St Croix news article

[mrstbalt]

I was searching for any additional pictures or articles besides the ones posted here on the boards and I came across this.
It's from a local newspaper from the islands. Don't know if anyone has seen this yet. We are not going on this cruise until December. That is lots of time for improvements.

http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=17632535

 

[sftnslky]

Wow it sounds like is was really bad...I personally haven't read any cruise reports about the bad service, but since we are going in Sept I might start. I also found this quote in the artical very interesting.."after the commissioner met with Disney officials, she and Gov. John Dejongh Jr. sat down with everyone involved in the tourist industry on St. Croix - taxi drivers, tour operators, shop owners and vendors. "We had a very candid discussion...She said the message was well-received and most people understood that the criticism was NOT coming from the government or the department, BUT cruise passengers themselves.

I might be reading to much into this statement, but it sounds to me as if they are throwing the cruise passengers under the bus so to speak??? Thanks again for posting this articel.

 

[jezebella]

The ppl of St. Croix were very nice and when we were there last week, they had local news crews down at the dock reporting on the Magic returning. I think the problem with St. Croix is that there's really nothing there. The comparison between it and St. Thomas is huge!!!

 

[tvguy]

Wow. Cruise ships have been calling on St. Croix for a long time. My first three cruises, in 1980, 1983 and 1984 called there. You'd think they'd know how to handle cruise ship passengers.

 

[mrstbalt]

I just don't think they were as prepared as they should have been or thought they were. Regardless of where the criticism came from, hopefully it's a learning experience for everyone involved and will make things better as time goes on. Customer service is part of what will bring people back. People should research the places they will be traveling, so they know what to expect. Ok off to work.

 

[brucechase]

I chalk this up to what makes the Disney experience a little better than most.

If people aren't happy, then Disney will try to correct that problem. I just wonder if other cruise lines would (or did) take their customer's complaints to heart and try to correct that problem.

 

[jrabbit]

Wow. Cruise ships have been calling on St. Croix for a long time. My first three cruises, in 1980, 1983 and 1984 called there. You'd think they'd know how to handle cruise ship passengers.

but it has been at least 3 years since a cruise ship has stopped here. The Jan 3 sailing of the Magic was the first ship in years to stop - they (St. Croix Tourism) are out of practice

I just don't think they were as prepared as they should have been or thought they were. Regardless of where the criticism came from, hopefully it's a learning experience for everyone involved and will make things better as time goes on. Customer service is part of what will bring people back. People should research the places they will be traveling, so they know what to expect. Ok off to work.

I agree that they were not as prepared as they could have been - but we were the first ship to stop there. Taking tourists on excursions from a ship is different than land based tourists. - Time constraints are real in dealing with cruisers - not so much for the land based tourists. Part of the "problem" was that some of the tours had moring and afternoon departures and the morning tours ran long so the afternoon tours were cancelled - good if you were on the morning excursion - and bad if you were on the afternoon one.

I chalk this up to what makes the Disney experience a little better than most.

If people aren't happy, then Disney will try to correct that problem. I just wonder if other cruise lines would (or did) take their customer's complaints to heart and try to correct that problem.

I don't know if any other ship has stopped there yet this year - if not then when they do they will have benefited from DCL's experience and working with the tourism folks on St. Croix.

 

[KJF]

We docked at St. Croix on a Carnival Cruise in 1999 - I thought I heard though right after that the cruise lines stopped going there. I thought it was due to safety issues? I know there wasn't much back then when we went. We did snorkling, which was a total disappointment, esp since it was our first time ever doing it. Luckily, we did try it again in St. Thomas the next year & loved it.

 

[plutojudy]

We were on the first cruise there, Jan 3, the people were all very nice. Even prior to our cruise I did not feel that Disney "did their homework". Their Shopping in Paradise map had nothing on it. In fact the shopping girl told us not to shop in St Croix. We had a map of Christiansted that we received in the mail. It showed places to shop and we did. We bought a CD at Riddim's Music and I bought a Caribbean Hook bracelet at the Silver Angel. If we had more time we would have shopped more. We only had an hour there and some of the people on our tour were whinners. Our tour bus driver was very informative and we enjoyed the sights he showed us.

 

[mrstbalt]

We docked at St. Croix on a Carnival Cruise in 1999 - I thought I heard though right after that the cruise lines stopped going there. I thought it was due to safety issues? I know there wasn't much back then when we went. We did snorkling, which was a total disappointment, esp since it was our first time ever doing it. Luckily, we did try it again in St. Thomas the next year & loved it.

Where did you snorkel? We were looking at going to Buck Island and there was also some 4x4 jeep tour with a stop somewhere that looked interesting.