St John, go on your own or thru the ship?

We are thinking about heading over to St John from St Thomas. I would prefer not to book thru the ship since I am reading you do not get much time (less than 4 hours). Is it difficult to do it on your own? I am posting here instead of the St Thomas board since I am specifically curious about the RCI excursion "Self Explore St John" ST03

Thanks in advance!

It's not difficult to do on your own, but it can be time consuming. You have to taxi to the ferry, then possibly wait for the ferry. When you take the ship excursion, it leaves right from near the ship.

You may want to take a look at the St. Thomas port of call forum for more info:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=133

The way we did it a couple of years ago was thru RC BUT we did the St. John on your own excursion. This was a 6 hour excursion. We basically just used the RC ferry to get to St. John, then took a taxi to Cinnamon Bay, spent the afternoon there and then took a taxi back to Cruz Bay and walked around the shops for awhile before boarding the ferry back to the ship. A couple of things to consider is this way guaranteed us that the ship had to wait for us as we were on a RC excursion and we had plenty of time on the Island. We did the four hour beach thing years ago and recognized right away that there had to be a better way to do it. Good luck!

I basically asked the same question with no response. Were you happy with the transportation over and the amt of time there? Not shorted?

Well I'll say this, often the public ferry over can get cancelled due to winds but the ship's ferry for their tour won't. We almost learned the hard way, and thankfully another cruise line had a ferry for their excursion and they were nice enough to look the other way and let us on. We were pier running for our lives in St Thomas, we take the ship's tour now.

Our experience was similar to PAcruiser. We are non-RCI excursion people, but St. John just seemed easier to do through RCI. We basically used RCI excursion as a direct ferry, and then got on a taxi to Trunk Bay with a few others that were doing the same thing as us. When we were done at the beach we headed back to town, had a few drinks, saw a few stores and by then it was time to head to the RCI ferry back. We felt like we had enough time and it was a pretty easy way to get there.

Thank you everyone!! I think I will book thru RCI. I too, prefer the non ship excursions, but with all the travel I think it will be safest to use them. It is only slightly more expensive, but seems to be much less hassle. Thanks for all input, I appreciate it!

If you have never been there, and you have the time, get there anyway you can. :)

I did the ship excursion and it was very good

Thank you everyone!! I think I will book thru RCI. I too, prefer the non ship excursions, but with all the travel I think it will be safest to use them. It is only slightly more expensive, but seems to be much less hassle. Thanks for all input, I appreciate it!

From the posts I was reading today, I think it was actually the same. Both ways, you still have to pay for a taxi to the beach once you get over there. We're going to do it this way as well.

We rarely (VERY rarely) do ship's excursions, but we did the St. Johns nature excursion (I have no idea what the actual name is; it was a few years ago) and it was excellent.

Do not sit on the upper deck of the ferry coming back, unless you have strong sunscreen recently reapplied. The sun is STRONG and the ride is longer than you think. (yes, we all got rather sunburned just from that ride ;))

I agree..this is the one time having someone else take over is worth it!

Note of caution: if renting a beach chair at Trunk Bay is important to you, they have a limited supply and it's been reported that by the time the ship excursion folks get there, the chairs are gone. For that reason I go on my own, but to be safe, I leave the beach very early for the return trip. In the end I don't think I get that much more beach time than people who take ship excursions - but I do get a chair. If you want to rent one, be prepared to leave a credit card as a security deposit.

We are thinking about heading over to St John from St Thomas. I would prefer not to book thru the ship since I am reading you do not get much time (less than 4 hours). Is it difficult to do it on your own? I am posting here instead of the St Thomas board since I am specifically curious about the RCI excursion "Self Explore St John" ST03

 

Thanks in advance!

I have been to St John twice, first time via ship excursion and second time on my own. The cost for both options was nearly similar. On your own will certainly allow for more time. It is not difficult to do on your own if you research these boards. If I go back to St.John, I will use the ship excursion simply for the ease.

It is not difficult to do on your own if you research these boards. If I go back to St.John, I will use the ship excursion simply for the ease.

Totally Agree! Taking the ship excursion is so much easier. :D

Thank you everyone!! I think I will book thru RCI. I too, prefer the non ship excursions, but with all the travel I think it will be safest to use them. It is only slightly more expensive, but seems to be much less hassle. Thanks for all input, I appreciate it!

A good decision. I did self guided a few years ago. Cost turned out to be almost identical. Time spent on the beach was about the same. Either way, it's a great excursion.

I really wanted to go to St John when we were in St Thomas. I knew it was going to be a little time consuming, but it was well worth it. RCI charges so much and you can do it on your own for half.

We took a taxi to Red Hook, ferry across to St John, and then another taxi to Trunk Bay. Best snorkeling right off the beach we've ever had.

Another vote here for using the ship's excursion to get to St. John. We've done it three times.

For those of you who are mentioning takin g the RC excursion, and then taking a cab and doing it on your own, is this an option given by the cruise line for the excursion, or do you just abandon the excursion and do it that way in order to get the security of the ride to and from the ship? If you're doing it on your own, how do you keep the excursion people from thinking they've lost you?

Thanks for your inputs!

For those of you who are mentioning takin g the RC excursion, and then taking a cab and doing it on your own, is this an option given by the cruise line for the excursion, or do you just abandon the excursion and do it that way in order to get the security of the ride to and from the ship? If you're doing it on your own, how do you keep the excursion people from thinking they've lost you?

The excursion is just taking you. You're on your own after that. They just tell you what time the ferry will pick you back up to return you to the ship. Up to each what beach they go to or what they want to do.

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Sorry to sound quite ignorant -- I didn't have yet time to "study" in depth our itinerary, which includes St. Thomas and St. John's / Antigua.

Is St. John which is discussed here any different from St. John's / Antigua?

Never been to those ports, and on the map they seem far apart from each other :confused:

And why r pax crossing from St. Thomas to St. John?

Thanks for the clarification, Dani

Sorry to sound quite ignorant -- I didn't have yet time to "study" in depth our itinerary, which includes St. Thomas and St. John's / Antigua.

 

Is St. John which is discussed here any different from St. John's / Antigua?

 

Never been to those ports, and on the map they seem far apart from each other :confused:

 

And why r pax crossing from St. Thomas to St. John?

 

Thanks for the clarification, Dani

I just did a quick Google, it appears there is a town St John's on the island of Antigua. That is different from the island of St John, although very confusing 😆 below is the link I found

http://www.whatsinport.com/Saint-Johns.htm

A lot of people go over to St John from St Thomas since it is so close. Especially if you have been to St Thomas a few times, it's nice to change it up a bit, and I have heard just wonderful things about their beaches

Is St. John which is discussed here any different from St. John's / Antigua

I just did a quick Google, it appears there is a town St John's on the island of Antigua. That is different from the island of St John, although very confusing 😆 below is the link I found

 

http://www.whatsinport.com/Saint-Johns.htm

 

A lot of people go over to St John from St Thomas since it is so close. Especially if you have been to St Thomas a few times, it's nice to change it up a bit, and I have heard just wonderful things about their beaches

Thanks, NECruiser83 :) Appreciate the detailed reply.