Trip to St Johns from St Thomas

[newparents]

Has anyone done this excursion? I hear St Johns is beautiful, we usually go to Megans Bay but might go here for a change.

Any info if thus trip would be great, prices, is it a vrry long day, can children come, ages 5 and 3?

Thanks in advance :)

[BND]

We have friends who go everytime they go to St Thomas. They love St John. It's not developed like St Thomas and is beautiful.

 

As for kids, if you're just going over on your own, then no age issue. If it's a ship's excursion it should state age restrictions. You can search RCI's website for excursions and restrictions, etc. If you have a cruise booked, you can search excursions for your cruise and all the info will be there.

[CalcDiva]

We took the ship's excursion to St. John this past July and loved it! We did the historical walking tour, but everyone else that had booked bailed and took off on their own upon arriving in St. John. The island is beautiful and our tour was very interesting. We had plenty of time afterwards for grabbing lunch and meandering through the shopping area before boarding the ferry back to St. Thomas. I highly recommend visiting as it is truly a beautiful island!

[kcool]

it could be a four or six hour excursion, but well worth it. maybe the most beautiful island in the caribbean.

[markeb]

We did the beach and snorkel excursion to Trunk Bay this summer, and absolutely loved it! It's a decent boat ride over and back, and a will take pretty much your entire time in port, but Trunk Bay is beautiful, and a wonderful snorkeling experience.

 

The Trunk Bay excursions do not allow time to explore Saint John itself, however.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

St John is great. If you go to the Ports of Call message board you will get lots of information on this.

[138east]

I've done this excursion several times to go to Trunk Bay. You want to pick one of the 6 hour excursions to have enough time. I'm seeing a price of $34/pp for just the trip to STJ. Cab to Trunk Bay would be $6/pp each way. It is a National Park, so there is an admission charge as well and you get NPS amenities like restrooms, showers, and snack shack. They have chair rentals and there is shade.

 

If you just want a beach day with a 3 and 5 year old, check out Secret Harbor. This is a cove beach at a condo complex with no waves, which means the kids can play on the edge of the water. I haven't been there for a few years, but you used to be able to rent chairs and umbrellas and there were restrooms and a restaurant. In addition you can rent snorkel gear and go snorkeling. My guess is that this would be about a $10/pp cab ride each way.

[TravelerThom]

A thread entitled: Thinking about St. John and how to go

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1196166

[gcvt]

We did this and loved it! There were seven ships in St. Thomas that day so we decided to go see St. John instead. Interesting fairy ride over with a little history lesson. Off the ferry, in to a cab and straight to Trunk Bay. All I can say about that beach is "WOW!"

 

Headed back to town, did a little shopping, had a cold beer at Castaway's and then back on the ferry for some free rum punch. There were plenty of kids everywhere, except for the bar, of course.

 

The GF still says that was one of the best days of her life, speaking mainly of swimming and snorkeling at Trunk Bay.

Edited December 31, 2013 by gcvt

[newparents]

Thankyou everyone for ur extremely helpful replies, we are going to put St Johns on our must do list for sure, thanks.

[Big_G]

Thankyou everyone for ur extremely helpful replies, we are going to put St Johns on our must do list for sure, thanks.

 

First lesson before visiting St. John is to call it St. John and not St. Johns. :D Have a great trip. ;)

[1ParticularHbr]

First lesson before visiting St. John is to call it St. John and not St. Johns. :D Have a great trip. ;)

 

I was about to post something similar but couldn't decide how to word it. You did it very nicely.

[TravelerThom]

First lesson before visiting St. John is to call it St. John and not St. Johns. :D Have a great trip. ;)

Not my mistake on this thread, but I'm sure that I've made this mistake elsewhere. "John" is had to keep track of. In USVI it seems to be generally St. John, but also Saint John. In Canada it seems to always be Saint John, NB (Saint spelled out) and always St. John's, NL (St. abbreviated); why is one always spelled out and the other always abbreviated?:confused:

 

Thom

[Lazz]

Love St. John, but if you go on your own, remember that the last ferry back to St. Thomas is in the early afternoon (I think 2pm). Make sure you are on it.

[Host Anne]

New ~ we go to St. John all the time when we dock in St. Thomas. We've always gone on our own. We like being on our own schedule and going as early as possible. If you go on your own, your return ferry should depend upon your ships' departure from St. Thomas as different ships have different schedules. To play it safe, especially for first timers going alone, consider a return ferry that leaves St. John three hours before your ships' departure. If your ship leaves at 5:00, take the 2:00 PM ferry. If it leaves at 6:00, take the 3:00. That gets you back to St. Thomas and the ship 2 hours before departure. Traffic on St. Thomas in the late afternoon can be heavy so it's best to play it safe.

 

We are trying the ship's excursion to St. John this month because we have a group of ten with us and while we've taken groups before, it will be nice to be picked up at the ship, have a nice cruise of the beautiful north shore beaches and then a couple of hours on shore. A perfect day. That is probably worth looking into as others in this thread have mentioned.

 

By the way, Cinnamon Bay (just beyond Trunk) also has facilities for chair rentals, snack bar, restrooms, and no entrance fee. I love Trunk but if you aren't there early on a busy ship day, it can get very crowded. Cinnamon is a beautiful option.

 

Have a great time...you'll love it!

[TravelerThom]

I made a reference to this other thread before, but in the interest of simplicity I'm repeating most of what I said there. What really amazed me was that hiring a jeep in 2011 was definitely the cheapest way to go; the car ferry at $40 round-trip including passengers, was less than for 4 people * 2 ways * $6/person per direction = $48, and the jeep rental itself was less than we would have paid for taxis. No charge for parking anywhere we went. It helps if you are comfortable driving on "the wrong side of the road."

We [two couples] were on the Mercury Farewell Cruise, and rented a vehicle in both St Thomas and St Croix. We were scheduled to arrive Havensight at 9am, but the ship was docked and cleared about 7:30am. Budget was right beside were we docked, and I was through the gate and at Budget about 7:50. Their starting time was 8am, but they actually opened a few minutes early, so we were on the road about 8:10am. Rush hour traffic into Charlotte Amalie was very heavy, but we had light traffic heading to Red Hook. Since the heavy traffic into town was moving at about 2 mph, it actually made getting on the road pretty easy as there were no speeding cars to judge. I have driven on the left in a number of locations before, but this was the first time driving in USVI and the first time with the steering wheel not where it is supposed to be [although driving is on the left, virtually all vehicles in USVI have standard US driving position, so the driver is next to the edge of the road, not the center]. Speed limits are low, and I found drivers to be courteous, so no difficulties. We just made an 8:30 ferry and pulled into Cruz Bay at 9am. After several wrong turns in Cruz Bay we finally ended up on Centerline Road and after a few view stops arrived at Annaberg Sugar Plantation. After Annaberg we stopped at Francis Bay, Maho Bay and Cinnamon Bay. About 1pm it started pouring so we caught the 1:30pm ferry back to Red Hook and enjoyed a sunny ride down the ridge road before heading back to town and Havensight. Cost for jeep, ferry and gasoline came to about $140, or $35 per person. Other than the road to Maho Bay, I thought the roads were sufficiently wide and in good shape - could have been easily done by a regular car...

[Mooguy]

Last time while on the Allure we did St. John on our own but I think we were in port longer but not sure this time we are there on NCL from 8-4m, the ship offers a tour they call St. John on your own for $39. I cant remember what we paid when we did it on our own but I am sure it was less but I am wondering if since we are there for what I think maybe less time if it maybe better to go with the ships offer. The tour says you will have around 2 1/4 hours to explore the island on your own with the tour being a total of four hours. If we do it on our own and catch the 9AM over and the 2PM return. With Taxi rides and the length of the ferry ride I am guessing we will end up with about the same amount of free time. Then there is the risk of missing the 9AM and having to wait for the 10.

 

 

Any opinions?

 

Thanks

[Big_G]

Not my mistake on this thread, but I'm sure that I've made this mistake elsewhere. "John" is had to keep track of. In USVI it seems to be generally St. John, but also Saint John. In Canada it seems to always be Saint John, NB (Saint spelled out) and always St. John's, NL (St. abbreviated); why is one always spelled out and the other always abbreviated?:confused:

 

Thom

 

You got me. Not a clue.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Holly2]

Met up with your group from the Constellation at Trunk Bay in 2008. plan to return in March from the Eclipse and was considering ship tour. Hope you will post your impressions of the tour when you get back. Have fun.

[Host Anne]

Hi Holly ~ we're going back a bit :) I will definitely post when I get back about the ship's tour. I already know it will be great...we are going to St. John!!!! I hope this finds you doing well. Where do the years go?