First cruise ship November 5

Daily Herald story Good news!

https://www.cruisetimetables.com/cruisesongrandeuroftheseas-28oct2017.html

Looks to be a one off for this ship at the moment which sails out of Baltimore 28 October. If you click to see the November sailings, no SXM stop.

Hopefully they do well and they bring them back into the itinerary fold.

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

Please tell what are the 2446 passengers going to do on the island? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

I wonder the same thing.

Probably shop along Front Street in the few shops open, Use the beach in front of Holland House, go to Mullet Beach as it looks usable, spend money at some of the beach bars along the boardwalk and hire taxi to drive around the island as most if not all roads are drivable now. Any dollars spent will trickle down to the masses.

November 5 is still almost another month away. It's not going to be business as usual, but SXM NEEDS cruise ship tourists to start to come.

An interesting comment.

Friends of ours made their first (and only) visit to SXM from a cruise ship stop there May of ‘96, the Spring after Luis paid his call to SXM.

They couldn’t understand, based on what they saw, why we went back there year after year and decided it was one place they would NOT return to. And they were aware of the storm the preceding Fall prior to their arrival but they still had no clear concept of what they were looking at. They couldn’t perceive the kind of damage storms of that magnitude could create and assumed it was a sad and loverty-stricken Island.

Smart and very well traveled people but to this day, they have never been inclined to return. We visited the island the April after Luis and I have to admit, if I hadn’t known better, I might have thought the same thing.

Their loss, for sure, but I hope people on those early ships back to the island are better prepared for what they will encounter as clearly, our friends weren’t. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

It's my understanding from a post I read on facebook that most of the passengers are in the Travel business. Taking a hard look at what St Maarten has to offer at this point.

I think it’s great the ships are returning but I hope the over all and lasting impressions are good ones. Those of us who love the island as we do, are often far more forgiving and tend to be inclined to over look the blemishes and wrinkles because we know the heart of what the island is in good times.

Just hoping they aren’t pushing too hard too fast, but remember peeps, I tend to be a ‘what iffer’ and I sure do hope this isn’t the prevailing attitude of most who might visit early on as the Island reopens to visitors. We all know she needs all the support she can get right now. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

Weird. As of this morning, the Royal Caribbean website still shows Grandeur going to somewhere other than St Martin on November 5 and none of passengers on roll call on cruise critic have received any notice of a change back to St Martin.

Club o supposedly hast 200 chairs gathered up. All i need is a ship towel and carib beer. I know might be windy and sandy.....illl take it.

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/toast.gif" alt="" />

Are they actually renting chairs at Club O yet, do you know? Anyone know when the new Perch is supposed to open?

Pat said,
Friends of ours made their first (and only) visit to SXM from a cruise ship stop there May of ‘96, the Spring after Luis paid his call to SXM.

Smart and very well traveled people but to this day, they have never been inclined to return. We visited the island the April after Luis and I have to admit, if I hadn’t known better, I might have thought the same thing.

How ironic Pat, we had friends that did the same thing. They also have never gone back. It's not the same situation that all of us TTOL'ers have been and done in SXM over all these years. We know the island, for some of us it's our 2nd home. Cruisers just want off the ship and have fun and get the most out of their money. They will witness all the destruction and probably will not want to come back. SXM will be back better than ever but don't push it or they will not be back.

Don't know if they are selling chairs yet. Their Facebook has a picture of the Perch and the bar. Another post on 29 Sep said that this weekend or early next they would begin selling beer and sandwiches. They have some beer because there are two empty beer bottles on the aperch bar under construction.

You can get on that 28 Oct Grandeur of the Sea cruise out of Baltimore for $1068/person + $119/tax each for an inside Cabin.

The royal Caribbean website does NOT show SXM as a stop but rather Martinique and St Kitts on 4,5 Nov respectively. As posted above, cruisetimetables.com DOES show 5 Nov stop in SXM.

"They have some beer because there are two empty beer bottles on the aperch bar under construction."
Must be a happy construction crew.

Many of the passengers on these early arrival ships WILL NOT get off the ship at this port. Many have seen reports of the devastation and will just not be interested to travel around until things are back to normal. If a few do venture off they will probably lie on the Great Bay Beach and relax there for the day. We really don't want them travelling around and getting a bad impression and never return. That would be very bad for future tourism.

The Grandeur almost certainly is NOT going to Sint Maarten on November 5, 2017. I think that anything suggesting otherwise is simply old information which has not been updated. But, I certainly hope that it could happen and that cruise ships will visit as soon as practical.

Ok, it may be BAD information, but it is not OLD information. That story was in the DH yesterday. Right now, the website appears to be down.

Yes - I saw the story yesterday - the story clearly was not old news and I intended no criticism of you posting the link to it. What I specifically had in mind with reference to old information was a link to a cruise website that simply had not updated the Grandeur's itinerary as stated by Royal Caribbean. The story has created a stir among passengers on the Oct 28 cruise as they have not received any notice of change back to St Martin as of earlier this morning.

The DH website is back up now and it states

"Royal Caribbean Line’s (RCL) Grandeur of the Seas will be the first commercial cruise vessel to return to the destination post-Irma on Sunday, November 5th. RCL as of that date will also be carrying out an adjusted cruise itinerary for the remainder of 2017 which will be published within short, Port St. Maarten announced in a press release on Tuesday evening ." So this was supposedly a press release from Port St. Maarten and further on in the story it states that officials from RCL just visited the island for a site inspection. Seems legit..

The following was at the Royal Caribbean website. It seems to be the latest. It still is avoiding SXM through 11/5/17. Hopefully, the island can ready soon. I assume this might change. My reports from friends on the French side report sporadic electricity, but the food situation is good.

October 12, 2017 at 2 PM EDT (next update tomorrow at 2 PM EDT)

Royal Caribbean leadership just returned from visits to San Juan and St. Thomas, and are planning a visit to St. Maarten on Monday. We were very impressed with the progress the islands are making to rebuild, and all three destinations are looking forward to welcoming back Royal Caribbean guests before the end of the year. In the next two weeks, working in conjunction with the local governments, we will announce the specific dates of our return to each of the islands.

I guess the port authority jumped the gun!!!

The Oct 11 update from Carnival is below. It looks like they will not be going to St Thomas or SXM until January. Of course that might change if the situation improves faster. We are going out of Baltimore in January so we should be going to those islands.

The following itineraries in November and December have been modified to provide our guests with the best possible shore experience. Itineraries for sailings in January 2018 and beyond will operate as scheduled. We have been monitoring the recovery progress in St. Thomas and St. Maarten and feel confident these ports will deliver a fun and memorable shore experience for our guests.