Issue with Curacao

[miched]

It would be great if the6 could stay over night in Key West.  We spend a few nights there and ther is a lot of night life and a lot more to do than there near the port at night than any Caribbean Island and much safer.

 

The Sunset Celebration at Mallory Square is a fun time with a lot of performers.   
 

The other places that would be a great stop for over night is NOLA, NYNY or Bermuda but those are probably too far away.  
 

Cuba would be great but won’t happen.

 

Happy cruising 🌊🚢🇺🇸🌅
 

 

[Fouremco]

It's bad enough that they have dropped Curaçao (sorry @hcat, we still enjoy visiting), but reducing the time in Bonaire to just over four daylight hours is such a waste. Having stayed their on dive holidays, I can say with some assurance that Kralendijk offers little in the way of nightlife, so staying until 10:00PM certainly doesn't make up for the missing morning and early afternoon hours that have disappeared.  

 

I don't know how Celebrity can still offer this as an ABC Cruise when it's only A, half a B and no C!

[Georgia_Peaches]

That would be quite a disappointment.  We just did the ABC's on Silhouette back in November and found it to be one of the very best cruises we've taken in quite some time.  As others have said, Curacao is nice for walking and shopping.  Sorry to learn of the cancellation.  Have you considered a different cruise line or perhaps a different ship?

[Georgia_Peaches]

13 minutes ago, Fouremco said:

but reducing the time in Bonaire to just over four daylight hours is such a waste.

Couldn't agree more.  You need at least 6 to 8 hours in port to really do anything worth while.  I will give Celebrity credit for making passengers aware of the change well in advance so that they can look elsewhere if they choose.

[bstrong3]

I will be on the Feb 19, 2021 equinox cruise to ABC and have also had an itinerary change. They switched the order we are visiting and shortened Bonaire (2-10). We where looking forward to renting a full day on the golf carts but with the change it screws us. 😠 They also said it was from port congestion.

[bap335i]

10 minutes ago, bstrong3 said:

I will be on the Feb 19, 2021 equinox cruise to ABC and have also had an itinerary change. They switched the order we are visiting and shortened Bonaire (2-10). We where looking forward to renting a full day on the golf carts but with the change it screws us. 😠 They also said it was from port congestion.

Well shoot, that was the cruise I was going to change to.  

[phoenix_dream]

I would be very disappointed.  I love Curacao and disagree totally that the city is going downhill.  I also love Bonaire, but a shame to have so little daylight.

 

I fear more and more of this may be happening as cruise lines release ship after new ship, and in most cases bigger and bigger.  These islands can only handle so much!  Most are small and just don't have the infrastructure to support all the ships and megaships (I call them sailing cities) that are out there.  I suspect that has something to do with it, but of course I don't know for sure.

[mahdnc]

30 minutes ago, bstrong3 said:

I will be on the Feb 19, 2021 equinox cruise to ABC and have also had an itinerary change. They switched the order we are visiting and shortened Bonaire (2-10). We where looking forward to renting a full day on the golf carts but with the change it screws us. 😠 They also said it was from port congestion.

 

So did the revised itinerary retain Curacao? 

[hcat]

Cap Costas on EDGE alluded to port congestion as a future challenge in his talk......Mostly he referred to the main ports having to stagger departure days ..can't all leave on the weekend!

 

With so many large ships going to the same ports, things are getting  more crowded.... esp with floating cities going to small places!

[DENIE]

Such a bummer!  We loved our day in Curacao in 2018 - fantastic!  The island is so beautiful, and then there is the gorgeous downtown.  Fortunately we were the only ship in port that day, though.

[NMTraveller]

I could be wrong here,  but when we were in port there was a smaller cruise ship Westerdam that was docked.  We were the bigger cruise ship - Eclipse.  I thought that the smaller ship had to cruise/fit under the bridge?  Is that the case?  If so perhaps there was already a larger cruise ship scheduled.

[mahdnc]

51 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

I could be wrong here,  but when we were in port there was a smaller cruise ship Westerdam that was docked.  We were the bigger cruise ship - Eclipse.  I thought that the smaller ship had to cruise/fit under the bridge?  Is that the case?  If so perhaps there was already a larger cruise ship scheduled.

 

Sometime in the past few years (between 2015 and 2019) Curacao added another pier to allow two ships to dock--and that doesn't include the dock for the smaller ships that you were referring to.

 

 

 

[NMTraveller]

1 minute ago, mahdnc said:

 

Sometime in the past few years (between 2015 and 2019) Curacao added another pier to allow two ships to dock--and that doesn't include the dock for the smaller ships that you were referring to.

 

 

 

Ahhh....

 

Three ships would be too many in my opinion.  It was nice with a small ship and bigger ship.  Add another 3 thousand to the mix and that would be crowded...

[mahdnc]

6 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

Ahhh....

 

Three ships would be too many in my opinion.  It was nice with a small ship and bigger ship.  Add another 3 thousand to the mix and that would be crowded...

 

Then you will find this photo taken from the Port of Curacao's website a bit mind blowing:

 

Edited January 23, 2020 by mahdnc

[NMTraveller]

1 hour ago, mahdnc said:

 

Then you will find this photo taken from the Port of Curacao's website a bit mind blowing:

 

 

Thanks for the picture.  I feel fortunate that we went when we did.

 

Now that is infinite port overload.

 

We saw the same in Santorini and Mykonos last fall.  

 

I guess that I now need to research the number of cruise ships while in port when I am considering ships/itineraries.

 

Now Key West was a beautiful drive in a car for us pre cruise.

 

Edited January 23, 2020 by NMTraveller

[Oville]

12 minutes ago, NMTraveller said:

 

Thanks for the picture.  I feel fortunate that we went when we did.

 

Now that is infinite port overload.

 

We saw the same in Santorini and Mykonos last fall.  

 

I guess that I now need to research the number of cruise ships while in port when I am considering ships/itineraries.

 

Now Key West was a beautiful drive in a car for us pre cruise.

 

We’ve only been to Curaçao once on a cruise and rented a car close to port.  It was a really fun adventure and very easy to do. Come March our Silhouette ABC cruise returns and we’ll take in the town most likely.

[Shadow9612]

5 hours ago, Fouremco said:

I don't know how Celebrity can still offer this as an ABC Cruise when it's only A, half a B and no C!

They changed the name now I think....A B and Key West!

 

Disappointing....

[hcat]

11 hours ago, mahdnc said:

 

Then you will find this photo taken from the Port of Curacao's website a bit mind blowing:

 

Great shot.. thanks for posting it.

I see 4 ships when I make it larger..That's a bit much!

 

Guess I am spoiled from when ships docked once or twice per week, cars crossed  over the pontoon bridge and the big modern bridge did not exist.

 

Curious what most  cruisers now enjoy there other than the beaches way over on the other side???

Edited January 23, 2020 by hcat

[Georgia_Peaches]

59 minutes ago, hcat said:

Curious what most  cruisers now enjoy there other than the beaches way over on the other side???

We like to cross the bridge and sit out at one of the cafes on the river front and have a beer.  Then we typically walk around the town...love the European influence of the streets.  There's also a shopping district associated with one of the hotels near the old fort that has a store called Mango (among others).  I fell in love with Mango when we were in Barcelona.  Poor DH had to find a chair in the air conditioning and wait it out while I tried on just about everything in the store.  But that's about it for us.  We don't excursion while in Curacao.  

[mayleeman]

We haven't received any notice about changes to Curacao for either the Nov 6 Eq this year or the Feb 12 2021 Odyssey of the Seas cruises. Fingers crossed!

[mahdnc]

3 hours ago, hcat said:

Curious what most  cruisers now enjoy there other than the beaches way over on the other side???

 

Curacao is one of the best Caribbean islands for diving. So that is what we do when we visit.

[JuliaMS]

I didn’t realize they did ABC cruises round trip from Florida. That would be a huge let down but plenty of time to book something different. Ask for a credit. 

Edited January 23, 2020 by JuliaMS

[davekathy]

10 minutes ago, JuliaMS said:

Am I the only one that thinks adding Key West to and ABC cruise makes no sense? 

Since the Equinox leaves from Port Everglades the itinerary works for a Key West Stop. 

[davekathy]

18 minutes ago, JuliaMS said:

I didn’t realize they did ABC cruises round trip from Florida.

We did a 14 night cruise (2016) on the Eclipse RT from Miami that the ABC islands were part of the itinerary. 

[JuliaMS]

4 minutes ago, davekathy said:

We did a 14 night cruise (2016) on the Eclipse RT from Miami that the ABC islands were part of the itinerary. 

 Extra 7 days Was probably cheaper than the round trip airfare to San Juan for our upcoming cruise.