Why does Sea Dream overnight in St. Thomas?

[dewla]

OK, this is weird. Our first night on the Sea Dream I, the ship is not sailing to somewhere else. It is overnighting in St. Thomas at the dock in Havensight. Yuch. Then will be in St. John at 6am on Mon. (Nov 27th departure)

Has anyone else done this? Why don't they just anchor off of St. John or somewhere pretty?

We like to be on deck while the ship is cruising during the day. Does it always cruise at night in the dark?

Oh well.

[DisneyJen]

We had the same situation when we sailed STT-STT last December. We boarded at 2 p.m., unpacked, changed into swimsuits, grabbed our books and headed up to the Balinese sun beds. It was a nice way to start the trip, meeting fellow passengers as we all gathered on the the top deck. The view out over Charlotte Amalie is lovely. It was also nice, after dinner to watch the lights of St. Thomas.

 

The next morning we were up early, having coffee as we made our way to St. John. Interestingly, it wasn't the "straight" shot from CA to Cruz Bay that the ferry runs. It was a slow, leisurely picturesque cruise out and around to St. John.

 

On our cruise, SD cruised either in the early early morning hours or around sunset. We had a beautiful sunset cruise from St. John through Drake's Channel and the BVIs where we caught up with the other SD ship. The sail from Anguilla was beautiful at sunset as well.

 

One of the things that is interesting is that final evening leaving Jost and then just sort of floating off of St. John and STT.

 

Not sure why they don't anchor off of STT or STJ that first night.

 

One of the reasons we picked the itinerary we did for this year's trip is that we love sea days.

[dewla]

Thanks for replying. I guess I just like the part about getting on a ship and then taking off for somewhere.......seems a little anti-climatic. But I am sure once it is dark the lights will be pretty. Sitting at dock at Havensight Pier is not that attractive in the daytime!

 

I also love the sea days, thus our dilemma with choosing our itinerary, since the one from Barbados to STT is a longer route, I am sure there is more time at sea than the one we finally selected. But I am sure it will be a fabulous trip no matter what!!

 

(Still deciding where to stay that first night--hate the idea of paying $383 for a Marriott........ Caneel Bay sounds so nice, but maybe a little too difficult to get to for one night!)

[DisneyJen]

Glad to share your experiences.

 

DH and I really went back and forth on Caneel. What it came down to for us was that DH wants to get off the ship and have a short taxi ride so he can relax on the beach or at the pool. He also figured after a week of wonder SD cuisine he will be ready for cheeseburgers at CoCo Joes:p The other issue was that we figure we have to be at the STT airport by 2 for our flight home ... which would mean leaving Caneel around noon for transit ... this way we can stay on the beach until 1:30:D

 

Actually the port side when you are at Havensight isn't that bad. It's a pretty view of the harbor ... granted it isn't STJ ... but what's better than being on a cruise.

 

You will have a wonderful trip!