Excursions at St. Thomas / St. Johns

[Flg8tr97]

We are booked on the Fantasy in June and I have a question on the St. John Trunk Bay Beach excursion?

I would love to see St. John, our last cruise was RCL and we only went to St. Thomas.. BUT, from what I can see, it will take us an hour to get to St. John and then only have 1.5 hours on the beach and then an hour back.

Is that worth it with two boys (9 & 5)? I think we would be better off staying on the ship and having the aqua duck to ourselves!

Anyone do this excursion? TIA!

 

[TivoQueen]

Our cruise ship stopped in St. Thomas in May and we wanted to do the Trunk Bay Excursion. After doing some research we decided to not do the cruiseship excursion but instead do it on our own. It was a lot less expensive and we were not on a tight time restraint. We booked 2 rental cars in advance at Budget, which is located right at the cruise terminal. Then drove to the Red Hook Ferry and loaded us and our vehicles on a car barge to St. John. The drive to red hook was probably 15 minutes and the ferry ride is about 20 minutes. We went to Trunk Bay first and was there for about 3 hours, went and explored St. John, grabbed some lunch, hopped the ferry back to St. Thomas and it was only 3:00 by the time we arrived back in St. Thomas. That gave us enough time to drive up to Paradise Point and return the cars to Budget. We still had almost 2 hours to shop at the mall at the cruise terminal. I think our boat arrived in port that day at 8:00, we were able to make the 9:00 am ferry to St. John, had a wonderful day, and had plenty of time to return to the boat. Even with the price of the rental cars, the $45 ferry fee, and $4 per person entrance fee to Trunk Bay we still paid a lot less than the price of the ship excursion. I wouldn't do it any other way. St. John is beautiful and you want time to explore it and all of its great beaches.

 

[Flg8tr97]

Our cruise ship stopped in St. Thomas in May and we wanted to do the Trunk Bay Excursion. After doing some research we decided to not do the cruiseship excursion but instead do it on our own. It was a lot less expensive and we were not on a tight time restraint. We booked 2 rental cars in advance at Budget, which is located right at the cruise terminal. Then drove to the Red Hook Ferry and loaded us and our vehicles on a car barge to St. John. The drive to red hook was probably 15 minutes and the ferry ride is about 20 minutes. We went to Trunk Bay first and was there for about 3 hours, went and explored St. John, grabbed some lunch, hopped the ferry back to St. Thomas and it was only 3:00 by the time we arrived back in St. Thomas. That gave us enough time to drive up to Paradise Point and return the cars to Budget. We still had almost 2 hours to shop at the mall at the cruise terminal. I think our boat arrived in port that day at 8:00, we were able to make the 9:00 am ferry to St. John, had a wonderful day, and had plenty of time to return to the boat. Even with the price of the rental cars, the $45 ferry fee, and $4 per person entrance fee to Trunk Bay we still paid a lot less than the price of the ship excursion. I wouldn't do it any other way. St. John is beautiful and you want time to explore it and all of its great beaches.

Thank you! was it hard to find your way around?? Easy Directions?

 

[TivoQueen]

Not hard at all. We asked for directions to the ferry at Budget and I think it was actually only one road. St. John is mostly National Park so there are signs to the different beaches and bays that are clearly marked too. We had a great time.

 

[Dave1442397]

Thank you! was it hard to find your way around?? Easy Directions?

You can't get lost on St. John unless you end up on someone's private driveway. If you don't want to rent a car on St. Thomas, you can still hop on the ferry at Red Hook and then take taxis on St. John. If you stick to the main beaches (especially Trunk Bay) there will be taxis there to take you back to the ferry any time you want.

The advantage to renting a car is that you can go to quiet beaches with great snorkeling, such as Little Lameshur (if you do, you'll need a Jeep or some other 4WD vehicle). You can rent cars on St. John and have them meet you at the ferry.

 

[ITGirl50]

We did the St John island tour and most of the time is spent getting over to St John. We plan to do the Trunk Bay tour this summer. An interesting thing about St John is that they drive on the left side of the rode (we drive on the right in the states) and the roads are very narrow and they have very steep hills. I wouldn't be comfortable driving it, but that's just me.