Itinerary Change for July 17th Zuiderdam!!

[superstein61]

Did I read correctly elsewhere that with the itinerary as scheduled (St Thomas on Tuesday, Tortola on Wednesday) we do not have to clear Immigration at St Thomas? But if the ports are switched (Tortola on Tues, STT on Wed) then we do have to clear Immigration in St Thomas?? (since now coming from BVI into USVI)

 

 

Yes - this is another downside of the change

[tooalto]

We are on the Aug.28 sailing of the Zui. After reading this thread, I checked our itinerary with HAL's website as well as some others. HAL still shows St. Thomas on Tues. and Tortola on Wed. while a couple others show the switch. I called HAL customer service and was told that the 8/28 sailing is still as shown - ST. Thomas Tues. and Tortola Wed. We're arranging a tour of St. John with a friend of Godfrey (of Godfrey's Tours) and need to know what day to tel him.

[MandyGirl]

Steve -

Thanks for that input about that green card and disembarking at STT. That will be SO nice to be able to disembark the ship after presenting ourselves for the officers. It was very infuriating to us (and the many many others already lined up near the gangplank) to have to wait for those few cabins who felt the rules didn't apply to them, especially when Key West was already a short time in port. We mostly felt bad for the crew members who had that port day off and were looking forward to using the phones... to have to wait another couple of hours. That is great that those who abide by the rules and show up for Immigration actually get to get off the ship!!! :) Hopefully HAL will leave the itinerary "as is" and we won't even have to clear Immigration, but if so, at least we know it is handled differently versus our cruise last Thanksgiving.

Tooalto -

You could email Godfrey to let him know of a possible last-minute switch - he will know what ships are in port that day and could have you penciled for both days. That is what we are doing for our Tortola excursion, and we are "booked" for either day just in case, with the group well aware... and they are very accomodating.

By the way - you will thoroughly enjoy Godfrey's tour. We married on St John, chartered a catamaran to sail around the area for the reception, and ended up back in Red Hook where Godfrey met us for our tour. We did an abbreviated private tour with him 11:30-3:00 and ended up back in Charlotte Amalie for a little shopping before boarding the ship that afternoon. He is very detailed and informative with his tour, as well as very nice!! We give him two thumbs up! Pics of our tour are located here.

[vjb223]

called HA yesterday and they said time for our Oct. cruise in St. Thomas that the ship departed at the scheduled 11 pm , maybe the summer schedule is different. I agree if you are planning outside shore excursions, car rentals, boats etc it can be a problem.

[Bubba_59]

QUOTE: We are on the Aug.28 sailing of the Zui. After reading this thread, I checked our itinerary with HAL's website as well as some others. HAL still shows St. Thomas on Tues. and Tortola on Wed. while a couple others show the switch. I called HAL customer service and was told that the 8/28 sailing is still as shown - ST. Thomas Tues. and Tortola Wed. We're arranging a tour of St. John with a friend of Godfrey (of Godfrey's Tours) and need to know what day to tell him"

 

I found out that doesn't mean a thing. I had been reading about these itinerary changes for quite some time so I had my TA check a month ago....no changes.

But then my TA was informed with only two weeks to go that the itinerary WAS NOW changed.

I'm still not clear, however, exactly what the new times on St. Thomas are. My TA told me 7am-6pm, and I just read elsewhere on this thread that it is 11am-6pm. I guess I'll have to call customer service to see, not that they won't change it again!!

[superstein61]

 

I found out that doesn't mean a thing. I had been reading about these itinerary changes for quite some time so I had my TA check a month ago....no changes.

But then my TA was informed with only two weeks to go that the itinerary WAS NOW changed.

 

Yes - unfortunately many of these changes our occurring 2 to 4 weeks before you leave - which really makes matters worse. The more people who express their displeasure to HAL , the more they should start to understand the importance of providing what was advertised