Dawn - arriving to St. Thomas

[Seasoned Cruiser]

Hi, everyone.

My question is to those who recently sailed on Dawn: what is the real time they arrive to St Thomas?

Considering it is usually on Sunday, it makes a difference in planning ahead. I used to enjoy a stroll on Main street (with all the appropriate shopping) and then we went to Megan Beach.

The previous time we went on Dawn we arrived at 2pm, cleared by 3 pm and then with tenders and lines we were ashore at about 4 pm. Not enough time for even the beach, forget the shopping. And why tenders in St Thomas???

And I had heard from other passengers that being late to St Thomas is more like a rule than an exception. Is that so?

[DawnCruise05]

I wasn't aware the Dawn was going to St.Thomas...is that on the 10 or 11 day itinerary? It wasn't on the 7 day or on the 11 day Holiday cruise.

[Baitman19]

We sailed last December to the Southern Caribbean on ther Dawn. St. Thomas was our first port. Got there 4 hours late because of Azipod problems. We could only do 19kts but on our next cruise they were able to do 25kts.

 

I looked on the NCL website and St. Thomas is the first port on it's 10 day cruise to the Eastern Caribbean. It says it gets in at 11:00am and stays until 7pm.

 

It's a 2 1/2 day sail to St Thomas from New York and if the weather cooperates and azipods are working properly, then you should make it on time.

 

Happy Sailing

 

Monty

[Seasoned Cruiser]

Hi, Monty. We sailed in January 2005 and were 4 hours late to St Thomas. The day was wasted for both shopping and beach.

Same reasons were given, lower speed, this and that. I had read the posts before and after our cruise complaining on the same problem.

I want to find someone who was on time in St Thomas, because I have a strong suspicion NCL does it every cruise and does it for a reason.

[mortysmama]

On our February... 11 day So. Caribbean cruise our arrival to St. Thomas was also going to be late. Instead...they changed the itinerary and we went to Puerto Rico first, an unscheduled port, then the next day arrived at St Thomas early about 12:00pm. That gave us plenty of time to shop and visit beaches if we chose to. Because of this change we never did get to Grenada, a port I was looking forward to. I don't understand what the problem seems to be with St Thomas.

 

Happy cruising!

[Baitman19]

The Dawn was late for a while because of Azipod problems. They were even skipping Tortola for a while so they could make it back to New York on time.

 

They went into drydock in Freeport in April and the problems were fixed. That's why in May we were able to do 25kts down and back.

 

They seem to have been on time getting back to New York since the Mother's Day fiacso.

 

Keep the engines running smooth, we'll be boarding on Sunday

 

Happy Sailing

 

Monty

[moinma]

We were on the southern caribbean cruise in January also. I believe we arrived in St. Thomas on time. Our problem was that due to rough waters, the tenders couldn't get close enough to the ship to safely take on passengers. We were many hours late getting to shore and there were a lot of angry people. For this reason, the captain called ahead and made sure we wouldn't have to tender on any other stops; I guess we were supposed to tender a couple more times.

[Welove2cruise2]

We were on the Dawn cruise on 11/28, and St. Thomas was supposed to be our first stop. Due to azipod issues, our first stop ended up being St. Croix. We then followed our regular itinerary, but skipped Grenada (due to hurricane damage) and were in Dominica one day ahead. We were in St. Thomas on Sunday. It was a hassle because we had to go through customs and immigration (it was probably more trouble for the large number of Europeans on the ship) and people were extremely unpleasant. Not a big deal -- 50 minutes from the time we got in line until we were cleared to leave. Stores stayed open late knowing we were there.

 

Enjoy your cruise!