Best Time of Day to Enjoy Trunk Bay

I will be on Carnival Liberty, stopping on St. Thomas on Monday, February 1st. Our departure time was just changed, so we are now in port from 7:00 am to midnight. One other ship will be in port from 8:00-5:30. Originally, I planned to head over to Trunk Bay on my own as soon as we docked at St. Thomas, but with the extended hours I'm rethinking my day. When would be the best time of day to visit Trunk Bay to avoid the crowds?

Most cruise ship visitors will leave St John on the 3 pm ferry. A few will take the 4 pm return. You do have the luxury of staying later, however even though your ship isn't leaving until late you might wish to consider the sun sets here about quarter after 6 and it will be dark very shortly thereafter. Most cruisers especially if they are traveling independently, do not wish to be so far from the cruise ship after dark. Hope this info helps with your plans.

Trunk is a good size beach and with just two ships it probably wont be to crowded Since you have time you might divide the day between Trunk and Cinnamon, which I like better.

As it starts to get dark the noseeums come out so you should plan to be off the beach before dusk.

Thank you both for the feedback!

Wow you have a great opportunity to take advantage of unique excursions while in port with your arrival and departure times! It's also indeed a rarity when docked on a cruise and you could actually take one of the full-day excursions to the BVI with one of the smaller operators who cater to small groups if you have passports. Just a thought since you have the luxury of looking at that option!

But for a day on STJ you're very fortunate, you could taxi to Red Hook and ferry over at your leisure, perhaps take a nice island tour when you arrive for ~$25pp, and get dropped at Cinnamon to enjoy a relatively quiet beach as compared to Trunk. You can then return to STT and walk the town of Red Hook and taxi back to town and enjoy a nice dinner with sunset at either Mafolie, Room With a View, Banana Tree Grille, or a number of other spots.

Our last (and first) cruise went to St. Thomas and Tortola. We loved taking the ferry over to St. John and Virgin Gorda from those islands. At St. John, we took an island tour and were dropped off at Trunk Bay afterwards. At Virgin Gorda, we enjoyed The Baths and Devil's Bay, ate lunch, and then had Spring Bay to ourselves for a couple hours. It was the highlight of our trip!

My first thought with the extended stay at St. Thomas was to venture over to Virgin Gorda. However, the ferry doesn't operate on Mondays.

Having never seen St. Thomas and wanting to add a little adventure to our vacation, DH is intrigued by the idea of zip lining before St. John, so that's under consideration.

I'd be interested in hearing about my BVI options. Do you have the names of the operators?

Our last (and first) cruise went to St. Thomas and Tortola. We loved taking the ferry over to St. John and Virgin Gorda from those islands. At St. John, we took an island tour and were dropped off at Trunk Bay afterwards. At Virgin Gorda, we enjoyed The Baths and Devil's Bay, ate lunch, and then had Spring Bay to ourselves for a couple hours. It was the highlight of our trip!

 

My first thought with the extended stay at St. Thomas was to venture over to Virgin Gorda. However, the ferry doesn't operate on Mondays.

 

Having never seen St. Thomas and wanting to add a little adventure to our vacation, DH is intrigued by the idea of zip lining before St. John, so that's under consideration.

 

I'd be interested in hearing about my BVI options. Do you have the names of the operators?

Yes that was a very nice day on VG!

For the BVI, the larger operators like Breakaway Charters and Calypso/Bad Kitty that go to VG, a snorkel stop, and then to White Bay on Jost depart the East End at 7AM. But Breakaway does have an option for cruisers and you can contact them on that - very highly regarded outfit -

http://visitbreakaway.com/index.php?pageStewardLink=5589

Visit the breakaway charters site if the link doesn't work and scroll down for the link.

Smaller ops that take you to Jost can be found on the vinow dot com site

http://www.**********/things-to-do/boating-charters/

In case the link doesn't work -

"St Thomas/Boating & Charters/Power-Boating: St Thomas & ST John Boat rentals" which includes the excursion operators. We worked with Island Wilson but had to cancel, but all have similar fees with smaller boats for 6 - 8 ppl.

Thanks so much for the ideas! I'm on this cruise as well. We've done an island tour of St. Thomas, so we are looking to try out other islands. The friends we are traveling with have been to St. John several times before, but we haven't. I'll talk with them about at going to the BVI. That would be so fun! I want to max out my time since we would normally not have so much time.

What time do shops close in Cruz Bay and around Havensight?

For BVI trips, you will return to clear Customs by 4:30 or so anyway, so staying into the night won't help much. Shops in Cruz Bay are open later- 8 or even 9. Havensight shops tend to close around 5, 5:30.

I want to go to the baths but concerned about time. Thanks for this info.

Yes the Baths from St Thomas is not a viable option for most day visitors unless the Breakaway option works out for you or you are in port a couple of days.