Sandcastle Beach Review

[Sandy Sails]

Did not see any sea glass at all. But we found some large conche shells and large pieces of corral. Bruno asked us not to take them with us as it's not nice to remove them from the beach. Plus when you go through customs, they usually take them away from you.

[drpm]

Does anyone remember the prices of the drinks ? And is the snorkeling any good there?

[Feelin' Nauti']

Drinks were reasonable.

 

Snorkel - nah! Nothing to write home about. :(

[maynard123]

What great reviews! We will be in St. Croix in 17 days. Reserved the Sandcastle chair/umbrella/drink package by e-mail. Had a confirmation in less than 2 hours. Does anyone know if they have towels, or do we need to bring them from the ship?

[Feelin' Nauti']

What great reviews! We will be in St. Croix in 17 days. Reserved the Sandcastle chair/umbrella/drink package by e-mail. Had a confirmation in less than 2 hours. Does anyone know if they have towels, or do we need to bring them from the ship?

Bring your own.

They do not supply towels.

[bsawg]

We are thinking of going to this beach in March. We were planning to bring a fold up beach shelter/tent thing on our cruise for the various beaches. Do you think this beach would let us use one or would they insist on us renting umbrellas?

[Feelin' Nauti']

We are thinking of going to this beach in March. We were planning to bring a fold up beach shelter/tent thing on our cruise for the various beaches. Do you think this beach would let us use one or would they insist on us renting umbrellas?

E-mail and ask - won't hurt.

[hancogran]

What great reviews! We will be in St. Croix in 17 days. Reserved the Sandcastle chair/umbrella/drink package by e-mail. Had a confirmation in less than 2 hours. Does anyone know if they have towels, or do we need to bring them from the ship?

 

I did the same thing last week and reserved the $25 package. :) I'm pretty sure we will have to bring towels from the ship...the list of what's included doesn't show towels, so I'm going to be safe and bring them with us.

[sledhead]

We were thinking of going to rainbow beach but after reading this i think we have changed our minds! Has anyone been to both and if so which do you feel is a better beach day?

[OceanCruise]

We just went to Sandcastle last week and did not reserve in advance. The taxi stand at the pier has vouchers for $6 round trip pp. We got to Sandcastle around 9:30 am and there were plenty of lounge chairs to rent at that time. There was also a shady area at least during the morning hours so we did not rent an umbrella. It started getting crowded around 11. We left at noon and met people who told us there were no more chairs to rent at that time. It was a nice beach and only a 5 minute ride.

[hancogran]

We spent a day last week at Sandcastle, and I had reserved the $25 cruise ship package. We headed over about 8:45 a.m. but the office does not open until 9:00 so we had to wait to get our passes. The beach was nice and quiet at that time but by 10:30 or so, it got very busy.

 

The rum punch which was included with our pass was very strong. :D We enjoyed a few hours at Sandcastle but I would have preferred a quieter beach. We loved the fact that it was so close to the port. I believe we were the only ship in port that day so I would hate to see what the beach would be like if there were two or three ships! :eek:

[nikita]

We spent a day last week at Sandcastle, and I had reserved the $25 cruise ship package. We headed over about 8:45 a.m. but the office does not open until 9:00 so we had to wait to get our passes. The beach was nice and quiet at that time but by 10:30 or so, it got very busy.

 

The rum punch which was included with our pass was very strong. :D We enjoyed a few hours at Sandcastle but I would have preferred a quieter beach. We loved the fact that it was so close to the port. I believe we were the only ship in port that day so I would hate to see what the beach would be like if there were two or three ships! :eek:

 

A few questions...do you get service on the beach or do you have to get the drinks/food yourself (yes, I'm that lazy - its a vacation). If you arrived later but had reserved chairs etc would they hold them for you? Do you pay in advance on website or once you get there?

Thanks!

[hancogran]

A few questions...do you get service on the beach or do you have to get the drinks/food yourself (yes, I'm that lazy - its a vacation). If you arrived later but had reserved chairs etc would they hold them for you? Do you pay in advance on website or once you get there?

Thanks!

 

We didn't see anybody getting any kind of drink/food service so yes, we had to go get the drinks ourselves. There seemed to be only one young guy who was getting the chairs and umbrellas and he was kept pretty busy with that.

 

There didn't seem to be any shortage of chairs so I'm sure if you reserved they'd accommodate you. I booked through the website but did not have to pay until we got there. When we reserved, we simply had to give our name and that was it... no credit card to hold it or anything.

[NorthCarolinaBelle]

Sandcastle was a nice enough beach, but yes, it did get crowded by my standards. Next time, we will request to have our chairs put to the right (as you're looking at the ocean) since it looked like there was more space that direction.

Bathrooms were a little disappointing, but fairly clean. One inside the bar area had the toilet up on a step that made it about 3 feet off the ground. I literally had to climb up on it!

The young guy putting out the chairs and umbrellas was very polite and efficient, and worked hard. As stated before, you had to get your own drinks. Yes, they were potent.

Lots of sea glass in the surf. I spent a bit of time meandering down the beach picking it up. It was hard to see at first, but then it seemed to be everywhere I looked!

It was a nice, relaxing way to spend our first port day.

[hancogran]

Sandcastle was a nice enough beach, but yes, it did get crowded by my standards. Next time, we will request to have our chairs put to the right (as you're looking at the ocean) since it looked like there was more space that direction.

Bathrooms were a little disappointing, but fairly clean. One inside the bar area had the toilet up on a step that made it about 3 feet off the ground. I literally had to climb up on it!

The young guy putting out the chairs and umbrellas was very polite and efficient, and worked hard. As stated before, you had to get your own drinks. Yes, they were potent.

Lots of sea glass in the surf. I spent a bit of time meandering down the beach picking it up. It was hard to see at first, but then it seemed to be everywhere I looked!

It was a nice, relaxing way to spend our first port day.

 

This is what we did but after a few hours when more people were coming, we were stuck in the middle of it all! :eek: If we go there again, I'd head waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay down the beach. :D Some people literally try to squeeze two or four chairs in such a small space that they end up almost on top of you! :eek:

[OKCruiseMan]

I see this thread is getting old, but thought someone searching on Sand Castle on the Beach may be interested to know there is now a wecam.

 

http://www.sandcastleonthebeach.com/BeachCam.cfm

[Feelin' Nauti']

I see this thread is getting old, but thought someone searching on Sand Castle on the Beach may be interested to know there is now a wecam.

 

http://www.sandcastleonthebeach.com/BeachCam.cfm

Thanks for posting the webcam.

 

Wish I was back there.... :)

[merdon]

Thanks for posting the webcam.

We're looking forward to Sandcastle in October.

[Kevin's girl]

We're not going until March. Maybe you could post a few pics when you get back.

[lah66]

We were at Sandcastle last week..we had reserved the $25 cruise deal ahead of time. Very nice and speedy responses to my email. We decided to take a taxi to see just how far and where we were going. We had already walked past the taxi table but there was a cab right in front of us who said he would take us. He charged us $3 per person.

The office lady was not nice at all. The chair and umbrella guy was very polite and speedy getting us situated. It was a bit overcast so we had the beach to ourselves for over an hour. At the most, there was 20 people on the beach all day. We had a ball, collecting sea glass and just relaxing.

We had lunch in the restaurant. The fish tacos and the burgers were great, the drinks were tasty, the waiter super nice. Bruno was out making a big sandcastle as we ate!

When we wanted to head back to the ship, we did not see any taxis. We asked another lady at the desk (who was even ruder than the first one) if she could call us a cab. You think we asked her for the world. Apparently most taxis charge you $6 right away and give you a return coupon. We told her we didn't get one and she was just disgusted with us. She told us that we may not find anyone willing to pick us up. We waited for quite some time and nobody showed so we started walking back.

 

For anyone wanting to take a taxi, stop at the taxi table so you get the return ticket voucher..maybe you could even tell them what time to come back for you.

 

Sandcastle Beach Management, please give your desk employees customer service training!! The chair guy and waiter are to be commended! they could teach those two ladies a thing or two!

 

Lauri