St. John's ferry schedule problems?

[DIScruisers4]

Friends of ours just returned from a vacation in St. Thomas. They had a great time, but noted that the ferry service (both ferries) to St. John was not very reliable. Once, they waited well over one hour for one ferry (I don't know which one) and then gave up and went over to the other ferry which was running about 30 minutes late. Has anyone else had this experience with the ferrys running way off schedule. We are going on the Disney Magic Eastern in February and plan to go to St. John's on our St. Thomas trip. I want to make sure we leave plenty of time to get back especially if the ferries often run late. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Happy Holidays to all.

 

[bicker]

We arrived at the Red Hook dock about 20 minutes late, and had just missed the ferry by a few minutes. It is good advice to plan for delays and other interruptions in ferry service.

 

[mommasita]

I have no personal experience, but this makes me VERY nervous. We also wanted to go to St. John's, but find the timeline rather nervewracking. I have heard that the ferry is sometimes late.....I wish we could stay in St. Thomas later so we could go to St. John's with a little more leeway..

 

[lbgraves]

Well, that might be part of the reason they were paging two families on the 12/10 Magic when it was time to leave St. Thomas. Sail away was delayed by at least 30 minutes & fellow DISers saw a family of 4 running down the pier holding their shoes. They had two small kids. The gangway was already being taken apart & apparently the CMs grabbed the guests & helped them get on board just in time. When we were coming back onboard around 11:30 a family was in the elevator talking about how they were going to take the ferry over to St. Johns and leave there about 4 pm to come back. They were probably the other family since the alla board was set for 4:15.

 

[bicker]

Wow. Those folks were very lucky. Typically, unless you're on a ship-sponsored tour, cruise ships don't wait for late passengers.

 

[jel0511]

I've always found the ferry service to St. John very reliable. We've always used the Red Hook ferry and have never found any problems. To me, they were very prompt. Remember, you're on island time and things there run slower than here in the States.

 

[RebeccaLovesDisney]

We've taken the ferry to St. John and back on all three of our Eastern cruises and have never had a problem with them being on schedule. At most, they left about 10 minutes late, but they always made up time during the trip.

We've taken both the Red Hook and Charlotte Amalie ferries over to St. John in the morning (9:00). Each time we caught the 2:15 ferry back from St. John to Charlotte Amalie and arrived in Charlotte by 3:00. This allowed plenty of time to make it back to the ship.

It does take some time and effort to get over to St. John, but we think it is worth it. The beaches are truly beautiful and serene. This time we went to Cinnamon Bay rather than Trunk Bay and liked it even better. Just as nice, but way fewer people.

Good luck with your planning!