Antigua Stops Cancelled?

[patrickmoran]

I saw on the Port of Calls boards that Carnival is cancelling all Antigua stops. Is Princess following this?

[bemis12]

Is that new news? Carnival stopped going there in March, but rescinded that in the next month.

 

 The last I knew carnival was still sailing there 

[MissP22]

What was the problem?

[canadarocks]

Old news. Princess cruises are still scheduled to head to Antigua.

[Haboob]

Part of now-competed port-fees negotiations.

[reedprincess]

1 hour ago, MissP22 said:

What was the problem?

Carnvial attempted to boycott Antigua in an attempt to pressure them to change the winner of the port development contract, along with being in protest if changes in port fees. 

They rescinded their boycott in about a month and reinstated port calls.. 

Antigua kept the port development contract with the original winner. 

[satxdiver]

Old news.  Carnival Corp has since reinstated Antigua as a stopping port. 

[jpom18]

My Feb 2020 Circle Caribbean cruise cancelled Antigua and replaced with St. Maarten.  I was notified of this on June 6th, not sure on the reasons (it may be completely unreleated) or when the cancellation actually took place, just when i got the email.

 

I have since cancelled the cruise so wasn't interested enough to spend the time trying to determine the reasons.

Edited July 23, 2019 by jpom18

[kitty2264]

Our Nov 2019 cruise on CB also cancelled Antigua.  That was a big disappointment to us but we stayed with it even though they replaced it with St. Maarten.

[BarbinMich]

I believe the big attractions for cruisers to Antigua are their beaches.  Since we aren't beach people, we either stay on the ship or have occasionally taken an excursion.  Enjoyed the last one we did which took us to the other side of the island and Nelson's Dock Yard.  In the past we have also enjoyed walking around town, but that apparently isn't a good idea these days.

[reedprincess]

16 hours ago, jpom18 said:

My Feb 2020 Circle Caribbean cruise cancelled Antigua and replaced with St. Maarten.  I was notified of this on June 6th, not sure on the reasons (it may be completely unreleated) or when the cancellation actually took place, just when i got the email.

 

I have since cancelled the cruise so wasn't interested enough to spend the time trying to determine the reasons.

That was long before the dust-up with Carnival.  Unrelated. 

May have been dock load or other logistical conflicts. May have been any number of things. 

But it definitely want related to the very short lived boycott, that was mainly reversed anyways. 

[reedprincess]

1 hour ago, BarbinMich said:

I believe the big attractions for cruisers to Antigua are their beaches.  Since we aren't beach people, we either stay on the ship or have occasionally taken an excursion.  Enjoyed the last one we did which took us to the other side of the island and Nelson's Dock Yard.  In the past we have also enjoyed walking around town, but that apparently isn't a good idea these days.

Why not? There's no travel warnings or anything in place for Antigua. It's as safe as most any Caribbean country, and safer than some others (Turks come to mind, at a Level 2 warning from US State Department)..

[Colo Cruiser]

It is still a stop for us on a Crown cruise in Oct.

Never had an issue walking all over town there.

Last time I was there I went with a couple of crew to Jolly Beach and a local policeman took us in his private van and came and picked us up.

[MauiLvrs]

On 7/22/2019 at 4:44 PM, canadarocks said:

Old news. Princess cruises are still scheduled to head to Antigua.

Ours was redirected to St. Marteen instead....

[Go-Bucks!]

I'm currently on Oceania Insignia and we were in Antigua today. I walked around the pier shopping area but I'm not comfortable walking further into town.  A man on the ship walked to the cathedral but it was boarded up...he said he didn't feel safe either. 

[MissP22]

8 hours ago, Go-Bucks! said:

I'm currently on Oceania Insignia and we were in Antigua today. I walked around the pier shopping area but I'm not comfortable walking further into town.  A man on the ship walked to the cathedral but it was boarded up...he said he didn't feel safe either. 

We've been there many times & have walked throughout the city without any problems. I guess it's just what you feel safe with.

I imagine you don't walk around other islands either. 

[Kingofcool1947]

7 hours ago, MissP22 said:

We've been there many times & have walked throughout the city without any problems. I guess it's just what you feel safe with.

I imagine you don't walk around other islands either. 

 

Mugging, shootings, rape, and murder of tourists.  Is it worth it?  Do not walk around these places alone?

And how about Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, anyone?  Why Oceania (and other cruise lines) continue to use these unsafe countries/ ports of call in the Caribbean puzzles me.

Edited July 25, 2019 by Kingofcool1947

[sfaaa]

7 hours ago, MissP22 said:

 

I imagine you don't walk around other islands either. 

Not unless I see soldiers and police patrolling with machine guns. Now that's safety.

[Baystate]

8 hours ago, MissP22 said:

We've been there many times & have walked throughout the city without any problems. I guess it's just what you feel safe with.

I imagine you don't walk around other islands either. 

My husband and I were there 2 years ago, and we always venture out alone.   We started walking beyond the pier shops and only got a few blocks before we turned back.  It really did not feel safe and we weren't the only ones.  That night a number of passengers we spoke to felt the same way.  We always follow our instincts.  Better safe than sorry.  The only other place we felt that way was in La Ramona in the Dominican Republic.  This year, we'll probably just stay aboard.

[Colo Cruiser]

8 hours ago, MissP22 said:

We've been there many times & have walked throughout the city without any problems. I guess it's just what you feel safe with.

I imagine you don't walk around other islands either. 

I agree. 

 

 

[FloaterBoat]

Antigua was on our Caribbean Circle itinerary this November, but they since removed it and replaced with St. Maarten.  I'm fine with that.  More excited actually.  Antigua would've most likely just been a beach day.  Instead we're doing some fun exploratory excursions.

[MissP22]

46 minutes ago, Baystate said:

My husband and I were there 2 years ago, and we always venture out alone.   We started walking beyond the pier shops and only got a few blocks before we turned back.  It really did not feel safe and we weren't the only ones.  That night a number of passengers we spoke to felt the same way.  We always follow our instincts.  Better safe than sorry.  The only other place we felt that way was in La Ramona in the Dominican Republic.  This year, we'll probably just stay aboard.

I guess you don't walk around much on your own in the Caribbean.  If you investigate each island you'll probably find many incidences of robberies. 

There aren't many perfectly safe places but we still go.

We like to walk just to get some exercise other than walking in circles on the ship. 

 

[MissP22]

1 hour ago, sfaaa said:

Not unless I see soldiers and police patrolling with machine guns. Now that's safety.

If you think so. 😏

[voljeep]

4 minutes ago, MissP22 said:

If you think so. 😏

sinkholes ?

[Go-Bucks!]

12 hours ago, MissP22 said:

We've been there many times & have walked throughout the city without any problems. I guess it's just what you feel safe with.

I imagine you don't walk around other islands either. 

 

Yes I do! Walked all over Castries, St. Lucia a couple days ago and today I walked all over San Juan, PR! You imagined wrong...but I have traveled enough to know that some places are not where a woman alone should go...need to use common sense!  😉