Tortola - Are they still stopping here?

[skiiergirl]

On Our January cruise on Jewel, someone at the Meet & Mingle asked Dennis the Cruise director why we were not informed by RCCI about the change in our Itinerary, His reply stated they only make the decision on the Day the ship departs San Juan if they will go there or not.............Utter Bollock$!!

They removed Tortola from our Excursion list in August 2014.

 

Don't believe everything the CD tells you:o

 

He also said he didn't think the Pier would be ready until the end of this year as someone had totally underestimated the amount of work involved when they made the original plan.

 

Very disappointing in RCCL communication. A pet peeve of mine in any relationship. And RCCL has benifited from several cruises from us.

 

While I was "prepared" for this modification due to all of the chatter here on CC...I am not very pleased that RC waited until 2 days after final payment date to make the announcement for our sailing. So while we would have done it anyway since we are doing B2B, I know some folks would be very disappointed and might have preferred to change ships/dates, etc.

[tidygirl]

While I was "prepared" for this modification due to all of the chatter here on CC...I am not very pleased that RC waited until 2 days after final payment date to make the announcement for our sailing. So while we would have done it anyway since we are doing B2B, I know some folks would be very disappointed and might have preferred to change ships/dates, etc.

I agree! I thought of the same thing! We had 2 islands that was on our must sees and Tortola and Dominica were the ones!

Hubby and kids aren't too happy I do wish I had known as we may have been looking for alternatives!

[link99]

Add the March 20th Legend OTS to the miss list just changed today to ST Thomas

[skiiergirl]

Add the March 20th Legend OTS to the miss list just changed today to ST Thomas

 

Does the Legend 3/20 sailing have port excursions showing available for booking for Dominica? If so, do you know how recently they posted these? JW 4/25 still does not have any shore ex listed for Dominica.

Edited February 13, 2015 by skiiergirl

[cwbabe48]

Does anyone know what port in St Thomas the Jewell will be docked? I can not find confirmation at either port? A mystery. Thanks

[Clarea]

Does anyone know what port in St Thomas the Jewell will be docked? I can not find confirmation at either port? A mystery. Thanks

Usually Havensight.

[Setting sail for fun]

When I booked the 3/20/2015 cruise it listed Tortolla as the first port. This week it shows St. Thomas.

[Rob&Bonnie]

We are sailing in 15 days - the itinerary changed just this week. Fortunately we've been to St Thomas many times and don't feel the need to book an excursion - the options would be limited for private excursions with this little notice.

 

Our cruise detail lists Charlotte Amalie as the port - not Havensight for the Jewel. None of the cruise ship calendars have the Jewel listed at all - I guess we'll find out when we get there!

[cwbabe48]

My words exactly as yours! Go figure!

[Hoopster95]

Our cruise detail lists Charlotte Amalie as the port - not Havensight for the Jewel. None of the cruise ship calendars have the Jewel listed at all - I guess we'll find out when we get there!

 

The Jewel is always listed in St. Croix

 

EDIT: Wow, things seem to be changing daily.... I just checked the BVI port schedule website. Now most of Jewel's dates are showing Havensite with only a couple throughout the month at St. Croix. On the date I'm there on March 23 yesterday had 3 ships at Havensite so we were assuming on our roll call that we'd pier across the Bay (at Crown Bay), but just now only showing 2 ships at Havensite (NCL Pearl has disappeared off the list). Strange.

Edited February 13, 2015 by Hoopster95

[Hoopster95]

Does the Legend 3/20 sailing have port excursions showing available for booking for Dominica? If so, do you know how recently they posted these? JW 4/25 still does not have any shore ex listed for Dominica.

 

Yes, the March 20th sailing has had Dominica excursions available for quite a long time... can't remember at all what date or exactly how long ago but I ended up arranging a group out of our roll call to book a private tour maybe about 5-6 weeks ago after going through the Dominica list

[skiiergirl]

Yes, the March 20th sailing has had Dominica excursions available for quite a long time... can't remember at all what date or exactly how long ago but I ended up arranging a group out of our roll call to book a private tour maybe about 5-6 weeks ago after going through the Dominica list

 

Thanks.

[tidygirl]

Just received an email from Royal saying our itinerary has been changed for Apr 25th on the Jewell I guess that makes it official :(

[KKMurphy2]

I received the email also. What makes it seem wrong, is that they have known this, but alerted us after final payment. This was the reason I chose this itinerary and I could have changed my cruise! I realize things are not always perfect, but really? This is just wrong to wait until after final payment!!!

[PompeySailor]

Not that this is any good for those missing Tortola, but Royal have known since September 2014 that pier would not be completed until April 2015.

 

We received an email on Sept 19th 2014 informing us of the change of Tortola to St Thomas for a Thanksgiving cruise that year.

 

Will see if I can dig out that exact email

Also will find the official posting regarding the pier construction schedule

[PompeySailor]

Here was the original email back from September, I had quoted 19th, was 2 days before.

 

On Sep 17, 2014, at 10:18 AM, Nicola <rccl.com> wrote:

 

Dear Guests,

We the Global Tour Excursions Team would like to inform you of some changes on your itinerary for the Jewel of the Sea. Due to an itinerary modification the port of Tortola has been cancel and replaced with the port of St. Thomas. Please note that we've processed the cancellation of the original tour and a have issued a refund to your credit card. However, based on your interest in this specific excursion, we'd like to recommend the following alternate tour(s):

As popular tours sell out fast, we encourage you to visit us at http://www.royalcaribbean.com/beforeyouboard/shoreExcursions.do to learn more and book one of the alternate excursions. If you prefer, please call us at (800)398-9819) and we'd be happy to assist you booking your preferred Shore Excursions. If you reside outside of North America, we encourage you to contact our local office or representative in your country. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and look forward to welcoming you onboard soon.

Thank you & Enjoy your Cruise!

[PompeySailor]

This thread from Sept 17th has cruisers on March 2015 and April 2015 having been notified of Tortola being cancelled.

Looks like some people sailing March/April 2015 were notified back in September

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2102764

Edited February 14, 2015 by PompeySailor

[link99]

Does the Legend 3/20 sailing have port excursions showing available for booking for Dominica? If so, do you know how recently they posted these? JW 4/25 still does not have any shore ex listed for Dominica.

 

 

Since May 2015

I booked this way out and have always seen excursions for this island. And just looked today and they show.

 

The funny thing I can't see St. Thomas excursions since the change yesterday,still shows BVI

[LMaxwell]

I sincerely doubt the Tortola pier will be ready in 2015 at all.

[tidygirl]

This thread from Sept 17th has cruisers on March 2015 and April 2015 having been notified of Tortola being cancelled.

Looks like some people sailing March/April 2015 were notified back in September

We booked Sept. 23,2014 Tortola was still on the list it actually seemed like the 1 and only time a ship was going into Tortola then we booked our excursion to the Baths on Dec 16th. So why would they let you even book a tour if they weren't going?

[PompeySailor]

This thread from Sept 17th has cruisers on March 2015 and April 2015 having been notified of Tortola being cancelled.

Looks like some people sailing March/April 2015 were notified back in September

We booked Sept. 23,2014 Tortola was still on the list it actually seemed like the 1 and only time a ship was going into Tortola then we booked our excursion to the Baths on Dec 16th. So why would they let you even book a tour if they weren't going?

 

I can only assume that RC trickled out the "No Tortola" stop and alternative port of call email by order of upcoming sailings.

Having seen on CC, members state they are signed up for emails, and yet never receive emails from RC.

It would not surprise me if an IT glitch, with a bulk auto email to all passengers affected by missing Tortola has skipped some and not even been sent out to others.

 

So it would also not surprise me that people were still able to book excursions

As the system may of not updated all affected itineraries.

 

For us we actually found out Tortola was cancelled by RC, before we saw on CC

That was a 1st:)

 

Can say even though we missed the Baths in Tortola, the Snorkelling at St Johns (Trunk Bay) made up for it.

[tidygirl]

I did tell DH yesterday I was not 100% sure as I hadn't officially heard from RC that Tortola was cancelled but here on CC they were saying that it was so I was atleast 90% positive they were right!

So St John was an option I was considering doing Trunk Bay but did you do a ship excursion or not?

I see someone mentioned Jost Van Dyke which caught my eye but not sure if that would be possible or not?

[PompeySailor]

I did tell DH yesterday I was not 100% sure as I hadn't officially heard from RC that Tortola was cancelled but here on CC they were saying that it was so I was atleast 90% positive they were right!

So St John was an option I was considering doing Trunk Bay but did you do a ship excursion or not?

I see someone mentioned Jost Van Dyke which caught my eye but not sure if that would be possible or not?

 

 

Yes we booked the Trunk Bay Excursion through RC

We were credited the fees for the Gorda Baths, once money received back on Credit Card, we booked Trunk Bay.

 

St Thomas

All inclusive St John Trunk Bay Beach & Snorkel

09:00 AM

Total Cost: $209.25 USD ($69.75pp)

Duration: 4hr(s)

RC booking code: STE8

45 minutes each way from Havensight to St John (Isla Grande ferry)