No more St. Maarten???

[ChrizJen]

I just read a post from someone in another thread who just returned from the July 24th Magic, and said that St. Maarten will no longer be a DCL port...? And that San Juan will be in place of it. Anyone have any info? Can anyone confirm/deny this? I'm booked on an Eastern for next year, and I don't want to get our hopes up for St. Maarten if we'll be going to San Juan instead...Mine's quite a ways off, but the planning and excitement have already started. LOL
And for those on upcoming cruises, when does this take effect, and can they get their shore excursions changed from St. Maarten to San Juan?

 

[webray]

Could be..that has been a rumor for quite a while..as people have found the eastern ports a little boring and disney is trying to do better for the eastern cruisers.

 

[jwann]

Would they change it as early as THIS december?? That's sort of exciting. I've always wanted to go to Puerto Rico!!!

 

[KLH 1973]

I have also heard the same rumer but I was told that people would be given plenty of time to find out.

 

[CM_Mom]

They probably won't change the ports for cruises that are already scheduled but the 2006 schedule hasn't been posted so my guess is it's open to change. I think a lot depends on the Guest comments from the folks on the cruises in August that are going to San Juan, especially the repeaters who have already been to St. Maarten.

 

[giljr]

Stopping in San Juan rather than in St. Martin would mean no more immagration nightmare in St. Thomas! I know that would make a lot of people, including me, very happy.

 

[DrCavin]

Originally posted by giljr
Stopping in San Juan rather than in St. Martin would mean no more immagration nightmare in St. Thomas! I know that would make a lot of people, including me, very happy.

I thought it was ran very efficiently & was pretty painless. Granted it is a little inconvient if you have to be there at 6:00 am....

I wish they would allow more time at St Thomas or better yet CC!!

 

[CRSNDSNY]

Originally posted by giljr
Stopping in San Juan rather than in St. Martin would mean no more immagration nightmare in St. Thomas! I know that would make a lot of people, including me, very happy.

So does this mean that those of us on the 'special' San Juan cruises this month and next month do not have to do the 6am immigration check-in?

 

[jcemom]

I would be happy if they changed it before our cruise! We are not looking forward to the immigration thing at all...getting the boys up that early is not going to be easy. I'm also having trouble finding anything in St Maarten that we want to do.

 

[woody64]

We enjoyed St. Maarten the 2 times we have stopped with DCL. My wife loves the shopping in St. Maarten and thinks it is much better than St. Thomas.

My 2 DS's(6&9) have loved playing at Great Bay Beach at the end of the very inexpensive water taxi. The liked it better than Megans Bay. It has great surf to play in, is shallow and safe and is close to the ship. Bars and cafes are close for eats/drinks and people are there to rent chairs and umbrellas. We have very much enjoyed St. Maarten.

People we have cruised with have loved the Golden Eagle catamaran excursion and adults love the 12 meter regatta as you work as much as you want on actual Americas Cup sailboats.

We look forward to going to St. Maarten again.

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

Originally posted by DrCavin
I wish they would allow more time at St Thomas or better yet CC!!

I actually asked one of the ship's officers about this once, since the other ships seem to remain in port until around 6:00pm sometimes. He said that they have to leave St. Thomas at 4:45 on Wednesday in order to be sure they can get to Castaway Cay by 9:00am on Friday morning. So more time on St. Thomas by necessity means less time on Castaway Cay. Also, the ship has to leave Castaway Cay when it does so that it can make it back to Port Canaveral on time.

Originally posted by CRSNDSNY
So does this mean that those of us on the 'special' San Juan cruises this month and next month do not have to do the 6am immigration check-in?

I believe it does. The immigration check is for ships which have called an at non-U.S. port and are then calling at a U.S. port. San Juan should qualify as a U.S. port, so you should not have to deal with this.


Getting back to the OP, they may have been referring to the special cruises this fall, which replace St. Maarten with Antigua or San Juan. I doubt that a decision would be made to replace St. Maarten with one of these ports until after the ship has made a few routine calls there and they have a chance to guage how the passengers feel about it.

 

[Disneyfan37]

That would be great,but I won't hold my breathe on that one.DH and I wanted to go to San Juan instead.It would be great if they started this right away.

Maria

 

[spamama]

The immigration thing wouldnt be bad if it was just the two of us, but the kids were in the club until midnight, and were a bear to get up. Really put a damper on the rest of the day since we all were so sleepy and grouchy. The kids ended up falling asleep during dinner (they are 8 and 9) and they never do that!! The process was easy, but like my husband said, if they even looked at him or his id for longer than 1/2 a second, he might of thought it was worth it! Of course, they have to do it since 9/11 and Disney has no control over that, other than changing the port before like is being discussed. Unfortunately, there are a lot of fun things going on the night before that you dont want to miss!

Even though St Maarten is a poorer country, we actually enjoyed the beach much much more (dawn beach) - beautiful sand and water and nice surf, not crowded, not bugged by "entrepeneurs", just a lot less touristy. We didnt make it in town, so couldnt compare the shopping. We are not big into jewelry or liquor, so we just walked around Havensight in St Thomas so the kids could get a few souviniers. Never been to San Juan other than a connection at the airport so couldnt compare that.

Spa Mama

 

[musicgirl]

What, No guavaberry coladas?

I wonder if they would do ST. Thomas first and then San Juan? Or is San Juan to far to get to CC the next day?

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

San Juan is actually a shade closer to Castaway Cay. Maybe 50 miles or so. On the fall cruises, I believe the ship calls at San Juan on Tuesday and St. Thomas on Wednesday. The ship could definitely make St. Thomas on Tuesday (St. Maarten is a few hundred miles further), but I think for these trips, the ship was already scheduled to call on Wednesday, so they made the change on Tuesday, probably to simplify things.

 

[jeanniec]

There are 2 new ports on the Eastern cruises this fall - San Juan and Antigua. We debated on which one we wanted to go to and decided that Antigua would be more tropical and more interesting to us than San Juan so we are off to Antigua on 10/2. What would have really been nice would be if both Antigua and San Juan were included on the same cruise!

 

[Disneyfan37]

I will miss having my first guavaberry colada,but I much prefer to see San Juan especially since DH has never been there.I have back twenty years ago.

If anybody hears anything from DCL as to when this will take place,please post I am hoping it happens before December as we cruise December 11 on the Magic.

Maria

 

[woody64]

Just opened my bottle of Guavaberrry rum Sat. night and had a few friends try it. Next time I make them coladas as they sure are good. The rums not so great as a shot though.

 

[kimkatmom]

Yippy, zippy!!! I for one won't miss St. Maartin. I wouldn't go there again on a bet. The people there are so aggressive and in your face!

Good job, Disney. That's the way to do it!

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

Before you down too much of the Guavaberry rum in celebration, note that this is only an unconfirmed rumor at this time (other than the 5 alternative cruises this fall). Not unlike the elusive third ship....

The ship is still scheduled to call at St. Maarten every other week from October to May, and then again in the fall of 2005 after it returns from its cash grab on the west coast.