question about St. John Trunk Bay Beach & Snorkel Tour (ST01)

[jtba]

i don't think DD5 will be able to swim by the time we take this tour. are there any safety concerns i should know about, such as getting off or on the "ferry-style boat" or "open-air safari taxi" ride? i'm hoping she can just wear a life vest and float around us during the 90 minutes at trunk bay. will they have such a life vest available for everyone, or should we bring our own?

 

[skylynx]

My DH can't swim, either, and we've taken this excursion several times. The ferry is boarded/unboarded right off a dock on both ends, and the safari taxi ride is kind of like a canopy-topped school bus. It has a mix of railings and solid sides, but i would make sure the child sits on the "inside" seat, just in case. On the DCL sponsored tour, everyone gets a life vest and snorkel gear provided. There's a safety talk and demo you must take by park service people before you are allowed in the water. You are also supposed to have a swim buddy before entering the water. It is a bit over-regulated for me, but will probably suit your family just fine! Note...due to the amount of time it takes to get to St. John's (45 min) and then to Trunk Bay (20 min) and then back again, you end up having less than two hours at the beach. It has good restrooms, a small gift shop, and small concession stand with beer and soda. Enjoy!

 

[jtba]

My DH can't swim, either, and we've taken this excursion several times. The ferry is boarded/unboarded right off a dock on both ends, and the safari taxi ride is kind of like a canopy-topped school bus. It has a mix of railings and solid sides, but i would make sure the child sits on the "inside" seat, just in case. On the DCL sponsored tour, everyone gets a life vest and snorkel gear provided. There's a safety talk and demo you must take by park service people before you are allowed in the water. You are also supposed to have a swim buddy before entering the water. It is a bit over-regulated for me, but will probably suit your family just fine! Note...due to the amount of time it takes to get to St. John's (45 min) and then to Trunk Bay (20 min) and then back again, you end up having less than two hours at the beach. It has good restrooms, a small gift shop, and small concession stand with beer and soda. Enjoy!

oh that is just perfect! thank you so much for sharing this detailed write-up with me. it is very reassuring. less than two hours at the beach should be OK--my kids have a short attention span so it will work out fine. if it's really as spectacular as everyone makes it out to be, we will just have to return in the future when they're older!

 

[kcfree]

My DH can't swim, either, and we've taken this excursion several times. The ferry is boarded/unboarded right off a dock on both ends, and the safari taxi ride is kind of like a canopy-topped school bus. It has a mix of railings and solid sides, but i would make sure the child sits on the "inside" seat, just in case. On the DCL sponsored tour, everyone gets a life vest and snorkel gear provided. There's a safety talk and demo you must take by park service people before you are allowed in the water. You are also supposed to have a swim buddy before entering the water. It is a bit over-regulated for me, but will probably suit your family just fine! Note...due to the amount of time it takes to get to St. John's (45 min) and then to Trunk Bay (20 min) and then back again, you end up having less than two hours at the beach. It has good restrooms, a small gift shop, and small concession stand with beer and soda. Enjoy!

Thanks for this information. I am trying to decide if we should go on the DCL excursion or do it on our own.
1. On the DCL excursion, do take the ferry from by the port or do you have to be taxied to Red Hook?
2. Do you recall what time you were back at port on the DCL excursion? It says 8:15am is the time it starts, and that it is 4 to 4.5 hours so that would put you back in port around 12:15 - 12:45.
3. Do you think there is enough time at Trunk Bay on the DCL excursion? I have an DD is 8 and a little mermaid who loves to snorkel, swim, and just play on the beach.

Thanks again for all your help!

 

[skylynx]

Here is one caveat about this excursion due primarily to the rather lengthy boat ride to and from St. John's and the unpredictable nature of changing surf conditions. On our first time doing this excursion, although our DCL group (probably about 60 people) was only a few minutes late returning from Trunk Bay, the boat back to St. Thomas had already left. Our DCL rep accompanying our excursion group got right on a phone and about twenty minutes later, the boat came back for us. It was nearly empty. Had it not come back and we had to wait for the next scheduled ferry, we would have missed the ship's departure. I don't even want to think about what sort of arranging at what cost we would have had to do if we'd not booked through Disney and were on our own to figure out how to get back to St. Thomas, a 45 minute boat ride away. We do excursions on our own plenty of times, but after that experience, if it involves a long boat ride, we're booking through DCL as for us, it just isn't worth the risk. And as for the sea conditions...there be rough waters ahead! We've tried six times to do this excursion and only succeeded three times due to literally last minute excursion cancellations due to high seas. I can only imagine what would happen if you did this excursion on your own and got to St. John's only to find the ferry is canceled or delayed due to high seas. I don't know what DCL would do about it, either, but at least you wouldn't be left behind!

The reality of this excursion is you actually don't have tons of time at Trunk Bay. The boat ride is a good 45 minutes, then boarding and riding the safari buses to Trunk including at least two photo stops is another 20 minutes to a half hour. The safety and "don't touch anything" demo by the park service people before you are "released" to the beach is another ten minutes or so. The times we went, the longest we ever stayed at Trunk Bay was still under two hours. We enjoy the ferry ride over and the impromptu tour of the island as we travel to Trunk Bay and include that in our excursion fun, otherwise you might be disappointed at how short a time you have on the beach and in the water before you have to return to the buses. You could have more time on Trunk if you arranged this excursion yourself as long as the risk factor didn't bother you. Even if you book it yourself, it's still about a 45 minute boat ride followed by 15-20 minutes by other conveyance to the beach, so you can't make that part go much faster.

We're going to St.Thomas again in three weeks on Fantasy, and we're doing different excursion this time to Shipwreck Cove. Hope it doesn't get canceled! We booked through DCL just in case...

 

[skylynx]

Ah, forgot to answer the first two questions! You walk to where the ferry is docked a short distance from the cruise ship. On the excursions we took, we got back in enough time to walk around the shops at the port area for a little while, and once we had time to take the funicular up to the overlook. Depends on your departure time...on some cruises it seems the departure time is an hour or two earlier than at other times from the same port probably due to managing the comings and goings of other ships.

 

[jrabbit]

when we did this excursion, the ferry boat came up next to the ship and we boarded it like we would a tender. Didn't get to a dock until we got to St. Johns.

The safari taxi's have seating for at least 5 in each row - so put the kiddos in the middle and the adults on the outside edges. Think of the trams from the parking lots to the parks. Only higher off of the ground. About 3 steps UP.

 

[DCLbestvacations]

I agree with Skylynx completely. We have been to St. John several times, once on a DCL excursion, and I would NOT recommend going to Trunk Bay on your own, especially since it sounds like you have not made the trip from St Thomas to St John before. It is not difficult, per se, but there are several aspects of it that could lead to delays causing you to not make it back to the ship in time. Better to let Disney handle the transportation and deal with any delays.

 

[jtba]

appreciate all your feedback. this cements it--we have done private excursions previously, but this time DH prefers to do one via DCL due to concerns with navigating the ferry and such.

 

[DCLbestvacations]

Have fun! We absolutely love St John. Our first time there was on the DCL island tour and have since been back twice for longer vacations.