St. Thomas from 7am - 6pm want to visit The Baths

We are visiting June 2018 on the RCL Freedom of the Seas, which will be in port from 7am - 6pm. We would like to visit The Baths. Snorkeling or other activities do not really matter, we just want to be sure to see The Baths.

Can anyone recommend an excursion company?

We want to do the same thing. Will be on Harmony of the seas sailing on June 10th. The tour company Viator offers day tours to The Baths. We've used them on other tours before but really not sure if we want to risk going so far away. We really want to go back to The Baths but haven't been able to find any other people that have taken the tour leaving from St. Thomas.

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The only way we'd do that from St. Thomas would be with an excursion offered by the ship. ;)

The Baths are quite a distance from St Thomas and you can lose a lot of time at customs

Unless it is an offered trip then you really can't do it on a cruise stop

I'm sure Lulu and Bill are correct as it is a long ride there from the East End. With your longer port time there may be options if you have a roll call group and can afford to charter one of the power boats that go there like Bad Kitty/Calypso Charters, Pirates Penny/Stormy Petrel, or Breakaway out of Sapphire Marina. Check with Breakaway, they have a cruise ship option on their site -

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

We are visiting June 2018 on the RCL Freedom of the Seas, which will be in port from 7am - 6pm. We would like to visit The Baths. Snorkeling or other activities do not really matter, we just want to be sure to see The Baths.

 

Can anyone recommend an excursion company?

I would book a cruise that ports in Tortola if I wanted to visit the Bath's. It's definitely a must see but I wouldn't do it on a 7-6 cruise day from St Thomas unless it was a cruiseship excursion. It's too far and too much could go wrong.

I would book a cruise that ports in Tortola if I wanted to visit the Bath's. It's definitely a must see but I wouldn't do it on a 7-6 cruise day from St Thomas unless it was a cruiseship excursion. It's too far and too much could go wrong.

Just an opinion, we would never book a cruise to Tortola with the intent of visiting the Baths - that is the very worst time to experience the Baths. Hundreds of people do it when docked at Tortola and it just gets so congested. The best way to enjoy the Baths is on a land vacation when you can plan your visit around the cruise ship schedule.

Just an opinion, we would never book a cruise to Tortola with the intent of visiting the Baths - that is the very worst time to experience the Baths. Hundreds of people do it when docked at Tortola and it just gets so congested. The best way to enjoy the Baths is on a land vacation when you can plan your visit around the cruise ship schedule.

I guess we got lucky! So many beautiful pictures of us going between/over the boulders on our own and a very uncrowned beach.

I'm not a fan of Tortola. Would never be anywhere near the top of my list for a vacation unless I was using it as a place to start and finish a sailing vacation of the BVI's.

I guess we got lucky! So many beautiful pictures of us going between/over the boulders on our own and a very uncrowned beach.

 

I'm not a fan of Tortola. Would never be anywhere near the top of my list for a vacation unless I was using it as a place to start and finish a sailing vacation of the BVI's.

Yes you were very lucky indeed! Most ships are in port a short time and planning your visit to the Baths around the main crowd isn't an option.

Tortola is our favorite Carib destination (outside of Mexico) for many reasons. There is a culture you won't find in most Carib islands visited by cruise ships, and it offers natural beauty as well as great evenings.

I know you spend a lot of time on the SXM forum, we've cruised there twice and we've stayed on both sides of the island and that is at the bottom of our list of destinations. Not sure why we returned last year, I guess we wanted to see if it was any different from our last stay in 2005. No different, just busier...

But everyone has their favorites, and we don't post negative reports on places that don't appeal to us because they appeal to others who have different tastes. Not sure why you felt the need to share your disldain for Tortola but that's how you roll I guess...

Yes you were very lucky indeed! Most ships are in port a short time and planning your visit to the Baths around the main crowd isn't an option.

 

Tortola is our favorite Carib destination (outside of Mexico) for many reasons. There is a culture you won't find in most Carib islands visited by cruise ships, and it offers natural beauty as well as great evenings.

I know you spend a lot of time on the SXM forum, we've cruised there twice and we've stayed on both sides of the island and that is at the bottom of our list of destinations. Not sure why we returned last year, I guess we wanted to see if it was any different from our last stay in 2005. No different, just busier...

 

But everyone has their favorites, and we don't post negative reports on places that don't appeal to us because they appeal to others who have different tastes. Not sure why you felt the need to share your disldain for Tortola but that's how you roll I guess...

You definitely have to know where to stay when visiting an island on your own. I read that you stayed at Orient and Great Bay when you vacationed in St. Maarten. Two very busy places that I would not stay myself and actually spend very little time at. The last time that I actually swam in Great Bay was in 2006 because I read about the pollution concerns there that are still an issue in 2007. I do enjoy lunch and shopping there though on at least one day per vacation.

Great Bay is very near to the influx of cruiseship passengers and Orient is a very busy beach.

To each their own as they say. A few years ago we met a guy at the airport while awaiting our flight home from St. Maarten that never left Orient Bay beach on his 10 day vacation and loved it and DH and myself never put a foot on it during ours during that vacation and loved ours to.

I actually like to read what people like and don't like about an island or port. I think that it's important to gather info on places prior to visiting. Perhaps if you had done that you may have found out before hand about Great Bay and Orient and chose different areas or even a different island to visit.

You definitely have to know where to stay when visiting an island on your own. I read that you stayed at Orient and Great Bay when you vacationed in St. Maarten. Two very busy places that I would not stay myself and actually spend very little time at. The last time that I actually swam in Great Bay was in 2006 because I read about the pollution concerns there that are still an issue in 2007. I do enjoy lunch and shopping there though on at least one day per vacation.

 

Great Bay is very near to the influx of cruiseship passengers and Orient is a very busy beach.

 

To each their own as they say. A few years ago we met a guy at the airport while awaiting our flight home from St. Maarten that never left Orient Bay beach on his 10 day vacation and loved it and DH and myself never put a foot on it during ours during that vacation and loved ours to.

 

I actually like to read what people like and don't like about an island or port. I think that it's important to gather info on places prior to visiting. Perhaps if you had done that you may have found out before hand about Great Bay and Orient and chose different areas or even a different island to visit.

Karysa, sitting in an airport terminal and reading your post I have the time to reply since your reply doesn't really make sense.

The OP was asking about excursion options to the Baths from STT, and because of their long 11 hours in port I offered one option that is quite viable if they are really interested. It is actually one of the best options for visiting the Baths whether on a cruise or a land vacation. Their cruise is already booked, yet you recommended they book a cruise that includes Tortola? No help there...I know that you meant that going to the Baths from Tortola makes more sense logistically, however as I pointed out it is also the worst time to visit the Baths due to the heavy congestion from the ship excursions.

You then felt a need to make a sarcastic comment about Tortola that is not even relevant to the conversation. My comment about SXM was in reply to yours. No, SXM a not our favorite Carib destination as compared to similar islands, but we don't go out of our way to tell others that. Many obviously love SXM. We love spending time in Friar's Bay and Happy Bay, and taking the GE day sails when on SXM. However we're just not big fans of the SXM experience, yet we don't feel the need to post that as it's just our personal opinion. Who cares if SXM "would never be at the top of my list for a vacation"?

And yes, we research every destination, and we enjoyed our stays in OB and more recently in GB. GB especially is a beautiful bay and the resort is a wonderful place to stay. Most getaways we like meeting others and we met some great couples at SGB. Our most recent visit was to take advantage of a resort credit at the Sonesta GB, and we really enjoyed our stay at the property. Great staff, beautiful water, nice views, and an ideal loaction for a base to travel from. By the way, repeatedly citing the 2007 technical report on the SXM forum can be misleading to newcomers to the forum since you are not always including the potential cause (heavy rain runoff) and folks cannot make an informed decision on whether to go there.

And as I said we are all different and these forums are a great place for folks to get Helpful feedback.

People change cruise bookings all of the time and for a variety of reasons ( OP was still over a year out) and besides, information posted on here is used by those with hopes of visiting a port in the future so I don't think that the information or opinion that you give has to be just for the OP.

I would be interested in hearing from anyone that has done The Bath's from St. Thomas on their own on a cruise. This thread has been up for a while and so far no one has posted their experience. It certainly would give people direction and confidence if this sort of island hopping was done on a regular basis by fellow ccer's.:)

I tried to be helpful and posted my experience and my opinion. I certainly didn't force anyone to take it. I really loved the Bath's and posted our experience on the Tortola board after arriving home from that cruise. I would repeat the experience in a heartbeat. You don't agree with my opinion or advice, I gathered that. I would not have expected anything else.;)

People change cruise bookings all of the time and for a variety of reasons ( OP was still over a year out) and besides, information posted on here is used by those with hopes of visiting a port in the future so I don't think that the information or opinion that you give has to be just for the OP.

 

I would be interested in hearing from anyone that has done The Bath's from St. Thomas on their own on a cruise. This thread has been up for a while and so far no one has posted their experience. It certainly would give people direction and confidence if this sort of island hopping was done on a regular basis by fellow ccer's.:)

 

I tried to be helpful and posted my experience and my opinion. I certainly didn't force anyone to take it. I really loved the Bath's and posted our experience on the Tortola board after arriving home from that cruise. I would repeat the experience in a heartbeat. You don't agree with my opinion or advice, I gathered that. I would not have expected anything else.;)

Yes this feedback was for the two requestors on a cruise to STT. And it's really not a matter of agreeing or disagreeing on opinions, we are all entitled to those! It's just the relevance of the info and the path taken. But certainly enough said - Have a good one! :)