Dredging indefinitely on hold, Royal Caribbean drops pledge
Published: October 4, 2010
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ST. THOMAS — Royal Caribbean’s megaships the Oasis of the Seas and the Allure of the Seas will not be berthing anywhere other than Crown Bay anytime in the foreseeable future, according to West Indian Company Ltd. President and CEO Ed Thomas.
WICO and Royal Caribbean, which owns Oasis and Allure, were going to split the $15 million to $20 million cost to dredge St. Thomas Harbor so that it would be deep enough for the two boats to berth at WICO’s dock, Thomas said, and now neither company is willing to spend the funds.
“The cruise lines are not going to put up that money because they accomplished their goal,” he said. “Their ship is in St. Thomas. Certainly the West Indian Company is not going to put up money to do that kind of dredging because the ship is already in St. Thomas.”
On Oct. 14, 2009, Gov. John deJongh Jr. responded to public opposition to the dredging project by putting it on hold. Opponents of the plan, for the most part, were not against the dredging of the harbor, but they disagreed with plans to dump 162,000 cubic yards of material into an existing depression in Lindbergh Bay.
At an October 2009 news conference, DeJongh announced that he would appoint a task force to find alternative dumping sites. In the meantime, the Oasis of the Seas would berth at Crown Bay, he said.
The governor said at the time that he expected dumping sites to be found and the dredging to be done in time for the Oasis and its sister ship, the Allure — set to make its first call on St. Thomas on Dec. 10 — to berth at WICO’s dock in Havensight during the 2010-2011 tourist season.
That task force, comprised of WICO and V.I. Port Authority officials, met twice, and talks stopped in January, according to Thomas.
Jose Belcher, president of the Havensight Merchants Association, said he is not surprised the dumping sites were never identified and Royal Caribbean’s megaships remain at Crown Bay.
“I think that we all believed that it was a foregone conclusion,” he said. “Once the governor made his decision, I think everyone came to realize that would be what it was.”
But Jason Budsan — president of the Virgin Islands Conservation Society, which spearheaded opposition to the dumping — said he thought the government would have found another place to put the spoils.
“It is a surprise, I guess, that this hasn’t been completely resolved,” he said.
Thomas said that Princess Cruises and Holland America, which typically dock at Crown Bay, will continue in their current arrangement when Royal Caribbean’s megaships are in town. They have agreed to move to WICO’s dock or to the north end of the Crown Bay dock during the 2010-2011 tourist season, he said.
Even though the Oasis and the Allure are docking at the other end of Charlotte Amalie, Havensight merchants have not gotten a bad deal, according to Thomas. The arrival of the Carnival Dream and the Norwegian Epic meant passenger arrivals at WICO’s dock in summer 2010 were 20 percent higher than they were in summer 2009, he said.
But Belcher pointed out that, according to WICO’s published schedule, no ship at all will call on St. Thomas during more than half the days in June 2011.
“You’re not going to split the balance up between Crown Bay and Havensight and expect the stores to stay open,” he said.
Royal Caribbean’s megaships are the biggest on the ocean — capable of carrying more than 5,400 passengers each — and, according to Thomas, Havensight merchants are bound to see a ship of that size berth at WICO’s dock one day.
With cruise ships getting larger, St. Thomas Harbor eventually will have to be dredged, Thomas said. And the harbor already is due for maintenance dredging of debris kicked up by arriving and departing cruise ships which has to be done every two or three years.
Thomas said that the last maintenance dredging — which removed between 6,000 and 8,000 cubic yards of sand at a cost of $300,000 — was done in 2007.
“Even if we don’t get back to that discussion this year or next year, one day we have to decide what we want to do with the spoils,” he said.
— Contact reporter Constance Cooper at 774-8772 ext. 364 or
e-mail ccooper@dailynews.vi.
