St. John, Crown Bay, Allure, RCI Excursion STL2

[LA_CA_GAL]

OK, I have been reading tons of posts on excursions to St. John.

I thought I would start a new thread specifically for information and clarification of the RCI sponsored excursions for the Allure docking at Crown Bay.

We are scheduled to arrive at Crown Bay at 10:00 AM with departure at 7:00 PM.

 

We are currently looking at the STL2 excursion, which is listed to last for 6.5 hours.

 

I would greatly appreciate anyone that has done this providing their thoughts.

First, I assume that this excursion leaves from Crown Bay and there is no need to go to Red Hook, and returns to Crown Bay at the conclusion.

 

Q1. What is the “ferry like”? Shade, inside, top sun deck?

 

It goes to Cruz Bay. It also states

Enjoy a guided coastal cruise of St. John before having time to explore the island at your own pace.

A good combination tour if you'd like to see the beauty of St. John

from the water before heading off on an adventure of your choice.

 

Q2. How long will you be on the ferry before you get to land on Cruz Bay?

 

Further description of this excursion - Approximately 3 to 3.5 hours of independent exploration.

 

We are considering Trunk Bay for some beach time.

 

Q3. What are the facilities like? Can you rent chairs? Can you rent snorkeling equipment? Is there food? Do they have a bar? Are there restrooms?

 

Q4. Should we consider any other beaches other than Trunk Bay?

 

Q5. If we do a beach, when we return to Cruz Bay, are there any good restaurants to grab some food and drinks?

 

Let me know if you think there are any MUST DOS that I have not considered.

 

Any thoughts or suggestions on the above greatly appreciated.

[mmn531]

Thank you for this post. We are considering this as well in September. Looking forward to some good responses!!

[frenchrci]

Hi !

 

Q1. There is inside chairs downstairs with possibility to walk around like a "balcony" and a top sun deck upstairs. The crew is very friendly. Unlimited drink when you come back.

 

Q2. It's 45min between the ship and st john. The ferry go to st john and then do the coastal cruise (30min). You can just see a little Trunk bay and come back to Cruz Bay. Without the coastal cruise, you will have 4hours (so, 2h30-3h in TB). With the coastal cruise, you will have 3h30 (so 2h-2h30). Just enough to swim 1h30, buy a few things at the little shop and come back to the ferry.

 

When i will do it another time, i will go to St John on my own, because it's really short. We went out of the ship at 8h and spent 2h walking on the Marina yacht waiting for the excursion. It should be more time on St John.

 

Nb: You can ask the taxi driver (between TB & CruzB) to stop a little on the top to have the best view of Trunk Bay.

 

Q3. There is big facilities. You can rent equipments (i had my own ;) ), there is food & drinks. There is no chairs. You have not enough time to stay on the sand if you want to snorkel. ;)

 

Wonderful water

 

Photo of the beach

 

Q4. No. :D

 

For me, Trunk Bay & Coki Beach are the best ones...

 

Q5. I don't think you will have time to... But there is a lot of restaurants on the street in front of the ferry.

 

The must do is the stop at the top of the island to see Trunk Bay.

 

Edit: i did it at the end of December.

Edited January 21, 2014 by frenchrci

[LA_CA_GAL]

Hi !

 

Q2. It's 45min between the ship and st john. The ferry go to st john and then do the coastal cruise (30min). You can just see a little Trunk bay and come back to Cruz Bay. Without the coastal cruise, you will have 4hours (so, 2h30-3h in TB). With the coastal cruise, you will have 3h30 (so 2h-2h30). Just enough to swim 1h30, buy a few things at the little shop and come back to the ferry.

 

 

Thanx for the response.

 

Would you do the coastal cruise, or just get off the ferry and grab a taxi to Trunk Bay?

 

Also, at Trunk Bay, do they have a bar or beer available.

[frenchrci]

I don't regret to did it. But the time in Trunk bay is too short....

 

Difficult choice.

 

I'm sure at 90% that there is a little shop with beers and drinks. But not directly on the beach. Just behind some trees.

[moakes]

So if I understand the previous post correctly, the ferry first makes a stop at Cruz Bay BEFORE proceeding on to the coastal cruise. Is that correct? Can you get off, if you don't want to do the coastal cruise and just want more time at the beach?

Edited January 23, 2014 by moakes
Re-phrased question

[frenchrci]

So if I understand the previous post correctly, the ferry first makes a stop at Cruz Bay BEFORE proceeding on to the coastal cruise. Is that correct? Can you get off, if you don't want to do the coastal cruise and just want more time at the beach?

 

Exactly.

 

Because there is maybe only 10 people for the coastal cruise & 40 for just the transfert. So, there is just 1 ferry.

 

But, you just loose... maybe 5min with this stop. No more.

 

Sure, you can go out at the first stop. You have just different colored strap.

Edited January 24, 2014 by frenchrci

[monicajay]

Exactly.

 

Because there is maybe 10 people for the coastal cruise & 40 only for just the transfert. So, there is just 1 ferry.

 

But, you just loose... maybe 5min. No more.

 

Sure, you can go out at the first stop. You have just different colored strap.

 

Depends on when you do it. I went alone on my Jewel of the Seas trip. There were 40 or so for the coastal cruise and just me wanting the transfer. Passengers all had yellow wrist bands, mine was blue. Once on board they suggested I stay on for the coastal cruise and we didn't have to stop in Cruz to let anybody off. I enjoyed the trip and still found we had plenty of time to snorkel at Trunk. There was a shack at Trunk back from the beach where I got a beer to enjoy on my towel (I did not see chairs for rent) after snorkeling.

 

I only did this trip because my husband was feeling sick that morning and we had planned to go alone on the Ferry. He didn't think I should do the trip alone so I bought the ship excursion at the last minute.

 

I did enjoy it and felt it was a very good value for the money. That being said, I'm a morning person and I felt like I waited around 2 hours for this excursion to leave. If I was doing this again, I'd likely go alone to the Ferry if my ship was arriving early.

 

Also, the excursion said it would be 6.5 hours altogether and ours was 5.5 hours. Complained to the cruise line but they said it depended on the weather and the 6.5 allowed for rougher seas.

[frenchrci]

Depends on when you do it. I went alone on my Jewel of the Seas trip. There were 40 or so for the coastal cruise and just me wanting the transfer.

 

I did enjoy it and felt it was a very good value for the money. That being said, I'm a morning person and I felt like I waited around 2 hours for this excursion to leave. If I was doing this again, I'd likely go alone to the Ferry if my ship was arriving early.

 

Incredible ! :eek:

 

You are right... It depend ! I need to go back in TB to have a better "judgement". :D

 

I agree... If you are sure to get off the ship early, it would be better to do it yourself, even if you pay more... Just to have more time there. :)

[LA_CA_GAL]

Incredible ! :eek:

 

You are right... It depend ! I need to go back in TB to have a better "judgement". :D

 

I agree... If you are sure to get off the ship early, it would be better to do it yourself, even if you pay more... Just to have more time there. :)

 

On one of our cruises, we did the trip from the ship at Havensight to Red Hook. Problem with that was we had an open air taxi. First, we waited a good half an hour for it to fill up.

 

Then the ride to Red Hook was horrible:eek:, took over another half an hour.

 

Never again.

 

BTW, we will be on Allure, docking at Crown Bay, which if farther from Red Hook than Havensight.

[springfire]

We will be on the Allure and we will be in St Thomas from 10am to 7pm. I decided to do this tour because it leaves at an earlier time. I had considered the self explore St John tour ST03 but it doesn't leave until 1145. Has anyone done this coastal cruise? Do others who are not on the coastal cruise also get on this ferry and if so with what tour? It looks like this is the only early tour leaving.