aczi16

Aczi16-you said since St John is a US ...do we get charged for international rates on the cell phone? OR is it like calling from Hawaii?

All the major US carriers except Verizon do not charge roaming on USVI and Puerto Rico since they are US territories. I am not sure why verizon does not consider them part of the US. I have T-Mobile so if I were you, I would call Verizon directly - its really the only way to know for sure.

Be careful because your phone may pick up a signal from a tower from another island such as the BVI's. If this happens, you can easily call up your phone company and straighten things out.

You should take a 20-30 min taxi ride($20 rt) to Red Hook and catch a ferry(about $15) (15 mins) which runs every hour to St. John. Say your boat docks at 9am. to 5pm. Either try and get off the boat immeditaly, catch a taxi quickly and be on your way to Red Hook and wait for about 10mins for a ferry. It all depends on your timing. From exiting your boat to Red Hook will take about 40-50 mins, depending on traffic, ease with getting a taxi, and getting off the boat smoothly. The ferry will not wait for you, so make sure your early or miss it by 5 minutes and be waiting for another hour for the next ferry. REMEMBER: Cell phones work in St. Thomas since it is a United States Territory. Make sure you have the local taxi service numbers, cruise ship number (in case you are running late) and any other emergency numbers you may need to call while on STJ/STT. Also, if you want, you can take a Daily Activites in the morning which has the ships contact information on them. Again, say your boat leaves at 5pm, try and get a the ferry at 2 or 3, depending on which beach you decide to go to.

Depending on what you are looking for in a beach...

Snorkeling- Maho/Francis (northern part of island=farther away, quiet)

People watching, activities, crowds?, facilities- Trunk Bay (i don't reccommend since I rather go to a quiet beach all to ourselves)

Cinnamon Bay- all rounded good. Some facilites, good snorkeling, nice beach, walk through camp site. This is the beach I went to my first time in St. John and liked it a lot. When we visit again in Nov. We will be heading to Francis for a new experience.

Salomon Bay/Honeymoon Bay (separated by small rocky point of land) are very similar but Salomon has better snorkeling. Both only have garbage cans and porta potties(maybe). Also has calm shallow water with sand/grass bottom in the middle with snorkeling on both sides. Farther away and more quiet than many beaches. Quite hard to get to though. Taxi- hike half mile to beach or hike 1 mile.