StThomas/StJohn Ferries?

[catjammies]

How hard is it to catch a ferry to St John?
Is it nearby the ship dock?
How much does it cost?
Does it let you off right by Trunk Bay?

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

It's not hard at all, but does take a bit of time. The best way, I think, is to take a cab from the ship to Red Hook, and then catch the ferry to St. John. The cab ride takes about 20-30 minutes, then the ferry takes about 20 minutes. The stop on St. John is at Cruz Bay, which is about a 10-15 minute cab ride from Trunk Bay. The ferry is $3/person ($1 for kids).

There is also a ferry from downtown Charlotte Amalie to Cruz Bay, but it doesn't run as often and is more expensive.

If you're going to do a beach day on St. John, try to be among the first people off the ship as soon as it's cleared by Immigration. That way, you have a good chance to make the 9:00am ferry at Red Hook. The ferries run hourly, on the hour, so if you miss the 9 o'clock, you have to wait until 10. To get back to the ship on time, you have to catch the 3:00pm ferry out of Cruz Bay. The 4 o'clock trip will be cutting it very close. You can arrange with your cab driver on St. John to pick you up at a certain time, so you can be sure to make it back to the ferry on time. Finding a cab at Red Hook back to the ship won't be a problem.

 

[rcdisneyfam]

We were on the 9 a.m. Ferry over to St. John's when we went and the cab drivers on both islands set up times with us to pick us up at the beach back to the Ferry and the cab driver met us back on St. Thomas at the Ferry Stop and brought us back to the ship. We had 12 in our party adults and kids and had no problems. The cabbies radio back and forth to each other from St. Thomas to St. John's as they are employed by same company. They were wonderful and were right on time. The Ferry is a nice ride too.

 

[SueEllen]

We took a taxi to the Red Hook ferry over, then a taxi to trunk bay.

We found it to be less expensive to take the ferry back to Charlotte Amalie rather than Red Hook from St. John since you don't have to pay a taxi to get you back to the ship. You can do a bit of shopping in Downtown and walk back to the ship (albeit a long walk)

Sue Ellen

 

[catjammies]

if we did take the taxi/ferry on our own, we would have to bring our own snorkel equipment???

They don't have a place to rent it at Trunk Bay do they?

I wonder if that'd make an excursion a better value then, with 2 adults & 2 kids just renting "thru" an excursion....?

 

[Lloyd Dobler]

You can rent equipment from the shop at Trunk Bay. I always bring my own, so I don't know what the cost would be, but I do know that they have it for rent there. You can also rent things like chairs and floats there, and they have lockers to store your valuables.

 

[mickeyboat]

If you have to tender into St. Thomas, the CA ferry departs and returns right at the tender dock. We tendered in and took a taxi to Red Hook and the ferry to St. John. On the way back we took the CA (downtown) ferry. Beware of lots of traffic in St. Thomas when there are a lot of ships in port. It may take a long time to get from Red Hook to the ship via taxi.

Denae

 

[Karel]

We did the whole taxi/ferry/ taxi thing over to Trunk and it worked out really well.

Unfortunately, the surf was very rough that day and the snorkeling trail was closed. I guess we could have tried - how do you close an ocean? - but my husband and son played in the surf and I choose to relax on the beach and wade a little. It was pretty but I'm glad I left our younger children on the ship as it would have been too much for them. Other people on our taxi decided to go to the other side of the island.

I heard that Disney excusions were cancelled that day, they knew it was rough water but don't share that with everyone on the ship. One of the perks of a DCL excursion I guess.