Hi--
We were on the Fantasy this past week for the first return to the (modified) eastern Caribbean itinerary--including St. Maarten (in place of Tortola) and St. Thomas.
The staff and crew were very good about managing expectations for the hurricane-impacted islands. They reinforced how important it was to the islands for cruises to return, but that we would still see damage and problems.
For anyone going on this itinerary, I thought it would be useful to report a few things, at least as I saw them, in case it helps. Everything was safe...and there were a few eye-opening pieces of damage still to be seen. In general I thought we came back to St Maarten a bit too soon, but to St Thomas at a better time.
On St. Maarten, expect to see lots of building damage. Even in the immediate port area of Phillipsburg, with newer buildings/structure, a piece of dock was missing, light poles were gone and there was roof and building damage. In Phillipsburg itself, it was worse. There were a lot of buildings with missing or destroyed roofs and other structural damage. I would estimate that half of the shops/restaurants in the Phillipsburg area were shuttered up. There were plenty open, don't get me wrong, but it was less open for business than I expected. Many places appeared to be running on generator too.
Also in St Maarten, there were a few problems with port adventures. The hurricane took out most of the buses (used to transport people on excursions, of course) and there was some miscommunication with the ship about how many people to book. We were left stranded at the bus stop because there were more people booked than there were buses. Don't expect things to run smoothly quite yet.
Though the trees are growing back in Phillipsburg, it is definitely not as lush as it once was. That will change with time. A bigger problem is that because port adventures are limited (and three ships were in), many people took the water taxi to Phillipsburg and the beaches, making them quite crowded. But it appears only one water taxi survived the hurricane. That one boat was quite overworked and as all aboard time approached, the queues for returning to the ship got quite long as the crowded beaches emptied.
Interestingly, Google has put a few of its project loon balloons over St Maarten to provide better cell and wifi coverage. You could see three of them the day we were in port.
St Maarten...a bit too soon.
St Thomas also had evident damage. Even at the docks, you will still see buildings with their roofs peeled open. The tramway is still down. There is tree damage still evident, though that is starting to recover. You will see many, many, many "FEMA tarps" on houses if you venture out on the island, and will see areas that were washed out from flooding and hurricane debris on the sides of the road in places. There are literally fields where they have taken all of the broken appliances and other miscellaneous stuff that the hurricanes destroyed until those things can be removed form the island.
Several resorts are closed with evident damage to buildings. I did not get into the shopping/business area at Charlotte Amalie, but it looked ok from a distance. I understand that most of the power grid has been restored, and most of the stores in the immediate dock area looked fine and unimpacted from the hurricane (other than the warehouse with the roof peeled off...)
i did not do a port adventure in St Thomas, but did take a taxi to Sapphire Beach. I don't know if port adventures are impacted in St Thomas as they were in St Maarten. Roads are no worse than they ever have been, though traffic lights are not right still.
All in all, St Thomas seemed to be recovering faster than St Maarten. While it still seemed early to be back, St Thomas was a better stop on the cruise. Still not what it once was, and much less pristine and polished than before the hurricane, but better than St Maarten by a lot.
Hope this helps. I'm sure that every week things will improve and am eager to hear from others as things change.
wjs3
We were on the Fantasy this past week for the first return to the (modified) eastern Caribbean itinerary--including St. Maarten (in place of Tortola) and St. Thomas.
The staff and crew were very good about managing expectations for the hurricane-impacted islands. They reinforced how important it was to the islands for cruises to return, but that we would still see damage and problems.
For anyone going on this itinerary, I thought it would be useful to report a few things, at least as I saw them, in case it helps. Everything was safe...and there were a few eye-opening pieces of damage still to be seen. In general I thought we came back to St Maarten a bit too soon, but to St Thomas at a better time.
On St. Maarten, expect to see lots of building damage. Even in the immediate port area of Phillipsburg, with newer buildings/structure, a piece of dock was missing, light poles were gone and there was roof and building damage. In Phillipsburg itself, it was worse. There were a lot of buildings with missing or destroyed roofs and other structural damage. I would estimate that half of the shops/restaurants in the Phillipsburg area were shuttered up. There were plenty open, don't get me wrong, but it was less open for business than I expected. Many places appeared to be running on generator too.
Also in St Maarten, there were a few problems with port adventures. The hurricane took out most of the buses (used to transport people on excursions, of course) and there was some miscommunication with the ship about how many people to book. We were left stranded at the bus stop because there were more people booked than there were buses. Don't expect things to run smoothly quite yet.
Though the trees are growing back in Phillipsburg, it is definitely not as lush as it once was. That will change with time. A bigger problem is that because port adventures are limited (and three ships were in), many people took the water taxi to Phillipsburg and the beaches, making them quite crowded. But it appears only one water taxi survived the hurricane. That one boat was quite overworked and as all aboard time approached, the queues for returning to the ship got quite long as the crowded beaches emptied.
Interestingly, Google has put a few of its project loon balloons over St Maarten to provide better cell and wifi coverage. You could see three of them the day we were in port.
St Maarten...a bit too soon.
St Thomas also had evident damage. Even at the docks, you will still see buildings with their roofs peeled open. The tramway is still down. There is tree damage still evident, though that is starting to recover. You will see many, many, many "FEMA tarps" on houses if you venture out on the island, and will see areas that were washed out from flooding and hurricane debris on the sides of the road in places. There are literally fields where they have taken all of the broken appliances and other miscellaneous stuff that the hurricanes destroyed until those things can be removed form the island.
Several resorts are closed with evident damage to buildings. I did not get into the shopping/business area at Charlotte Amalie, but it looked ok from a distance. I understand that most of the power grid has been restored, and most of the stores in the immediate dock area looked fine and unimpacted from the hurricane (other than the warehouse with the roof peeled off...)
i did not do a port adventure in St Thomas, but did take a taxi to Sapphire Beach. I don't know if port adventures are impacted in St Thomas as they were in St Maarten. Roads are no worse than they ever have been, though traffic lights are not right still.
All in all, St Thomas seemed to be recovering faster than St Maarten. While it still seemed early to be back, St Thomas was a better stop on the cruise. Still not what it once was, and much less pristine and polished than before the hurricane, but better than St Maarten by a lot.
Hope this helps. I'm sure that every week things will improve and am eager to hear from others as things change.
wjs3