St. John by 8:30?

[Jen105]

We are scheduled to arrive in St. Thomas on the Carnival Destiny at 7am. Is it gonna be possible to be on St. John by 8:30am? We are thinking a cab from Havensight to Red Hook then take the 8am ferry. Doable?

[richtersl]

Depends on whether your last port was a US port. If it was a US port then you don't need to go through immigration and should get off the ship relatively quickly. You may be able to make that early ferry.

 

If you have to go through immigration, you may not even get off the ship until after 8:00.

[brooklynkid]

We just got back from the Carnival Miracle and just missed the 8:00 AM ferry. I mean, the taxi driver ran out of the taxi and was talking to the people on the ferry and it pulled out. We literally saw the ferry pulling away from the docks while getting off the taxi.

 

I blame the 4 enormous girls that took 10 minutes longer to walk from the ship to the taxi than we did. If your ship lets people off before 7:30, you should actually make the 8:00 ferry with ease. However, we got off at 7:31 and were sitting on the taxi waiting for 10 minutes. until we had enough people for the driver to leave.

 

The other idea is if you can somehow round up 10 people with the same intentions and get them all out at the same time. There was another couple who raced to the taxi but he wouldn't leave until he had a full load (understandable, gas prices being what they are these days). Oh, the other passengers don't have to go the ferry terminal either. The 4 ginormous women were headed to Coki Beach which I presume is on the same road but past the ferry terminal.

[beachchick]

You can also take a private taxi (that is, car size and just for your party), rather than waiting for one of the large taxis to fill. Yes, it costs a smidge more, but if means the difference between getting the 8:00 ferry and hanging around for an hour while you watch the ferry leave, then I think it's worth it.

 

If you have a non-US port immediately before St. Thomas, then listen to richtersl and don't count on making the early ferry. You should be able to make the 9:00 one with a very slim chance of making the 8:00 one. Depends on how fast the immigration folks get to your ship, how many ships are in port that require the immigration process, and how effeciently your ship runs the immigration "gauntlet" (most do this all the time, so they're pretty well set up).

 

beachchick