Islander? Buck Island conflicting reports?

[OC PAT]

I will be doing Buck Island and understand that the fish and turtles may not be at home when we visit but I hope they will be staying in for the day.

 

I understand that locals can not provide a recommendation so cruisers who should I book to go to Buck Island?

 

Thanks again to those who have already commented.

[LostFan#1]

Great encouragement about the fish and coral, Peacha - thanks!! I am now a little concerned we are paying $30 r/t for a cab to get to Capt Heinz. This cab driver was recommended by Capt Heinz. Should we cancel with him and hope for a $15 r/t at the pier?

 

Debbie

[tjschwalm]

Hey Debbie , I would contact Capt Heinz and tell him that the rt from the pier is less and ask him why his taxi is so much more . I don't know your departure place or time , maybe that has something to do with his fare . But it's been puzzling me since I read that post but I would ask the tour operator about it before I cancel anything . IMHO . Great Day !!! Ted

[drb]

Great encouragement about the fish and coral, Peacha - thanks!! I am now a little concerned we are paying $30 r/t for a cab to get to Capt Heinz. This cab driver was recommended by Capt Heinz. Should we cancel with him and hope for a $15 r/t at the pier?

 

Debbie

 

We did the Buck Islaand tour with Capt. Heinz last December and booked thru his "suggested" driver @ $30.00 per person. It seemed much higheer than we had paid five years before but as you know the memory is the first to go.

We wound up with 12 persons in Mr. Greenaway's van for a +/- 30 minute trip. I had gotten a group together thru cruise critic for this tour and believe me I caught a bunch of flack due to this.

The snorkeling was, IMHO, fair.

[cat_eyes06]

hey cruisers

we are going with "big beards" tours of buck island. I've had alot of contact with them, and they say it's about $16.00/person for a round trip to christiansted (by taxi). I've heard nothing but good things about their tour, they offer lunch, and small tour grps etc. that's who i'm going with!

[OC PAT]

Hey give us a report when you return. When do you go there? Are you doing the all day or half day tour? Now, you proved the point that is around 60 dollars per couple round trip so would it not be a good idea to rent a car? It seems for sure for 1/2 day and maybe not such a good idea for full day BUT what if we shared expenses with other couple(s)? Just thinking out loud and looking forward to hearing your report. Again, thanks for your input.

oc pat

[Keksie]

We just got back from St. Croix. We went to Buck Island on Friday with Big Beards. We had originally booked a full day with someone else but Hurricane Earl had other plans. Big Beards was doing a half day on Friday so we went with what we could get. There were not that many people going so the boat was not very crowded. We had a great time. It was choppy from the storms and a little cloudy but there were a lot of fish everywhere.

[OC PAT]

Thanks for your favorable report. Did you take a cab/shuttle and if so what was the costs?

 

OC PAT

[Keksie]

Thanks for your favorable report. Did you take a cab/shuttle and if so what was the costs?

 

OC PAT

 

We were on the island for 8 days and rented a car so I don't know how much the cab/shuttle costs were.

[rbrooks418]

Hi, just returned from St Croix via Seranade of the Seas. I was there on Saturday. We wanted to go to Buck Island but it was sold out since many of the boats had been locked down due to Earl. Big Beard had one boat go out that day.

 

Just to clear up taxi info. It is $12 per person RT from the ship pier to Christiansted. You buy tickets at the end of the pier and are loaded into 12 passenger vans until they are full. They drop you off about 2 blocks from Big Beards and give you a ticket for your return trip. It is 30 minute drive. No problems whatsoever.

 

We were so disappointed that Big Beards was full so we took a water taxi from the wharf to Hotel on the Cay for $3 RT. We had a great time there and there is some snorkeling off the beach but nothing great... the beach was very picturesque with lots of sailboats and yachts in the harbor.

[OC PAT]

What a bummer! Did you have reservations? The water taxi was from Christianstead, right? Thank you so much for clearing up the costs. Somewhere along the line I got the impression was that it was doubled. So now I am back to booking an all day tour and using a taxi/shuttle. Anyone done just that? It looks like the all day tour ends at 3:30, is that enough time to get back to the ship? I am worried it is cutting it too close and my usual layed back dh just gets very nervous when we cut it close!

[rbrooks418]

I did not have reservations. I was worried about the weather due to Hurricane Earl. When I got off the ship there were brochures for Big Beards at the tourism office right off the pier. We decided to rush to Christiansted and hope to find a catamaran. Literally as we were walking up the pier, Big Beards was casting off from the dock, but they were full anyway. The only other operator going out had a contract with the ship and they were full also. Through the ship it was $87 which included transportation. I would definitely book ahead of time so there is no disappointment. A 3 hr tour with Big Beards was $68 for adults and $50 for kids 12 and under plus the transportation or $80. So not much difference and you would be guaranteed of getting back to the ship. Usually I find a bigger price difference between ship and non ship tours.

 

As for getting back to the ship in time if you finish at 3:30 you should be ok. However, we left Christiansted at 3:00 because the shuttle driver said it can start to get busy after 3:00. There was no wait at all at 3:00 and we were back to pier by 3:30. There was no traffic to speak of.

 

Yes, the water taxi to the island can be seen from the main boardwalk in Chistiansted, you won't miss it. It is really a great little island if you don't end up doing Buck Island.

 

I hope you have a great time. Let me know how you enjoy Buck Island. I was leery of it also, because of the all conflicting reviews. The water was very clear off Hotel on the Cay, and based at what I saw in limited snorkeling there I would think Buck Island would be pretty good. I didn't have high expectations for St. Croix, but ended up really, really enjoying it.

[Keksie]

Other fun things to do if you can't do Buck Island. ATV tour with Gekos. Jeep tour to the tide pools with Tan Tan. Estate Whim if you are into history. These are a few things we did while waiting for the weather to clear up enough to snorkle.

[thepeacha]

Sorry Earl made a mess of things... I had to board up and lost two trees, we had a lot of wind where I live... I had to hold onto things to manage the rough winds while I fed my animals around 4pm Monday. I locked my pet chickens up in my tackroom overnight, and they were grateful, let me tell you!

 

I really do feel bad for the tourists/ cruisers when it rains, I remember what a crushing disappointment it was on my holidays. Hope you had sunshine everywhere else.

 

The actually closed Buck Island National Park Monument for a few days post- Earl... but they were checking beach erosion and NPS pier stability, so hopefully all that sealife I tied down stays put. :)

[OC PAT]

rbrooks418-I just checked and our ship leaves at 530 so that gives us a little more room. Yeah, you're right the ship's costs is usually 20 dollars more. It is a smaller group than the ship's. The 6 hour Big Beard's tour which includes lunch is $98.00 Now what saint do I pray to to make sure it does not rain on my dh's birthday in St. Croix? Please do not say St. Jude, the saint for lost causes!

 

thepeacha-I had to chuckle with my imagination with you collecting the chickens in the high winds! Glad it was not as bad as it could of been. We live on the Atlantic Ocean and were fortuate that all we encountered were moderate winds, nasty rip tides and some waves that the surfers will be talking about for a while. Let us know if you hear how Buck Island made out.

 

Keksie-if it rains maybe the jeep would be the perfect alternative. Thanks for the ideas.

[marcaroh]

So... has anyone been snorkeling at Buck recently? How was it re: fish and coral?

[Lsimon]

The coral at Buck Island definitely showed signs of damage but was still pretty fantastic snorkeling to me.

 

Some pictures from last March-2010 cruise at: http://simon-pics.smugmug.com/Cruises/Caribbean-March-15-2010/St-Croix-Big-Beards-Buck/11693611_2jVeD#825047986_YDFTF

[OC PAT]

I appreciate the update. We booked the tour for this December. I loved your photos and now I know how this tour got its name! Can't wait!

oc pat

Edited October 18, 2010 by OC PAT

[lovevacadays]

That was close to my experience as well about 8-10 years ago. Very very few fish. It's not the worst I've done. The worst has been a beach in Barbados and then Labadee. Where we were on Buck Island, the coral was dead, "ashen", and broken. There was a lot of it, but it really looked abused. I bet this was an eden when it was alive, but now, I can't justify going out to it again.

 

That is so sad to hear. Back in 1990 when I stayed on St Croix for a month (boyfriend was there working) Buck Island had wonderful snorkeling. Plus, snorkeling in other parts of the island was great. Even better was when my boyfriend and his brothers went diving for lobster, brought them home, and made some wonderful stir-fry.

[LostFan#1]

We were at Buck Island on the 12th - fish were plentiful although the reef is not very colorful.

[SFRosie]

I also live on ST Croix and agree that Buck Island is thriving. -

There's a sandy side (west) and a Coral side - where the underwater "path" is - which takes you around and through the coral.

 

I've been to the island 3 times in the last year - 2 of those included trips to the snorkeling goodness. Last time we were there we saw some small sharks, barracuda, lots of parrot fish, and several angel fish (that's off the top of my head of what I remember)

 

The cool thing about getting the boats out there (and I usually go with Big Beards, but have heard great things about capt Heinz) - is that you have to keep your eyes peeled on the ride too...we've seen dolphin and turtles just from the boat. The Birds are pretty cool too if you're interested in that... I don't know much, but people get very excited.

 

There is other great snorkeling on the island, but Buck is special.

[ramby]

Generally, how strong is the current around Buck Island? We will have young children with us and I'm wondering if the swimming will be too difficult for them?

[Browezilla]

Hi,

 

Well, after reading the recent good reports on Buck Island, I think I'll try it again. It was 10+ years ago when I went, so maybe it's better now. Hey RKBrooks, evidently RCCL has raised the price since your Serenade OTS trip ($87). I just checked and they're now charging $99. It's $89 just for Hotel on the Cay. For the Hotel on the Cay, do they have a day charge or can anyone use their island beach? We have some that will snorkel and some that won't, so that cay sounds like a good option for us.

 

Thanks

B

[Browezilla]

Another recent review. Lots of fish, but a lot of dead coral as well. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1299362

 

Note: Capt Heinz is outside of the city.

 

Still not sure what I'll do. I don't think it would be bad snorkeling, but trying to justify $80-100pp for snorkeling is tough. On St. Thomas, I can do it for $5pp using dollar taxis.

Edited October 30, 2010 by browe

[cruisingforsix]

We went with capt. heinz last jan. on the way out we saw several turtles and we thought there were tons of fish. large schools of tangs ,parrotfish etc, etc, even a nurse shark. we even did a little exploring when he took us to the island we walked around and did some snorkeling off the beach. not many fish there but stingrays were right under us. the tour is a little more crowded than what we prefer maybe around 30 or so people. we like between 4 and 10 . we are going back in jan. again and trying to see if there is somewhere else to snorkel this time.