Ship tours in St. Thomas

[mapltc]

We will be sailing on Allure of the Seas in February and while we will be stopping in St. Thomas we really want to go to St. John for the day. I understand that Oasis and Allure dock at a different location than most of the other ships and was wondering if it was difficult and/or time consuiming to get from the ship to the commercial ferry that takes you to St. John? There are various ship tours that take you over to St. John as well and the one short tour (4 hrs.) advertises that a boat will pick you up right at the cruise ship. Has anyone else done the longer tours (6 hrs)? If so, can you tell me if they pick you up right next to the ship or do they somehow get you over to the commercial ferry for the ride over to St. John?

 

The $40 RCCL charges for the tour might be worth it if you can avoid having to taxi through St. Thomas to get to the ferry when it's crowded.

[cruiseguy1016]

The best way (IMHO) to go to ST. John from St. Thomas is to take the Red Hook Ferry. When you get off the ship, grab a cab and ask him to take you to the Red Hook Ferry. The Ferries run every hour so you have a lot more flexibility than you would with a ship sponsored tour. Once you get to St. John, grab a cab to Trunk Bay or wherever it is that you want to go.

[neverenoughtime]

We will be sailing on Allure of the Seas in February and while we will be stopping in St. Thomas we really want to go to St. John for the day. I understand that Oasis and Allure dock at a different location than most of the other ships and was wondering if it was difficult and/or time consuiming to get from the ship to the commercial ferry that takes you to St. John? There are various ship tours that take you over to St. John as well and the one short tour (4 hrs.) advertises that a boat will pick you up right at the cruise ship. Has anyone else done the longer tours (6 hrs)? If so, can you tell me if they pick you up right next to the ship or do they somehow get you over to the commercial ferry for the ride over to St. John?

 

The $40 RCCL charges for the tour might be worth it if you can avoid having to taxi through St. Thomas to get to the ferry when it's crowded.

 

I took the Celebrity version of the St Johns tour in April. It was absolutely worth the $40. The boat and captain were literally parked next to the cruise ship and we left without leaving the dock. I was halfway to St Johns when others were still trying to hail a taxi. And if you factor in the cost to get to Red Hook, the ferry over, time lost in transit etc, the $40 was a bargain. Our trip included a short tour of St Johns by the Captain. Wish I could remember his name as he was too funny! We hiked a trail to one of the beaches and had a great day.

[fdthird]

One of the problems is that you will wait at the dock till they fill up the truck/taxi. When we were there 2 weeks ago we waited for 30 minutes in the taxi to go to Cochi Beach.