St Thomas - Why Not Dock At 8 AM

[Cruiser21]

Why can't Oasis and Allure dock at 8 am instead of 9 am in St Thomas? A lot of the private full day charters for snorkeling and St John leave at 9 am. Im sure they could make it into St Thomas by 8 am is there a reason for this.

[macruisefan]

Yes. $$$$$$$

 

They pay big bucks to be at the pier. They're not going to be any longer than they have to.

 

In addition, the longer they are there, the easier it is to do non RCI excursions.

 

So, the longer at pier, the more money they lose!

 

Rule of thumb... Cruise for the ship. If you want to visit an island, take a vacation there!

[Cruiser21]

They could be in at 8 and leave by 5, same hours at dock. They extended the Nassua stop by 1 hour, used to be 2 know it departs at 3 so they must be paying more for Nassua. I would rather have extra time in St Thomas, just saying.

[Jiffymom]

according to the itinerary June 15 Oasis they did not change Nassau time. It still says 2 o'clock. I would love if they change it.

[Langley Cruisers]

A lot of the private full day charters for snorkeling and St John leave at 9 am.

 

Oasis is a huge ship with the potential to sell hundreds, or thousands of private tour spots. I'm sure you'll find more than adequate opportunities. The local tour companies would not turn their backs on Oasis passengers. :)

 

.

[Cruiser21]

according to the itinerary June 15 Oasis they did not change Nassau time. It still says 2 o'clock. I would love if they change it.

 

Yes you are correct, Allure changed to 3 pm departure and not Oasis. Not sure why Oasis is still 2pm departure

[cctimmom]

according to the itinerary June 15 Oasis they did not change Nassau time. It still says 2 o'clock. I would love if they change it.

 

this is correct... we were just on the Disney Dream and watched Oasis pull out at 2pm... (it was AWESOME!)

[akcruz]

Yes you are correct, Allure changed to 3 pm departure and not Oasis. Not sure why Oasis is still 2pm departure

 

Sunday vs Monday? Maybe ports fees differ?

[Smurphy]

Why can't Oasis and Allure dock at 8 am instead of 9 am in St Thomas? A lot of the private full day charters for snorkeling and St John leave at 9 am. Im sure they could make it into St Thomas by 8 am is there a reason for this.

 

We always book a private independent tour on the islands (tour for just our family.) It costs a little bit more but since it is just our group, they pick us up and drop us off at the time of our choosing.

[mo&fran]

MAybe it depends on the time of the year. Caribbean islands do not switch to daylight savings time in the summer, so in the winter their time is different that Eastern time. In the summer, it is the same.

[smoosh21]

On the opposite side of this, I wonder why the Monarch stays in port at Nassau until Midnight??

 

It is not as if the island is that big where excursions take 7-8 hours. I would think that they would like to have everybody back on board by 7 or 8, so that people could be back drinking at the ships bars, versus Senior Frogs in town.

[tahqa]

On the opposite side of this, I wonder why the Monarch stays in port at Nassau until Midnight??

 

It is not as if the island is that big where excursions take 7-8 hours. I would think that they would like to have everybody back on board by 7 or 8, so that people could be back drinking at the ships bars, versus Senior Frogs in town.

 

It's not like Monarch has to go very far to get to Coco Cay. :rolleyes:

 

 

I've overnighted in Nassau before whilst on Monarch (because of weather preventing Coco Cay tendering) and probably would have rather have had the sea day. Nassau gets a bit scary after dark. :eek:

[negc]

Local port authorities generally dictate when ships arrive and depart and the fees are frequently tied to the hours a ship is docked. Regardless of whether the ship in question arrives at 8 or 9 am, there is generally enough time to complete a full day's excursion, and you can be certain that the private tour operators are more than willing to adjust their schedules to accommodate any line which is delivering up to 6,000 passengers on each visit.:)

[meggie711]

It's not like Monarch has to go very far to get to Coco Cay. :rolleyes:

 

 

I've overnighted in Nassau before whilst on Monarch (because of weather preventing Coco Cay tendering) and probably would have rather have had the sea day. Nassau gets a bit scary after dark. :eek:

 

We did Sovereign on my first cruise and were in Nassau late at night. I think we had to be back on the ship around 1 or 2am (long time ago, memory is fuzzy), and we had been over at Bahama Boom. We were a little bit nervous but glad to be in a group on our way back to the ship!

[Host Faith]

Why can't Oasis and Allure dock at 8 am instead of 9 am in St Thomas? A lot of the private full day charters for snorkeling and St John leave at 9 am. Im sure they could make it into St Thomas by 8 am is there a reason for this.

 

I remember contacting a couple of the well-known private charters in St. Thomas for our cruise last year. We changed our minds and went to St. John instead, but I do recall the tour operators being okay with adjusting the meeting time, especially if you chartered the whole sailboat for yourselves.

[smoosh21]

It's not like Monarch has to go very far to get to Coco Cay. :rolleyes:

 

 

I've overnighted in Nassau before whilst on Monarch (because of weather preventing Coco Cay tendering) and probably would have rather have had the sea day. Nassau gets a bit scary after dark. :eek:

 

I hope this doesn't happen to us. I too would rather spend the day out at sea.

[Cruiser21]

I remember contacting a couple of the well-known private charters in St. Thomas for our cruise last year. We changed our minds and went to St. John instead, but I do recall the tour operators being okay with adjusting the meeting time, especially if you chartered the whole sailboat for yourselves.[/

 

 

Most private full day sailboat charters leave at 9 am, so if you are unable to charter the sailboat for yourself they will not wait for you to get to Red Hook as they have other people that have booked for a 9 am departure. Not all the people that go on private charters are on the same ships or may be staying on the island.

[hubofhockey]

We booked Simplicity Day Sail and they moved the start to 10:30 and the end to 4:30 to accommodate us. We are on the Allure and they probably feel confident that they can easily fill the last two spots (we have four) with Allure or other passengers.

 

Our Naasau day ends at 3. That must have been changed. I thought when we booked that it was 2.

[negc]

I remember contacting a couple of the well-known private charters in St. Thomas for our cruise last year. We changed our minds and went to St. John instead, but I do recall the tour operators being okay with adjusting the meeting time, especially if you chartered the whole sailboat for yourselves.[/

 

 

Most private full day sailboat charters leave at 9 am, so if you are unable to charter the sailboat for yourself they will not wait for you to get to Red Hook as they have other people that have booked for a 9 am departure. Not all the people that go on private charters are on the same ships or may be staying on the island.

 

That may be true in many instances, but you might be amazed at how flexible they can be if it is profitable for them to do so. With 6,000 cruisers from which to draw sufficient customers to fill their sailboat, they may be more than willing to wait for a group to get to Red Hook. It doesn't do any harm to ask.

[JKHawaii]

In 2010, the ship pilots who must be on board the cruise ships when they enter the harbor went on strike, stranding several cruise ships off the coast of st thomas. One of the pilots' demands was that they not have to get out of bed too early to go meet the cruise ships in the morning............... You know, the island time thing. So, a compromise was reached so that the pilots could come into work at a reasonable time (for them). Thus, the 9am docking time for the allure.

[Host Faith]

 

That may be true in many instances, but you might be amazed at how flexible they can be if it is profitable for them to do so. With 6,000 cruisers from which to draw sufficient customers to fill their sailboat, they may be more than willing to wait for a group to get to Red Hook. It doesn't do any harm to ask.

 

Yup, no harm in asking. Especially if you're chartering the boat for yourselves. That's what we were planning to do and they had no problem adjusting the time. :)