st thomas excursion or ferry to st john?

[tarababy18]

hi all! we're sailing to st. thomas on the destiny during the week of the 14th of august.

 

i'm torn between doing an excursion with godfrey tours on st. thomas and taking a ferry to st john and staying on the beach there. any suggestions? it's only $20something for the excursion, but if it's really worth going to st john's then i'm willing to do so. my cousin suggested st john's but i wanted to see what other people had to say.

 

also, does anyone know how much the ferry will cost to take back and forth?

 

thanks :)

[richtersl]

You will also have to factor in taxi fares to get to and from the ferry dock on each island.

 

 

Ferry rates and schedules: http://www.*****/stjohn/getting_there/

 

St. Thomas taxi fares: http://*****/stthomas/getting_around_stt/taxi_stt/

 

St. John taxi fares: http://*****/stjohn/getting_around_stj/taxi.php

 

Hope this helps!

[tarababy18]

You will also have to factor in taxi fares to get to and from the ferry dock on each island.

 

 

Ferry rates and schedules: http://www.*****/stjohn/getting_there/

 

St. Thomas taxi fares: http://*****/stthomas/getting_around_stt/taxi_stt/

 

St. John taxi fares: http://*****/stjohn/getting_around_stj/taxi.php

 

Hope this helps!

 

thanks, do you think it will be more expensive to go to st. john's on our own? i'm just not sure what we should do, i'm kinda thinking that it will be nice to not do an excursion one day and just have the day to ourselves to explore.

[richtersl]

St. John is very easy to do on your own. Just grab a cab from the dock to Red Hook and get on the St. John ferry. Once there you may want to stroll around Cruz Bay for a bit, or grab a cab to one of many gorgeous beaches: Hawksnest, Trunk Bay, or Cinnamon Bay. Trunk Bay will charge a $4 pp admission fee. The rest of the beaches on St. John are all free.The three that I just mentioned are a realtively short cab ride from town.

[skiiergirl]

What is at Cruz Bay to see/do before or after going to beaches?

[jmo1]

thanks, do you think it will be more expensive to go to st. john's on our own? i'm just not sure what we should do, i'm kinda thinking that it will be nice to not do an excursion one day and just have the day to ourselves to explore.

No, it's about half the price to go to St. John's on your own compared to an excursion purchased through the ship. You'll have more time and freedom on your own. I have read recently that there is construction at the Red Hook ferry terminal that should be avoided, so it's better to get on the ferry at Charlotte Amalie ferry dock. It's about a fifteen minute walk from the cruise ship docks or a very short taxi ride.

 

If you like to snorkel, I highly recommend Trunk Bay at St. John's. It is an underwater US National Preserve. They have rentals if you don't have your own gear. The beach is beautiful if you just want to enjoy it.

[jmo1]

What is at Cruz Bay to see/do before or after going to beaches?

There's not much at Cruz Bay, just some restaurants and bars.

[SJS]

Half the price doing it on your own? From the web sites provided, I figured a cost of $70 for two people for ferrys, cabs and Trunk Bay entrance fee plus tips for the cab drivers. Did I figure that correctly? We can take the ship's tour for $96 and not have all the hassle of cabs and ferry schedules, etc. The only real advantage I can see to doing it on your own is having more time there. For me the convience of getting on a boat right at the pier by taking the ship tour is the way to go. But by all means visit St. John - it is so beautiful!

[tarababy18]

Half the price doing it on your own? From the web sites provided, I figured a cost of $70 for two people for ferrys, cabs and Trunk Bay entrance fee plus tips for the cab drivers. Did I figure that correctly? We can take the ship's tour for $96 and not have all the hassle of cabs and ferry schedules, etc. The only real advantage I can see to doing it on your own is having more time there. For me the convience of getting on a boat right at the pier by taking the ship tour is the way to go. But by all means visit St. John - it is so beautiful!

 

the price also depends on what dock you get on the ferry at because they are different prices. when i get on the ship on sunday i'm going to check out the excursion they had online because it says under $50, which i'm willing to do considering the prices for some of the other excursions they offer... we'll see how it goes :)

[SJS]

On RCCL, it is $48 a person for the St. John Beach Tour. It's the only ship tour I am purchasing when we go in October. At St. Maarten and St. Kitts we will get cabs on our own to the places we choose to go. Have a great cruise!

 

Express of the Seas - 10/10/05

[Scott and Maria]

I'm torn between doing an excursion with godfrey tours on st. thomas and taking a ferry to st john and staying on the beach there. any suggestions?

Although the original poster did get into the matter of cost, the original question (and the answer that I am looking for) was/is: Can you help me choose between taking a St. Thomas excursion with Godfrey Tours and taking a ferry to St. John and stay on Trunk Beach?

[jrchief21]

We did a tour of St. Thomas with Godfrey last summer and it was wonderful. He gives you a little taste of everything which is nice for a first time visit to the island. He also gives you a couple hours at Coki beach which has some of the clearest water. This summer on our cruise we are going to take the ferry to St. John and spend the day at Trunk Bay as we feel this would be a good way to spend our second visit there. If you would like to see some of the sights on the island of St. Thomas than I would say go with Godfrey, but if you are just interested in going and spending a day at the beach then I would say go to Trunk Bay. I think many of the posters on these boards would also agree.

[Scott and Maria]

We did a tour of St. Thomas with Godfrey last summer and it was wonderful. He gives you a little taste of everything which is nice for a first time visit to the island. He also gives you a couple hours at Coki beach which has some of the clearest water. This summer on our cruise we are going to take the ferry to St. John and spend the day at Trunk Bay as we feel this would be a good way to spend our second visit there. If you would like to see some of the sights on the island of St. Thomas than I would say go with Godfrey, but if you are just interested in going and spending a day at the beach then I would say go to Trunk Bay. I think many of the posters on these boards would also agree.

Thanks for your response. I think that it helped me make up my mind (at least until I change it another dozen times <grin>). First off, you say that Godfrey gives the option of doing our "beach time" at Coki Beach. His website talks about seeing Coki Beach as part of the tour, but then going to Magens Bay for beach time. When I read that Coki Beach is the nicer of the two, I wondered if we had the option of staying there instead (as I had seen on other tours' websites). Based on what you said, I am assuming that we do get to pick (and that you picked Coki Beach). That's all good. In addition, you reminded me that Trunk Bay is "just" a beach. By the time I get to St. Thomas/St. John, I will have spend several days on the deck of the ship AND I will have gone to CocoCay ("RCCL Private Island" [read: beach]). I'm (now) sure that I would rather do the tour of St. Thomas than go to St. Johns...no matter how nice Trunk Bay may be.