Eastern Excursions

[dtuleya]

Our family (me, DH, DSs 15 & 11) will be taking our first cruise on DCL! We've already decided to do the Anguilla Dolphin & Stingray Encounter in St. Maarten, but we're not sure what do to in St. Thomas/St. John.

We'd like to do a little shopping and exploring on our own, but we'd probably like to spend some time at a beach. The question is do we book a beach excursion or just wing it on our own? Which beach is the best for just relaxing and enjoying the water?

I noticed on the Disney site that the Trunk Bay Excursion to St. John lasts 5 hours, but you only get 1-1/2 hours to relax. Does it take 2 hours of travel time to and from the island? How does this compare to the Sapphire Beach Excursion? Are there any other options? I know that on the Bahamas Cruise you can go to the Atlantis and play in their pools, etc. That might be another option for us. Anything like that in St. Thomas?

Also, what time are you expected to be back onboard when you are in port?

 

[AnnMorin]

I hope you love it as much as we did!
In St. Thomas we did the 5 star snorkle/st.john on our first eastern. The boat ride over there was pretty long I would guess about an hour each way. We had about 1.5 hours in the water which really was enough since the place we went to was very uncommercial, no chairs etc, basically you snorkled, no area to "relax" unless you sat on the sand. I really enjoyed it though and would do it again. This past year since we spent so much on the Anguilla dolphin we just walked around st. thomas and shopped and then went back to the ship to enjoy the pools, your day in St. Thomas is much shorter than in St. Maarten I believe we left around 4:30 or so. Many people take a cab to megan's bay and enjoy that beach, or sapphire, both are fairly close. You will find cabs right when you reach the tender spot (if you tender in) or after you walk past the entrence of havensat mall if you dock at wico.

 

[NCRedding]

We grabbed a taxi to Coki Beach and Coral World--it was very easy to do. The ride was around $7 per person, each way (this is negoitable). The beach was beautiful. I also looked into doing beginning snorkeling or snuba with Coki Dive Club. I thought it was very easy to do on our own, and gave us the freedom to come and go as we pleased.