Vacationdreamer<>< Posted September 28, 2017 #176 Share Posted September 28, 2017 Interesting. In my original MSC Roll Call it's being reported that MSC has swapped out SXM for St John for cruises 12/23-3/17. Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karysa Posted September 28, 2017 #177 Share Posted September 28, 2017 (edited) Interesting. In my original MSC Roll Call it's being reported that MSC has swapped out SXM for St John for cruises 12/23-3/17. Sent from my iPhone using Forums Do you mean St John's, Antigua. St John's Antigua is where ships port in Antigua. Edited September 28, 2017 by Karysa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karysa Posted September 28, 2017 #178 Share Posted September 28, 2017 Damage estimate for St-Martin (FR) is about 2.5 billion euros. You can have all the regatta or Diamond shop you want, they will not make a dent in the recovery. Good for them if they can operate. Money is mostly coming from the respective gov. Add to that the revised building code they are working on, construction permit and all the red tape, they do not want to repeat the mistake that happen after Hurricane Luis in 95'. St Martin (FR) is the French side of the island. The Regatta is held on the Dutch side where most of the Diamond "shops" are as well. The St. Maarten (Dutch) side of the island gets most of the revenue from Cruise ships and their passengers. The tourists create jobs and with the salary from their job the islanders can by food, gas, clothes and pay their utility bills. This can not be overstated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vacationdreamer<>< Posted September 28, 2017 #179 Share Posted September 28, 2017 Do you mean St John's, Antigua. St John's Antigua is where ships port in Antigua. Yes. I wonder why not SXM. Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karysa Posted September 28, 2017 #180 Share Posted September 28, 2017 Yes. I wonder why not SXM. Sent from my iPhone using Forums I don't think MSC has many ships in the Caribbean and Antigua was probably available for the dates they wanted so I think that they switched instead of having to play the wait and see game. It's a nice island so go and enjoy.:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltnccruisers Posted September 28, 2017 #181 Share Posted September 28, 2017 St Martin (FR) is the French side of the island. The Regatta is held on the Dutch side where most of the Diamond "shops" are as well. The St. Maarten (Dutch) side of the island gets most of the revenue from Cruise ships and their passengers. The tourists create jobs and with the salary from their job the islanders can by food, gas, clothes and pay their utility bills. This can not be overstated. Bingo! We're still hoping that by March we can get cash into the hands of locals to feed their families. Couldn't care less about Diamonds International, frankly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vacationdreamer<>< Posted September 29, 2017 #182 Share Posted September 29, 2017 I don't think MSC has many ships in the Caribbean and Antigua was probably available for the dates they wanted so I think that they switched instead of having to play the wait and see game. It's a nice island so go and enjoy.:) My trip isn't until June. We will likely be back to SXM. Although ... it's Puerto Rico we were most hoping to visit. Time will tell there. [emoji173] Sent from my iPhone using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SouthCaribbean2017 Posted September 30, 2017 #183 Share Posted September 30, 2017 Still wondering if anyone knows what happened to Sarafina's in Marigot and the Guavaberry Emporium in Phillipsburg? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jnrmitchell Posted September 30, 2017 #184 Share Posted September 30, 2017 Damage estimate for St-Martin (FR) is about 2.5 billion euros. You can have all the regatta or Diamond shop you want, they will not make a dent in the recovery. Good for them if they can operate. Money is mostly coming from the respective gov. Add to that the revised building code they are working on, construction permit and all the red tape, they do not want to repeat the mistake that happen after Hurricane Luis in 95'. Sent from my iPad using Forums Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karysa Posted October 4, 2017 #185 Share Posted October 4, 2017 October 10th is the date when PJIA will be ready to resume all passenger flights. The schedule will be lighter than in the past as many resorts and timeshares are still in reconstruction but this is the scheduled date. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thecruisers6 Posted October 5, 2017 #186 Share Posted October 5, 2017 KLM plans to resume limited service with an A330 October 29th. gary That’s great news Gary, I’ve just seen the D webcam and it looks like Ziggy is carrying sensitive monitoring equipment to a cabin? Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karysa Posted October 5, 2017 #187 Share Posted October 5, 2017 That’s great news Gary,I’ve just seen the D webcam and it looks like Ziggy is carrying sensitive monitoring equipment to a cabin? Mark Gary can you please translate this for me?:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtaylor Posted October 6, 2017 Author #188 Share Posted October 6, 2017 That’s great news Gary,I’ve just seen the D webcam and it looks like Ziggy is carrying sensitive monitoring equipment to a cabin? Mark :) gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gtaylor Posted October 6, 2017 Author #189 Share Posted October 6, 2017 Gary can you please translate this for me?:D The 'D' is the MSC Divina, and 'Ziggy' is our friend, the Hotel Director. There will probably be a follow-up if the 'sensitive equipment' functions as hoped. gary Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cltnccruisers Posted October 6, 2017 #190 Share Posted October 6, 2017 According to Celeb's website even though the govt on St Maarten plans to accept ships starting Nov 11 X will not be visiting until after the first of the year. By the tourism minister's own admission, Nov 11 is somewhat symbolic so this is probably a good decision. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karysa Posted October 6, 2017 #191 Share Posted October 6, 2017 According to Celeb's website even though the govt on St Maarten plans to accept ships starting Nov 11 X will not be visiting until after the first of the year. By the tourism minister's own admission, Nov 11 is somewhat symbolic so this is probably a good decision. I heard they will only have 2 berths at the beginning which is also good IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karysa Posted October 6, 2017 #192 Share Posted October 6, 2017 :):) The 'D' is the MSC Divina, and 'Ziggy' is our friend, the Hotel Director. There will probably be a follow-up if the 'sensitive equipment' functions as hoped. gary I will be following.:D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruiseAddict8354 Posted October 13, 2017 #193 Share Posted October 13, 2017 We're booked on a cruise next month that was supposed to visit St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Antigua, and St. Kitts. Is there any update on how things are going at those places, especially St. Maarten which was so badly hit? Wondering if we should cancel / postpone. Paying for a cruise is a huge thing for us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SensFan11 Posted October 13, 2017 #194 Share Posted October 13, 2017 We're booked on a cruise next month that was supposed to visit St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Antigua, and St. Kitts. Is there any update on how things are going at those places, especially St. Maarten which was so badly hit? Wondering if we should cancel / postpone. Paying for a cruise is a huge thing for us. I see you're cruising on Grandeur...Royal Caribbean announced yesterday that Grandeur of the Seas will be the first ship to return to St. Maarten on Nov. 5th, so I'd expect you'll go there on your sailing. St. Thomas is still recovering, but expected to open to cruises in the next month or so. Antigua and St. Kitts were minimally affected and are open for business as usual. One thing I would expect is that the experience in the nations that were most profoundly affected (Puerto Rico, USVI, British VI, St. Maarten, Barbuda, Dominica) is that while they may reopen to cruise ship passengers, full recovery of facilities will take much longer. Royal Caribbean regularly updates the status of individual sailings here: https://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/royal/US/en_US/cruise-ships/itinerary-updates Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kateg Posted October 13, 2017 #195 Share Posted October 13, 2017 We're booked on a cruise next month that was supposed to visit St. Maarten, St. Thomas, Antigua, and St. Kitts. Is there any update on how things are going at those places, especially St. Maarten which was so badly hit? Wondering if we should cancel / postpone. Paying for a cruise is a huge thing for us. Here is an update from today https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/13/travel/caribbean-tourism-hurricane-recovery.html We sail Nov 12 and so far RCI hasn't changed our itinerary (Although they said they would let us know 30 days out). I'm afraid they will send us to San Juan and St. Maarten. According to the update I posted above these islands are really not ready for tourists. I would love to cancel but it is too late for us. Like you, a cruise is a HUGE big deal for us. We don't cruise often and we haven't been able to go on vacation for a long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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