Enough Time to get to St. John and get back to ship ??

Hi all, WE will be on the HAL, Noordam, - on 24, Dec .08 we arrive in St. Thomas, we have a rental place in St John for a Dinghy - but I am concerned that we will not have enough time - 9-5 in St. Thomas - here is why...

St. Thomas/St John question....

From the research we have found, it looks like

1. The Noordam will be docked by itself at another pier - which looks like a 20 -30 minute ride to the ferry to St. John ?

2. Four other ships will be in port that day - maybe many people taking the ferry to St. John ? Does anyone know?

Our concern is that if we can get off the ship by 9am, then have to take a 20-30 minute cab ride ( in St. Thomas traffic) to the ferry location , we would catch the 10am ferry and then to be on the safe side - have to be back at the ferry by 2:15 in order to get back to St. Thomas /take traffic etc.. back to ship.

I am so nervous about cutting it too close. It may not be worth renting a dinghy, just going straight over to St. John and back and saving the $$ for another excursion.

Please -if we have the pier info wrong - let me know,as that may save us over an hour of travel time,If anyone has done something similar and did in fact have time - or any advice.... Thanks Carly

With your time constraints you will have almost no time on St John. Are you aware that you usually must refuel your dingy motor before returning it? This can be time consuming. Perhaps best to spend the day on St Thomas and save St John for another trip, or take the ships' excursion which will return you in time to sail without the worry. Enjoy:)

B.

Yes, the refueling, possibility of breakdown, a number of things to go wrong, I truly do not want to spend Christmas Eve stranded - Oh the thought of it - just makes me sick to my stomach. Oh well - as you say another time perhaps : )

Let me clarify based on my past exerience doing this.

There is a ferry to St John in the same harbor (Charlotte Amalie) where the Noordam docks. You may be looking at the red hook schedule. Red hook is about 30 min from Charlotte Amalie. You probably don't want to waste your time going to Red Hook. The ferry from Charoltte Amalie take about 40 minutes to St John. Problem: if your ship actually docks at 9 am you won't ba able to catch the 9am ferry. The next one is at 11:00. Here is a ferry Schedule BTW:

http://www.**********/general_usvi/interisland_ferry/

Twice I have taken the ferry to/from St. John on a cruise and had a great day. In fact I would not do it any other way. St. John is amazing. Even if you cannot rent your dingy it is worth it to spend a few hours there. Take a cab to trunk bay-it can get crowded- but it is one of the lovliest places in the world. I have also done a snorkel tour, but I am kicking myself as I cannot recall the place-they were great. St. John is thus far my favorite island in the Caribbean and that is saying a lot. There is no shopping and not many restaurants, but it is paradise

Go! We were docked at Havensite Pier, but yo can get there from your pier --- it's just a longer ferry ride so adjust your schedule accordingly.

7:00am - 5:00pm. Our destination this trip was Trunk Bay and Cinnamon Bay on the Island of St. John for snorkeling. Take a taxi to Red Hook, go through the gates and hop on the ferry to St. John. We caught the 8:00am ferry and paid our $5.00/pp fare. Normally, you would pay at the booth prior to boarding. The very pretty ride across the bay runs about 15 minutes. Upon arrival at Cruz Bay, St. John, we caught a 10-minute taxi ride ($6.00/pp) to Trunk Bay, stopping once along the way to take pictures of Trunk Bay from a picturesque spot along the road. We arrived at 8:30am which allowed us to get in free. Once the admission booth opens, it costs $4.00/pp to enter this beautiful white sand beach with clear waters, awesome views of islands and cays, nice facilities, and an underwater snorkeling trail. The snorkeling trail can be found on the right hand side of the beach. It begins on the far side of the little island and works its way around the island and ends on the closer side. The snorkeling is very good, with lots of fish and colorful coral. Including the four of us, there was a total of 7 people enjoying this beach from 8:30am to 10:15am when larger groups began arriving —– at which time we left and caught a $4/pp taxi for Cinnamon Bay. (Trunk Bay is now one of our top three Caribbean beaches).

Cinnamon Bay is part of a campground with good facilities, snorkeling equipment rentals, and kayak rentals. The beach is not as pretty as Trunk Bay but offers good snorkeling as well. Sea Turtles can be spotted here in the middle of the bay feeding on the sea grass, but we did not spot any this trip. We caught a taxi back to Cruz Bay ($7/pp) at 11:40am. We just missed the noon ferry so we ate lunch at High Tide Bar and Grill adjacent to the pier. We enjoyed the Virgin Island Pale Ale (a fruity beer made for distribution in St. John by a brewery in Maine), and especially liked the sweet mango salsa which accompanies the chips and salsa appetizer. We shopped until 1:45pm and bought tickets for the 2:00pm ferry, which was 30 minutes late arriving. A very large crowd anxiously waited in a long line in the hot sun on the pier. There was no problem getting everyone on the ferry. We arrived back in Red Hook at 2:40pm. Ignore the $7/pp taxis and wait for a $2.00 taxi again EXACTLY where it dropped you off. (Do not cross the street). We got dropped off a couple blocks closer to Havensight than the K-Mart where we picked up the taxi. We look forward to doing this excursion on our own again.

Here are more of our Secrets of the Caribbean!

http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/caribbean-secrets.html

These are our very detailed personal reviews, hints, and tips for ports of call that you will be visiting.

Carribean Cruiser, thank you very much for the detailed instructions for how to get to catch a shuttle for $2 and get to St. John. Your instructions saved us $16 each way for my husband and I. You are right, the taxi drivers definitely will lie to you about trying to take other transportation. We heard that we were making a big mistake, didn't know what we were doing, etc. The walk to the K-mart was short and definitely worth it.

Our group of 6 went to St. John, visited Trunk Bay and then visited Cinammon Bay. Have to say the water and snorkeling is definitely great on St. John but the beaches leave much to be desired and don't get me started on having to put up a $50 deposit just to rent a chair for $15. I'm certainly glad I went, because now I can say we have been there, but next time we will be staying on St. Thomas and checking out the beaches there.

Thanks again for the tips and help!!!

We were on the Westerdam last week and because it was too rough in St. Marten, we diverted to St. Thomas and ended up at the Princess Cruise Terminal.

We took a taxi (a van) to Red Hook. There were four of us and five others. The cost was $8 each. The ferry ride is about 15 minutes. From the St. John terminal we took a taxi to Trunk Bay Beach. That was $6 each.

Coming back we considered taking the ferry to Charlotte Amalie but it was going to leave later and when figuring the increased cost of that ferry ride with a taxi to the ship, it would have cost about the same.

When we went back to Red Hook we hopped in a taxi town car. That cost us $12 each. So use a van taxi. The more people, the less per person cost.

Also, if you are going to Trunk Bay the National Park cost is $4 unless you have a Golden Eagle or Annual National Park pass. I forgot to bring mine because we weren't scheduled to go to St. Thomas. Chairs rent for $7 but you have to leave a $25 deposit.

We found the ferry ticket seller to be very unfriendly. The one at St. John in particular. When I didn't understand her answer to a question about the ferry to Charlotte Amalie she got very sarcastic. then when I placed down a credit card to pay the fare, she shoved it back at me and in a loud and nasty voice said "cash only." I have made a complaint to the tourist and port authorities there. They depend on tourists and a utility like this ferry service needs better customer relations.