TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin SXM preparing to home port more ships

Daily Herald story This can only be good for the SXM economy. I would personally love for a more mainstream cruise line to home port in SXM..

Interesting. Don't know why there is a waiting area and restaurants included
( maybe for the multiuse) . Cruisers arrive at the terminal to get in line to check in and immediately get on the ship. For leaving, leave the ship and straight to a taxi, tour bus, or hotel. And have to do some ship scheduling on full ship days. Because homeport ships wouldn't want to have to tender passengers with luggage. Traffic might be a problem if they homeport large ships. 4000 passengers arriving and 4000 leaving in a single day ( or even leaving the day after) would be a traffic problem on the current roads. Ships homeport there might have some different ports of call.
Time will tell

Wendell

I don't think there's any way they would home port one of the mammoth ships. Much more likely some of the older ships, under 2000 pax or so.

More people on the island and airport. Sounds like a plan.

I'm assuming that your post is in jest, but home porting more ships in SXM will be good for the local economy.

The article indicates 500 to 1500, then points out that they currently have several with up to 300 passengers.
We had no problem dropping off some friends yesterday at 3:30 even though there were 7 ships in. I was pleasantly surprised that traffic moving very well. It was complete gridlock in the Cay Bay area and over the causeway due to Marigot and the Bridge openings.

I really haven't seen any 2000 pax "new" ships doing the rounds in the Caribbean.
Most are 4000 +. then there are the "barefoot" ones that have 300 passengers. Which would be more likely. Seems the cruise line industry is going for quantity of passengers or Oasis, Harmony, Allure of the seas.

Doing a little research the 2000 passenger ships are around 30 years old ( Horizon, Zenith) which aren't getting good reviews for the age and needed upgraded. Ironically I remember when these ships were new ( last month cruise # 17 for me)

The new large scale ships a booking can be $600 for the week so I don't know if the older ships can compete.

Interesting how this will play out.

Wendell

What does it mean to home port ships. Is this in a different location from the regular cruise port?

It means that the cruise starts and ends in SXM. I believe the location is adjacent to the current cruise port.

Who does it attract? With airfare and overnight stays it could be cost prohibitive for some. Everything south of SXM can be done on a 10 day out of Miami for less. Fill me in, I don't get the advantage unless you are coming from Europe or the ship size gets you into the smaller ports of call.

Actually SXM will be competing with San Juan. And for example air fare to San Juan from St Louis is half( or less) than to SXM,

Wendell

That's why it is a head scratcher. We have a cruise booked out of San Juan in Febuary and we can fly down and back from Nashville on the departure and arrival dates if we want to push it. At the least we can use points to stay in Brand hotels to offset. SXM would be a long travel day plus hotel and crazy custom lines on return. Have always had no lines or hassles in SJU.

Unless airfare goes down substantially, I don't see it being all that popular. Now if I flew down to spend a couple of weeks on the island, then took a cruise before flying home, it might make sense.

For the timeshare people who are already going to fly to use their weeks, I can see how that might be a great way to extend a vacation. As has been said though, they will be competing with some pretty low cruise fares from other places so they can't make them too pricey.

For a more experienced cruiser, or one with a bit more time, it is a really neat thing to be able to combine a cruise with a land stay on an island, versus Miami, etc. And they are doing some air charters from Charles de Gaulle airport to SXM for the Pullmanteur (sp!!) cruises. Plus it is a much different experience to be on many islands south of SXM on an under 2000 pax ship, versus on one of the behemoths. Many of those islands really are just not set up to accept that many pax.

There is ZERO advantage, to just go on the cruise. The advantage is to be able to stay a few extra days on either end. THAT'S why I'm saying this will be an advantage for the SXM economy, from the hotel stays, restaurants, cabs, car rentals, etc, NOT just the home porting itself. The home porting itself is more of a drain on resources.

Yes that makes sense. I am still a working stiff that gets a week at a time so my mindset isn't on those extended trips. Always a bit green when someone's trip report gets into week 3

Just remember that those of us who post three week reports are older than dirt.

Ouch! But true. And funny.

Speak for yourself, dearie. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

I didn't say we acted our age, now did I?

How old do you have to be to qualify as "older than dirt"? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" />