St John excursion question

[psimon]

We are a family of 7: My parents, us , and our 3 kids, ages 13, 6, and 6. I am trying to find excursions for everyone. After looking at the list for St John, I have sort of narrowed things down to either the Atlantis Submarine adventure or the Coral World and Island Drive.

Does anyone have experience with either of these? What age group are these good/bad for? Was it worth the $$?

Any comments for either of these, or if you have a better suggestion for this group (we don't have to stay together, but it is an option) would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks... Paul

[Dave_from_Marietta]

In a related post you asked about the See & Sea at St Maarten. Although that boat doesn't actually submerge below the surface, the viewing from that boat is much better than the view from the Atlantis submarine at St Thomas. The main thing to recommend the Atlantis submarine is the novelty in being in a submerged watercraft (it goes down anywhere between 75 and 90 feet below the surface). But the deeper you go, the less vivid the colors become because the light becomes more filtered. The younger kids in our group were bored. The older kids liked the novelty of being in a submarine but were bored by the scenery.

My recommendation would be to do the See & Sea at St Maarten and then take a taxi to Coral World/Coki Beach at St Thomas. Don't do the excursion... just take a taxi. You'll save money and you'll have more flexibility since you can linger at the beach as long as you'd like or come back earlier if, for some reason, you're bored.

www.coralworldvi.com

And your taxi ride will give you enough of an "island drive" to satisfy you.

[mcnuss]

Not sure if we are talking about St. John or St. Thomas here, but either way, I agree with Dave. Having been on both islands, there is no need to do an excursion. They are both gloriously beautiful places (esp. St. John) and you will enjoy your taxi ride and a day at the beach.