Trunk Bay on our own?

[Tooth Fairy]

How much will we save by doing Trunk Bay on our own? 2 adults and 2 kids. Is it just as safe as going with the tours from the ship? Thanks for any advice !!

 

[Wonderwoman1982]

WAY WAY cheaper. Rent a car at Avis, about $40. Then take a car ferry from Red Hook over there, about $27 round trip. That is $67.. I know on the Disney excursion, it's like $80 per person. or something rediculous... Anyways, we did it an it was fine. You'll hear from people saying how scary it is to drive there, and other scary comments, but we actually DID this and were FINE. NOTHING scary whatsoever.

 

[kshabare]

We went on the Trunk Bay excursion. No, it was not $80.00. It was $42.00 pp, $30.00 pp for DS8. It brought us by Ferry to the island. Then our group took the land transport over to the island. It was money well spent for us because we had a group 11. We also all wanted to snorkel and did not purchase any beforehand. We were there for a couple of hours. We were instructed on how to snorkel and then they took us back to the ship in time for lunch. We had a great time. No regrets. Probably did spend more $$ but didn't care - we don't drink so that was our extra spending $$.

Kim ºOº

 

[BeanoC]

We did Trunk Bay on our own last year, although we didn't rent a car, we just used taxis. We still saved about $75.00 compared to taking the Disney excursion. If you do it this way, take a taxi to Red Hook as soon as you get off the ship. Then take a ferry to St. John, and another taxi to Trunk Bay. Then simply reverse it when you go back - but make sure you allow enough time to get back to the ship!

For all 4 of us I spent $105.00. The Disney excursion would have been about $180.00.

ENJOY!



'Beano'

 

[tokathy]

We took a cab right into the St Thomas main shopping area.(could walk, but it's over a mile) and took that Ferry from there direct to St John. (Red Hook is farther away to get the Ferry, but the Ferry ride is shorter).....we grabbed a cab in St John to the beach..... the cabs are little pickup trucks with a canopy and rows of bench seats.....when you are finished at the beach just go to the parking lot and there will be dozens of cabs waiting to take you back to the ferry dock. Trunk Bay has facilities/food/rentals and you can walk right into the water and snorkle the "underwater snorkle trail" it's great for beginners. Trunk Bay beach recently started charging a fee (I think it was $4)
After that we did an Island Tour with a man named Bernard...(Found him at the ferry dock in St John) he was wonderful and took us (and another couple that was looking for a tour) all over St John and stopped at tons of interesting places....or anywhere you asked him to...he grew up on St John and was very informative....he charged us $18 each for the few hour tour..... I liked it much better than being "herded" with dozens of other passengers on a ship excursion.

 

[Tooth Fairy]

What a help you all are!! We like to save where we can but also have two 8 year olds and want to feel safe. I did think they would get more of a feel for the surroundings if we tried it on our own though! Thanks again!

 

[aseafish]

Is there a way to tell, in advance, whether or nor there will be "dozens of other passengers" to be "herded" around? kshabare mentioned just 11 in their group. So, do you have to wait and see?

 

[Dave_from_Marietta]

If you go on a planned excursion to Trunk Bay, you can count on feeling "herded".

 

[mog]

We were 2 families with a total of 4 kids ranging from 3 years old to 9 years old. We took the ferry to Red Hook, got a car rental "shuttle" to the Avis place and rented a van big enough for all of us. We drove to Cinnamon Bay, which is just past Trunk Bay and much quieter and less crowded. Just remember that they drive on the left! You can even rent snorkeling equipment at Cinnamon Bay. There was hardly anyone there and the beach was very nice - snorkeling was pretty good, too. I don't remember exactly how much it cost, but it was not too expensive even for all of us. I think the van cost $50 to rent. If you didn't have that many people it might be just as cheap to take a taxi. If you go to Cinnamon Bay, I would suggest asking the taxi driver to pick you back up at a certain time, though - it is not like Trunk Bay where there are lots of them waiting to pick you up.
Oh - Cinnamon Bay also has an outdoor restaurant, although I'm not sure of the hours (it was closed when we were there), and they also have a little "campground" type store with snacks, drinks, etc.

 

[aalan]

we went on the dis excursion to trunk bay, and we enjoyed it a great deal. from what i understand, the main difference between the disney excursion and doing it yourself is time: we only got an hour and a half to snorkel and enjoy the beach on the dis trip. i havent done this, but have read other posts where people have arranged the trip themselves and stated they have like 3 hours of beach/snorkel time. it is less expensive to do it yourself, but you do have to plan it, and make sure you get back on time. i have also read that "expert" divers feel that trunk bay is too crowded and over-snorkeled, they seem to reccomend hawksnest beach and cinnamon bay. personally, i saw lots of fish at trunk bay, and was surrounded by a school of beautiful bright blue fish at one point. it was a little dissapointing to have only 1 1/2 hours, if we ever go back, we will do it ourselves so we can have more time.

 

[kshabare]

aseafish,
Didn't want to confuse anyone. When we took the excursion we had 11 in our party alone. However, when DCL docked and took the ferry over we noticed another ship's passengers were combined with ours. It was no bother. They did stop along the way (and back) for quick photo shoot. We thought the beach was big enough for all. What I did just learn from this thread though that there was a snorkeling path - I wish I knew that going. I would have used it.

Kim