Early wake-up in St. Thomas.... WHY?

[swede63]

We are going on the April 13th cruise and noticed that we are leaving the port at St Marteen 4 hours earlier than last year. Does anyone know why??? Is it because of this red-tape make some mindless fools feel safe policy??? We really enojyed the midnight party on deck last year and wondered if that is no longer happening since everyone has to get up early the next morning for no reason other than an exercise in futility. ANy thoughts??

 

[Lisa L from MI]

We were on the 3-16 cruise and we departed St Maarten about 11pm. A CM told me that every 6 or 9 weeks (can't remember) the ship stays in St Maarten to preform routine engine tests etc. We just lucked out that our cruise ended up on one of the weeks they do the testing of stuff.

 

[mjw]

I was surprised to learn that DCL is again conducting the immigration process on St. Thomas day. I spoke with a DCL agent in February who told me that they were no longer doing the checks as of February 1--obviously this was after 9/11--but could be reinstated at any time. Thought we'd be off the hook for our April 20th cruise, but apparently not.