Shore excursion at St. Thomas or St. John

[ActiveIslander]

Hi, we are going to Eastern Caribbean in a week on Caribbean Princess. I try to decide if we will spend the day in St. Thomas or take the ferry to St. John (Magen's beach vs. Trunk Bay in St. John)? Any recommendation is appreciated. We like beach and snorkel but are more relax and easy style. Is excursion on our own easy to do? I think the cruise will stay in port from 7am-8pm.

 

By the way, does either beach have chair and snorkel gears to rent? Thanks

[Fuzzyape]

Can't talk about the beaches. Usually we've booked excursions through the cruise line, but you shouldn't have much issue making your own plans. Have you checked out the boards having to do with St. Thomas, and St. John's. Often times many folks have ideas on what to do at those ports.

 

Good luck, and have fun.

 

Counting down the days!

[sueandkent]

Hi, we are going to Eastern Caribbean in a week on Caribbean Princess. I try to decide if we will spend the day in St. Thomas or take the ferry to St. John (Magen's beach vs. Trunk Bay in St. John)? Any recommendation is appreciated. We like beach and snorkel but are more relax and easy style. Is excursion on our own easy to do? I think the cruise will stay in port from 7am-8pm.

 

By the way, does either beach have chair and snorkel gears to rent? Thanks

 

Spent a week in St.Thomas last fall as well as been there a couple times via cruise ship. I can tell you there is no comparison between the beaches on St. Thomas vs St.John. St.John is amazing. My recommendation would be to rent a car at the port, drive across the island to the car barge to St.John. The car barge runs regularly and we never saw anyone left behind due to it being full. The advantage here is St.John has so many nice beaches and most of them not far apart you can easily beach hop if you want to experience more than one. We just put a towel down on our seats in the car and moved along to our next stop. No need to change or whatever. Most beaches did rent chairs and have food available for purchase.

Drive across the island from where your ship will dock will take 20min to half hour depending on traffic. Car barge takes about 45min to cross. You can look up the car barge and walk on ferry schedules online.

Have fun.

[Nan_Sea]

I have been to Trunk Bay and it was a nice beach but I was very disappointed with the snorkeling there. The boat ride over was nice with a good narrator explaining sights along the way. There was snorkel equipment there which was part of the tour package from princess. I bring my own because I feel better about the sanitation of my own equipment

[cwtravel]

Hi-

The wife and I are also on the 7/12 sailing and it looks like 4 additional ships in port that day. I am assuming we will dock at Crown Bay so I will either do the ship tour to St. John or go to Emerald Beach, which I like and is usually less crowded and closer than the other beaches.

[kendon]

I have been to Trunk Bay and it was a nice beach but I was very disappointed with the snorkeling there. The boat ride over was nice with a good narrator explaining sights along the way. There was snorkel equipment there which was part of the tour package from princess. I bring my own because I feel better about the sanitation of my own equipment

 

I completely agree! The snorkeling in Trunk Bay has been ruined. So much of the coral has been disturbed. The boat ride over is nice, but the ship's excursion was so rushed that it was almost not worth the time and expense. If you snorkel anywhere, I would bring my own stuff.

[bwaz]

I have been to Trunk Bay and it was a nice beach but I was very disappointed with the snorkeling there. The boat ride over was nice with a good narrator explaining sights along the way. There was snorkel equipment there which was part of the tour package from princess. I bring my own because I feel better about the sanitation of my own equipment

 

Our experience at Trunk Bay was outstanding. We took a ship excursion for once. (Allure in Feb 13) The unique thing about Trunk Bay is that it is part of a US National park, an underwater park. As you snorkel along, there are underwater "signs" that tell you what coral you're looking at, why the fish behave as they do. We had a very good snorkel company waiting for us on the beach, had good equipment (although I bring my own prescription mask) . We had wonderful snorkeling that day. It remains one of my favorite cruise memories.

 

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[Colo Cruiser]

We have done the cab-ferry-cab-ferry-cab to St John many times.

Its a long day and you have to make sure you leave wiggle room and leave a little early in case you miss a ferry back.

I do agree that Trunk Bay is overhyped now, if you don't get there early its packed with tours. The best time we had there was when we rented a boat (4 of us) and were taken over there and swam right off the boat stopping at a couple of different beaches. We met the boat at Red Hook also. It worked really well and we were never rushed. :)

[essgee_ca]

Hi, we are going to Eastern Caribbean in a week on Caribbean Princess. I try to decide if we will spend the day in St. Thomas or take the ferry to St. John (Magen's beach vs. Trunk Bay in St. John)? Any recommendation is appreciated. We like beach and snorkel but are more relax and easy style. Is excursion on our own easy to do? I think the cruise will stay in port from 7am-8pm.

 

By the way, does either beach have chair and snorkel gears to rent? Thanks

 

Hi-

The wife and I are also on the 7/12 sailing and it looks like 4 additional ships in port that day. I am assuming we will dock at Crown Bay so I will either do the ship tour to St. John or go to Emerald Beach, which I like and is usually less crowded and closer than the other beaches.

 

Hello Activeislander and cwtravel. You should join our active roll call on the Caribbean Princess roll call forum: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1912582

Pay no attention to the fact that it says 14 days to the Caribbean. Most of us "chatting" on the thread are only doing 7 days. It is only that the person starting the thread is doing a B2B - thus 14 days.

 

At least one person on the roll call has done these ports and may have some insight on your question. By the way - we are in port in St. Thomas from 7am to 5pm - not 8pm.

 

S.

[PoohUnderstands]

EASY. If there are going to be 5 ships in St. Thomas on your port day, get out of St. Thomas!! It will be a zoo. St. John is awesome. Can do alittle shopping easily on your way back to the ship from St. John by leaving yourself an extra hour or so. Have a great cruise.

 

Pooh

[janetz]

:) St. John is a great place to head to if you dock early. Here is another option on your own.

 

http://www.usvisailing.com/daysails.html

Edited July 4, 2014 by janetz

[ActiveIslander]

Do you remember the name of the snorkel company? I don't like the cruise line excursion to St. John because it seems so rush. Thanks

[canadarocks]

We just did the Princess excursion to Trunk Bay in March and the snorkeling was great! I saw a large turtle there. The tour left the port at 8:30AM that day, so it wasn't crowded at all while we were there. On the 2nd visit to St Thomas, the same tour was only offered at 11AM.

 

That's my main complaint with Princess excursions to St John, the timing of their tours. On our upcoming B2B cruise, both days the Trunk Bay excursion leaves for St John at 11:00am! Far too late as it will be far too busy by then. We dock at 8:00am both days, so an earlier time frame would certainly work.

 

I wish Princess had the longer "St John on your own" options that other cruise lines seem to offer.

[Potstech]

If you like snorkeling or diving or just water activity in general look at the B.O.S.S. Excursion. All you need to know is how to swim. A great excursion that is a lot of fun. Tell the skipper the retired sailor told you about it. He will laugh at you but the crew is great. Good couple of hours on the water.

[sueandkent]

Ir you want some decent snorkelling right off a beach then Sapphire Beach on STT is a good option. For anyone looking for a pretty, quiet beach (no snorkelling) that is very sheltered from wind go to Secret Harbour. You can rent chairs and there is a bar and food. Off the beaten path so a little tricky to find if you're driving yourself.

With a 5pm departure I would stick to a ships tour, that way you leave right from the harbour area where the ship docks and you won't risk missing the ship.

[melodie12]

We are sailing on the Allure to the Eastern Caribbean and will be in St Thomas on 15 October 2014. We don't really want to do any water based activities as we already have something organised when we are in St Maarten so would just like a really good organised tour of the island. Firstly, is it worth it - is there enough to see? And secondly, can you recommend a tour? All comments greatly appreciated.

[canadarocks]

We are sailing on the Allure to the Eastern Caribbean and will be in St Thomas on 15 October 2014. We don't really want to do any water based activities as we already have something organised when we are in St Maarten so would just like a really good organised tour of the island. Firstly, is it worth it - is there enough to see? And secondly, can you recommend a tour? All comments greatly appreciated.

 

Google Godfrey Tours. :)

[rmitch64]

We just returned from the CB Eastern Caribbean June 14 cruise. We did the Trunk Bay excursion in the morning, and then went to Magen's Bay in the afternoon. We (wife, me, and kids ... 19, 15, 15, 7) loved the beauty of Trunk Bay and the great snorkeling. Well worth the cost. Magen's bay was dramatically overcrowded in the afternoon with 4 ships in port.

 

 

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[ActiveIslander]

Thanks for all the info. We will go to St. John on our own. This seems to be the obvious choice from all your replies.