carnival-St John

[UME6869]

I realize this thread may get nixed but hopefully I will get some help before that happens. I was thinking about going to St Johns when we get to St Thomas on the victory. Was going to take ferry from Charlot. Amelia. Anyone have any experience with this. How much? Are they reliable? Is there enough to do when we get there as far as just walking around, shopping, eating and if have time a beach close by.

[The Islander]

Lots of folks do it on their own. The ferries to St. John are realiable. With the Charlotte Amalie ferry its a good idea to double check the schedule close to your departure date as they sometimes change their schedule a little usually during on and off season.

 

On St. John right in Cruz Bay you can shop, dine, visit the National Park Visitor Center, you can hike a trail, Lind Point Trail, starts right behind the Visitor Center and it leads to Soloman, Honeymoon and Caneel Bay where you can hike back or take a taxi from Caneel Bay to Cruz Bay.

 

Here is some more info: St. Thomas to St. John on your own is pretty easy, just need to plan accordingly, know the ferry schedules and the time you need to be back to the ship.

 

There are two departure points on St. Thomas for ferries to St. John. First is the Charlotte Amalie ferry, which leaves from the Charlotte Amalie waterfront. The ferry area is just at the start of the shopping district, across from Vendor’s Plaza. The Charlotte Amalie ferry is about 1.4 miles from Havensight Cruise Ship Dock area and about 1.7 miles from the Crown Bay Dock area. It’s a short drive between them, but this is all in town and traffic can cause the short drive to take a while. More ships mean more traffic. A taxi from Havensight to the Charlotte Amalie ferry is $4 pp, ow. Same from Crown Bay. The Charlotte Amalie ferry takes about 40 minutes to get over to St. John.

 

The Red Hook ferry is on the East End of the island. The drive from Havensight takes about 20 minutes in low traffic and from Crown Bay 35 minutes. More traffic it will take longer. The ferry takes 15 minutes to get over to St. John.

 

One vs. the other: time wise with shorter drive + longer ferry on the Charlotte Amalie ferry and longer drive + shorter ferry on the Red Hook ferry the commute itself tends to work out the same. Figure an hour to a little over an hour, depends on if you get a ferry right when you get to the dock or have to wait around a bit. When coming back to St. Thomas the Charlotte Amalie might help you avoid some of the traffic since its gets you closer to the ships. In terms of schedule: the Red Hook ferry has more departures. In terms of the trip: the Charlotte Amalie ferry allows you to see a bit more of the water and island along the coast but its longer and more open ocean so for someone that doesn’t like ferries or gets seasick easily you might stick with the shorter Red Hook ferry. With taking the Red Hook route you see a little of the island while driving to the ferry. For schedule and prices of ferries try: http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=getting+to+st.+john&fr=yfp-t-305&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8.

 

Plan to be at the ferry for the return trip at least 15 minutes before departure. Best bet is not to take the last possible ferry that would get you back on time, take at least the one before that – just in case you don’t get on that one or something happens at least you have one more option. Also good to head to St. John first thing so you can do your visit there and get back to St. Thomas with time to spare.

 

--Islander