Trunk Bay snorkle excursion

[lfy]

Hi,

I see the excursion through Princess is only $29.00 more for two people than if you did it on your own and it says it leaves at 8:30 AM so it gets there failrly early. Has anyone taken the ship's excursion and how was it? Thanks for any info.

Frank

[derf5585]

Virgin Islands National Park’s Trunk Bay is lovely.

from

http://www.wcities.com/en/record/,249804/175/record.html

 

AND THESE THREADS

Trunk Bay snorkle excursion

from

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/search.php?searchid=1064307

[Stevesan]

Hi,

I see the excursion through Princess is only $29.00 more for two people than if you did it on your own and it says it leaves at 8:30 AM so it gets there failrly early. Has anyone taken the ship's excursion and how was it? Thanks for any info.

Frank

 

The ship's excursion is certainly worry free for transportation, and 8:30AM is an excellent time. It shouldn't be too crowded that early, and the snorkeling is better early in the morning. The only drawback, other than the extra $29, is you may not want to leave when your tour group has to return. You could stay on, of course, but then you've blown your tour pricing.

As I recall, our group stayed @ 1 1/2 hours. I was ready to leave because a huge Carnival ship group arrived.

[CariBlue]

Hi,

I see the excursion through Princess is only $29.00 more for two people than if you did it on your own and it says it leaves at 8:30 AM so it gets there failrly early. Has anyone taken the ship's excursion and how was it? Thanks for any info.

Frank

 

I'm not positive, but they will probably charge you another $15 pp to rent the snorkel equipment. That's how they like to do things. Any chance I get, I do my own excursions. Even with the price of taxis, it's always cheaper.

[travelhound]

We've been on excursions to Trunk Bay several times, but not on a Princess cruise. If you haven't been there, it's a great place. Both excellent sand and great snorkeling. Those two things are often not in the same place. As one of the previous posters mentioned, you probably will not want to go when the excursion leaves. The second time we went with a tour, we asked if we could stay and take the ferry back on our own. I was shocked when they said we could. If I were the captain, I wouldn't leave two people behind and sail back to St. Thomas. It was nice to just relax and enjoy that fantastic sand. Taking an excurision is certainly more worry free. If you take the ferry on your own, you have to get to the ferry on both ends and watch the schedule. More hassle, more time at trunk. There's a trade-off. If you haven't been to St. Thomas before, you could take the snorkel trip in the morning and still have some St. Thomas time in the afternoon.

 

If the cruiseline is calling this a snorkel trip, I think your snorkel gear will be included. I've been on dozens of snorkel trips with ship excursions and if it was called a snorkeling trip, the gear is included. Overtime though, we have just gotten used to bring our own. I like to know that I'm the only one who has been biting down on the snorkel.

 

Long story short, if you want hassle-free, worry-free, take the excursion. The ride over is nice too. No matter how you get to Trunk Bay, it's worth the trip.

 

Have fun!

[ahoffmann]

I have been to St Thomas via cruises several times as well as spent a week on St John.

 

In fact last year we cruised to St Thomas and since I was so familiar with St John, and love it so, I just had to take our companions there.

 

I would not take a tour. I did that on the first cruise I went on.

It is so easy to get to St John. When you get off the cruise ship there are taxis right there that will take you to Red Hook. You buy your ticket at the ferry. I believe the schedule is hourly. Check the USVI site.

The last time we went there was actually a cab driver on the ferry who recruited us for his cab in St John. Even so. there are taxis right at the ferry dock that will take you to Trunk Bay.

 

Trunk bay is part of the National park and has a snack bar, snorkel equipment rental, changing facilities. It is quite developed. There are always taxis waiting there to take you back to the ferry whenever you are ready.

 

The ships tour will do exactly the same thing you would be doing on your own, except you won't be tied to a group.

I remember seeing a tour group standing on line at Trunk Bay to get their snorkeing equipment.

It is so much more gentile to do it on your own and you'll save money too.

[Genessa]

definitely this is one excursion to do on your own.

 

We went on our own and watched several ship's excursion come and go, staying about 1 1/2 hours (and of course, since they all got there at the same time that 1 1/2 hours was the most crowded) each.

 

We were able to fully enjoy a day at the beach, snorkeling, instead of being on someone else's schedule. When we got to St. John's we arranged with the taxi driver to pick us up, leaving Trunk Bay early enough to compensate for any transportation difficulties.

[Perky1]

Do you stay in you cab across the ferry or do you walk on and then catch another taxi on the other side??

[chamima]

We just did this on our own and there's one thing you should take into consideration. It is a 20 minute "cab" ride to Red Hook and the "cab" drivers won't leave until the 20-30 passenger vehicle is full. I'm relating this because we missed the 9 am ferry because we got to the "cab" (I'm using quotation marks because to me a cab is something that goes on the passenger's schedule not their own) at 8:35 and he refused to leave until it was full (as they ALL do!) thus getting us to the dock late. We waited almost an hour for the next ferry. Might be worth that $15/person to skip all that. (And I usually don't like ship's tours)

[Stevesan]

I'm not positive, but they will probably charge you another $15 pp to rent the snorkel equipment. That's how they like to do things. Any chance I get, I do my own excursions. Even with the price of taxis, it's always cheaper.

 

Snorkel gear is always included in ship's excursions, even at Trunk Bay. I'd recommend bringing your own. If you don't own snorkel gear, you should at a minimum consider purchasing the tube . I don't like sharing mouthpieces.;)