7-day Eastern Question

[bcmba]

Does the Magic dock or tender at the ports on the Eastern cruise?

 

[alexandrew]

the ship actually docks at both St Maarten and St Thomas

 

[luv2tvl]

I believe sometime the Magic has to tender at St Thomas. We were supposed to tender there on the 12/14 Magic, but the night before we arrived we were given a note in our stateroom stating that they had secured a berth at St Thomas. They had to update some of the excursion times due to the fact they didn't have to tender us in....
Either way, that was the most beautiful island I've ever seen!

 

[Señor Ferrari]

The Magic does have to tender sometimes at St. Thomas. This usually only happens in the winter, because there are more ships in the Caribbean at the time. During the summer, many lines reposition their ships to Europe and Alaska. In the winter, the come back to the Caribbean. They are working on improving the Crown Bay dock on St. Thomas, I'm not sure how far along they are. The WICO dock, where the Magic usually ties up, can accomodate up to three ships. I think Crown Bay can take two, depending on their size.

One winter, the Magic had to anchor and tender every third week, I think. Last year, I don't think it had to do this at all. You can check the St. Thomas cruise ship schedule (link), click on the month you want to see along the left-hand column. It looks like there were 8 ships scheduled to be there last Wednesday, with the Magic at the inner anchorage. You must have had some good luck.

 

[sjm]

Originally posted by Señor Ferrari
The WICO dock, where the Magic usually ties up, can accomodate up to three ships.

Is the WICP dock what I know as Havensight?

Sue

 

[luv2tvl]

I agree that it was very good luck that we were able to dock at St Thomas. There were EIGHT ships in port that day and the ones that had to tender (3 Holland America ships) were pretty far out in the water, looked like at least a 15 minute tender ride. It was great to just be able to step onto the dock! Lucky Magic!!

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Yes, the "WICO" dock refers to the West India Company dock at Havensight. This designation is purely historic. The dock is actually managed by one of the bureaus of the USVI government now.

There is definitely more activity there in the winter than in the summer. Here's a docking schedule (maintained rather sporadically, but at least they do have December's schedule).

www.ships.vi

As you can see, the Magic <b><i>was</i></b> scheduled to anchor and tender in when it visited St Thomas on the 18th. There were eight (<b>!!!</b>) ships visiting St Thomas that day, so the passengers on the Magic were lucky to get to dock after all.