i keep seeing cruise ships in port ......are they just more repatriating ships?

Yes also refueling and provisioning.

Maybe I'm missing something but why do cruise ships from other ports come to SXM to "provision and refuel" when there is really no reason to leave their home port?

Cruise ships really don't have a "home port" at the moment, since they are not taking on passengers.

And regardless of where they are docked, they are charged fees for every day they are on the dock, so it makes sense for them to NOT be docked, even if they are just offshore.

And there is one in the open sea for days now in the our area .

Would it not be much more expensive to" provision" in sxm than in the US?

I'm sure they are doing what makes the most sense for them economically.

I think fuel is cheaper in SXM as a lot of ships bunker there under normal operations and the cost of actually travelling to the US to provision may negate higher provisioning costs in SXM.

I am learning about the cruise industry here...never been on a cruise. Not really my bag....maybe a river cruise in Europe but not a biggie cruise.

https://www.cruisemapper.com/
Is a good resource if you want to know where ships are located

Thanks.

I always said the same thing about cruises - “I just don’t want to be a captive audience anywhere but particularly not on a ship to somewhere,” but I have to admit I did enjoy our first cruise to Bermuda and I absolutely loved cruising around the Hawaiian islands. But that’s about it and methinks my cruise ship days are over.

Excellent map.....