As we were going to dock nbr.1 (That is all the way in the corner) we were in position by 07.00 hrs. due to the other ships following us, well ahead of our scheduled docking time. In the old days there used to be the “Pink Hotel” and a nice open air Pub on the pier but it had all been taken over by new buildings with shops. But Shops bring in more money than yachtie’s who come for a drink, so progress has to be. Also in the Good old days the pier could easily handle four cruise ships of the Statendam size but now it was a tight fit with three. Behind us was the Norwegian Epic and later on the Regal Princess showed up and thus the whole pier was full.
Somehow the phrase “Apartment of the Seas” comes to mind. This is the stern of the Norwegian Epic.
I went ashore for about 20 minutes as Havensight has a very nice bookshop with normally a good selection of shipping books. According to the internet the shop was still there but when I arrived the wooden doors were firmly shut and not a soul, let alone a librarian, was insight. Well at least it kept the world in balance. They did not sell anything and I did not buy anything. Normally I also try to buy the latest postcards, but there were issues from 10 years ago as nobody sends postcards anymore. The post office on the dock is gone because of it and instead the Pubs now advertise “Beer with free Wi-Fi”. I wonder if they also have that available in Tin Cans or in Bottles.
The sheltered harbor of Charlotte Amalie. This photo is from a few years ago before they extended the pier so it could take three much larger ships.
Charlotte Amalie has a beautiful natural and sheltered harbor and thus it has always been an important place in the Caribbean. First it was a shelter for pirates, we still have the name Bluebeards Castle as a result of it and when the Danish took it over it became an important trading post. They called the place Charlotte Amalie after their Queen, although it was originally called Taphus (house of draft) meaning there was a brewery there. So the Danish had their priorities right, you first built a pub and the town around it will grow by itself. In 1917 it was bought by the USA and since then it is American territory. The cruise boom here started very slowly to gather pace after tourists could not go to Cuba any longer. Before that time cruise ships called here as well but it was marginal. Holland America came here already in the 1930’s and one of the captains (Commodore Barendse) had a house here not far from where the Cable Car now runs. He had bought it together with a passenger of Dutch decent and each time the ss Statendam (III) would sail in, he had a house boy raise the Dutch flag.
The ss Statendam (III) used to cruise extensively to the West Indies during the winter months of the 1930’s.
Slowly but steadily the tourist trade increased not in the least because Charlotte Amalie is a Freeport. No taxes. This was instigated by the Danish and the Americans left it as is. Thus in the 70’s when RCCI and Carnival start to bring mass tourism to the port, cheap booze was a big draw. When I went there in 1981 and 1982 and if we were at anchor, we had to make one or two tender runs to load all the booze for the guests. If we had 7000 guests then there were at least 300 boxes. Invariably there was then a freebie box for the Captain, the Hotel manager and the Cruise Director. As we, the deck department who had to do the work did not get anything, it was standard procedure that either the Hotel manager or the Cruise Director lost a box during transport. (It depended on who was the least popular………..) Then in the 90’s the emphasis shifted more to quality shopping and we saw a large increase in Jewelry and Electronics shops. Now with the mega ships it has become a complete village which easily handles 5000 people on the Havensight dockside, let alone what downtown can take care of as well.
We will sail this evening for St. Johns Antigua. Today we were supposed to have quite a bit of rain but most of it bypassed the harbor and I hope for the same tomorrow as the weather will be similar. It cannot be much different as Antigua is not that far away. Again it will be warm to hot 82o F / 28oC with a fair chance of showers. Also here we will park right in downtown.
November 30, 2016 at 7:02 pm
Wow, what a wonderful post. I love your recall of the booze “tax” (lost box of liquor) by the deck department. We had that type of “tax” in Vietnam when airdropping supplies to the Army’s Special Forces camps.
I was in Amalie last week, and I think your estimate of 5000 pax is overly mild. My guess the 4 megaships unleashed somewhere around 18,000 passengers, and a day later in St. Maarten, about 24,000. Poor people of Amalie and Philipsburg. We were on RCCL’s Allure because in a family group of 17, we had 7 grandchildren with us of various ages. Say what you will, the Allure has plenty of attractions for all ages, although as the “gtootvader” it is much too big for me and I will seek out smaller ships. Like the Veendam, where I originally met you.
As always, I love your posts/observations……Ruud
December 1, 2016 at 1:38 pm
Captain Albert, I enjoy reading your informative blog. Today I read about Princess Cruises being fined for illegally dumping waste oil into the sea. Please reassure me that Holland America is not doing the same thing! Our oceans are precious.
December 1, 2016 at 3:31 pm
Thank you for reading my blog.
One can never fully prevent what some idiot might do in the future but Princess has now adapted a number of procedures which should result in idiots not getting the chance anymore. It is a sad day to read and see that something like this happened but I was happy to realize that we already had a large number of routines in place which Princess is implementing now. I felt very happy to be part of Holland America. At the same time Princess is part of the HAL Group and thus we are working close together to ban these sort of things forever.
Best regards
Capt. Albert