St. Thomas

[planningjollyholiday]

Was thinking of doing Magens bay on our own in St. Thomas. All the beach excursions through Disney seem to include a scenic stop such as Drakes seat. If we take a taxi at port, would the taxi stop as well? Or is there any tours from the port that would take us there and maybe even include a guide to share some history/make some scenic stops along the way?Anyone have current prices of doing this on your own?

 

[charlenebu]

Have you seen this St Thomas sland tour with Beach Stop? https://stthomascruiseexcursions.com/excursions/st-thomas-island-tours/

 

[lklgoodman]

Haven't seen it. It said they will drop you off at the beach, but doesn't say if you have to pay extra for beach chairs and an umbrella. Or if it did I didn't see it. I'd want to find out if that is included or not. We did a DCL excursion at St Thomas(to Secret Sands beach) but I don't think it costs a lot more to rent chairs/umbrellas at most beaches.

Oops, sorry OP, I didn't see your post. My response is about the tour link pp posted after your post.

 

[ambula603]

We just did this - When we got off the ship we asked the taxi driver to take us to Magens Bay with a stop at Drake's Seat and they had to ok it with their supervisor and charge us an extra 2 dollars a person (I think) but it was no issue!

I will add, we got off the ship at 7:30 (wasn't even scheduled to get off until 7:45) and the cabs were lined up and we were in a van all to ourselves! Then we had Magens Bay all to ourself for about 2 hours, it was BEAUTIFUL! I didn't need a chair because we just put our stuff on a picnic table and played in the water the whole time. But they said the chair rental wouldn't open until 9/9:30 if we DID want to rent one.

Good luck!

 

[kathi]

How crowded did Magen's Bay end up? Was it still manageable or was it terrible? My husband is not going to want to get there much before the chair rentals start (he is not a swimmer). I think this is what we want to do when we visit next Summer. My daughter and I will spend the entire time in the water. Are there restrooms? Food vendors?

 

[vegs1]

How crowded did Magen's Bay end up? Was it still manageable or was it terrible? My husband is not going to want to get there much before the chair rentals start (he is not a swimmer). I think this is what we want to do when we visit next Summer. My daughter and I will spend the entire time in the water. Are there restrooms? Food vendors?

When we were there a couple of years ago, it was empty when we arrived but fairly busy by mid afternoon. Nothing we thought unusually busy though. There are restrooms, chair rentals and food vendors. Some only take cash although I believe there may have been an atm there. I can’t verify that for certain though.

We loved our day there!

 

[ambula603]

Because we left early and planned to get back to the ship early, I can't say anything about food vendors, but I do know they were there! They also did have bathrooms but we didn't need to use them.

I would definitely say it was manageable, I just can't be in the hot sun during the mid day (so I was prepared to get an umbrella!) but it was cloudy the day we went so I didn't need it. I attached some pictures to show how (un)crowded it was during the morning. We sat next to the boat rentals and my husband fell asleep in the sand after my girls buried him! THAT'S how relaxed he was! Ha!

 

[Vicki106]

Because we left early and planned to get back to the ship early, I can't say anything about food vendors, but I do know they were there! They also did have bathrooms but we didn't need to use them.

I would definitely say it was manageable, I just can't be in the hot sun during the mid day (so I was prepared to get an umbrella!) but it was cloudy the day we went so I didn't need it. I attached some pictures to show how (un)crowded it was during the morning. We sat next to the boat rentals and my husband fell asleep in the sand after my girls buried him! THAT'S how relaxed he was! Ha!

That first picture is awesome!

 

[kathi]

Wow - it looks like paradise there! How long of a drive is it from the port?

 

[ambula603]

Wow - it looks like paradise there! How long of a drive is it from the port?

Maybe 15-20 minutes? The drive was mountainous and curvy! The taxi's usually fill up but we had one all to ourselves so it was like we had a personal driver, ha! On the way back we were CRAMMED in an old dirty van with others. They drop you off at a shopping center that you walk through to get back to the ship. Which was good, I needed to get a souvenir or two.

 

[LizGirl]

We did this last year. We disembarked later in the morning. There were some ladies at the port, we asked them where we could catch a taxi to Magens and they pointed us to a taxi line. Ours was an open air pickup truck/trolley trailer type thing. The drive was up and over the hill/mountain. I seem to recall the driver pointing out some landmarks but that would depend on who you get. He helped us pay our entrance fee and dropped us off right near the sand. It was great. The only thing to be aware of us that you need cash for everything. We rarely travel with a lot of cash so this was a little bit of an oversight for us but we had enough to make it work.

The food vendor was really busy and disorganized. I don't remember the food so it must have been fine, just something to fill the belly. There were some young ladies in skimpy swimwear running food and drinks for tips but this is cash only so I had to go to the counter to pay. We didn't rent chairs or umbrellas. We found a picnic table and just camped out there when we weren't in the water. It wasn't too crowded until the Carnival ship docked around noon and then the beach was overrun. You can walk farther down if you want to get out of the throngs.

The ride back to the ship was easy enough. We wandered out to the parking area at the beach and looked lost. A local asked if we needed a taxi and pointed us to the pick up area. We hopped on and were back to the port pretty fast. I would think the drive is less than 30 minutes each way but I can't remember exactly.

 

[remlap]

We did Megan's Bay on our own. We walked to tramway, rode that, and then shared a taxi with people that had the same plans as us that we met on top of the tram area.
Afterwards, you just say what ship you're on and they put you on an appropriate taxi. Biggest negative, they don't leave until the taxi is fun. (this is like 5-7 minutes) Biggest plus, you can stay as long as you'd like.