Sapphire Beach Conditions?

Hi all,

We will be visiting St Thomas for the day in December and after several previous stops in St Thomas are thinking about finally visiting Sapphire Beach for the day. Know there has been some construction/remodeling to the Sapphire Beach Resort and are wondering what the status of the construction project is/will be.

Checked the webcam and while it is no longer protected by a tarp, it is frozen on November 3. Beach looks awesome in the frozen shot though!

Would love to know how things are progressing and what the beach atmosphere/potential impact to a quiet beach day looks like for early December time-frame!

Thanks!

Sapphire maintenance has always been finished before Dec, and it has never affected people at the beach.

Every cruise visitor wants to go to a quiet, beautiful beach. If your ship is in port on the most common days of Tuesday and Wednesday, then your going to be with 20,000 other cruisers. Most everyplace is crowded for a few hours when the visitors are on the island

Sapphire is a beautiful beach and there will not be any construction going on, but if you want a quiet experience then come and stay for a week or two

Every cruise visitor wants to go to a quiet, beautiful beach. If your ship is in port on the most common days of Tuesday and Wednesday, then your going to be with 20,000 other cruisers. Most everyplace is crowded for a few hours when the visitors are on the island

Sapphire is a beautiful beach and there will not be any construction going on, but if you want a quiet experience then come and stay for a week or two

I second that!!! :)

I would expect you to really enjoy your day at Sapphire, just a gorgeous beach with water colors and island views unmatched by the others...

I was there about a month ago and it was roughly in the same condition as when I was there last August of 2015. Grounds around the parking lot looks like it's abandoned, there's construction going on on one of the buildings but once you reach the sand it all becomes irrelevant. The beach was great! It was a bit murky by the shore but there were lots of waves that day. We were never bothered by any construction work or noise. We even walked to the right end of the grounds near where the construction was going on and there was never a problem. If snorkeling, swim a bit out from the shoreline and towards the right where the rocks are. Pretty decent sights. There is a dive shop and a beach bar there as well as chair rentals. Atmosphere was pretty relaxed but we were the only ship in port.

Sapphire is a beautiful beach and there will not be any construction going on, but if you want a quiet experience then come and stay for a week or two

That would be heavenly and we may just do that some day!!!

Thanks to all for the responses! It sounds like Sapphire will work out just fine for us! This will be our third time visiting St Thomas and have had Sapphire on our list of possibilities for each visit. Time to move it from the "Things to Try" list over to the "Places We've Visited and Love" list!

Stinger-pr, Thanks for the snorkeling tip!

It seems as though from what I read the area in from of the Dive Shop can get kind of crowded since that is where the chair rental is. If you rent chairs from them are you able to take them down the beach a bit to a less crowded area or are you confined to a certain area?

You can spread out, hopefully to a shady spot by the water

You can spread out, hopefully to a shady spot by the water

Thanks, Blue_Water! Can't believe we will be there in just a little over 3 weeks. Looking forward to it!

That would be heavenly and we may just do that some day!!!

 

Thanks to all for the responses! It sounds like Sapphire will work out just fine for us! This will be our third time visiting St Thomas and have had Sapphire on our list of possibilities for each visit. Time to move it from the "Things to Try" list over to the "Places We've Visited and Love" list!

 

Stinger-pr, Thanks for the snorkeling tip!

 

It seems as though from what I read the area in from of the Dive Shop can get kind of crowded since that is where the chair rental is. If you rent chairs from them are you able to take them down the beach a bit to a less crowded area or are you confined to a certain area?

Please come back to this post and give us a review of your day. We are looking at going to Sapphire in February and I'd love to hear what you have to say. Hope you have a great time!

Please come back to this post and give us a review of your day. We are looking at going to Sapphire in February and I'd love to hear what you have to say. Hope you have a great time!

Will do!

Is it easy to get from the cruise port to Sapphire Beach? Do you have to tell the taxi when to return? Or are there taxi's waiting?

We will be there early February and looking to go on our own, not on a ship excursion.

Thanks!

There is a taxi stand at Sapphire and I have always seen taxis waiting.

Good information, thanks!

Please come back to this post and give us a review of your day. We are looking at going to Sapphire in February and I'd love to hear what you have to say. Hope you have a great time!

Sorry for the delay in posting about our day at Sapphire but the holidays snuck up on me this year and kind of took on a life of it's own...lol

We did go to Sapphire this cruise and had a really nice day!

We docked in Crown Bay which was a surprise to me since I thought Celebrity used Havensite (that was where Summit docked when we were there last Oct) but no big deal. Since we had 5 ships in port we wanted to hit the beach early before things got too crowded so were off the ship around 9. Very easy catching an open air safari taxi at the port. We were asked where we were headed and were directed to a waiting safari taxi that also had people heading to Downtown and Coki. After an almost non-existant wait we were off!

The drive was roughly 20-25 minutes (I think the cab fare was a couple dollars more coming from Crown Bay) and after a couple of brief stops to let others off we were there. We were dropped off near building A and we followed the sidewalk to the dive shop to rent chairs. We were early so there was no line at all. Chairs were $9.00 each and they brought the chairs down the beach a bit for us and we set up under one of the trees that line the shore.

Beach was nice! The area in the water right in front of us was rocky as it was

the reef area so we had to walk just a bit back toward the dive shop to go in the water but we knew that before hand. Knowing that people tended to set up near the dive shop because of the good swim area we chose to avoid the crowds and chose an area down the beach some. There was absolutely no construction noise or interference of any kind from the remodeling.

There is an outdoor restaurant/bar right next to the dive-shop and food and drink there I thought was very reasonably priced. We had a couple of drinks which were good but didn't eat there so can't comment on the food. There are restrooms located toward the back of the bar and they were decent.

The beach did have a fairly large influx of visitors around noon time but we really didn't feel crowded. Around 2:00 or so we walked back out to the area where we were dropped off earlier in the day and had no problem finding a taxi back to the ship.

All, in all, it was a really nice day!

Thanks for reporting back and glad you enjoyed Sapphire. Some folks think it's too far to come from Crown and they "settle" for Lindbergh (which is still a nice beach). But the ride isn't that bad, and definitely worth it!

You're welcome blue_water!

We did Celebrity's Secret Sands excursion to Smith Bay (Lindquist) when we were in St Thomas in 2015 when Summit docked at Havensight. The drive from Crown Bay didn't seem any longer to me but the taxi may have taken a more direct route than the tour (I can't remember how we went last time) or maybe traffic was light because we were up and out early. Either way I didn't find the drive bad at all.

Wish I was back there now!

You're welcome blue_water!

 

We did Celebrity's Secret Sands excursion to Smith Bay (Lindquist) when we were in St Thomas in 2015 when Summit docked at Havensight. The drive from Crown Bay didn't seem any longer to me but the taxi may have taken a more direct route than the tour (I can't remember how we went last time) or maybe traffic was light because we were up and out early. Either way I didn't find the drive bad at all.

 

Wish I was back there now!

Could you tell me how you liked the Secret Sands excursion? I was reading another review by someone who said that drinks were included, including soda and rum drinks but on the ship excursion description, it only says bottled water. Did you feel this excursion was worth the money? Did they stop anywhere along the way so you could take pictures? Thanks for any info you can give me.

Sun Lover,

We really enjoyed the Secret Sands excursion!

I think we paid around $100 or so for the two of us. It included transportation there and back, entry fee to the beach and lounge chairs. The vendor who handled the chairs also supplied rum punch, soda, water and beer (I think) at no charge but did mention several times that a nice tip at the end would be appreciated. Not sure if the drinks were "officially included" through Celebrity or just something he did on his own. He did a great job and we did tip accordingly.

On the way back we stopped at Mountain Top where there is a bar for a quick Banana Dacquiri, souvenier shop and overlook with beautiful views of Megan's Bay. There was also a brief stop at an overlook on Skyline Drive that overlooks Charlotte Amalie and the cruise ships.

When we added up the cost to do it on our own it came to about $50 with no chairs, no drinks and without the photo ops. When we were there taxi's did not hang around looking for fares back to the port. From what I understood we would need to arrange for a taxi to return to pick us up if we went on our own. Having never been there, it was out of my comfort zone.

So it really boiled down to are the extras worth the cost? You are only at the beach for 2 1/2 hours and would have liked that to be longer. The beach was gorgeous and not crowded at all!

Celebrity usually asks excursion suppliers to provide at least a beverage to add value to the excursion.

I just realized that yours was a tour through Celebrity and we'll be on Royal Caribbean. That might be why there's nothing about drinks being included.

I just realized that yours was a tour through Celebrity and we'll be on Royal Caribbean. That might be why there's nothing about drinks being included.

We just did this excursion of RCI (Anthem of the Seas, Dec 22 sailing) and it sounds just like the Celebrity version. We were provided with cold waters, sodas, beers and the choice of rum punch. (I had some of the latter. It was OK but obviously made from a mix.) We were invited to have as many drinks as we liked. There were also floaties/noodles in addition to the lounge chairs, which turned out to be essential for myself and my boys!

I agree that the excursion is a good deal price-wise, but we really could have used another hour at the beach. With about an hour total for the round trip, just over 2 hours at the beach did not seem like enough. The short duration is probably why the price tag is so low.

We pulled off of Skyline Drive on the way back for a photo op of the spectacular Charlotte Amalie panorama.

Does anyone know the cost for a taxi per person each way if you decide to go to Lindquist Beach on your own? I've read that it's $10/pp each way but want to confirm. Seems kind of high?

That is the fare to all of these East End beaches from Havensight, $1 or $2 more from Crown. Not really that bad, although it does get pricey when Dad is paying for a large family! :loudcry: