Getting to St. John on your own

[tory707]

We are leaving on the Caribbean Princess July 3rd. One of the stops is St. Thomas. Has anyone ever went to St John on your own without booking through the cruise line? I understand there are great snorkling spots there. We have our own gear so we don't want to pay the premium the cruise line charges. Looking for how to get there and where to snorkle. Any suggestions are appreciated!

[Genessa]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by tory707:

We are leaving on the Caribbean Princess July 3rd. One of the stops is St. Thomas. Has anyone ever went to St John on your own without booking through the cruise line? I understand there are great snorkling spots there. We have our own gear so we don't want to pay the premium the cruise line charges. Looking for how to get there and where to snorkle. Any suggestions are appreciated!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

it's very easy to get there on your own. We've done it

We went snorkeling at Trunk's Bay, but I've heard that the snorkeling isn't the best there, there are a couple of other places on St. John's that are better.

If you post on the ports of call board, St. Thomas/St. John you will definitely get specifics, but basically you take a cab to the ferry, ferry to St. John and then a cab to whichever beach you wanted to go to on St. John.

 

The price isn't a super savings off of booking it from the ship, but you end up with much more time relaxing on St. John.

[radtech]

Tory707, On roll call we have a subject just for cruisers for 7/3/04. There are about 53 people so far. Come and join us. It is by the name Jemingway.

[nautiboy]

Very easy to get there. When you get off the ship and walk to the taxis there'll be someone there to direct you to the taxi going to the St. John ferry dock. It's about $8.00 per person each way. We arranged with our driver to meet us for the return ride but that's not necessary. There will be plenty of taxis when you come back. It's about a 20 minute ride (some of the hills are incredibly steep). The ferry leaves on the hour and is $3.00 per person each way. From the ferry dock in St. John (Cruz Bay) you take another taxi to Trunk Bay for $4.00 per person each way. At Trunk Bay there is an admission fee of $4.00 per person over the age of 16. So the total cost is $34. per person. Trunk Bay is absolutely beautiful and the snorkeling is great. There is a place to rent equipment, buy snacks, showers and bathroom facilites. And since there are park rangers on the premises, very safe.

[Lauire]

St. John is beautiful . . . on the GOlden 4/10 & went there on our own.

Take a CAB right when you get off the ship ($8 pp one way 20 minutes) to RED HOCK. Take a FERRY (leaves every hour on the hour starting @ 8am. for a 15 minutes ride) for St. John (i believe the ferry was rerasonable like $5 one way or $8 round trip DH bought the tickets so I don't remember)

Once on St. John take a cab to your desired beach . . . we choose Trunck Bay . . . very nice, clean, snacks bar w/ Hotdogs chips, etc & drinks. They also had beach (not lounge) chairs to rent (have to give them $25 deposit though so bring your charge, you get that taken off when you retn the chair)

There were lockers, & restrooms also.

The cab ride to the beach is awesome so have your camera ready & ask if the driver can make a couple of photo stops.

Enjoy!

[Aquarian]

The information above is right on. Might I suggest that you go early in the morning. Trunk Bay gets hot and crowded around 1 pm. We left the ship early right after breakfast and enjoyed the morning on the beach. We ate at the park but there are some nice places to eat at Cruz Bay before you catch the ferry back to Red Hook on St. Thomas. I took along a dry box that I bought at a dive shop for our ID, money and credit card and took along a waterproof camera too. That way, we could enjoy the water without watching and worrying about our things on the beach.

[CruiseFever]

Great advice that we followed on our Golden cruise in March. We plan on doing the same thing but hitting Tortola in June...anybody done that one?

 

Happy Cruising

 

Chris

 

www.LifeIsCruising.com

 

Next up:

Caribbean Princess 06/26/04

Star Princess 10/24/04

Diamond Princess 12/22/04

Carnival Miracle 03/13/05

 

[Snorkelcat]

We also have all our own gear. We plan on going over to St John & renting a dinghy & beach hopping from the water side all day vs walking or taxis! Make sure you go to Waterlemon Bay!

Check out the Ports of Call boards, too.

 

Snorkelcat

Zuiderdam 2/03

Radiance 2/04

Caribbean 1/05

[Lauire]

Ah . . .reminder, before disembarking in St. Thomas, there is a P0RT AUTORITY CHECK.

 

So if you wanted to make that 8am ferry in Red Hock it just might have to move to the 9am ferry to St. John.

 

Everyone on our 4/10 Golden ship was assigned time slots and areas to bring your photo ID (ours was 7:30-8:00). The line on the 4/10 ship was a good 20-25 minute wait. Then we had to take our passports back to our cabin for we didn't want to be running around the island w/ them.

 

By the time we got off the ship & got our taxi (if time is tight don't get on one of those open air taxi's that they wait to fill to capacity . . . all rides to red Hock are $8 pp regardless of the type of transportation) it was the 9 am ferry we had our hearts set on.

 

We told our taxi driver our timing (as he probably already had heard from many before us) so no scenic route on the way there & we arrived at Red Hock just in time to board.

 

Remember if you don't make the 9am ferry the next one doesn't leave until 10am. An hour of precious beach time you don't want to miss & be sitting around some ferry boarding area.

 

Remember to have your camera ready for the taxi ride on St. John. There are many scenic stops that are nice to capture on film if your driver is willing to stop.

 

Laurie

[boysmommy]

We will also be on the July 3'rd sailing. We have done St. John on our own. you can take the ferry from Red Hook. We went to Trunk Bay which was amazing. We plan to do that again this trip.

[roe2ship]

Never been to St. John, and definitely want to go there since we are beach lovers. Do I have this straight...at St. Thomas dock take a cab over to Red Hook where you take a ferry to St. John. At St. John take a cab to beach. Cost is about $38pp and roughly takes about 50 minutes to get there, is this right? Now do all the beaches at St. John charge you for chairs?

 

Caribbean Princess 7/03/04

 

 

[Lauire]

Trunk Bay has beach chairs (not loungers) you can rent. You will neeed a $25 deposit (so bring your charge) for each chair that will be reimbursted when you rtn the chair, additionally, the cost to rent the chair for the day which was reasonable, like $5-6.

 

Know remember this "beach chair" is nothing like the loungers on Orinet beach in St. Marten . . . so maybe someone has a beach in St. John that prvides nicer chairs . . . though Trunk Bay we found so be most beautiful & pretty good snorkeling. We also didn't notice that many people, there was one snokeling tour (from the Royal Carribbean) that got to the beach after us & left before us.

The best privacy would be to go to the far right end of the beach/cove . .. everyone seemed to hang out right in front of the snorkeling reef on the beach . . . while only several hundred yards to the right we had an area to ourselves!

Additionally, the water was warm & crytal clear!

Laurie

[Aquarian]

I think the ride from the dock to Red Hook was about 30 minutes and the ferry ride is 20 minutes. You will have to wait until the ferry is full with passengers (as I recall) and this takes a little while. Then, it is a short ride from Cruz Bay to Trunk Bay. It was suggested to me to ask the taxi driver to take you to for a tour of the other beaches as well as it is a pretty drive. We didn't do this - we went straight to Trunk Bay so I can't comment personally on this.

[CruiseFever]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> Do I have this straight...at St. Thomas dock take a cab over to Red Hook where you take a ferry to St. John. At St. John take a cab to beach. Cost is about $38pp and roughly takes about 50 minutes to get there, is this right? Now do all the beaches at St. John charge you for chairs?

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

 

Yes, you have it right.

 

Going to St John or Tortola from St Thomas is really easy and it is NOT necessary to buy an excursion through the ship. When we went to St John last month when we visited St Thomas on the Golden.

 

Once off the ship we found a cab driver from friend-recommended East End Taxi Association which is based at the Red Hook Dock (340-775-6975) and told them we wanted to go to Red Hook where a ferry would take us to St John. We weren’t alone and the driver had no problem filling the cab. The ferry to St John ($5) took about 20 minutes where we got another cab and elected to go to Trunk Bay, a U.S. National Park ($4 admission) another 10 to 15 minutes away. I’d say total time from getting off the ship to the beach in St John probably 45 to 50 minutes. As noted above a lot has to do with timing though.

 

The ferry runs at certain times and being there at the right time, avoiding a wait is the key to making it a quick trip.

 

To go to Tortola you go to the same place where you get on the ferry to St John, you just go to a different ticket window then on a different ferry. We're doing this on our next cruise in June.

 

At the beach in St John, chairs (kind of yucky) are available for rent ($7- probably more than they cost) as well as snorkel gear. Apparently this is a snorklers heaven because by noon there were no less than 50 people in the water doing it.

 

I can sure see why too

 

Trunk Bay is the most beautiful beach I have yet seen, and I was later told that other beaches on the island are nicer.

 

We spent most of the day there, opting to catch the 2:00 ferry back to St Thomas then a cab back to the ship

 

Happy Cruising

 

Chris

 

www.LifeIsCruising.com

 

Next up:

Caribbean Princess 06/26/04

Star Princess 10/24/04

Diamond Princess 12/22/04

Carnival Miracle 03/13/05

 

[cruisebore]

We went to Cinnamon Bay

$1 more on the taxi past Trunk Bay, no entrance charges few people, only development a few chalets and camping in the wood behind

Cafe and restroom (clean)

 

Wonderful day

 

Ray

[beachfanatic]

what time did you leave the beach to catch

what ferry back to st. thomas?

[Lauire]

We left Trunk Bay around 1:20-1:30, & had ample time to catch (actually had a 10-15 minute wait for the ferry to leave)the 2pm ferry back to Red Hock.

While home & at work 1:30 seems very early in the day still, however, we were on the beach enjoying by 10am!

And really after the ferry ride & cab back to the ship & little shopping around the port . . . it was almost 4 . . . & time for a nice snack & drink on the balcony!

It was amazing how the day just flew by . . .

enjoying that beautiful view at Trunk Bay was like paradise!

Enjoy!

Laurie

[augie]

We did what everyone here is suggesting the first few times and loved it.

 

Last time, we rented jeeps and drove to Red Hook, took the "car barge" ferry over and were able to sample different beaches as well as drive around the perimeter of the island, on our own schedule.

 

It was terrific!

[auntieann]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by cruisebore:

We went to Cinnamon Bay

$1 more on the taxi past Trunk Bay, no entrance charges few people, only development a few chalets and camping in the wood behind

Cafe and restroom (clean)

 

Ray<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

------------------------------------------

 

How was the snorkeling at Cinnamon Bay ?

 

Ann

 

Until Golden Princess

[cruise pup]

The sand at Trunk Bay is some of the softest I've ever walked on. I was to Honeymoon Beach on St. John and it wasn't as soft. So here's another plus for the Trunk.

 

Norway - 2/97;Leeward -12/97;

Grand Princess - 1/99; Leeward - 6/99; Dawn Princess - 11/99;Vision of the Seas - 6/00;Carnival Victory - 9/00; Zenith - 10/00

Mercury - 3/01; R1 -7/01; Grand Princess - 11/01; Majesty of the Seas - 12/01; Norwegian Star - 3/02;

Carnival Triumph - 7/02;

Maasdam - 11/02; Holiday - 12/02; Millennium - 4/03; Carnival Victory - 7/03; Zaandam - 8/03; Zuiderdam - 10/03; Enchantment of the Seas - 1/04; Galaxy - 3/04

[Lauire]

Cruisepup . . . you are right now that you mention it! "The sand at Trunk Bay is some of the softest I've ever walked on"

The sand was so fine. In our party we had 5 HS boys who decided to bury one of their buddies. The sand was so soft it just slide off the pile as fast as they buried him . . . & then when their buried mummy emerged a fine layer of sand stuck to him like powder!

Anyone that hasn't experienced Trunk Bay . . . the water, view, sand say it all . . . "a must" you have to experience, Paradise awaits!

Laurie

[shuksan7]

Ann... Cinnammon Bay has snorkeling straight ahead offshore around a rock outcropping. Even better is the far right end of the bay as you face the water. That area, where the cliff meets the sea, is also trickier because the coral rises close to the surface.

 

All... I suspect St. Thomas offers snorkeling just as good as St. John. Go to St. John for the total experience. Enjoy the lengthy journey as much as you enjoy the beach of your choice. Taste a luscious Rum Punch at Moolie's near the ferry dock. Hang on for dear life at the back of a bizarre pickup truck as the "taxi" takes you to one of many lovely pocket beaches.

 

St. John is funky and beautiful. Just don't expect anything easy or normal!

 

Rick

 

[This message was edited by shuksan7 on 05-08-04 at 04:29 AM.]

[auntieann]

Shuksan7

Thanks for the info. Could you recommend a better beach than Cinnamon Bay if you only have a day ?

 

 

Ann

 

Until Golden Princess

[shuksan7]

Ann... I've only been to Trunk Bay and Cinnamon Bay so I hardly qualify as an expert. But my research suggested those are the two best options for a cruise-day-tripper who wants to snorkle. Both rent gear and both are easily accessible from the ferry pier at Cruz Bay.

 

You should be able to have 3-4 hours of quality beach time. But as I said, take it easy and enjoy the process of getting there. Remember, you are on island time. NO HURRY! And greet everyone with "hello" before asking questions or making requests.

 

I prefer Cinnamon because it is less crowded than Trunk.

 

Oh, BTW, have your camera ready as you go to either. You'll pass the spot for the famous view of Trunk Bay. Take the picture quickly!

 

Rick

[auntieann]

Rick,

Thanks for your input. Cinnamon Bay appealed to me because it was less crowded.

 

 

Ann

 

Until Golden Princess