Docking or Tendering in St. Maarten?

[rickcop44]

Can anyone tell me what Carnival generally does upon arrival in St. Maarten? I understand that if the ship docks, it's a 20 minute taxi into Philipsburg. If the ship drops anchor, the tenders drop us off right in downtown Philipsburg. We'll be there during out January 22 cruise on Victory and it would be nice to have an idea whether we anchor or dock. Thanks for the help!

[tef43]

Depends on how many ships are in port. On the Triumph, we docked. The Glory followed us in and they tendered as the pier was full.

[irishgirl]

It's not a 20 minute taxi ride, it's about 10. If you want to take a water taxi, it's a little faster.

[Eliot Ness]

When we were there on the Victory this past June/July we docked, but there was only one other ship with us in port that day. Looking at CruiseCal it looks like 6 other ships are scheduled to be there on 1/25/2006.

 

John

[Momto5boys]

There are only two ships when we are in St. Maarten...does that pretty much "guarantee" that we will dock???

[Top-Cat]

You will dock with only two ships. The dock holds up to four. That is how many we had in May on the Victory.Have fun!

[mikayla73]

Any one know how many ships can dock at the same time? It looks like there will be 4 (including the Glory) the day that I am there. Just wondering ....

[rickcop44]

Thanks everyone for the replies. And thank you, Eliot Ness, for the CruiseCal link. I didn't know about that site. It's great! I've already bookmarked it. It looks like when the Victory arrives, there will already be at least 4 other ships in port. And unless we beat the Spirit in, there will be 5. I wonder sometimes how do these tiny islands handle this many people? I mean, 7 cruise ships in port all at once. That's what? A minimum of 20,000 people?