Grand Cayman port change for next 3 months

[MysticRhythmCruiser]

Hi everyone,

 

Just back from VOS on 9/24...this itinerary was changed from Jamaica, Grand Cayman and Freeport to San Juan, St. Maarten and St. Thomas due to all the hurricanes. While in St. Maarten, I struck up a conversation with one of the local shopkeepers...he said that they were told to be ready for more traffic -- ships bound for Grand Cayman would be docking in St. Maarten for the next three months. However, on the bright side, he said that St. Maarten was mostly destroyed by a hurricane in 1998 and he said within a year everything was back to normal. Hopefully the same will be the case for the lovely Cayman Islands!

 

I am not sure if this represents a total change in itinerary for all ships or whether this means St. Thomas will be the ongoing replacement for Freeport, but I thought I would pass it on in case you had a scheduled stop in GC any time soon.

 

Cheers,

Esther

[natesfirewife]

I would love to go to St. Maarten instead of Grand Cayman for our cruise in December. Is that a tender port also or do the ships actually dock there??

 

Misty

[TPKeller]

ships bound for Grand Cayman would be docking in St. Maarten for the next three months.

 

I don't think it's nearly this simple. Grand Cayman and St. Maarten are about 1,200 miles apart. There isn't any way that a ship will drop by one instead of the other. The whole itinerary would have to be changed.

 

There may well be more visits to St. Maarten due to the damage in Grand Cayman, but it isn't just a simple substitution.

 

Theron

 

Oh, and St. Maarten has a relatively new dock that is very, very nice!

[marciemi]

Docked when we were there on the Sept. 10 Voyager - my pic of the Voyager docked next to the Zuiderdam in St. Maarten. Hopefully your day wouldn't be as rainy!

 

http://community.webshots.com/photo/192732222/192739516oQGgcA

[JacDro]

MarcieMI - loved your pics of the Voyager. MI here too - Farmington Hills. The MI flag made me smile - GO BLUE! Going on the 5 day on Voyager to Bermuda in May and looking into the 8 day in November - New Jersey, Labadee and Aruba, going back to Miami. Only two ports and 4 sea days -- my kind of cruise. Once again, thanks for the pictures.

 

Jacki

[MGoBlue2]

I don't know if it includes cruise ships, but Grand Cayman expects to be able to begin receiving tourists by next month:

 

At the moment, tourists are not being allowed into Grand Cayman, but there is no restriction on tourists visiting Little Cayman or Cayman Brac. Mr Manderson echoed the sentiments that he had heard the Leader of Government Business, Hon McKeeva Bush, express, that Grand Cayman would be ready to welcome tourists in the tourist season, from the start of November, and also said that he was expecting direction with regard to the lifting of the restrictions, “within a week.”

[skybuffalo]

Hello everone,

I spoke with RCI yesterday concerning booking Grand Cayman activities for our 11/27 cruise. The rep told me to go ahead and it is expected that everything will be available for us by that time.

 

Hope that helps. Ron