St Johns Antigua (RCI Royal Beach Club)

St Johns is a port town located in the West Indies (Leeward Islands, Caribbean Sea) as well as the capital city of Antigua and Barbuda. Located on Antigua Island's northwestern coast, the town has land area approx 10 km2 (4 mi2) and population around 22,000. St John's is also the country's commercial center and principal/main seaport.

Port St Johns (locode CASJF) has a deepwater harbour and capacity to handle the world's largest passenger liners. Major cruise companies (including RCI-Royal Caribbean, CCL-Carnival, DCL-Disney, Celebrity, Princess, and NCL-Norwegian) visit St John's as port of call in their roundtrip itineraries operated by USA-homeported ships.

Tourists (passengers and crew) disembarking cruise vessels docked in St John's Harbour are handled at the terminals Redcliffe Quay and Heritage Quay.

Antigua Rum Distillery (at Citadel) has an annual bottling capacity of 180,000+ gallons. Other best-known tourist attractions include city's skyline (dominated by St Johns Cathedral), Botanical Garden, St John's Light (harbor's lighthouse), Fort James (at harbour's entrance), Fort Charles, Fort George, Fort Berkeley, Fort Barrington, Fort Shirley, Government House (19th-century residence building), large shopping malls and boutiques (selling top-fashion clothing and designer jewellery), museums, natural beauty, premium resorts. World-class celebrities (including Oprah Winfrey, Eric Clapton, Giorgio Armani) own private residences on the island. Besides tourism, another major industry is investment banking - some of the world's largest financial institutions have offices here.

In February 2019, GPH (Global Ports Holding / 2004-founded, UK-based company, world's largest cruise port operator) signed a 30-year exclusive concession deal with Antigua and Barbuda for cruise port management and retail shopping operations. A similar deal GPH signed with Cuba (for Port Havana) in 2018. Part of the deal was that GPH will invest in improving the port's current retail shops and construct new retail and food-beverage facilities. GPH also handles cruise vessels anchoring close to Falmouth Harbour.

In mid-March 2019, CCL-Carnival updated its website removing all scheduled voyages to Antigua (St Johns) from November 2019 onwards. However, in April, Antigua and Barbuda's Government managed to convince the company to reverse its decision (to cancel all scheduled calls to Antigua and Barbuda) planned for 4 liners - Breeze, Legend, Pride, Magic. Both parties signed a non-disclosure agreement preventing them from divulging information to the public. Carnival's decision would have resulted in heavy losses to the island's economy (millions of dollars) and would have affected not only the cruise port but also local tour operators, vendors, and other tourism-related businesses.

Following the Coronavirus crisis, in mid-April 2021, Crystal Cruises announced that Crystal Symphony ship's entire 2021 program in Europe-Mediterranean (June 6 through December 21) is canceled and replaced with 10-night "Luxury Caribbean Escapes" (roundtrip itineraries from St Johns Antigua) scheduled for the period Aug 5 through Dec 23, 2021. The new itinerary (first-time for Crystal Cruises) included as destinations Barbados (Bridgetown), St Lucia (Castries), Trinidad (Port-of-Spain), St Maarten (Philipsburg), BVI Tortola (Road Town). Bookings opened on April 20, 2021.

Royal Beach Club Antigua (Royal Caribbean)

In late-May 2019, Michael Bayley (RCI's CEO) and Charles Fernandez (Antigua and Barbuda's Minister of Tourism, Investments and Economic Development) signed a 10-year agreement (USD 80 million), by which Royal Caribbean will double the number of cruise tourists visiting Port St Johns Antigua (up to 0,5 million annually) within 5 years. The deal included RCI also to develop the Port's cruise facilities via partnership between RCI's parent company RCG-Royal Group and Global Ports Holding Plc (serving the markets in Asia-Pacific, Caribbean, Europe-Mediterranean).

RCG completed the building of the new (5th) cruise berth in February 2021. The passenger traffic increased by scheduling regular visits by Oasis-class boats (world's largest passenger liners) each with max capacity 6300 passengers (plus 2150 crew). For the first year of operation (October-December 2021), Antigua Cruise Port's newest Pier 5 (USD 30 million project) had projections for ~285,000 ship tourists.

The RCG company also made investments into developing new shore-tour experiences (at Fort James) to enhance Antigua's attractivity as a travel destination. Fort James (at St Johns Harbour's entrance) was built in the 18th-century (1706-1773) by the British to guard the harbor from a possible French invasion. The fort is on a headland allowing great views of the harbor and the town (to the northwest). Fort's name honors James II and VII (1633-1701), King of England between 1695-88. Following the completion, the fort had 36 guns and barracks for 75 soldiers.

In late-October 2019 was announced the scheduled for 2021 launch of "The Royal Beach Club at Fort James" - an exclusive beach resort built along Fort James' beachfront. For this multimillion-dollar project, RCI signed an MoU with the country's government.

Following Royal Caribbean's investments in Antigua's cruise facilities and infrastructure, the country expects approx USD 80 million in direct revenue and USD 1+ billion in direct revenue over a 30-year period (2021-2051).

RCI's "Royal Beach Club Antigua" (as ashore experience) features perfectly maintained beaches, quality services, local food, live music, family fun activities, custom-designed attractions, watersports (jet skiing, paddle boarding, snorkeling), a resort-style complex with bungalows, cabanas, splash pool (family splash pad for kids), swimming pool (with a swim-up bar), beach BBQs.

RCI's Royal Beach Club admission is all-inclusive, covering water taxi transportation (to/from the resort), all food and beverages (including alcoholic), beach access (chairs, umbrellas), non-motorized watersports activities (swimming, snorkeling, kayaking, paddle boarding).

The first RCI liner to visit "Royal Beach Club Antigua" was Vision of the Seas (May 2021) leaving roundtrip from San Juan Puerto Rico. In early-April 2021, Antigua Cruise Port and P&O Cruises UK signed a deal for homeporting in St Johns the fleet's newest liner - Arvia, for winter seasons 2022-2023 and 2023-2024. Also in 2021 started two development projects related to the cruise port - Heritage Quay Shopping Mall (US$ 2 million) and Pointe Dock (US$ 25 million, to allow berthing to even the world's largest cruise liners).

During season 2022-2023, Antigua Cruise Port handled 616419 passengers.

St Johns Antigua cruise terminal

St Johns Antigua tours, shore excursions, hotels

City Tours and Shore Excursions

Beaches: Antigua is famous for the fact that there are 365 beaches – a different one for each day of the year.

St John’ Cathedral: major landmark. It dates from 1683 when it was just a wooden structure. It was rebuilt several times since then. Now it is a stunning building with impressive Baroque towers.

Museum of Antigua and Barbuda: explore the islands’ history. Located at Long Street.

Nelson’s Dockyard National Park: tour the area. You can also visit the Dockyard Museum and the Admiral’s House Museum. Another landmark of the park is the Clarence House.

Fig Tree Drive: if you have more time, you should definitely try it. The drive follows the southern coast of Antigua and you can enjoy the amazing local life going through fishing villages, farmlands or beautiful rainforest. ”Fig” is the local name for the banana tree.