Is there enough time?

[Orcrone]

On our next cruise we stop in St. Thomas. After hearing many good things DW wants to take the ferry over to St. John. I was thinking of taking DD for a discover scuba course at Coki Beach (I'm a certified diver). We should be back at the cruise ship by noon.

Will this be enough time to head over to St. John? The ship will be in port until 11 PM, but I'm not sure how long it will take to catch a cab to the ferry and the ferry to St. John. I also don't know what time the last ferry heads back from St. John.

 

I know it would save time if we all went to Coki and then took a cab straight to the ferry. However, I plan on having my scuba gear with me and would rather bring it back to the ship first.

 

Thanks for any help,

Orcrone

[CaribbeanCrazy]

Orcrone,

You would have enough time if you plan on being back to the ship by noon. Especially being your ship has such a late departure. How much time you will have depends on what time of year your going...as far as how late it stays light out. You will probably want to take the ferry from Red Hook being it has later departure times when you want to return to St Thomas. The Charlotte Amalie ferry has a last departure time (from St John) of 3:45....and it's usually pretty full from what I have read.

You can get lots of info...including ferry costs and schedules at the ***** website. Sorry...I don't how to post the direct link.

Hope this helps

CaribbeanCrazy

[Orcrone]

Thanks CaribbeanCrazy. I found the link in a different thread where I asked about ferry departure times. The Red Hook Ferry returns until 11 at night. We're going to be there at the end of March, so I'd guess it should be light until at least 6. So far though my plans are not panning out. The outfit I was looking at has Princess cruises booked for the morning. They said that perhaps I can join them if they're not sold out. But even if they're not I'd rather not have her in with a cattle call from another cruise line. That's the whole idea of not booking the excursion through Holland America. The next course is given at 11 AM, which would preclude St. John.

[The Islander]

Hello,

 

How about going over to St. John with your DW and doing a discover scuba with your DD on St. John. See if these folks can work something out with you: http://www.6paqscuba.com

 

You'd likely not want to lug your scuba gear over to St. John with you though - but it might be worth looking into.

 

If you are docked in Havensight and taking the Red Hook ferry, its about a 20 minute drive in low-moderate traffic. The ferry ride is 15 minutes. If you are taking the downtown Charlotte Amalie ferry its 45 minutes on the ferry and the taxi from havensight is about 6-8 minutes. If you head to/from the cruise dock at noon, expect some lunch time traffic, so potentially longer taxi ride.

 

--Islander

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