St Johns

[patrinka]

We will be arriving on Royal Princess. Ship docks at 7 am and departs at 4pm.

We want to take the ferry to St. Johns and rent a car. Is this doable in the time frame we have? What would you suggest we try to see on the island? Any special restaurants to suggest for lunch?

[patrinka]

Correction - we arrive in St Thomas at 8 am and depart at 4pm

[Ms411]

Rent a car on St Thomas or St John? Depending on when you come, you may not be able to reserve for a day on St John so you would have to ask the various agencies. If you rent on St Thomas you would have to take car barge over which is not as reliable as people ferry.

[patrinka]

We would rent the car in advance to be picked up in St John. I was asking it the time frame is doable. With taking the ferry to St John, having time to explore the island and then returning on the ferry leaving enough time to get back to the ship?

What should we not miss in St John?

[jaga04]

It is doable, though you won't have lots of time. If you search, there are a bunch of threads about this, and I'm not great at remembering details, even though I've done this trip several times. You should be able to get a taxi to Red Hook and make a 9am ferry, so you'll get to Cruz Bay around 9:30. Of course, if you happen to miss the 9am ferry, I believe you have to wait an hour... Then, you probably can take a 2pm ferry back and be back at your boat before 3:30. So, you can decide if being there for 4.5 hours is worth the adventure for you.

 

Although you brushed it off, Ms411's point about the rental car is very relevant. Our experience has been that most places on St. John won't let you reserve a one-day rental car ahead of time. I've heard that it may depend on the time of year, though, and obviously, you'd know that ahead of time by contacting them. We've also found in St. John (and each place we've rented a car in the Caribbean) that the pick up/drop off takes longer than you'd expect, so that would cut into your time as well.

 

If you were on St. John without a car, you could go on an island tour which gives you a great overview of the island and/or go by open-air taxi to one of the beaches on the north shore, as well as walk around Cruz Bay. The island is beautiful!