Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Hurricane Irma and St. Maarten

gtaylor

By gtaylor,
in St. Martin/St. Maarten

 Share

Recommended Posts

Karysa

Karysa

Posted
Posted (edited)
Interesting. In my original MSC Roll Call it's being reported that MSC has swapped out SXM for St John for cruises 12/23-3/17.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

Do you mean St John's, Antigua.

 

St John's Antigua is where ships port in Antigua.

Edited by Karysa
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Karysa

Karysa

Posted
Posted
Damage estimate for St-Martin (FR) is about 2.5 billion euros. You can have all the regatta or Diamond shop you want, they will not make a dent in the recovery. Good for them if they can operate. Money is mostly coming from the respective gov. Add to that the revised building code they are working on, construction permit and all the red tape, they do not want to repeat the mistake that happen after Hurricane Luis in 95'.

 

St Martin (FR) is the French side of the island. The Regatta is held on the Dutch side where most of the Diamond "shops" are as well. The St. Maarten (Dutch) side of the island gets most of the revenue from Cruise ships and their passengers.

 

The tourists create jobs and with the salary from their job the islanders can by food, gas, clothes and pay their utility bills. This can not be overstated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Karysa

Karysa

Posted
Posted
Yes.

I wonder why not SXM.

 

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

 

I don't think MSC has many ships in the Caribbean and Antigua was probably available for the dates they wanted so I think that they switched instead of having to play the wait and see game. It's a nice island so go and enjoy.:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cltnccruisers

cltnccruisers

Posted
Posted
St Martin (FR) is the French side of the island. The Regatta is held on the Dutch side where most of the Diamond "shops" are as well. The St. Maarten (Dutch) side of the island gets most of the revenue from Cruise ships and their passengers.

 

The tourists create jobs and with the salary from their job the islanders can by food, gas, clothes and pay their utility bills. This can not be overstated.

 

Bingo! We're still hoping that by March we can get cash into the hands of locals to feed their families. Couldn't care less about Diamonds International, frankly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Vacationdreamer<><

Vacationdreamer<><

Posted
Posted
I don't think MSC has many ships in the Caribbean and Antigua was probably available for the dates they wanted so I think that they switched instead of having to play the wait and see game. It's a nice island so go and enjoy.:)

 

 

 

My trip isn't until June. We will likely be back to SXM. Although ... it's Puerto Rico we were most hoping to visit. Time will tell there. [emoji173]

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites
jnrmitchell

jnrmitchell

Posted
Posted
Damage estimate for St-Martin (FR) is about 2.5 billion euros. You can have all the regatta or Diamond shop you want, they will not make a dent in the recovery. Good for them if they can operate. Money is mostly coming from the respective gov. Add to that the revised building code they are working on, construction permit and all the red tape, they do not want to repeat the mistake that happen after Hurricane Luis in 95'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Forums

Link to comment
Share on other sites
gtaylor

gtaylor

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Gary can you please translate this for me?:D

The 'D' is the MSC Divina, and 'Ziggy' is our friend, the Hotel Director.

 

There will probably be a follow-up if the 'sensitive equipment' functions as hoped.

 

gary

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cltnccruisers

cltnccruisers

Posted
Posted

According to Celeb's website even though the govt on St Maarten plans to accept ships starting Nov 11 X will not be visiting until after the first of the year. By the tourism minister's own admission, Nov 11 is somewhat symbolic so this is probably a good decision.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Karysa

Karysa

Posted
Posted
According to Celeb's website even though the govt on St Maarten plans to accept ships starting Nov 11 X will not be visiting until after the first of the year. By the tourism minister's own admission, Nov 11 is somewhat symbolic so this is probably a good decision.

I heard they will only have 2 berths at the beginning which is also good IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
CruiseAddict8354

CruiseAddict8354

Posted
Posted

We're booked on a cruise next month that was supposed to visit St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Antigua, and St. Kitts. Is there any update on how things are going at those places, especially St. Maarten which was so badly hit? Wondering if we should cancel / postpone. Paying for a cruise is a huge thing for us.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
SensFan11

SensFan11

Posted
Posted
We're booked on a cruise next month that was supposed to visit St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Antigua, and St. Kitts. Is there any update on how things are going at those places, especially St. Maarten which was so badly hit? Wondering if we should cancel / postpone. Paying for a cruise is a huge thing for us.

 

I see you're cruising on Grandeur...Royal Caribbean announced yesterday that Grandeur of the Seas will be the first ship to return to St. Maarten on Nov. 5th, so I'd expect you'll go there on your sailing.

 

St. Thomas is still recovering, but expected to open to cruises in the next month or so.

 

Antigua and St. Kitts were minimally affected and are open for business as usual.

 

One thing I would expect is that the experience in the nations that were most profoundly affected (Puerto Rico, USVI, British VI, St. Maarten, Barbuda, Dominica) is that while they may reopen to cruise ship passengers, full recovery of facilities will take much longer.

 

Royal Caribbean regularly updates the status of individual sailings here:

https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/royal/US/en_US/cruise-ships/itinerary-updates

Link to comment
Share on other sites
kateg

kateg

Posted
Posted
We're booked on a cruise next month that was supposed to visit St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Antigua, and St. Kitts. Is there any update on how things are going at those places, especially St. Maarten which was so badly hit? Wondering if we should cancel / postpone. Paying for a cruise is a huge thing for us.

 

Here is an update from today https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/travel/caribbean-tourism-hurricane-recovery.html

We sail Nov 12 and so far RCI hasn't changed our itinerary (Although they said they would let us know 30 days out). I'm afraid they will send us to San Juan and St. Maarten. According to the update I posted above these islands are really not ready for tourists. I would love to cancel but it is too late for us. Like you, a cruise is a HUGE big deal for us. We don't cruise often and we haven't been able to go on vacation for a long time.

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
Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: Set Sail Beyond the Ordinary with Oceania Cruises
      • ANNOUNCEMENT: The Widest View in the Whole Wide World
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • 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...