DW, DS6 and myself sail on the Magic next Saturday (June 29) and we obviously left it too late to book the excursions we wanted. When I called yesterday, all the 5-Star St John Snorkel and Beach Adventure trips in St. Thomas were full, as was the Golden Eagle catamaran in St Martin! So, when they said I could cancel the Champagne trip by Thursday, I thought I had better book something..... What is your advice?
We just got home from the June 15th 7-day Eastern cruise yesterday. We had a wonderful time, but one of the highlights was our time in St. John. We decided not to do the St.John Trunk Bay excursions because of the short time allowed for snorkeling and beach activities. My DH was sick on St. Thomas day, so 10 yo DD and I went to St. John on our own. We got lucky getting off the ship, one of the
DCL excursions going to Cruz Bay, St. John wasn't full, so they offered to take both of us to St. John for a total of $10. We arrived at St. John around 8:50, and were in Truck Bay by a little after 9 am (taxi $4 pp). The charge to get onto the beach at Trunk Bay was $4 for adults. There was only one other family there when we arrived. We rented a beach chair ($7, with a $25 deposit), they also had a small snack bar with burgers, etc.. There was a variety of snorkel equipment, etc. for rent at reasonable prices (we brought our own). There were showers and restrooms just off the beach at Trunk Bay. The DCLers and folks from a Carnaval Cruise arrived 30 minutes later. They left at 12:30. We stayed until 1:45, then took a waiting taxi (15 min.) to the ferry at Cruz Bay ($4 pp). We took the ferry to Charlottte Amalie at 2:15, arriving just before 3 pm ($7 adult, $3 for kids). We took a waiting taxi back to the ship for $3 pp. We felt very comfortable doing this on our own.
Sorry, no advice on St. Maarten. We were planning to do the Golden Eagle Catamaran Cruise, but the seas were rough and they weren't going to be able to snorkel in the usual place. I had read here that snorkeling at the alternate site wasn't very good, so we were allowed to cancel and get a full refund. We spent a coule of hours shopping near the ship, then enjoyed the near-empty ship for the day.
Happy sailing!
sweetp0618
Patti
