Docking in St. Thomas Question

[Grumbo]

Looking at the January schedule for cruise ships in St. Thomas I see that the Magic is slated for "inner anchorage". Does this denote that it will require tendering?
Which of the many spots listed does require tendering?
The Url is http://www.ships.vi./

Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[RebeccaLovesDisney]

Yes "inner anchorage" means that Magic passengers will be tendered into Charlotte Amalie. "WICO" means the main pier at Havensight. I'm not sure what the other terms mean.

 

[christinou]

I am actually surprised that the Magic is slated for Inner Anchorage 2 trips in a row......
I thought that it was only about every 4 trips....

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

It varies based on how many ships are in port. Winter is the high season in the Caribbean, since ships which are in places such as Alaska and Europe are often repositioned to the Caribbean during this time. DCL is a relative newcomer to St. Thomas, and I think they have to take an anchorage slot when the port is crowded, based on some type of seniority scheme.

The abbreviations are as follows:

WICO - West Indies Company pier (Havensight, the main cruise ship pier)
CBxx - Crown Bay pier, smaller pier that can accomodate 1 or 2 smaller ships. I don't think it could handle the Magic. At least I've never seen it there.
Inner Anchorage - The inner harbor. This is a tender position. You can see ships at innor anchorage to the right of the pier through the St. Thomas port cam.
Outer Anchorage - This is actually outside the harbor and I think is only used for ships like the SS Norway, who's draft does not allow it in the harbor, or if the port is very crowded.

 

[Grumbo]

OK that helps...
Have to keep my eyes open for our March cruise. We have a tight schedule to make it to our planned excursion (not through Disney) and I'll keep my fingers crossed that we'll be docked and not tendered in

Cheers,
Grumbo

 

[dianthus]

Been to St. Thomas twice on the Magic, both times we docked at Havensight- WICO. I didn't realize they are on a tender rotation.

When the Magic tenders in St. Thomas, does the tender take you directly to downtown Charlotte Amalie?

~ Linda

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

Originally posted by dianthus
When the Magic tenders in St. Thomas, does the tender take you directly to downtown Charlotte Amalie?

Yes. This is the only plus to tendering at this port, IMHO....

 

[tbuot]

How do we know which rotation place we are? We are going in late May on the Magic. Is there a site?

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

There are two sites I use to see if the ship will be docking or anchoring:

www.ships.vi

and

www.usvi-on-line.com

Unfortunately the schedule for a given month is not posted until the last week of the preceeding month, so you won't be able to tell right now if you'll be docked or not. However, by May, many ships have re-positioned, or are in the process of re-positioning to their summer locales, so there's a very good chance that you'll be docking.

 

[tbuot]

Lloyd Dobler
thanks for the great info.

 

[jeanie]

Hi,

Since the Magic tendered all January and February, could someone tell me the earliest time anyone NOT on an excursion
got to leave on the tender?


Thanks!

 

[lotsofboys]

Hi, we were on the 2/7 Eastern cruise and tendered in St. Thomas "inner anchorage". There were 3 ships at the dock, 3 ships "outer anchorage" and the Magic inside. We were tendered directly into town which was better than being at the dock and walking which we actually tried once!

On the Magic, only passengers with excursions could disembark and get on the first tender and you had to obtain a ticket to do so. We didn't have an excursion so I can't tell you how the process worked, but I do know that if you wanted to get off earlier there was a separate line to stand in and if the tender was not full they would let you on. We went around 10:00 and had no problem getting on, actually had to wait for it to fill up before it left. Returning was the same way, they waited for it to fill up before it returned to the ship.

 

[jeanie]

Thanks for the quick reply.....

We want to go to St John's (non-excursion)and if we tender in I am concerned that we won't have enough time. One of the Navigator's on Barb's site mentioned that open tenders started at 10:15...!

So you think that we can actually leave with the excursion folks if there is enough room? Just one more thing to plan for !

 

[lotsofboys]

We had planned a nonexcursion trip to St. John as well and scrapped the idea due to the tender situation. Had I been more prepared and known all the ferry times and preplanned a little I think we could have done it. You can disembark with the excursion people if you have a ticket and there is room. The open tenders started at 9:30 on our cruise. I think it varies based on how many people have the tickets which would be based on how many are on excursions. I'm guessing too that they mean Disney excursions for being the first off and onto the tenders. Hope that helps ...... have a great time.

 

[strawberryblonde]

I hadn't realized that we may not be able to get a tender until 10:15am. I told our relatives I thought we should be able to meet them by 10 am at Coki beach

 

[jeanie]

This whole tender situation has me crazy!! Tomorrow is the 60 day mark and I can book excursions for our 4/17 cruise. It looks like the magic went from almost never having to tender to every time in Jan/Feb! In Apr it looks like there will be at least 4 ships in port so one will have to tender ....

Now I am thinking I should have a backup excursion because I really want to see St John... The cruise schedule will be out the last week in March so i will have time to cancel the excursion if I need to... just one more plan to have to deal with!!

 

[sbatty]

Last week my DH took the ferry over to St. John without any problem. He didn't have an excursion but was able to make the 9am ferry right out of Charlotte Amalie. He said it was very easy. The ferry dock was about a block from the tender dock. This is actually much simpler than if we had docked. The ferry ride was about 45 minutes (a bit rough on the way out).

 

[kcashner]

We were on the 2/7 Magic also, and were on a tender without a ticket at 9:30. The early tenders are for the DCL excursion people with tickets, THEN for anyone who is in line until the tender is full. We actually had very little wait--we were on the tender within 5 minutes, but waited about 10 minutes more on the tender while it filled up. Most of the DCL excursion people were on the 9 am tender.

I actually liked the tender process better than the dock because the tender took us right downtown. DCL sets up a tent on St. Thomas where you meet the tender to go back to the ship, so you can be out of the sun and have ice water or fruit punch while you wait for the return tender. The only downside is that it takes a while--like 30 minutes each way allowing for the tender to fill and then go to the ship.

 

[mrsfuzzmo]

You might want to check into the ferry that goes right from downtown CA to St. John. It's a longer boat ride, but the ferry's leave from about the same place you tender into.