Which Ferry to St. John ?

[Nuhget]

So I've read how much people enjoy St. John and Trunk Bay on this board, and I sooo have to go see it too. We will be there in July on the Carnival liberty. The boat is in port from 9am to 6pm. Most posts recommend taking a taxi to Red Hook, then the ferry from there. I noticed on the USVI website there is a ferry from Charlotte Amalie too, but no one seems to mention that one.

 

Personally, I would'nt mind just booking the ships excursion there - but the whole tour only lasts 4 hours. Sounds like about 2 hours of beach time. Clearly too short.

 

So how is the ferry from Charlotte Amalie? The boat ride is longer, and I do have a little one that is prone to motion sickness, but that can be dealt with. Any other draw backs to this route?

[richtersl]

So I've read how much people enjoy St. John and Trunk Bay on this board, and I sooo have to go see it too. We will be there in July on the Carnival liberty. The boat is in port from 9am to 6pm. Most posts recommend taking a taxi to Red Hook, then the ferry from there. I noticed on the USVI website there is a ferry from Charlotte Amalie too, but no one seems to mention that one.

 

Personally, I would'nt mind just booking the ships excursion there - but the whole tour only lasts 4 hours. Sounds like about 2 hours of beach time. Clearly too short.

 

So how is the ferry from Charlotte Amalie? The boat ride is longer, and I do have a little one that is prone to motion sickness, but that can be dealt with. Any other draw backs to this route?

 

The main drawback with the Charlotte Amalie ferry is that it doesn't run as often as the one from Red Hook does. :( Timewise it all works out to be about the same. The ferry ride to St. John from Charlotte Amalie takes about 45 minutes. The taxi from Havensight to Red Hook takes about 20-25 minutes. The ferry ride from Red Hook to St. John takes about 15 minutes.

 

Some folks have taken the Red Hook ferry to St. John and the Charlotte Amalie ferry back to St. Thomas. Others have just bought round trip tickets with the Red Hook ferry. What you do depends on your schedule and the ferry's schedule. :)

 

Based on your schedule it sounds like you'll be off your ship between 10:00-11:00. You'll need to be back on board NLT 5:30. There is a rush hour to contend with so you need to allow for that. You'd want to be back on St. Thomas NLT 4:30. Total round trip travel time to Trunk from St. Thomas is roughly 3 - 3.5 hours.

[The Islander]

Here is some more information that might help:

 

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.

 

Both ferries arrive in Cruz Bay St. John. Right at the end of the ferry dock there is a taxi stand and usually half a dozen to a dozen taxi drivers waiting around. They approach people getting off the ferry dock asking ‘beach’, ‘tour’, ‘where can I take you’ so they aren’t hard to find. Tell them where you want to go and get the price and be on your way. Cruz Bay to Trunk Bay is $6 pp, ow for the taxi. It takes about 12-15 minutes.

Trunk Bay Admission is $4 per adult. 16 and under are free.

 

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.

 

--Islander

[Skai]

Took the ferry from Charlotte Amalie to and from St. John with ease...

 

I believe it's actually quicker than going to Red Hook via taxi...

 

We took the 9:00a over and took the 2:15p back(with a few hours left to still check out carnival and do some shopping on that particular day on St. Thomas)...

 

The boat ride was more like 30 minutes long(versus the 40 minutes advertised)...

 

There was also a 3:30 ferry return to C.A. offered that still would have given us enough time to get back to the ship which had an "all aboard" @5:30p...

 

If more time on St. John is desired?...I would recommend the C.A. ferry as there is no real advantage to cabbing to Red Hook...

 

The cab-ride to and from the ship-downtown ferry landing was about 5-7 minutes and that was with carnival going on that day...

 

The cab-ride to and from Trunk Bay-Cruz Bay(STJ) was about 10-12 minutes...

[hubofhockey]

Took the ferry from Charlotte Amalie to and from St. John with ease...

 

I believe it's actually quicker than going to Red Hook via taxi...

 

We took the 9:00a over and took the 2:15p back(with a few hours left to still check out carnival and do some shopping on that particular day on St. Thomas)...

 

The boat ride was more like 30 minutes long(versus the 40 minutes advertised)...

 

There was also a 3:30 ferry return to C.A. offered that still would have given us enough time to get back to the ship which had an "all aboard" @5:30p...

 

If more time on St. John is desired?...I would recommend the C.A. ferry as there is no real advantage to cabbing to Red Hook...

 

The cab-ride to and from the ship-downtown ferry landing was about 5-7 minutes and that was with carnival going on that day...

 

The cab-ride to and from Trunk Bay-Cruz Bay(STJ) was about 10-12 minutes...

 

But you probably docked at Crown Bay. OP is on the Carnival Liberty which probably docks at Havensight. From Havensight, it makes much more sense to go to Red Hook.

[Skai]

But you probably docked at Crown Bay. OP is on the Carnival Liberty which probably docks at Havensight. From Havensight, it makes much more sense to go to Red Hook.

 

From what I understand?...While further West from Red Hook?...The Crown Bay dock is actually an equal distance to the C.A. ferry dock to St. John as the Havensight dock is...

 

I can only speak from experience but I really see no advantage in taking the taxi to-and-from Red Hook...The C.A. ferry left at 9:00a and we were walking on the dock at Cruz Bay shortly after 9:30a...

 

It's really comparing apples and apples I guess...

[surfgirl67]

We are on Carnival Glory May 23rd - we are on a very tight budget, but want to see Trunk Bay. It will be myself, DH and DS (9yrs old)........I'm looking for the best price since we cannot afford the Carnival excursion to trunk bay.....$225 for us if we took it. We would like to do it on our own, but I'm getting totally confused about which ferry, taxi etc. I pretty sure that I read it cost $4pp to get into Trunk Bay but under 16 are free (so that saves a little). Can someone give me a total pp it cost them to get to Trunk Bay from St. Thomas?

[surfgirl67]

oops forgot to add......we are there 10am-8pm

[04cruises]

We just came back from St. Thomas and we took the Red Hook over and the Charlotte Amalie ferry back.That way we got to see a little of the island on the way over.The walk to from the Charlotte Amalie ferry to the ships is a fair distance so you may want to catch a cab.However,it drops you off downtown so you can shop before you return to your ship.

[lovemylab]

We are on Carnival Glory May 23rd - we are on a very tight budget, but want to see Trunk Bay. It will be myself, DH and DS (9yrs old)........I'm looking for the best price since we cannot afford the Carnival excursion to trunk bay.....$225 for us if we took it. We would like to do it on our own, but I'm getting totally confused about which ferry, taxi etc. I pretty sure that I read it cost $4pp to get into Trunk Bay but under 16 are free (so that saves a little). Can someone give me a total pp it cost them to get to Trunk Bay from St. Thomas?

 

When we went in 2007 the approximate costs were:

-taxi to Red Hook: $10pp

-ferry from Red Hook to Cruz Bay: $5pp

-taxi from Cruz Bay to Trunk Bay $6pp

 

-entrance fee to Trunk Bay: $4pp

 

So approximately $21 in taxi/ferry costs per person for one way, therefore $42 return. Add on to this the $4pp entrance fee and we paid around $46pp. Again, these prices are approximate and we also docked in Havensight. If you are docking closer to Charlotte Amalie the taxi is an extra $1 a person for each way to Red Hook (or at least it was in 2007).

 

 

If you are wanting to save some money you could always look into using public transportation to/from Red Hook. Others on this board have had great success using this method. To travel from Havensight to Red Hook (and vice versa) is $2 pp each way.

 

We were on a very tight budget on our first cruise. Rather than go to Trunk Bay we elected to go to Magen's Bay on St. Thomas. We paid $8pp each way for the taxi and then $3 entrance fee. The beach was gorgeous and it made for a very inexpensive day.

[surfgirl67]

When we went in 2007 the approximate costs were:

-taxi to Red Hook: $10pp

-ferry from Red Hook to Cruz Bay: $5pp

-taxi from Cruz Bay to Trunk Bay $6pp

 

-entrance fee to Trunk Bay: $4pp

 

So approximately $21 in taxi/ferry costs per person for one way, therefore $42 return. Add on to this the $4pp entrance fee and we paid around $46pp. Again, these prices are approximate and we also docked in Havensight. If you are docking closer to Charlotte Amalie the taxi is an extra $1 a person for each way to Red Hook (or at least it was in 2007).

 

 

If you are wanting to save some money you could always look into using public transportation to/from Red Hook. Others on this board have had great success using this method. To travel from Havensight to Red Hook (and vice versa) is $2 pp each way.

 

We were on a very tight budget on our first cruise. Rather than go to Trunk Bay we elected to go to Magen's Bay on St. Thomas. We paid $8pp each way for the taxi and then $3 entrance fee. The beach was gorgeous and it made for a very inexpensive day.

 

thanks so much for the info

[Cruising Mom1]

surfgirl...

 

what did you elect to do on your cruise regarding the Trunk Bay vs. Megan's Bay?