed and are working on the earlier itineraries first. They just don't seem to have the capacity to deal with this sort of event.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Scuba diving is likely to have been affected by the storms as well. Hurricanes can destroy reefs and flatten ship wrecks. I would only dive at those islands that were not hit by the storms.

 

I understand that, but if the island's dive shops are doing trips, it is a way of putting some $$ into the local recovery.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

I just came back from a dive vacation in Grenada. Which was pretty far south from the hurricanes that blew through. Visibility was bad at its best and well not so pretty good for the whole time diving. about 10' both horizontal and vertical on the good days, we had to stay tight in groups to keep from being separated and let me tell you with divers that do not know how to keep buoyancy stable I had my mask kicked off a number of times even hanging back as far as I could. Having said that not sure how the diving will be in the reefs and seas that had the hurricanes move right on top of them. This will depend on how the particulate settles back to the sea floor and if the sun is out and not behind clouds. I wish you the best in your scuba diving. As always "a bad day underwater is better than a good day in the sunshine"

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just came back from a dive vacation in Grenada. Which was pretty far south from the hurricanes that blew through. Visibility was bad at its best and well not so pretty good for the whole time diving. about 10' both horizontal and vertical on the good days, we had to stay tight in groups to keep from being separated and let me tell you with divers that do not know how to keep buoyancy stable I had my mask kicked off a number of times even hanging back as far as I could. Having said that not sure how the diving will be in the reefs and seas that had the hurricanes move right on top of them. This will depend on how the particulate settles back to the sea floor and if the sun is out and not behind clouds. I wish you the best in your scuba diving. As always "a bad day underwater is better than a good day in the sunshine"

 

Thank you so much for that information. I have been exchanging emails with various dive shops and have heard the same thing from a lot of them. We may still do a couple of dives while on this trip, but probably won't plan on dives at every port like we would usually do. We still have nearly a month, so maybe things will look up. Any dive spots we should try to hit in Grenada? We are there twice - once on each of the 7 day cruises. We have the same feeling about diving!! We also have one rule - We dive where the water is warm and the drinks are cold, not the opposite!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The wreck of the Bianca C is pretty nice dive at about 100', the sculpture park is more hype than it should be although there are some great sea creatures living on them. Shark reef was a pleasant dive in the Atlantic side of Grenada. Hopefully by the time you get back to Grenada the water will have cleared out also and the diving will have returned back to Wow. I do have to admit the reefs were in great shape and the colors when i used my light on them were fantastic. Water was pretty warm 86 at the surface and 85 at 70' only needed a 3mm shorty

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got email tonight that Dominica is not a port. It has been replaced by Martinique. Windstar cruises has done a good job or rescheduling cruises. Other cruise lines still have islands that were affected by the recent hurricanes. Kudos to Windstar for their effort to alter routes.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We are thrilled with the itinerary and what a yeomsn’s job to do that so quickly, under duress and stress. I think the new itinerary is culturally interesting as well as places with great activities and beaches. WS has kept the ports small for the most part. As much as we adore the BVIs we are really looking forward to our two weeks of bliss in January. Happy Sailing

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...