Eclipse Tendering in St Thomas

[Fouremco]

Checkout the VIPA website.

 

According to their published port schedule for cruise ships during the next 11 months, Eclipse will be docking at Crown Bay (AMNS--Austin Monsanto North Side) on the following dates:

 

Dec 11 2013

Jan 22 2014

Feb 19

Mar 5

Mar 19

Apr 2

Apr 16

 

As for the other dates--Nov 27, Jan 8 and Feb 5 (Eclipse skips St Thomas on Dec 25)--there is no location specifically listed other than an ominous asterisk. We will be aboard Eclipse on Jan 8. With 5 other ships docking at St Thomas, Celebrity has our sailing designated for tendering.

On March 5, I believe the the Eclipse will be the smallest of five ships in port, so I'm surprised that it would be allocated a berth at Crown Bay. I was under the impression that Crown Bay was used by the larger ships while the smaller ones docked at Havensight.

 

[miched]

Interesting thought, but you are provided with the opportunity to do so and the money has been spent, whether or not you choose to take advantage of it. There are many common costs, from providing evening entertainment to keeping the swimming pools clean, but you don't get a refund for each activity that you don't participate in.

 

Nice try though! :)

 

 

I wouldn't expect to be reimbursed for the activities or other things that I do not use on board because it is all part of the cruise package. It is the same with the itinerary. I know when I sign up for the cruise it is part of the package but it would be nice to have the option. The amount isn't going to be a deal breaker but I wonder if it is mandatory or if the cruise lines just makes the blanket decision to make everyone pay.

 

If they did did charge port fee and it was applied to your folio as you left the ship I wonder how many would opt out of going ashore to save the money?

 

.🎃

[Fouremco]

I wouldn't expect to be reimbursed for the activities or other things that I do not use on board because it is all part of the cruise package.

I would postulate that there is nothing more intrinsic to the cruise package than the ports visited. Stopping at these ports are an integral part of the cruise package, not just an optional extra. Just my personal view.

 

[Lsimon]

I wouldn't expect to be reimbursed for the activities or other things that I do not use on board because it is all part of the cruise package. It is the same with the itinerary. I know when I sign up for the cruise it is part of the package but it would be nice to have the option. The amount isn't going to be a deal breaker but I wonder if it is mandatory or if the cruise lines just makes the blanket decision to make everyone pay.

 

If they did did charge port fee and it was applied to your folio as you left the ship I wonder how many would opt out of going ashore to save the money?

 

.🎃

While I have not researched it, I believe that the port fees are always charged on every passenger, or per ship, and the cruise lines do not have an option of paying only for those passengers that want to go ashore. I would think the fees cover a lot of the fixed expense of operating the port from maintenance of the dock and facilities, maintenance of the harbors to keep them navigable for large ships, port pilots, dock personnel, security, etc. And most of these costs are going to be fixed regardless of whether 10% or 99% of the passengers disembark. I also think the ports would never charge people only if they got off as that would provide a disincentive for them to go ashore and spend money.

[TravelerThom]

On March 5, I believe the the Eclipse will be the smallest of five ships in port, so I'm surprised that it would be allocated a berth at Crown Bay. I was under the impression that Crown Bay was used by the larger ships while the smaller ones docked at Havensight.

Eclipse does have approximately 100 passengers less than Carnival Conquest also in that day, but Eclipse is 12,000GRT larger than Conquest and 81 feet longer than Conquest. While it is true that O-class docks at Crown Bay [and I ASSUME that Havensight is not big enough for O-class], whenever I've been there it seems that Carnival Corp generally uses Crown Bay [including I think HAL always docks there, and their largest ship is less than 87,000GRT] and RCCL generally uses Havensight, even for Freedom-class. But when the docks start to fill up ships go wherever there is space.

 

Thom

[mahdnc]

On March 5, I believe the the Eclipse will be the smallest of five ships in port, so I'm surprised that it would be allocated a berth at Crown Bay. I was under the impression that Crown Bay was used by the larger ships while the smaller ones docked at Havensight.

 

 

If the asterisk on the cruise port schedule indicates tendering, then it looks like there is tendering on days when there are 6 ships at port.

[mahdnc]

Our cruise itinerary has changed and now shows we will tender in St Thomas :( Obviously this means hordes of people ashore. Has anyone tendered this port with Celebrity and know where the tenders dock?

 

Just thought I would give some information on how our tendering experience went aboard Eclipse when we anchored in St. Thomas on Jan 8 2014. I was very worried about it because we had to meet our ride (for scuba diving) at Havensight by 9:15am.

 

We were able to board the 1st tender that left Eclipse after the Shore Excursion passengers were taken care of. The tender dropped us off in the middle of Charlotte Amalie at 8:40am. As a whole tendering was pretty efficient. The tendering was done by Eclipse’s own boats (as opposed to a tendering service) and there were five tenders used simultaneously. Consequently there was virtually no waiting in line to grab a tender to or from shore. However the location that the tenders drop you off at is small and is crowded from the shore excursions passengers lining up for their tours (only a problems during the early part of the morning). Taxicabs were all parked on the other side of a very busy main street that fronts the island. We ended up meeting our ride at Havensight at 8:50am. The cab ride from downtown to Havensight was $4 per person.

 

Here is a photo to give you an idea of how things are laid out:

 

Edited January 16, 2014 by mahdnc

[TravelerThom]

...Here is a photo to give you an idea of how things are laid out:..

Not every picture is worth a thousand words, but some are. Yours might be worth two thousand:) toward understanding St. Thomas tendering.

[WestLakeGirl]

Great photo. for the rest of the season Eclipse is scheduled to dock at Crown bay, but there can be last minute changes at any time

[mahdnc]

Great photo. for the rest of the season Eclipse is scheduled to dock at Crown bay, but there can be last minute changes at any time

 

It looks like Eclipse will tender the next time she is in St. Thomas on Feb 5 as there will be 6 ships that day. After that, I guess you are right.

[miched]

I would rather tender than be at Crown Bay.

 

It appears as if tendering is better than having to pay and ride a cab into the town.

 

.⛄💨🍻🍸

[Fouremco]

I would rather tender than be at Crown Bay.

 

It appears as if tendering is better than having to pay and ride a cab into the town.

 

.⛄💨🍻🍸

Personally, I'd prefer to be able to disembark and reboard at my leisure rather than waste the time waiting for and taking the tenders. It's a short, inexpensive ride into town, if that's even where you are going. It's much easier and faster for many shore excursions to be picked up at Crown Bay than tendering in and being picked up down town.

[WestLakeGirl]

Itinerary shows her docked but last minute changes aren't uncommon

[mahdnc]

Not every picture is worth a thousand words, but some are. Yours might be worth two thousand:) toward understanding St. Thomas tendering.

 

Thanks for the words. The picture was worth $21. At least that was the cost to take the aerial tram up to the observation point that overlooks the bay!

 

Itinerary shows her docked but last minute changes aren't uncommon

 

Virgin Islands Port Authority have Westerdam and Allure of the Seas assigned to Crown Bay on Feb 5.

[RodPat]

We were on Eclipse over Thanksgiving 2012 like some others who posted here. We did have to tender that day but for us it was somewhat better because we were just going to walk around downtown. We had no trouble getting off and the tender took us right downtown. It was a little rough coming back and getting on. The big problem that day was that we were supposed to dock and many people had made private tours and now they were in the wrong spot. The captain that day was really mad but there was nothing he could do to change things. We have been to St. Thomas more times than I can count but for someone who has never been there it is a big disappointment.

 

Pat

[Swann5]

Just thought I would give some information on how our tendering experience went aboard Eclipse when we anchored in St. Thomas on Jan 8 2014. I was very worried about it because we had to meet our ride (for scuba diving) at Havensight by 9:15am.

 

We were able to board the 1st tender that left Eclipse after the Shore Excursion passengers were taken care of. The tender dropped us off in the middle of Charlotte Amalie at 8:40am. As a whole tendering was pretty efficient. The tendering was done by Eclipse’s own boats (as opposed to a tendering service) and there were five tenders used simultaneously. Consequently there was virtually no waiting in line to grab a tender to or from shore. However the location that the tenders drop you off at is small and is crowded from the shore excursions passengers lining up for their tours (only a problems during the early part of the morning). Taxicabs were all parked on the other side of a very busy main street that fronts the island. We ended up meeting our ride at Havensight at 8:50am. The cab ride from downtown to Havensight was $4 per person.

 

Here is a photo to give you an idea of how things are laid out:

 

 

Great photo! Where did you get it? I've been trying to find such a photo, but without the labels to print and frame, we just love the view of the St. Thomas port.

 

Dianne

[mahdnc]

Hello, Dianne

 

I took this photograph when we were at St. Thomas on Jan 8. The spot is called Paradise Point and it sits high above Havensight.

 

If you want to drop me an email at mahdnc at yahoo dot com, I would be more than happy to send you the jpg of this photo along with several other variations with Eclipse anchored in the bay.

 

Sorry that we did not meet you on the cruise, I assume you all had a good time?

 

David

[lopar]

We took at tour with Godfreys Tours earlier this month and he told us they've just finished the first stage of the expansion of Havensight, which was to start the digging of a deeper trench so larger ships can access it. He told us they plan to build another pier so all ships can dock in Havensight rather than Crown Bay.

 

I'm guessing each stage of the work is being timed for a quieter period for cruise ships, but it might impact who can dock there at some points. Tried searching for this story on the web but couldn't find anything, so I guess that's either local knowledge at this stage or he heard something that's not happening!

 

Denise

[Fouremco]

We took at tour with Godfreys Tours earlier this month and he told us they've just finished the first stage of the expansion of Havensight, which was to start the digging of a deeper trench so larger ships can access it. He told us they plan to build another pier so all ships can dock in Havensight rather than Crown Bay.

 

I'm guessing each stage of the work is being timed for a quieter period for cruise ships, but it might impact who can dock there at some points. Tried searching for this story on the web but couldn't find anything, so I guess that's either local knowledge at this stage or he heard something that's not happening!

 

Denise

Here are a few items giving a good overview of what's planned:

 

 

http://stcroixsource.com/content/news/local-news/2013/03/04/undercurrents-wico-readies-cruise-big-boys

 

http://virginislandsdailynews.com/news/wico-proposes-building-new-pier-in-st-thomas-harbor-1.1567637

[miched]

Celbrity has solved this problem starting in the fall of 2014 the Ecilpse will on be in St Thomas on only one scheduled cruise at this time, Jan 15 2015.

 

 

.

[lopar]

Here are a few items giving a good overview of what's planned:

 

 

http://stcroixsource.com/content/news/local-news/2013/03/04/undercurrents-wico-readies-cruise-big-boys

 

http://virginislandsdailynews.com/news/wico-proposes-building-new-pier-in-st-thomas-harbor-1.1567637

 

Interesting, thanks for posting those.

[Jeffrc1]

Just thought I would give some information on how our tendering experience went aboard Eclipse when we anchored in St. Thomas on Jan 8 2014. I was very worried about it because we had to meet our ride (for scuba diving) at Havensight by 9:15am.

 

We were able to board the 1st tender that left Eclipse after the Shore Excursion passengers were taken care of. The tender dropped us off in the middle of Charlotte Amalie at 8:40am. As a whole tendering was pretty efficient. The tendering was done by Eclipse’s own boats (as opposed to a tendering service) and there were five tenders used simultaneously. Consequently there was virtually no waiting in line to grab a tender to or from shore. However the location that the tenders drop you off at is small and is crowded from the shore excursions passengers lining up for their tours (only a problems during the early part of the morning). Taxicabs were all parked on the other side of a very busy main street that fronts the island. We ended up meeting our ride at Havensight at 8:50am. The cab ride from downtown to Havensight was $4 per person.

 

Here is a photo to give you an idea of how things are laid out:

 

 

I had exactly the opposite experience. I too was on the Eclipse when it tendered in St. Thomas Jan 8th. The Eclipse was one of 8 ships at St Thomas that day or close to 30K cruise passengers. I am D+ on RCCL so on this cruise we were Elite and got to take the first tender. i will agree that the process was smooth. I heard the officers state that they were scrambling for tenders but couldn't find any so they had to use the lifeboats(not by choice or design). Since we were the first to arrive ashore (8:20) we thought that getting a cab would be no issue, but all the cabs were there for the ship sponsored excursions. Then we walked a ways to try and catch a cab to DT, with the intent of trying to get to redhook for the ferry. We caught on DT but were refused by 30 taxis to go to redhook once DT. Finally one said Ok but wanted to get more passengers first. We waited 30 minutes got frustrated and left. walked back to the tender to get back on the ship. They stopped calling numbers for the tenders/lifeboats about 1PM. Never will I get off on St Thomas in this type of a situation again. It may have been fine for those that wanted to shop DT but for everything else it was awful.

 

What the photo doesn't show is the other tendered ship later next to the Eclipse and the two other ships that arrived later in Crown Bay.

[mahdnc]

What the photo doesn't show is the other tendered ship later next to the Eclipse and the two other ships that arrived later in Crown Bay.

 

Hi Jeff and Jen,

 

I guess you are saying that your experience with tendering was the same but with the taxis were different? After getting off the tender, we crossed the street to where all the taxis were parked and had to look hard to find one that would take us immediately to Havensight as they all wanted to wait and get their vehicles loaded up before leaving (we could not afford to wait). It was a bit of a zoo over there.

 

I took the photograph at about 11am local time. One of the two ships going to Crown Bay is indeed in the photograph (Carnival Conquest, in the photo it was executing a turn to line up with the pier). The other ship going to Crown Bay that day--Allure of the Seas--had not arrived yet and so it was not in the picture.

 

What did you guys end up doing on New Year's Day in Curacao?

 

David

Edited January 17, 2014 by mahdnc

[Jeffrc1]

Hi Jeff and Jen,

 

I guess you are saying that your experience with tendering was the same but with the taxis were different? After getting off the tender, we crossed the street to where all the taxis were parked and had to look hard to find one that would take us immediately to Havensight as they all wanted to wait and get their vehicles loaded up before leaving (we could not afford to wait). It was a bit of a zoo over there.

 

I took the photograph at about 11am local time. One of the two ships going to Crown Bay is indeed in the photograph (Carnival Conquest, in the photo it was executing a turn to line up with the pier). The other ship going to Crown Bay that day--Allure of the Seas--had not arrived yet and so it was not in the picture.

 

What did you guys end up doing on New Year's Day in Curacao?

 

David

 

We got up late because of NYE (very impressive firework display on Aruba/they love fireworks) so we decided to go to the fort and use the free WiFi. Originally we wanted to go to Playa Kenepa (sp?). Couldn't find a place online before we got there that had car rentals on the 1st, so we had determined we would try a taxi. So as a curiosity I asked at the taxi stand near the ship and they weren't interested. I later heard that the cabs in town were more willing to take people different places. It seemed that the taxi cab stand was for two things. Tours of things you could walk to (floating bridge, fort, etc) for $20/pp (8-10). Or they wanted to take you to Mambo Beach which by 11AM was bound to be packed as it is a small beach. no less that 150 people took cabs there while I was surveying the taxis to see about different locations.

 

After the fort we walked into DT not expecting much given it was a holiday, but we enjoyed the walk. At about 1PM we went back to the ship, ate lunch, and enjoyed the almost empty pool until about 3PM.

 

On a side note the ship that was near DT looked like the Monarch of the Seas. At a minimum it was an old RCCL ship.

[mahdnc]

We got up late because of NYE (very impressive firework display on Aruba/they love fireworks)

 

On a side note the ship that was near DT looked like the Monarch of the Seas. At a minimum it was an old RCCL ship.

 

The fireworks over Aruba blew me away. I think we are all thankful that Captain Manetas held the ship's position off the Aruba coast during NYE for us to see it.

 

We ended up doing a couple of scuba dives with a company that was thankfully open on New Year's Day. We did not explore any of the port, fort, etc. I guess we are leaving something for next time.

 

You are right about the old RCCL ship that was with us at Willemstad. It was the old Monarch of the Seas doing cruise duty for Pullmantur.

Edited January 17, 2014 by mahdnc