TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin More cruise ships calling on SXM

Daily Herald story

And, another ship will be home porting in SXM..

Good. The people from the terminal, boardwalk and front street are hurting big time.

With continuation of Home Porting it's going to continue to make PJIA difficult on weekends for timeshare or people trading into timeshare travelers as most are Sat to Sat or Sun to Sun.

UGH. I cannot even imagine what the airport is going to be like.

Curious - If passengers are at sea for several days before arriving in SXM, how do they meet the time limits for testing negative to gain admission?

Tim--they are re-tested before they leave the ship.

Seabourn is only doing one way trips, it appears, so at most the ship is there every other week, and it's not a big ship. And, again, you are assuming that people don't spend any extra time on island, which if I were doing one of those cruises, I certainly would, at the least, get there a day early.

The airport wasn’t fun on Saturday, but it also wasn’t that terrible. About an hour from touchdown to taxi. If I didn’t have two little kids in tow it would have been unremarkable. We landed at 1:30 with a bunch of other flights.

That is the thing that I really don't understand--WHY do all these flights have to land at almost the exact same time, regardless of where they come from? Air France is what, an 8 hour flight? So, why does it arrive at virtually the same time as all the flights from the US, which are only about a 3-4 hour flight? It's almost like they try to land at the same time..

Could have something to do with the turnaround time for other connecting flights. With KLM and Air France there is also the time zones to deal with. Just a thought.

I suspect that Scuba is right - a quick turn-around means the Airlines can get their crews back to their home bases and not have to pay for overnight accommodations on the island. I can remember when the American crews would regularly stay at the Sonesta in Maho

I still believe that a cruise shop STOPPING in SXM for the day does more for the economy that a cruise ship homeporting in SXM.....I would think most/all passengers on a day stop will get off and spend cash while maybe SOME of the homeport passengers will do a stay over,

We have had this discussion before and totally disagree. Passenger spending actually is a small part of the total income that country St Maarten gets from having a ship there, including provisioning, taxes on airline tickets, taxis, busses, crew spending, PLUS the passengers who do spend overnights, with hotels, meals, etc..

...and my opinion differs from that...I just think passengers getting off the ship and spending cash, going on Island tours, buying food and drinks at places like Philpsburg, SSBB. Kimsha, Orient etc, etc overwhelms the "maybe we'll stay a night before or after the cruise" group

There wouldn't be a Saturday airport crunch if most arrived early to stay on Island for a day or two

It's just an opinion that obviously differs from yours but it is my thoughts

For all those jewelry stores to stay in business a lot of cruise ship people must be buying jewelry.

Well there are quite a few visitors that are not associated with a cruise

On the cruises we were on before we started extended stays when we got to St Maarten each time we spent money at the Jewelry stores.

One of the Front Street vendors posted a picture on Facebook on a day when a cruise ship was in port. He had NO customers that day, and Front Street was empty.

possibly the fact that the airlines want to get the travelers there in time to enjoy some of the day

bizztottom--I have NEVER known an airline to be concerned about the travelers enjoying the day.

well, than what is your opinion????

We print out there schedule for the time we're at Beachside villa's! It's amazing to watch them sail into port and back out! Also to, we know when to venture out because of the traffic by SSBB and Driftwood can be a nightmare!!

David--agreed, the FOOT traffic by Sunset can be a real bear when there are several ships in.

Yep! Not to mention the taxi drivers who just park on the road waiting to fill their vans, and not caring in the least how many vehicles they have blocked in, or for how long. Makes me want to buy a tow truck. The cops should do something about this, but I've never seen that happen.