Doing TRUNK BAY on our own--Best times to leave and return--Prices??

[princess crazy]

Been meaning to ask this of anyone who has been lately but we decided to do this excursion on our own and now that it is getting close I'm worried about what we exactly should do when we get off the ship??

What would be the best tranportation there --is it ferry first or taxi first and what time would be good to leave the ship so we can get there before the crowds?? Also am getting worried as to what time we need to leave the beach to get back to the ship on time---I know this can take a long time so we want to play it safe.

Also what can we expect to pay in terms of taxi/ferry fees---what would be the most it would be per person---there are 3 of us. Thanks for your help!!

 

[princess crazy]

anyone with thoughts who has been lately

 

[MarkRG]

I'm not the biggest do it on your own person, but there's two places on the 7day runs I wouldn't go that route. #1 is Tulum, which I don't think there even is a way to do that, and Trunk Bay is the second one. Having been to Trunk Bay, it is simply too far and too many links. You're going to need three rides each way. One to the ferry, the ferry itself, then a ride from the ferry to the beach. We've been at St. T where a funeral messed up traffic totally on the island so that the ship wound up sailing late due to the Disney excursions getting tied up by it. They don't wait for a non-Disney one.

 

[Love2Cruise]

We did Trunk Bay on our own in 2001. We rented a car in Havensight, which is where we docked (sometimes the ship docks elsewhere so check your itinerary) We drove to the car ferry, then drove to Trunk Bay. I researched this extensively on other cruise boards and got very detailed driving directions. You can also get Ferry times online. It took about an hour and a half to get to the beach (lots of traffic on St. Thomas) We had a least 4 hours at Trunk Bay and even time to shop back at Havensight. Even with the car rental, it cost way less than the excursion since there were 6 of us.

 

[GettinReadyforDisney]

We did Trunk Bay on our own in July 2009. I don't remember what time we disembarked (I'm guessing that it must have been 8 a.m. or so) but here are my notes:

This was from my travel notes on how to get to Trunk Bay on your own:

St john on own
The first ferry from Red Hook to Cruz Bay runs at 9am. It takes about 1/2 hr to get to the ferry from the ship....about 1.5 hrs from ship to beach. Total cost per person for transportation only (from the ship to Trunk Bay and back) is about $45 plus tips.
taxi to ferry dock = $10 per person (each way)
ferry = $5 per person (each way)
taxi from Cruz Bay to beach = $6 per person (each way)
admission to trunk Bay = $4 each
snorkel equip = $4 each person
chair = $8 per person (plus $100 security deposit on our credit card)


This is from another one of my posts on disboards, which is based on my journal notes:

We arrived by 9:30 and left at 1:15 (so we had nearly 4 hours there)

Although many had said the 3 pm ferry would work for a 4:30 "All Aboard," we did not want to chance it. We made the 2 pm ferry easily and got to the port area with time to shop!!!

Don't be afraid to do it on your own. It was really easy . . . and oh, so beautiful. And our taxi/truck stopped along the way from the ferry in St. John to Trunk Bay so we could take pics. You know those postcard pics you see of Trunk Bay (from above it) . . . you'll see it in person and get your own pic that's as beautiful as any pic you've seen!!

Be sure to bring enough small bills -- on the way back from Trunk Bay to the ferry, we only had $100 bill left and our driver said he had no change. With all the people these drivers take, I doubt that was true BUT -- luckily another cruiseline passenger gave us change for our $100.


Enjoy!!

 

[GettinReadyforDisney]

I also remember that there was a website for the Red Hook Ferry that showed the ferry times. You should probably try to "google" it to be sure that the times are the same as in 2009!!