Rental Car St Thomas to St John

[northernmouse]

We're on the May 3 Magic, and I've booked a rental car in St. Thomas so we can explore on our own. The plan is to drive to Red Hook, take the car ferry to St. Cruz, visit the beaches, snorkel, windsurf & sail at Trunk and Cinnamon bays, and then return by car ferry to Red Hook, (perhaps) drive around St. Thomas and be back in time for the early departure of the ship.

Naturally, I'm just a *teeny* bit worried about the potential to miss the boat. (we're not concerned about driving a LH car in the LH lane) If anyone has done this, is it easier to:

* take a cab to Red Hook, take he passenger ferry and then catch a surry to the beaches, or
* rent a car as we plan to n St. Thomas?

And, if you've rented a car, how reliable are the timelines for the car ferry to Red Hook? We'd allow ourselves an extra sailing, just to be sure, but I'd hate to be all in a flap.

Thanks for your help!

 

[sjm]

My nephew lives in St Thomas and he told us that "rented cars" are not allowed on the ferryies to St. Johns. Only local cars are allowed on. This rule is not alway enforced. If you want to, you can rent a car in St. John.

sue

 

[pigelet]

You also have to be concerned with tendering. On our 1/25 cruise we got to Rockin B D at 8:15 and did not get to St. Thomas until after 9:30. Too late to go to St. John. IT WAS A BIG BUMMER!!!!

 

[sjm]

Hi pigelet,

How are you doing?

We had the same thing, we decided not to go to St John because of the tendering. Getting off the tender at 9:30 you can still go to St John, but it would really cut into your time there.

At least with my nephew there, we had a wonderful day anyway.

sue

 

[gdulaney]

Is Disney tendering @ St. Thomas? Is this for every cruise? Just wondering...we've done the Eastern twice and both times the ship was able to dock. Just wondering if this was something new.

Thank you!!
Ginny

 

[IrishCowboy]

Ginny,
I was wondering the same thing. We've done 2 eastern cruises and never had to tender at ST Thomas. We have another eastern scheduled for May 17, 2003 and I 'm hopng that we don't have to tender.

Any recent eastern cruisers care to comment?

Thanks!

 

[sjm]

When we were in St Thomas, on the 1/25 sailing, we were 1 of 5 ships in port that day. When there are more then 3 ships in port, someone has to tender. The Magic docks most times, but has to take its turn at tendering. We didn't find out we were going to tender, until we were on the ship.

sue

 

[Rhonda]

We rented a jeep from Avis in St. Thomas and had no problem taking it on the ferry over to St. John! Avis even gave us a map and showed us how to get to the ferry boats! We just drove right on, paid our fee, and went across.

They ran every 45 minutes, so we timed ourselves to make it back in time.

St. John was a great place to explore on our own in our rental car. The views from the tops of the hills are beautiful! You have to watch out for stray goats on the roads though!

 

[IrishCowboy]

Rhonda,
This is exactly what I plan on doing for our May cruise. Do you remember how much the ferry cost? Did you use the Red Hook Ferry?

Any suggestions on what to see/visit on St Johns?

Thanks,
Bill

 

[northernmouse]

Oh, my. Just about the time we think we've made a decision (to stay on St. Thomas), we're back to re-visiting. We're so torn between maximizing beach time, minimizing travel time, and trying to see *everything*!

I think we'll play it by ear, and keep the rental reservation. If we dock late or have to tender, we'll try Sapphire and Coki beaches; if it looks like there's more time (maybe we'll get lucky and all aboard will be late!), or it's a particularly lovely day, we'll try St. John. No matter what, I know we'll have a great day!

Thanks for all your help.

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

Here's a page with all the ferry info. Scroll down to see info about the car ferry.

www.st-thomas.com/week/ferries.html

 

[IrishCowboy]

Dave,
PERFECT!! This is exactly what I wanted.

Thanks!

 

[pigelet]

Hi SJM!!!
I've been on the Eastern twice and both times had to temder. The first time was a piece of cake and made the day in ST. John a great one! The second time tendering was a nightmare. My suggestion is that you go to the designated spot approximately 30 minutes before you are suppose to. The have the Disney excursions getting off first from 6:45 - 8:00 a.m. The rest of us were to get there at 8:15 which we did and still did not get off for what seemed an eternity. We got to St. Thomas after 9:30.

SJM, you still went over. We were told the next ferry was at 11:00? We went to Megans Bay and had fun anyway. Was never to St. Thomas, just St. John so I guess it was an experience tried.

 

[Señor Ferrari]

The Magic usually only has to tender during the winter months. At this time of year, there are many more ships in the Caribbean. By the late spring, many ships have been repositioned to Alaska or the Mediterranean. When it gets closer to your cruise, you can check to see if the Magic is scheduled to dock or tender. Go to http://www/ships.vi/. This page has cruise ship schedules. They're usually posted during the last week of the month for the following month. I notice that the Magic is scheduled to tender again tomorrow.

On the schedule page, the far right column is titled "DOCK." This will tell you whether or not the ship will dock. "WICO" stands for West Indies Company pier, and is the main cruise ship dock. There's another dock at Crown Bay (CB), but I've never seen or heard of the Magic docking there, it may be too big. For Feb. 26, the Magic is scheduled to be at the inner anchorage, so it will be tendering, along with the Costa ship that will be there. Note that I've heard of (but never experienced) times when the Magic was scheduled to tender but was given a spot at the dock. They've announced this on board, usually after leaving St. Maarten.