Magen's Bay on our own?

[Princessmama 2]

I've read posts where some people went through Disney and others went on your own to Magen's Bay in St. Thomas. We are traveling there soon and it will be me, DH, and our girls are 5 and 9. Currently I have reserved this beach excursion through Disney, but I'm tempted to just cancel and do it on our own. I want to make sure we'll have no trouble finding transportation there (and would rather share taxi with others going to same place). Also, did you find easy access to chairs on the beach? Anything else I should consider regarding going on our own, recommendations?
Thanks!

 

[MUN]

I've read posts where some people went through Disney and others went on your own to Magen's Bay in St. Thomas. We are traveling there soon and it will be me, DH, and our girls are 5 and 9. Currently I have reserved this beach excursion through Disney, but I'm tempted to just cancel and do it on our own. I want to make sure we'll have no trouble finding transportation there (and would rather share taxi with others going to same place). Also, did you find easy access to chairs on the beach? Anything else I should consider regarding going on our own, recommendations?
Thanks!

Magen's Bay is easy to do on your own. The open-air taxi we rode was large, and held about a dozen people. They were lined up in the beach parking lot for the trip back to the ship. We didn't rent chairs or umbrellas as there were plenty of picnic tables and palm trees. The beach is beautiful and huge and the water was crystal clear on our visit last June. We enjoyed Magen's Bay very much.

 

[Princessmama 2]

Thanks for the info MUN!

 

[lorimay]

We did Magen's Bay thru Disney and it was awful.
They had a "special section" reserved for us. It was overcrowded chairs on top of each other, people on top of each other. We moved as far to the end as we could away from all the Disney people but you couldn't escape them.
The people on the other side of the rope looked so much more comfortable and spaced out then we were.
We actually left early and paid a taxi to go back to the ship and didn't wait for the excursion transportation.

Do it on your own.
Have fun.

 

[pillow]

We've done it on our own twice. I would recommend going as soon as the ship docks to avoid crowds. The beach does tend to get crowded late morning. We rented chairs and dragged them down the beach WAY to the left (facing water). There are fewer people down there, and it was quiet and beautiful!

 

[PoopDeckPappy]

Another benefit of doing it on your own is that you can decide when to go, if to go, if the weather is not good. We took the open air taxi with a 6 month old and 22 month old, no worries at all (even w/ strollers). It rained all morning and when it stopped shortly before noon we walked off the ship, got in a taxi and had a great day. Had we done the trip via the cruise line our departure time would have been during the rain so we likely wouldn't have done it and wasted money.