Asking "Blue_Water" and experienced CC for help plz/ Sapphire questions

[anne13]

Hi Blue_Water and other CC helpers, 

Thank you for unselfishly giving of your time and talent to help all of us out!  You all provide valued advice. 😊

 

My family (3 adults) are arriving on March 29  to STT on Celebrity Apex from 8am-6pm.  . I believe they dock at Crown Bay (?) and there is only 1 other ship in port (?) 

We have been to Magens Bay in past, and want to try Sapphire Beach or Secret Harbor, leaning toward Sapphire. Probably hoping to get to get off ship and to beach by 11am. 

 

 

1. Do you know of someone currently staying at Sapphire  to tell if there is a seaweed/seagrass problem now or anticipated over the next 2 weeks thru Mar 29th? 

  (I realize this is nature and no one may know 100% ; however,, I've read that sometimes the problem can be seasonal.  Some people say it's mostly in the summer, but of course, I don't know that and trying to get a sense of what is there now.) 

 

2.  If it's about $15 pp each way to Sapphire but that's with "filling up a cab" at the port.  How do we "fill up the cab" for the return so we don't pay the $90 private to return.  If we get the taxi's number on outbound and call for a return cab, do they assume it's private, or do they know it's $15x3 and  they are okay with that?

 

3.  Do we need to reserve chairs  before sailing, or can we just reserve when we are there?  I thought I read that there is a resort, and you can't rent unless you are staying there? 

 

4.. About how long is it by taxi to Sapphire from the port?  (I realize there could or could not be traffic) Some people say 30 min, some say 1 hour? 

 

5.     How much time would you leave to return to Crown Bay and do we call for a cab/ arrange in advance / or cabs there to take for the return? 

 

Thank you in advance! 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

We've stayed at Sapphire 2 years ago. Amazing beach and beautiful. 

 

They have a webcam and you can look yourself. (I've been to Sapphire also by cruise ship and never seen any seaweed on the beach. They have a staff that keeps the beach pretty and set it up every morning with the chairs. 

 

Webcam HERE

 

It's definitely not an hour drive from the port (of course on a cruise day it can get busy). 

[anne13]

Thank you, Mitsugirly for your reply, and for the link to the webcam. 

 

Do you or anyone know about how the return cab works?  If we call for a cab from Sapphire to go back to the port, do they know it's the pp charge x3 ($15x3)  -- or -- are they expecting us to pay a private fare ($65-90)   since it's just the 3 of us going back to the port --  assuming no other people on the beach want to return to port area? 

 

 

[blue_water]

You are correct, the larger NCL Escape is docked at Havensight at 11 so I would want to get to Sapphire before 11.

 

Sargassum is not a problem until late April, however Mother Nature can deposit it anytime due to storms at sea.

 

Taxis are waiting at Crown port and the fare is $11/pp and 25 - 30 minutes each way. Yes you are filling a shared safari truck taxi, but not a big deal. 

No need to worry about a return taxi, they make these runs everyday and coordinate your return. You will probably have the same driver. The price will be the same…

Rent lounges when you arrive. You can move them to a shaded and quieter area to the right of the rental center as you face the sea. Most folks will hang at the restaurant/bar…

 

We’d leave Sapphire by 4…

the web cam at sapphireinthesun.com was knocked out by hurricane Irma but there is a nice drone video if you want to see that…

 

Relax and look forward to your cruise! 😄

Edited March 17, 2022 by blue_water

[anne13]

Thank you blue_water for answering my questions. So appreciated!!  

 

Do you or anyone have advice on snorkellng at Sapphire? If one is at the Sapphire Beach Bar and one is facing the ocean directly in front,  where is the best shorkeling?  To the right/left?  How far walk to the snorkelling area?  

 

If one has no car and is staying at Sapphire Village, how far is the walk to the beach?  Is there a sidewalk for walking there? 

 

Thank you again and have a wonderful day:) 

[beautifulbill]

The walk from Sapphire Village is a short 5 minute walk down a hill. The walk back uphill can be a bit challenging in the heat.

Sargassum is a summer occurrence and there is no way to know how it will be from day to day.

There are chaises to rent but they are different than the chaises provided for guests. Inquire at the restaurant where to get the rental chairs .($9/day)

There are several different snorkeling spots at Sapphire. Facing the water most people head to the reef on the right. There is also a shallow snorkel to the left at Pelican beach. If you walk up to the D and E building and pick your way through some rocks the is a nice reef up there with large schools of fish.

There is a dark area straight out at Sapphire that is sea grass and that's where you see rays, turtles and squid if they are around.

[anne13]

Dear Beautiful Bill,

 

Many thanks for taking the time to answer my questions.  I appreciate all your advice. 

Very kind of you and the CC experts to help! 

[volk904]

On 3/21/2022 at 4:47 PM, anne13 said:

Thank you blue_water for answering my questions. So appreciated!!  

 

Do you or anyone have advice on snorkellng at Sapphire? If one is at the Sapphire Beach Bar and one is facing the ocean directly in front,  where is the best shorkeling?  To the right/left?  How far walk to the snorkelling area?  

 

If one has no car and is staying at Sapphire Village, how far is the walk to the beach?  Is there a sidewalk for walking there? 

 

Thank you again and have a wonderful day:) 

If you are looking at the ocean from the bar. Snorkel area is to the right where the rocks are.  You can follow the rocks to the point.  Nothings to see going left. 

[blue_water]

13 hours ago, volk904 said:

If you are looking at the ocean from the bar. Snorkel area is to the right where the rocks are.  You can follow the rocks to the point.  Nothings to see going left. 

Actually that is incorrect, if you look off to the left you will see a seagrass area where you may see sea turtles or rays….

[blue_water]

On 4/12/2022 at 9:12 AM, blue_water said:

Actually that is incorrect, if you look off to the left you will see a seagrass area where you may see sea turtles or rays….

Correcting myself 🙊 the sea grass area is straight out as Bill stated…

[mitsugirly]

We were there yesterday but didn’t get to snorkel because it was pretty wavy and stirring everything up but we collected sea glass and watched the sky turn beautiful colors as the sunset. Love sapphire. 

[blue_water]

No significant amount of sargassum I take it? We’ve been getting hit very hard here in the Riviera Maya…it arrived early this year…

Edited April 15, 2022 by blue_water
Typo

[mitsugirly]

Not at sapphire but coki had some floating along the sides today. Beach was fine though.

[cruise questions]

On 4/15/2022 at 12:51 PM, mitsugirly said:

We were there yesterday but didn’t get to snorkel because it was pretty wavy and stirring everything up but we collected sea glass and watched the sky turn beautiful colors as the sunset. Love sapphire. 

I think we must have been there on the same day! We decided on Sapphire over Emerald and it was a nice day. We were there Thursday morning-we did snorkel and it was decent! We enjoyed it-although the ride from Crown Bay was really long (a few stops along the way) and it was difficult to get a taxi back to the port. 

[jbjcu07]

3 hours ago, cruise questions said:

I think we must have been there on the same day! We decided on Sapphire over Emerald and it was a nice day. We were there Thursday morning-we did snorkel and it was decent! We enjoyed it-although the ride from Crown Bay was really long (a few stops along the way) and it was difficult to get a taxi back to the port. 

Thanks for sharing your experience, cruise questions! My wife and I were planning on going from Crown Bay to Sapphire in three weeks. I assumed the taxi ride to Sapphire would take half an hour or so. How did you eventually get a taxi back to port as this is our biggest worry?

[cruise questions]

6 minutes ago, jbjcu07 said:

Thanks for sharing your experience, cruise questions! My wife and I were planning on going from Crown Bay to Sapphire in three weeks. I assumed the taxi ride to Sapphire would take half an hour or so. How did you eventually get a taxi back to port as this is our biggest worry?

The trip from Crown Bay to Sapphire took almost 50 minutes. We got on a Taxi quickly at the port and three other families got in with stops downtown and then at Paradise Point (which were before Sapphire). So the stops made it a long ride!

 

We were told by our Taxi driver to Sapphire and then by the bartenders at Sapphire that there were "always" Taxis waiting at the Taxi stand outside, ready to take us back to port. We walked out to the Taxi stand around 12:30 and there were two families waiting for a Taxi, that had already been waiting for 25 minutes. They had already tried to call the number on the stand but could not reach anyone. We waited about 25 more minutes (so the original families waited 50 minutes) and eventually one came and we all quickly piled in to get back to port. We were all going back to Crown Bay and it took about 35 minutes to get back. 

 

Sapphire was nice but honestly not sure I would go back there for snorkeling. We got to see some cool things but I am not really sure it was worth the ride there and back! If you get car sick at all, just a heads up that the roads are very windy! 

 

Happy to answer any other questions as I did so much research about where to go, etc for our trip and happy to share about our experience to try to help others!

[jbjcu07]

 

15 minutes ago, cruise questions said:

The trip from Crown Bay to Sapphire took almost 50 minutes. We got on a Taxi quickly at the port and three other families got in with stops downtown and then at Paradise Point (which were before Sapphire). So the stops made it a long ride!

 

We were told by our Taxi driver to Sapphire and then by the bartenders at Sapphire that there were "always" Taxis waiting at the Taxi stand outside, ready to take us back to port. We walked out to the Taxi stand around 12:30 and there were two families waiting for a Taxi, that had already been waiting for 25 minutes. They had already tried to call the number on the stand but could not reach anyone. We waited about 25 more minutes (so the original families waited 50 minutes) and eventually one came and we all quickly piled in to get back to port. We were all going back to Crown Bay and it took about 35 minutes to get back. 

 

Sapphire was nice but honestly not sure I would go back there for snorkeling. We got to see some cool things but I am not really sure it was worth the ride there and back! If you get car sick at all, just a heads up that the roads are very windy! 

 

Happy to answer any other questions as I did so much research about where to go, etc for our trip and happy to share about our experience to try to help others!

 

Thanks for the quick response! Seems like you were able to get off your ship in the morning as we're in port from 12-8. Our plan is to get off the ship ASAP.

 

Honestly, we're not that interested in snorkeling as we're just looking for a nice beach with shade to relax for a few hours and spend some time in calm water.

Any other beach suggestions besides Sapphire from yourself or anyone else? We thought about Magen's Bay, but anticipate that to be crowded with our late arrival.

[cruise questions]

45 minutes ago, jbjcu07 said:

 

 

Thanks for the quick response! Seems like you were able to get off your ship in the morning as we're in port from 12-8. Our plan is to get off the ship ASAP.

 

Honestly, we're not that interested in snorkeling as we're just looking for a nice beach with shade to relax for a few hours and spend some time in calm water.

Any other beach suggestions besides Sapphire from yourself or anyone else? We thought about Magen's Bay, but anticipate that to be crowded with our late arrival.

Yes, we docked early and were able to get off the ship as early as 7:30AM. We got off around 9:00 AM. 

 

I would not say the beach water at Sapphire was calm so may not meet what you are looking for anyway. It was actually quite rough the day we were there. I swim regularly (at home) so consider myself a pretty decent swimmer-I went out to swim some in the water and got knocked around pretty well. The water was fine for standing around but certainly not calm by any means-there were decent size waves, etc. Shade was also limited as it was all taken by the time we got there so we were in the sun. We were not there long so it was fine for us but just a heads up, pending the tide and crowds, shade may be limited. I have also heard that Magen's is crowded but supposed to be one of the prettiest beaches there. 

 

I will defer to anyone else that has been somewhere else as we have only been to Sapphire. We also looked at Emerald b/c it is so much closer to Crown Bay (but we wanted to go somewhere that would have something to see while snorkeling). But I have not been to Emerald so cannot offer more insight to it! 

[mitsugirly]

If you’re looking for a nice beach with shade then Brewers is huge (right by the airport) and tons of shade with plenty of trees…and you are almost always going to see sea turtles there. The water is calm, beach is nice and they have restrooms and showers. No concession Armand but a truck selling drinks and food was there yesterday. 
 

Another option for a beautiful beach is Cowpet. The beach was gorgeous and plenty of palms as well. The water was so-so but someone did see a sea turtle while we were there. Water was calm and several places to get food and drinks. 
 

We were at both yesterday 

Edited April 19, 2022 by mitsugirly

[mitsugirly]

I did want to add…I’m finding that snorkeling this time around, at all the beaches we’ve snorkeled before, is not as great as it was last time we stayed here. And by that there’s not as much coral this time around. I’m also noticing that there’s a lot of Yellow Sea grass something or other covering a lot of the rocks. I seen a diver post the other day about tons of “red” stuff floating around on his dive that was unusual. Also, seen a LOT of dead black spiky sea urchins in the water and on the beach…especially one morning at coki and also sapphire. They do not know what’s going on or what’s causing it and was talking about taking samples to study. 
 

The snorkeling just hasn’t been the norm here in St Thomas as it has been in the past for us. Last time we stayed here was 2020, so not quite 2 years ago. Even Secret Harbor wasn’t that great. 😩
 

With that being said, we did a dive off coki today to the reef around coral world and the reef was amazing out there still. 😉

[blue_water]

8 hours ago, jbjcu07 said:

 

 

Thanks for the quick response! Seems like you were able to get off your ship in the morning as we're in port from 12-8. Our plan is to get off the ship ASAP.

 

Honestly, we're not that interested in snorkeling as we're just looking for a nice beach with shade to relax for a few hours and spend some time in calm water.

Any other beach suggestions besides Sapphire from yourself or anyone else? We thought about Magen's Bay, but anticipate that to be crowded with our late arrival.

Sapphire is our “go-to” beach whether we are staying at the resort there or visiting for the day. The water can be “smooth as glass”, or quite rough. It just depends on the wind and sea conditions that day. We’re not avid snorkelers, but this bay just exudes character - gorgeous beach and sapphire-colored water, and amazing island views. Paradise in the VI!
 

I agree that Magens would be a bad choice if arriving late. And that is a beautiful bay, but not very interesting as compared to the east end beaches IMHO.

 

The taxi from Crown should be 30 - 40 minutes and can be longer as “cruise questions” shared. For the return there will probably not be taxis waiting to whisk you back to the port. They stop in and try to get as many passengers as they can. Some drivers will tell you when to watch for them…So not a perfect system but there are very few complaints about getting back. Same thing at Coki and Secret Harbour…

 

If you read the many other beach threads here you’ll find that Secret Harbor is a dead calm bay, but lacks the beauty and space that Sapphire offers; Cowpet Bay is home to the Yacht Club so there are many boats moored there, and there are no public facilities; Coki is a small, gorgeous beach but the most crowded; Lindbergh Bay (aka Emerald Beach) is a very nice beach option for those docked at Crown Bay. Is it as nice as Sapphire and other East End beaches? No…But certainly a very nice spot to relax after a 5 min taxi or longer walk.

Lindqvist (now Smith Bay Park) is arguably the most gorgeous beach on the island, and I will amend my earlier statement - If we were visiting STT on a cruise, we would grab a lunch at Moe’s Market in Red Hook (or at the market in Crown Bay, and just lay our towels in a quiet spot of this beautiful beach…

 

 

Edited April 20, 2022 by blue_water

[mitsugirly]

7 hours ago, blue_water said:

 

 

Cowpet Bay is home to the Yacht Club so there are many boats moored there, and there are no public facilities;

 

 

We were just at Cowpet and they have restrooms located right behind the beach at the pool/bar area. There was a sign on the beach walkway locating then. It didn’t say anything about only people staying there using them. We used them (heck we even used the pool even though that did say for guest only oops).

[blue_water]

2 hours ago, mitsugirly said:

We were just at Cowpet and they have restrooms located right behind the beach at the pool/bar area. There was a sign on the beach walkway locating then. It didn’t say anything about only people staying there using them. We used them (heck we even used the pool even though that did say for guest only oops).

Ok thanks. I’ve told others that it looks like Sangria’s had finally re-opened after Irma, and restrooms were available for patrons and resort guests. No other amenities for day trippers last I knew somI don’t usually recommend it to day visitors looking for that perfect beach with amenities... But Caribbean Fish Market is a great spot for happy hour and dinner for those lucky cruisers docked late, like the Sunset Grille at the Secret Harbour Resort…

Edited April 20, 2022 by blue_water

[jbjcu07]

13 hours ago, blue_water said:

Sapphire is our “go-to” beach whether we are staying at the resort there or visiting for the day. The water can be “smooth as glass”, or quite rough. It just depends on the wind and sea conditions that day. We’re not avid snorkelers, but this bay just exudes character - gorgeous beach and sapphire-colored water, and amazing island views. Paradise in the VI!
 

I agree that Magens would be a bad choice if arriving late. And that is a beautiful bay, but not very interesting as compared to the east end beaches IMHO.

 

The taxi from Crown should be 30 - 40 minutes and can be longer as “cruise questions” shared. For the return there will probably not be taxis waiting to whisk you back to the port. They stop in and try to get as many passengers as they can. Some drivers will tell you when to watch for them…So not a perfect system but there are very few complaints about getting back. Same thing at Coki and Secret Harbour…

 

If you read the many other beach threads here you’ll find that Secret Harbor is a dead calm bay, but lacks the beauty and space that Sapphire offers; Cowpet Bay is home to the Yacht Club so there are many boats moored there, and there are no public facilities; Coki is a small, gorgeous beach but the most crowded; Lindbergh Bay (aka Emerald Beach) is a very nice beach option for those docked at Crown Bay. Is it as nice as Sapphire and other East End beaches? No…But certainly a very nice spot to relax after a 5 min taxi or longer walk.

Lindqvist (now Smith Bay Park) is arguably the most gorgeous beach on the island, and I will amend my earlier statement - If we were visiting STT on a cruise, we would grab a lunch at Moe’s Market in Red Hook (or at the market in Crown Bay, and just lay our towels in a quiet spot of this beautiful beach…

 

 

 

Thanks so much for the full explanation, Blue water! We're still planning on heading to Sapphire as soon as they let us off the ship at noon. We will head back a little earlier than normal just in case we have to wait a while for a return taxi.

[jcathers1]

This might be a bit of a dumb question, but we dock at 07:00. Will there be taxis available to take us to Sapphire Beach that early in the AM? Will the beach be "open"?