Poll: St Thomas customs

[Forever42]

We just got off the Eastern yesterday, and it was no big deal there - quick, painless. There was coffee, juice, water, pastries right outside the theater.

DH set his PDA to wake us at 5:45 since we had an early excursion, but his phone never went off with all those time changes...I woke at 6:15 saying, "oh no oh no oh no get up!" and we raced off to the theater with plenty of time.

We usually wake at 6AM during the week anyway, and this wasn't a huge deal for us since we had to meet for our excursion at 7:15. It definitely wouldn't deter us from doing the Eastern again.

 

[aan1701]

I understand that Disney is not incontrol of this. One thing they can control is, and if the ship can do it, is change the port line up. Also a 5:45 wake up? I do not even get up that early on the last day. I started this poll just to get a idea of thoughts and maybe someone from DCL will look in on it and maybe make the sugestion of a change for the benifit of the paying passenger. I thank everyone for responding and keep them coming.

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

I agree with you %100. I do beleive I was reading somewere once that someone was told the Magic could not do St. Marrten to Castaway with only one sea day.

I understand that Disney is not incontrol of this. One thing they can control is, and if the ship can do it, is change the port line up. Also a 5:45 wake up? I do not even get up that early on the last day. I started this poll just to get a idea of thoughts and maybe someone from DCL will look in on it and maybe make the sugestion of a change for the benifit of the paying passenger. I thank everyone for responding and keep them coming.

Basically they cannot change the Port line up, they have two full sea days to get down to St M, but only one full day to get from St T to Castaway.

On the down leg of the trip they have extra time to go the extra distance to St M

On the return trip they leave at St T 4.30pm, the last safest time they have, then basically 'motor' at top knots/speed, back up to Castaway. They basically are pushing it as fast as they can on that last leg. Hence when the Magic had some engine issues pre 'dry dock' it was arriving late at Castaway.

As the majority of responses say, its over in 15 mins they look after you very well, nd it isnt a major issue at all for anyone to worry about.

They could swap St T and Tortola around for those cruises as they are next door to each other, which would stop the immigration check for those special cruises but presume they didn't think of that.

 

[DMMarla07860]

it wouldn't be a problem for me to wake up, I can go to sleep at 4:00am and wake up at 7:30am, did that last time I was on the ship and I didn't take a nap the next day at all, but that is just me. Now the day I get back from vacation I usually sleep 10 hours that night, on vacation I usually only get 5-6 hours at most

 

[ibouncetoo]

They could swap St T and Tortola around for those cruises as they are next door to each other, which would stop the immigration check for those special cruises but presume they didn't think of that.

I've been wondering why thay didn't do just that? Although I'll gladly do the customs 'thing' if it was set up this way to be in port with fewer ships.

Note: haven't mentioned to this to the members of my family who will be cruising for the first time on our Tortola cruise. Big sister will NOT go out in public without being fully groomed, while little sister will probably just show up in her jammies then head back to bed!

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

I've been wondering why thay didn't do just that? Although I'll gladly do the customs 'thing' if it was set up this way to be in port with fewer ships.

Note: haven't mentioned to this to the members of my family who will be cruising for the first time on our Tortola cruise. Big sister will NOT go out in public without being fully groomed, while little sister will probably just show up in her jammies then head back to bed!

I think they didnt 'think' too much into it, just taking out St M and putting in Tortola or St Croix.

 

[lbgraves]

It might have something to do with the contract that they have at St. Thomas and there being availability on the day that the alternate ports are being visited. ????

 

[Andrew DEREK UK]

It might have something to do with the contract that they have at St. Thomas and there being availability on the day that the alternate ports are being visited. ????

Possible, but more contract than busy as the port cruise schedule shows only the Magic in either port / either day on my cruise.

 

[ontariomonkey]

6-6:30! My g@d that is inhumane! I am booked on the eastern and considering how few ports of call there are, having one crappy port day 'cause you have to get up so early really sucks imho.

 

[ibouncetoo]

Possible, but more contract than busy as the port cruise schedule shows only the Magic in either port / either day on my cruise.

OH, hope that's true for the Sept Tortola also!

 

[aan1701]

6-6:30! My g@d that is inhumane! I am booked on the eastern and considering how few ports of call there are, having one crappy port day 'cause you have to get up so early really sucks imho.

Sounds like someone understands were I cam coming from. For those of us who like to close Rockin Bar D it really stinks.

 

[dolphingirl47]

It definitely bothers us to the point that we wil not take an Eastern cruise even though I would love the extra sea day. I will get to see St. Maarten and as a bonus Tortola on the Westbound transatlantic so I am happy.

dolphingirl47

 

[aan1701]

It definitely bothers us to the point that we wil not take an Eastern cruise even though I would love the extra sea day. I will get to see St. Maarten and as a bonus Tortola on the Westbound transatlantic so I am happy.

dolphingirl47

Hey I see you are also on the Westbound Transatlantic. You are right in a way it is a bonus. Well see you on that one maybe. I am not joining the meet becose of my distain of the whole POC thing. I am so over it.

 

[dolphingirl47]

Hey I see you are also on the Westbound Transatlantic. You are right in a way it is a bonus. Well see you on that one maybe. I am not joining the meet becose of my distain of the whole POC thing. I am so over it.

I am not exactly a POC fan either. I watched the first movie, about 20 minutes of the second and refused to watch the third. We did not to the Pirate party on either of our two cruises and have no intention of changing this for the next two. There are some great people on the cruise meet thread though and by far not all are POC mad.

dolphingirl47

 

[lanand3]

I work the night shift so I can't help but stay up late and sleep in in the morning.I do my BEST sleeping between 4-9 am so 6am would be like torture to me Sooo,when we cruise next year we are taking the St Croix cruise.My kids also would stay up well past midnight and easily sleep til 9or10am.They are night owls like me

 

[frdeb1999]

We just returned from the Eastern and it was honestly no big thing to us. We purposely booked an early excursion for that morning. The whole process did'nt take 20mins in all. And we ate breakfast after and headed to our excursion. We had a wonderful time and would deffinately do the Eastern again!

 

[nikkistevej]

It didn't bother us too much- we went back to sleep for about 2 hours. LOL We don't have to get up for the Western right?

 

[aan1701]

It didn't bother us too much- we went back to sleep for about 2 hours. LOL We don't have to get up for the Western right?

No, no wake up early on the Western or Eastern to St Croix. That is the sole reason I booked the St. Croix cruise. I love sea days and it has an extra one and since waking up before 9 is such a hard thing for me it was the perfect match