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Required Celebrity Shore Excursion in St. Maarten?

stones902

By stones902,
in Celebrity Cruises

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Duke95

Duke95

Posted
Posted
On 9/11/2021 at 10:43 AM, Duke95 said:

It's called Private Journeys. You design your own tour with the help of a Celebrity tour specialist. 


I have not been very impressed so far with my attempt to get a very simple trip together while in St. Maarten. They have had the request for over 2 weeks now and are still researching the "feasibility" of basically calling a cab for me.

I'm going to give a different report from Jim's here unfortunately. We had asked for them to provide us with transportation from the cruise port to Cul-de-Sac on St Maarten so we could take the ferry across to Pinel for the day. In effect, they would be providing us with a cab there at 10 am and a cab back at 3 pm (which is what we do every time we go to St Maarten). Normally the cost is about $100 for the transport. I figured they would charge us maybe double or triple that. I received an email this morning with our private journey quote in the amount of $600. That is only for the transport - no ferry, no lunch, no guide, nothing. We politely declined.

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George C

George C

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Posted

I hate most cruise excursions, on our excursion in St Maarten in July, we got on bus that was going to take us to beach etc, sitting on the bus before it left we noticed there was no air conditioning! We questioned driver he thought there was a/c then the celebrity rep , then we decided to just leave the bus , celebrity did give us a prompt refund. 

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susiesan

susiesan

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Posted

Sure sounds like Celebrity is in cahoots with local cabs or tour companies by not allowing their pax to leave the shopping area, but people from other cruise lines can. I have been here before and I know some back ways out of this dockside shopping mall which I will utilize to go to the beach without an excursion when I am there in December.

 

 I cry foul on Celebrity's part, this is BS. If this is not a St. Maarten rule then it should not be Celebrity"s requirement.

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LGW59

LGW59

Posted
Posted
1 minute ago, susiesan said:

Sure sounds like Celebrity is in cahoots with local cabs or tour companies by not allowing their pax to leave the shopping area, but people from other cruise lines can. I have been here before and I know some back ways out of this dockside shopping mall which I will utilize to go to the beach without an excursion when I am there in December.

 

 I cry foul on Celebrity's part, this is BS. If this is not a St. Maarten rule then it should not be Celebrity"s requirement.

Their ship, their rules, not saying one has to like them but it is what it is 

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Gatordad1967

Gatordad1967

Posted
Posted
7 minutes ago, susiesan said:

Sure sounds like Celebrity is in cahoots with local cabs or tour companies by not allowing their pax to leave the shopping area, but people from other cruise lines can. I have been here before and I know some back ways out of this dockside shopping mall which I will utilize to go to the beach without an excursion when I am there in December.

 

 I cry foul on Celebrity's part, this is BS. If this is not a St. Maarten rule then it should not be Celebrity"s requirement.

smells like Celebrity BS.  And they should own up to it.

 

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Turtles06 Great Review Rare

Turtles06

Posted
Posted
15 minutes ago, susiesan said:

Sure sounds like Celebrity is in cahoots with local cabs or tour companies by not allowing their pax to leave the shopping area, but people from other cruise lines can. I have been here before and I know some back ways out of this dockside shopping mall which I will utilize to go to the beach without an excursion when I am there in December.

 

 I cry foul on Celebrity's part, this is BS. If this is not a St. Maarten rule then it should not be Celebrity"s requirement.

 

13 minutes ago, LGW59 said:

Their ship, their rules, not saying one has to like them but it is what it is 

 

Yup.  Their ship, their rules.   Folks caught violating them could find themselves disembarked. 

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LGW59

LGW59

Posted
Posted
18 minutes ago, susiesan said:

Sure sounds like Celebrity is in cahoots with local cabs or tour companies by not allowing their pax to leave the shopping area, but people from other cruise lines can. I have been here before and I know some back ways out of this dockside shopping mall which I will utilize to go to the beach without an excursion when I am there in December.

 

 I cry foul on Celebrity's part, this is BS. If this is not a St. Maarten rule then it should not be Celebrity"s requirement.

Keep in mind that they have cameras and will have staff on the pier to 🧐 the passengers as they disembark.  Susiesan may not be re-boarding after her back way adventure.

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Jim_Iain "Live from...." Rare

Jim_Iain

Posted
Posted
3 hours ago, Gatordad1967 said:

silly question, so if you are vaccinated, you can walk around the port area at the shops?

 

 

Yes so far yes.   Today we can.   I hear tomorrow in St Kitts it will not be possible.    Celebrity has again been inconsistent.  It seems like you can’t visit the port they later say “you can take an approved personal tour available at the end of pier”.  
 

so if you can’t visit the port without excursion, how can you get to the private tour at the end of pier 

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Gatordad1967

Gatordad1967

Posted
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6 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

Yes so far yes.   Today we can.   I hear tomorrow in St Kitts it will not be possible.    Celebrity has again been inconsistent.  It seems like you can’t visit the port they later say “you can take an approved personal tour available at the end of pier”.  
 

so if you can’t visit the port without excursion, how can you get to the private tour at the end of pier 

Thank you.  You are a great source of information.  Now can you find out if Kate will be on the Edge on 9/25 (J/K).

 

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spammie

spammie

Posted
Posted
12 minutes ago, George C said:

Our July edge cruise was first cruise I can remember that we had zero photos taken and I have been on 70 cruises.

Same here!  We were on Edge August 28th and we didn't even have a "welcome aboard" photo.  😞

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hcat "Live from...." Rare

hcat

Posted
Posted

Equinox has been a long time favorite of ours.  Ship is looking good..

 Much thanks to Jim for sharing these  wonderful photos. Takes time away from  your vacation but so many appreciate it.  Love some of the new touches! 

 

We might book on her when we are on Reflection next Jan.  Celeb should  also appreciate  and recognize Jim and others who post these reviews and photos.  Better PR than what they pay for!

 

George C.  How come no photos on EDGE?

Our photos on both of our EDGE cruises are some of the best quality we have received..great composition...excellent quality..lots of freebies with a  fairly basic package,

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sn2792

sn2792

Posted
Posted
On 9/9/2021 at 3:58 PM, susiesan said:

How long is St. Maarten going to be closed to go off the ship on your own? I don't care about the shopping, I just want to go to the beach. My cruise is not until December.

 

Is this coming from St. Maarten or Celebrity? Can you cite the specific rule from a St. Maarten web site?

 

If this remains true by the Nov. 29 date of the Millennium sailing I am going to cancel the cruise. If St. Maarten can't be visited on your own it is likely many of the other 5 ports scheduled will have the same restrictions. 

We were on Allure last week and were allowed to leave ship without an excursion. Royals protocols seem to be different. There wasn’t much open.

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Jim_Iain "Live from...." Rare

Jim_Iain

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All I can say is the protocols on each island is fluid by the day as each Island try to protect both the tourist industry and their residents.  

 

What I  have reported on my thread could be 100% different on the next cruise.  

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Arzeena

Arzeena

Posted
Posted
5 hours ago, susiesan said:

Sure sounds like Celebrity is in cahoots with local cabs or tour companies by not allowing their pax to leave the shopping area, but people from other cruise lines can. I have been here before and I know some back ways out of this dockside shopping mall which I will utilize to go to the beach without an excursion when I am there in December.

 

 I cry foul on Celebrity's part, this is BS. If this is not a St. Maarten rule then it should not be Celebrity"s requirement.

Waiting to watch youtube video of woman being kicked off the ship.😉😁

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LGW59

LGW59

Posted
Posted
44 minutes ago, Arzeena said:

Waiting to watch youtube video of woman being kicked off the ship.😉😁

That will be fun, but only because someone thinks they are “special “. Celebrity will show them how special they are!

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