Tendering in St. Marten

[iluvtravel]

My husband and I will be cruising on the Westerdam Jan. 9-16. I have scheduled a private tour in St. Marten an hour after we're scheduled to dock. After making the arrangements, I found out that we are one of TEN cruise ships scheduled to be in port that day! Since we are one of the later ones arriving, I'm assuming we will have to tender into port. Should I cancel our arrangements? They depart one hour after we dock, and we really wanted to go, but I don't think we can expect to be ashore in time. Has anyone else had to tender into St. Marten? How long did you have to wait? Thanks for the help!

[sea-n-me]

iluvtravel:

 

We are on the same cruise with you. I am devasted that there are going to be 10 ships in port in St. Martin. It's one of my favorite ports and I am afraid it is going to be mobbed with people (all the shops, beaches, etc.) We have never had to tender into St. Martin before, so I am not sure how it is going to all work out. I can only picture a "madhouse" of tenders!

[Krazy Kruizers]

Have done it many years ago when the old pier was whiped out by hurricanes. Took about 15 - 20 minutes. But now that we have so many ships in port the day that we are scheduled to be there, it may take longer. I am not counting on the Westerdam to be docked since we arrive later than many of the other ships.

This won't help tours, but some times after the other ships leave the docks, and since we will be there until 11 PM, they may move the ship into the pier.

Also remember that the ship must be cleared by the locals before tendering can begin.

And the ship excursions have tender priority - they get to go first.

 

[iowacruiser]

It's hard to believe there wil be 10 ships in port that day.

I've seen 8 at one time in Cozumel. but there are 3 piers there..

What day are you supposed to be there?

[Searanger]

Actually I found it much more pleasant to tender into St. Martin's rather then the long walk from the pier. We disembarked the tender right in the centre of town. I have always found that HAL runs more then the sufficient number of tenders to assure quick service for their guests at any tender port.

 

10 ships seems a little high to me. Yesterday...was about as busy as I have seen it. 4 at the pier and 3 tendering.

[iluvtravel]

I agree ten ships in port in one day seems hard to believe! I checked the calendar for about 8 months, and couldn't find another day with more than seven ships at once (and that would be too busy). The website I am referring to is http://www.cruisecal.com. It lists the following ships as being docked in St. Marten on Jan. 12:

 

Sun Princess

Caribbean Princess

Westerdam

Queen Mary 2

Carnival Victory

Century

Maasdam

Summit

Explorer Of The Seas

Carnival Glory

 

Maybe we should just have a party on the ship. I've been to St. Marten twice before, and, while I have never skipped a port before, it seems that it will be a mad house! This is another reason why we wanted to do a private excursion away from the city with a limited number of people. By the way, we are scheduled to sail on the Lord Sheffield sailboat, which is highly recommended on the ports board. Maybe if we had 10-12 people from the Westerdam coming, they might wait 15-30 min. if it came to that. If anyone's interested in checking out this excursion, you can find more info. at http://www.excursionworld.com/tours/a10.htm.

 

I read on the latest reviews of the Westerdam that the tendering took an unreasonably long time at Ocho Rios. I would very much like to go on the Lord Sheffield, but am wondering if it's worth risking the money.

[Orcrone]

I couldn't believe it so I checked. Sure enough - ten ships. I think I'd consider making it a sea day. There were three ships there on our last cruise in November, and that was very nice. Ten ships I can't imagine. I'm not sure what you like to do, but if you go to a beach I'd try to find one of the quieter ones.

[winewanderer]

Thanks for the link to the cruise calender. I'm psyched. Next October the Liberty is the only ship in St. Martin the day we'll be there. So far anyway.

[Krazy Kruizers]

I couldn't believe that schedule either when I checked cruisecal and posted it on the roll call - over 2 weeks ago. In the mean time I posted on the Princess, Celebrity, and RCI boards to to see if some of those ships were really going to be there. I was hoping that cruisecal had made a mistake (they have made a big one for one of our back-to-back cruises on the Volendam - we go to only 1 port and the rest of the ports are non-existant).

I got responses from all but 2 ships - Century and Caribbean Princess.

I also contacted HAL and they gave me an e-mail address for St Maarten - never heard from them.

Some of the posters on a couple of the other ships are also thinking about making this another sea day and staying on the ship.

[Esme]

I'd definitely make is a "sea" day with so many ships in port. I checked on one of our cruises and there will be 10 ships in Cozumel when we are there. Definitely not getting off the ship in that port - been there done that anyway. It will be a zoo there - like the malls at Christmas. :)

[flamingogal]

I am soooo glad I booked the Golden Eagle Catamaran tour for this port. :)

I don't mind the tendering, and I know that when I'm finished with my shore ex., I can relax on board with a nice frosty cold whatever and watch the other ships have a grand parade out of the harbor. :p I think this may be barbecue night, that would be even better!

[RaffinOrganGrinders]

Here is a photo of our trip to St. Maartin at the end of the Westerdam repositioning cruise from Barcelona. With four ships in town it was very crowded. At least tendering you will go directly to the left of the photo to the tender dock.

 

George

 

P.S. You may want to glance at my review of the cruise at this link. I do not see how the tour business/trade can handle any more than four or five ships at once.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=7722

[iowacruiser]

10 ships in St Maarten scared my so I checked cruiecal to see how many friends we'd be spending the day with there in a few weeks.

Fortunetly only NCL Dawn and Carnival Triumph will be in port the same day.. Plus we stay until 11:00 p.m. so were the last ones out.

The next day is Tortola, us and the Dawn

Nassau on the first day has us,Valor, and Disney Wonder..

The only real bummer is Half Moon Cay.. Us and Maasdam

[JimVrhovac]

Ruth and I just returned from a back to back (14 days) in the western caribbean and the days in Cozumel there were 10 an 9 ships respectfully. There has been suc an increase in cruise ships it seems that this is the upcoming trend.

 

The real problem lies in that some of these are the larger 3,500 passanger vessels and that really creates a problem. 1st trip to Cozumel there were 60,000 passengers in the port that day (per ships officer).

 

Ruth and I just enjoy the ship onthese days as the ship is empty and it is really quiet and nice.

 

Jim & Ruth