Has anybody been to Christmas Island?

[marly]

Rita: I heard back from the dive shop on Christmas Island. Apparently there are two Christmas Islands on this planet! I'm going to the other one! LOL! Anyway, the woman who responded to my inquiry was very nice and told me to double check which island we were going to: Indian Ocean or Pacific. I do believe we'll be in the Pacific.

Marly

[Toto2Kansas]

That has always been a problem for us when researching Christmas Island because they are easily confused and a regular search will normally bring up the other island.

The #1 Christmas Island is in the Indian Ocean off Australia.

 

If you do a search under the actual name of the Christmas Island in the Pacific Ocean, you might be able to pull up what you are looking for. Try looking for Kiritimati.

 

Best of Luck!

[Zace]

We were on Christmas Island with the Sky Princess in 1998. We have been on several cruises, but will always remember our visit to Christmas Island. Very senic as seen from offshore, blue waters, swaying palms etc. Had to user tender to go ashore, tenders ran aground, once on shore had to wait for tide to change to return to ship. Island itself appears to be impovishered. People were wonderful, not all the glitter we experienced in other ports. A very laid back atmosphere Take plenty of water. We always remember our visit.

[marly]

Toto: Thanks for that advice. I'll give it a try!

 

Sounds like it's worth taking the tender to the island even if there isn't much to do, but I'm going to keep trying to find something other than souvenir shop. :)

Marly

[Nautical but Nice]

Tahitian Princess is just about at Christmas Island. Due to arrive at Noon local time. Currently about 11:20 am.

 

http://www.kroooz-cams.com/tahitian/tahitian.htm

 

 

http://webcam.princess.com/webcam/tahitian_bridge.jpg

 

Edited to say the photo originally showed land and a small boat coming out to meet the ship and appeared when I typed this, but now that I posted, it only included a link. Apparently, I don't know how to include a photo.

 

 

Christine

[calikak]

This is probably a stpuid question, but for those who have been to Christmas Island, do you need a visa? I looked up Kiribati on the US State Department website, and it says you do need a visa to visit Kiribati, but I thought I'd ask the experts. :)

[arlenemilt]

No Visa. We were there last summer for a few hours. Tendered in; tendered out. Nothing of any interest. See previous post. No tours offered by Princess.

 

Arlene

[luv2travel2beaches]

An earlier post recommended that you take wrapped candy for the children. DH and I went last year to Fanning Island which is very similar to Christmas Island. We were advised to take NOTHING with sugar as they have extremely limited dental care and the sugar will only do damage. Sugar free is fine and also small toys (no battery or electric things for obvious reasons). We took punch balls and the kids loved them.

[sunprincess]

Is Christmas Island where they have the crab migration that occurs???

I remember going there on our Hawaii/Tahiti cruise.

[Toto2Kansas]

Is Christmas Island where they have the crab migration that occurs???

 

Nope, the crap migration happens on the Chirstmas Island off the coast of Australia that is located in the Indian Ocean.

[sunprincess]

Totally confused. Thanks:)

[Toto2Kansas]

There are two Christmas Islands. If you do a search and just put in 'Christmas Isalnd' in your search engine it will normally bring up the location of the largest one in the Indian Ocean. This is the one that has the crab migration.

 

Here is a link to a site that shows the location of the largest island known as Christmas Island off the coast of Australia .http://www.dotrs.gov.au/terr/xmas/

 

And another one for the island located between Hawaii and Tahiti known as Christmas Island. http://www.janeresture.com/christmas_bombs/

 

Hope that clears up the confusion a little bit.

[Times Prince]

Is Christmas Island where they have the crab migration that occurs??? I remember going there on our Hawaii/Tahiti cruise.

When we were there in May 2004 there was a hermit crab migration going on that was FABULOUS !!! I bet most people didn't even see it, but we like to beachcomb and stop and smell the roses or whatever. When we stopped and looked down the beach was moving. Thousands of little hermit crabs less than an inch big, in shells of every shape color and size. Most people didn't go over there because there was a scrap yard next to the beach. Their loss.

Then there were the two groups of singers. One, a group of guys, sounded as good as Ladysmith Black Mambaza who toured with Paul Simon. Just an Awesome experience!

[SydneyMae]

Hi JJones. Thought I'd let you know that the Australian Protectorate Christmas Island is in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Western Australia. The other Christmas Island is part of Kiribati which became independent of the UK in the 1970s. This is my first post on these boards. I have only been lucky enough to go on one cruise so far.:)

[rjscott]

We visited Christmas Island on an NCL Hawaiian islands cruise several yrs ago. I found it to be much like many of the other posters have described; very primitive and tons of trash everywhere, but still an experience not to have missed. We were able to take an outrigger canoe to a smaller island, Capt Cook island, where the snorkeling was wonderful, and the sand was powdery. Very Robinson Crusoe! :) We had our own equipment, and believe the outrigger ride was about $5pp.

NCL too did everything they could to discourage people from tendering over to the island, but, we were determined, having come all this way, to see it. I'll bet only about 1/4 of the passengers got off the ship.

 

Becki

[calikak]

Welcome, SydneyMae!

So, it sounds like nobody needed a visa to visit Christmas Island? Interesting that the US State Department website says we do. I couldn't find anything else about people getting a visa for this port when I did a search, so I wondered if the visa thing was a recent development, or if the State Department website was wrong and you don't really need a visa, or if there's some exception because you're only there for a few hours?

[Cruisin Sal]

It is very hot on the island. Take an umbrella with you. It takes only a minute to get a sun burn. When we were there in 1999 they had male dancers and a wonderful male choir.

[Toto2Kansas]

[quote name='calikak']Welcome, SydneyMae!

So, it sounds like nobody needed a visa to visit Christmas Island? Interesting that the US State Department website says we do. I couldn't find anything else about people getting a visa for this port when I did a search, so I wondered if the visa thing was a recent development, or if the State Department website was wrong and you don't really need a visa, or if there's some exception because you're only there for a few hours?[/QUOTE]

You don't need a visa to visit the Christmas Island in the Pacific, although you may need one for the Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean I would guess.

[calikak]

Toto, we're talking about the Christmas Island that's part of Kiribati, right? The State Department website says you need a visa to go to Kiribati, that's why I was thinking I might need one, since Christmas Island is part of Kiribati. Here's the State Department website in question:

[url="http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/brochures/brochures_1229.html#k"]http://travel.state.gov/travel/tips/brochures/brochures_1229.html#k[/url]

[calikak]

Well, now that I've just gotten back from our Tahiti to Hawaii cruise, I can say for sure that no visa was required to go to Christmas Island, or, if one was required, nobody asked me about it. :) I'm glad we went ashore because now we can say we've seen it, but I wouldn't plan a trip back there. The people singing near the dock were nice but the beach was fairly icky, lots of algae and a bit rocky, at least, the beach we went to. If I were to go back I'd be sure to get on one of the minibus tours offered on the dock, that seemed to be the best choice of activity.

[susancruzs]

I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Christmas Island in 1999 on myTahiti/Hawaii cruise. I thought it was great, the people seem so genuinely glad to see us and no one was pushy trying to sell things. They had things out on blankets to look at but if people didn't stop they didn't pursue them.

I sent postcards home from there, which took some time to arrive but the stamps and postmarks were cool.

The children were polite, inquisitive, the dancers/singers good, too. I just appreciated it as a pleasant change from the usual island stops.

[GottoCruise]

We stopped at Fanning Island on a NCL Hawaii Cruise quite some years ago ...Fanning Island is part of Kiribati....same as Christmas Island .....we didn't need any visas at that time......

It was a delightful stop for us - we snorkelled - (there were some that 'hired' small boats to go further out - but we just waded )
The water was fabulous, warm and CLEAR!
We also walked all around the island - interesting to see just how/where the natives lived - We watched a school full of children as they were being taught (Mission school, I think) - the people were very friendly - I still have the interesting shells I collected. Yes, they had some things laid out on blankets for sale - I didn't pay attention.....we were told that school supllies for the children were most appreciated - NCL suppled some....

I think it's a 'worthy' stop ---AND you get to 'count' another country . [B]KIRABATI[/B]

Christmas Island is on the Sun Princess Repositioning Cruise April 2008 - we are booked & hope to get to stop at Christmas Island .....wonder if it will be much 'different' than Fanning Island.??? :rolleyes:

[calikak]

We didn't find pushy vendors in Tahiti either, so maybe that's why the lack of pushy vendors on Christmas Island didn't stand out to me? And maybe a storm had come through or something, but the waters defintely weren't very clear, lots of algae and one person told us that the beach they went to had a lot of dead fish and birds on it--we didn't see that, though, just lots of algae. I think we would have gotten a lot more out of our stop there if we'd done a minibus tour, so we could have learned a bit more about the island and its culture. That's definitely what I'd recommend for future visitors, rather than going to a beach.

[GottoCruise]

Bumping this to the front page -- Our Sun Princess cruise April 7, 2008 will be stopping at Christmas Island and some were asking questions.....this thread has some good information ----

Read on thru the tread..... SUNSETS !

Renee

[GottoCruise]

Bumping again to keep this thread on the front page for the SUNSETS cruise!