Snorkeling questions on the Eastern

[jiminyC_fan]

My DD is going on the Eastern on her honeymoon in a couple of weeks and they are MAJOR snorkeling fans. Where is the best place to snorkel at St Thomas (or St John) and St Maarten? I would love to hear from people who have taken Disney excursions and also those who have done it on their own. We have never done any Disney snorkeling excursions so therefore we can't help them. Both pros and cons would be appreciated. If you did it on your own, how did you get there, how did you hook up etc. How do you get to St John if you are not on an excursion? I have forgotten so much since last October. Any advice would be great. Thanks!

 

[FirstMagic]

I'll try and answer your question about getting to St. John from St. Thomas.

The ferries leave St. Thomas either from Charlotte Amalie, or a little place called Red Hook. Red Hook is closer to St. John, so the ferry fare is less from there and the trip takesabout 20 minutes, but be sure factor in the time and expense of a taxi ride to Red Hook too. If the ship docks at Havensite Mall, taking a taxi to Red Hook and catching the ferry from there is an option, but if you have to tender in to Charlotte Amalie, the ferry should be close where the tender's dock and it will be a 45 minute ride to St. John.

It might be easier to take the Charlotte Amalie ferry even if the ship docks at Havensite, the taxi ride would be faster/cheaper, and its even possible to walk although its a good mile walk in the hot sun!

When you get to St. John, its not a far walk from the ferry dock to where the taxis are dispatched. Keep in mind these taxis aren't the usual yellow city car taxis, but more like the open air safari trucks at the Animal Kingdom safari ride. Since these are large vehicles, they usually like to wait until they have more than a couple passengers, so sometimes there will be a bit of a delay.

Its been our experience that the ferry ticket office won't open its window until slightly before the next cruise time. Last time I arrived at the ferry office around 1:15, hoping to buy a 2:15 ticket and go back to Cruz Bay and get ice cream, but they wouldn't sell tickets until around 2:00. (I waited at the dock, since it started pouring rain and the dock is covered!)

Here is a link I had bookmarked with the ferry schedules, I'm not sure if its the latest info, but it will give you an idea when they run:
http://www.st-thomas.com/week/ferries.html

I've always returned to Charlotte Amalie from St. John, I'm not sure how many taxis are available from Red Hook back to the ship.

I've never snorkled on St. John, but have been to a couple of the smaller beaches and to Trunk Bay, and always had a lot of beautiful and friendly little fishies swimming along with me.

A long explanation .... I hope it helps!

 

[jiminyC_fan]

Wow, thanks. That was very helpful, FirstMagic.

Anyone else have any helpful hints on snorkeling on the Eastern? Good spots, bad spots etc.

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

On St. Maarten, Dawn Beach can have good snorkeling, but sometimes has fairly rough surf. It's kind of hit and miss. Dawn is on the Atlantic side of the island, still on the Dutch side. It's about a 15-minute cab ride from the cruise ship pier. I also like Little Bay Beach, which is probably a 10-minute ride. Little Bay is more predictable, because it is on the Caribbean side of the island, just past Great Bay, where the ship docks. I'd say when it's calm, Dawn has better snorkeling, but it's more likely to be calm in Little Bay. We usually go to Dawn, and just enjoy the surf rather than snorkeling if it's kind of choppy. If their hearts are set on snorkeling, I'd say go to Little Bay.

On St. Thomas, I'd say Sapphire Beach probably has the best snorkeling. A close second woud be Coki Beach. Either of these is a good choice. They're both about a 25-minute ride from the ship. Sapphire is very close to Red Hook.

On St. John, I think the best beach (and my favorite beach in the world which is not in French Polynesia) is Cinnamon Bay. Another good choice is Trunk Bay, which is just as nice, but gets more press, and as a result is usually more crowded, especially when several ships are in port, which is why I prefer Cinnamon.

My advice would be to go to St. John if all they want out of the day is a beach day. The trip over and back kind of precludes any shopping or wandering in downtown Charlotte Amalie. If they want to do a half-day at the beach, and then hit downtown, they probably want to stay on St. Thomas.

If they do choose St. John, make sure to be amongst the first off the ship when it clears customs. The key is to try to make it to Red Hook for the 9:00AM ferry. That saves an hour.

We've never booked excursions with the ship, we always go it on our own in port. With all these suggestions, you can take cabs to and from the cruise ship pier. You can usually arrange for the driver to return and pick you up at a specified time to get back to the ship. If not, it's never very hard to find a cab.

 

[RebeccaLovesDisney]

Lloyd - I have a question about the beaches on St. John. How close is Cinnamon Bay to Trunk Bay. On the map they look adjacent to each other. Can you walk between these beaches or would you need to take a cab? Thanks!

 

[aa4mom]

We just did the Pinel Island snorkel excursion in St. Marteen. It was very good. ( my first time- I saw lots of fish! ) The people that ran the excursion were very thorough with instructions. they were knowledgeable about the fish that were swimming around, many different types.
We did the beach day at Sapphire Beach in St. Thomas and saw many fish not far from the shore. We were just swimming around with a snorkel mask. There is a reef at the edge of the beach, where I think people saw even more fish.