newcruiser6

Appreciate if anyone has input on this....

Is Foxy's the only private charter that doesn't require a taxi? i.e. straight from cruise ship dock to White Bay?

Yes it is very pricey from the cruise dock for just a ride. Patouche is a nice day on a cat and a much different experience. Your time on Jost is limited with that option, unless of course you commandeer the boat for just your group. Then you would have some decision in your itinerary based on weather and other factors.

Enjoy! :)

Thanks! Yes at that price Foxy's won't be an option for us. Considering either Patouche or just doing the cruise ship excursion. I'm usually 100% against ship excursions but in this case it'd actually be cheaper!

I see Foxy's offers water taxi service between West End and Jost for $44 - $50 pp for a4-person min but I don't see the cruise dock to Jost option on their site. How much is that, and does the 4-person minimum apply to get that price?

 

This is also a great new option for getting transportation straight to your final destination on a land vacation when coming from the USVI.

I just heard back from Foxy's and was quoted $1400 for the charter from the cruise dock to JVD. However, they can only fit 10 people on the boat, so Patouche would be less expensive ($1500 for 14 people).

Foxy's has bathroom and shower facilities onboard as well and life jackets too. As I had said earlier they will pick you up right off the ship. We are traveling with a 4 year old so these amenities were important to us as well. Whomever you decide on make sure they can pick you up right off the ship as many are unable to do so. Hope you will find what you are looking for. Happy cruising !!

That sounds awesome. I emailed Foxy's and I'm just waiting to hear back.

Thanks both for the tips! We have 2 kids in car seats (1 and 3) so we're looking for an option where we can go straight from ship to boat without taxis. I've reached out to Patouche and I'll check these others as well.

We are looking for this as well. We come on the Disney Magic in December. I usually prefer DIY excursions and was wondering if that is an option. The ship charges $109 for adults and $84 for kids. Anyone know of any options?

Thanks for the reply. One would think that 1500 ml of wine is 1500 ml of wine. They will be sealed so no question that they are wine. Guess we'll see what happens!

Has anyone brought 3 of the 500 ml wine boxes instead of 2 750 ml bottles?

They would be much easier to pack on an airplane.

We have no issues with walking around, so that sounds like a great plan.

Need to walk to burn off the cruise calories!

Thanks for your help!

We are on Oasis. If we are onboard early enough I think we'll just visit the restaurants first thing.

Thanks again for the tips!

That's what I was hoping to hear. Thanks for the replies!

This is definitely one of those things that is difficult when you are a planner like myself. I like to have things arranged ahead of time! But, I'll just make it our mission to make our plans as soon as we board and consider that "advanced" enough.

One more question...Similarly, if we want to switch to MTD once we are onboard, is that a problem?

We are new to Royal Caribbean, and have a nice onboard credit from our travel agent.

I am learning just how hard it is to use the onboard credit! We know that we want to use it to pay gratuity, which means we can't do MTD unless we switch once we are onboard. We then wanted to use it for an expensive excursion. Can't do that because the excursion has limited spots and will sell out before we board.

We definitely want to use it for a dinner or two in a specialty restaurant. Just realized today that we can't even do that in advance without giving a credit card.

So now to my actual question...If we want to book a dinner at Giovanni's or similar, how hard is it to do that once onboard? If we go to make the reservation as soon as we board the ship would that work? Even today (44 days out) 7:00 for 2 was not available on any night.

Appreciate any advice!

Ok, taxi to Mullet and Maho it is.

I am generally unfamiliar with St. Maarten. So when we leave Maho around 2:00, where do we take the taxi to? Is Philippsburg walking distance to our ship? Is that a nice area to walk around for an hour or so before we get back on?

Ok great. We will look at doing Mullet vs. La Galion! Since we don't really care about shopping I guess we could go to Mullet first thing in the am and then head over to Maho for the big plane landings?

The car rental quote was from rodaelcarrental.com for their 2007 car. It was $55 plus 15% tax.

Thank you for the help everyone!

We will be on the island in January on Oasis of the Seas. We always try to DIY our excursions and we are figuring out our best approach in St. Maarten.

We'd like to go to Maho to see the planes and to LaGalion or a similarly calm/pretty beach. Per everyone's advise, we'd like to be at Maho from around 11-1.

I got a quote of $55 plus tax for a rental car.

Two part question:

1) If we just have those two stops, is it easier to just take taxis?

2) If we were to drive, what would be a suggested route and what timing would we need to avoid the bridge opening. Is LaGalion on the port side of the bridge so that if we left Maho at 1 we'd be fine avoiding the traffic?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Gary - We are interested in part of this itinerary...going to La Galion and Maho and then back to the cruise ship area. What route would we take and would we have to go over the bridge? When I try plugging it into google maps it doesn't take me to Marigot so I'm a little confused.

We are wondering the same thing.

Got a quote of $55 for a car rental. I had read that a taxi to just Maho would cost us $40 and that wouldn't get us anywhere else.

We'd like to go to Maho and to one of the nice beaches as well.

How hard is it to navigate the island on our own as first-timers?

It depends what you consider near, but the hike up to the top of Peace Hill is quick and has a gorgeous view!

Does anyone else have feedback on this? We've vacationed to St. John several times (and got married on Hawksnest Beach!) but have never visited on a cruise.

We'd much rather spend a few hours on St. John than try and entertain ourselves on St. Thomas. Do you really get 4.5 hours on the island with this excursion? We had been considering the ferry but with the timing we'd have to take a cab to Red Hook first which adds time. For $34 each this seems like a pretty good option rather than risk missing a public ferry.

We have spent many hours on Solomon and Honeymoon and they are two of our favorite beaches anywhere. I'm thinking if we have 4.5 hours we could do the hike, spend 2 hours on the beach, and then grab a drink in Cruz Bay before the ship ferry leaves. Does that sound reasonable?

Also, can we book this onboard or does it sell out? We have an OBC that we would like to use.