The Potential Pitfalls of Cabbies

[aimelearning]

St. Croix
Sunday 25 November, 2012
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I write this travelogue in the hope that others will go in with their eyes wide open, and not have to “wing it” as we did. Neither myself, nor my wife are pro travelers. We have done 8 cruises together, though, so we are not newbies to cruising; just newbies to doing tours through a local third party and not through the cruise line. I hope that you will see my observations as just that, and not as simply opinion. Any praise or criticism within this piece is not delivered without thought and consideration of what it might mean to those involved.

We did not plan to do anything specific in St. Croix and decided to wing it on our own. We had both heard from the girl manning the shore excursions desk on board the Summit that Christiansted was the better of the two towns to visit and go shopping. That had also been noted by others on CruiseCritic.com. Even so, when we walked off the ship just after noon, we were undecided as to whether to take a cab over there or not. Looking around Fredericksted, it appeared that there was very little to do or see so when a well-spoken man named Prince offered us a cab ride to Christiansted, we took him up on his offer.

He tried very hard to find another fare but by that point in the day there were no takers. That should have been a clue to us. Prince is very well-spoken, very articulate, and seemingly very knowledgeable. The cab ride was mostly uneventful until about 2/3 of the way into it when the conversation turned into a vociferous Sunday sermon. While we did not disagree with the things Prince said, we were somewhat surprised that he would talk to total strangers as if they were his parishioners.

We finally stopped across the street from Fort Christiansværn. We had asked Prince earlier if he would pick us up for the return to Fredericksted and he said he would. We again verified with him that he would come back to pick us up. He said yes, he would. Since we had to be back on the ship no later than 5:15 we asked him to pick us up by 4:00pm for the 25-minute ride. He said he would be 10 to 15 minutes earlier, just to be safe. We paid him, thanked him and began our tour of Christiansted.

As it turned out, Christiansted was not much more to see than Fredericksted and we were basically done in an hour. There is not much shopping, not as much sightseeing as we had been led to believe. There is a nice boardwalk that runs beside the marina to where the shops and stores are. But there are few restaurants or bars there. It appears to be a place where you really want to be, and not so much a touristy kind of place.

As it was only about 2:00pm, we stopped at a bar that wasn’t really open yet. The owner/bartender said that they were doing a “soft launch” and that they would actually open on December 6th. My wife ordered a mimosa, I ordered sangria. He said he would whip something up on the fly as he had no sangria. A few moments later he appeared with both drinks. I tried the sangria and knew it only needed a little sugar. He complied and came back with a very good glass of faux-sangria.

The bar owners are from the US. I applaud them on their chutzpah for leaving everything to open a bar in the Caribbean. They got a prime location on the boardwalk fronting the marina. That day a singer/guitarist was playing music you might hear on the Jimmy Buffett channel on Sirius/XM. All in all it was a very good bar experience.

As we discovered, most of the tourists had departed Christiansted several hours earlier so we were only mildly surprised when the bar closed at 3:00pm. We walked the boardwalk back toward the old fort. We thought about going into the fort but there was a charge to get in, so thinking that we only had a few minutes before Prince came to pick us up, we decided not to go in. We walked across the street and sat on a bench beside the National Park monument on Church street <ref> to wait for Prince.

Many, many cars and a few cabs passed by but as the minutes passed, we saw no evidence of Prince. Several cabs took tourists away but the number of cabs dwindled to two. 3:45 came and went and we began to get nervous. At 3:55 we both just knew that Prince was not going to return for us so we walked up the street to a waiting cabbie and asked if he would take us to Fredericksted. He said no but that we should check with the other cabbie further down the street. Now my wife went into panic mode and wondered out loud what would we do if we couldn’t make it back to the ship. I was still in hopes that we would look up and see Prince, but we did not. We got to the second cabbie and asked him if he would take us. He hemmed and hawed and asked why we were still in Christiansted. We explained the situation. He asked us who had brought us. We told him, “Prince.” He scoffed and said something about Prince doing that a lot to people.

Whether or not that was true, I don’t know. But I did know that I was willing to pay this guy a lot to get us back to Fredericksted. We had paid Prince $16 to bring us. This guy wanted $30 to take us back. I said, “Deal,” thinking that was not too bad a price given the situation. My wife shot me an ugly, but relieved look as we got in the cab. I’ll give him credit, contrary to a lot of the bad cabbies you see on “The Amazing Race”, he did all he could to get us back to Fredericksted quickly, even running at least one light in the process. It was not until we were at the pier that my wife, and I by extension, calmed down. Of course it was only 4:30 and we still had 45 minutes, but given the events of the last hour, that was close enough.

The bottom line is that you don’t owe a cab driver anything. You need to do for yourself first so unless you have some guarantee that your cab driver will indeed show up to take you back, or you have his cell phone number, you take whatever cab is available and willing to take you back. Because after a certain point in the day, very few cab drivers are still there and are willing to make the trek over to Fredericksted.

[EmmieCruising7/15]

We are not pro-travellers either but have found that most cabbies that agree to come back to get you to drive you back to the ship, will let you pay them for the round trip at the end of the trip so that you are confortable with them and know that they will return. This is more common when you go longer distances or some place where there may not be a ton of cabs.

[VillaHappy]

That is a scary story. You did what you had to do, and $30 is not a bad price to pay to make sure you are back on the ship in time!

[sail7seas]

We are very experienced travelers as well as cruisers and we also had a terrible taxi experience on our last visit to St. Croix.

DH also was willing to pay a hefty sum to any (safe) taxi that would return us to the ship. We got back safely and in plenty of time but were dealt a fair amount of stress.

I'm sorry to read of your experience, OP, but am happy you and your DW safely returned to the ship on time.

[AntiHamstr]

Originally Posted by aimelearning

St. Croix

...
But I did know that I was willing to pay this guy a lot to get us back to Fredericksted. We had paid Prince $16 to bring us. This guy wanted $30 to take us back. I said, “Deal,” thinking that was not too bad a price given the situation. My wife shot me an ugly, but relieved look as we got in the cab.

FWIW, taxi rates are SUPPOSED to be standardized by the Taxi Association. The websites may be outdated, but it seems like the rate should have been $24 each way. Prince cut you a deal because you had the advantage. The second guy may have overcharged you because he had the advantage, but not by very much. It's not worth worrying about.


I've had taxi drivers on various island try to charge 2-3 times the standard rate to get back to the ship. The trick is to NOT panic. They quickly start bringing their rates down to reasonable levels.

[sail7seas]

When it is hot and humid, you are tired and hungry, you want to get back to the ship and you can afford to pay.......

I don't know about anyone else, but we are going to pay in order to get back to the ship without further delay and hassle. We had enough and wanted away.........

Not interested in Tricks at that point. We were only interested in a ride!

As to what they are supposed to charge......

[rcprncss]

Aimelearning, thanks for sharing your experience with us. Good to know since I am going there for the first time in April. I just need to get to a beach.

[CNDDB1]

Thanks for posting...I am in the process of making a plan for St Croix and will not include hiring a taxi!