NECruiser83 Posted July 22, 2016 #1 Share Posted July 22, 2016 We are thinking about heading over to St John from St Thomas. I would prefer not to book thru the ship since I am reading you do not get much time (less than 4 hours). Is it difficult to do it on your own? I am posting here instead of the St Thomas board since I am specifically curious about the RCI excursion "Self Explore St John" ST03 Thanks in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clarea Posted July 22, 2016 #2 Share Posted July 22, 2016 It's not difficult to do on your own, but it can be time consuming. You have to taxi to the ferry, then possibly wait for the ferry. When you take the ship excursion, it leaves right from near the ship. You may want to take a look at the St. Thomas port of call forum for more info: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=133 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PAcruiser19372 Posted July 22, 2016 #3 Share Posted July 22, 2016 The way we did it a couple of years ago was thru RC BUT we did the St. John on your own excursion. This was a 6 hour excursion. We basically just used the RC ferry to get to St. John, then took a taxi to Cinnamon Bay, spent the afternoon there and then took a taxi back to Cruz Bay and walked around the shops for awhile before boarding the ferry back to the ship. A couple of things to consider is this way guaranteed us that the ship had to wait for us as we were on a RC excursion and we had plenty of time on the Island. We did the four hour beach thing years ago and recognized right away that there had to be a better way to do it. Good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigsky Posted July 22, 2016 #4 Share Posted July 22, 2016 I basically asked the same question with no response. Were you happy with the transportation over and the amt of time there? Not shorted? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CruiseQueenB Posted July 22, 2016 #5 Share Posted July 22, 2016 (edited) Well I'll say this, often the public ferry over can get cancelled due to winds but the ship's ferry for their tour won't. We almost learned the hard way, and thankfully another cruise line had a ferry for their excursion and they were nice enough to look the other way and let us on. We were pier running for our lives in St Thomas, we take the ship's tour now. Edited July 22, 2016 by CruiseQueenB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtu_huskies Posted July 22, 2016 #6 Share Posted July 22, 2016 Our experience was similar to PAcruiser. We are non-RCI excursion people, but St. John just seemed easier to do through RCI. We basically used RCI excursion as a direct ferry, and then got on a taxi to Trunk Bay with a few others that were doing the same thing as us. When we were done at the beach we headed back to town, had a few drinks, saw a few stores and by then it was time to head to the RCI ferry back. We felt like we had enough time and it was a pretty easy way to get there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NECruiser83 Posted July 22, 2016 Author #7 Share Posted July 22, 2016 Thank you everyone!! I think I will book thru RCI. I too, prefer the non ship excursions, but with all the travel I think it will be safest to use them. It is only slightly more expensive, but seems to be much less hassle. Thanks for all input, I appreciate it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
packercruising Posted July 22, 2016 #8 Share Posted July 22, 2016 If you have never been there, and you have the time, get there anyway you can. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kcool Posted July 23, 2016 #9 Share Posted July 23, 2016 I did the ship excursion and it was very good Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigsky Posted July 23, 2016 #10 Share Posted July 23, 2016 Thank you everyone!! I think I will book thru RCI. I too, prefer the non ship excursions, but with all the travel I think it will be safest to use them. It is only slightly more expensive, but seems to be much less hassle. Thanks for all input, I appreciate it! From the posts I was reading today, I think it was actually the same. Both ways, you still have to pay for a taxi to the beach once you get over there. We're going to do it this way as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Merion_Mom Posted July 23, 2016 #11 Share Posted July 23, 2016 We rarely (VERY rarely) do ship's excursions, but we did the St. Johns nature excursion (I have no idea what the actual name is; it was a few years ago) and it was excellent. Do not sit on the upper deck of the ferry coming back, unless you have strong sunscreen recently reapplied. The sun is STRONG and the ride is longer than you think. (yes, we all got rather sunburned just from that ride ;)) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cb at sea Posted July 23, 2016 #12 Share Posted July 23, 2016 I agree..this is the one time having someone else take over is worth it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JFontaine Posted July 23, 2016 #13 Share Posted July 23, 2016 Note of caution: if renting a beach chair at Trunk Bay is important to you, they have a limited supply and it's been reported that by the time the ship excursion folks get there, the chairs are gone. For that reason I go on my own, but to be safe, I leave the beach very early for the return trip. In the end I don't think I get that much more beach time than people who take ship excursions - but I do get a chair. If you want to rent one, be prepared to leave a credit card as a security deposit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meadowlander Posted July 23, 2016 #14 Share Posted July 23, 2016 We are thinking about heading over to St John from St Thomas. I would prefer not to book thru the ship since I am reading you do not get much time (less than 4 hours). Is it difficult to do it on your own? I am posting here instead of the St Thomas board since I am specifically curious about the RCI excursion "Self Explore St John" ST03 Thanks in advance! I have been to St John twice, first time via ship excursion and second time on my own. The cost for both options was nearly similar. On your own will certainly allow for more time. It is not difficult to do on your own if you research these boards. If I go back to St.John, I will use the ship excursion simply for the ease. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OCruisers Posted July 23, 2016 #15 Share Posted July 23, 2016 It is not difficult to do on your own if you research these boards. If I go back to St.John, I will use the ship excursion simply for the ease. Totally Agree! Taking the ship excursion is so much easier. :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rare broberts Posted July 23, 2016 #16 Share Posted July 23, 2016 Thank you everyone!! I think I will book thru RCI. I too, prefer the non ship excursions, but with all the travel I think it will be safest to use them. It is only slightly more expensive, but seems to be much less hassle. Thanks for all input, I appreciate it! A good decision. I did self guided a few years ago. Cost turned out to be almost identical. Time spent on the beach was about the same. Either way, it's a great excursion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tootsieroll107 Posted July 23, 2016 #17 Share Posted July 23, 2016 I really wanted to go to St John when we were in St Thomas. I knew it was going to be a little time consuming, but it was well worth it. RCI charges so much and you can do it on your own for half. We took a taxi to Red Hook, ferry across to St John, and then another taxi to Trunk Bay. Best snorkeling right off the beach we've ever had. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denamo Posted July 23, 2016 #18 Share Posted July 23, 2016 Another vote here for using the ship's excursion to get to St. John. We've done it three times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ColoradoGurl Posted July 23, 2016 #19 Share Posted July 23, 2016 For those of you who are mentioning takin g the RC excursion, and then taking a cab and doing it on your own, is this an option given by the cruise line for the excursion, or do you just abandon the excursion and do it that way in order to get the security of the ride to and from the ship? If you're doing it on your own, how do you keep the excursion people from thinking they've lost you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IsanTom Posted July 23, 2016 #20 Share Posted July 23, 2016 Thanks for your inputs! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigsky Posted July 23, 2016 #21 Share Posted July 23, 2016 For those of you who are mentioning takin g the RC excursion, and then taking a cab and doing it on your own, is this an option given by the cruise line for the excursion, or do you just abandon the excursion and do it that way in order to get the security of the ride to and from the ship? If you're doing it on your own, how do you keep the excursion people from thinking they've lost you? The excursion is just taking you. You're on your own after that. They just tell you what time the ferry will pick you back up to return you to the ship. Up to each what beach they go to or what they want to do. Sent from my iPhone using Forums mobile app Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dani negreanu Posted July 23, 2016 #22 Share Posted July 23, 2016 Sorry to sound quite ignorant -- I didn't have yet time to "study" in depth our itinerary, which includes St. Thomas and St. John's / Antigua. Is St. John which is discussed here any different from St. John's / Antigua? Never been to those ports, and on the map they seem far apart from each other :confused: And why r pax crossing from St. Thomas to St. John? Thanks for the clarification, Dani Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NECruiser83 Posted July 23, 2016 Author #23 Share Posted July 23, 2016 Sorry to sound quite ignorant -- I didn't have yet time to "study" in depth our itinerary, which includes St. Thomas and St. John's / Antigua. Is St. John which is discussed here any different from St. John's / Antigua? Never been to those ports, and on the map they seem far apart from each other :confused: And why r pax crossing from St. Thomas to St. John? Thanks for the clarification, Dani I just did a quick Google, it appears there is a town St John's on the island of Antigua. That is different from the island of St John, although very confusing 😆 below is the link I found http://www.whatsinport.com/Saint-Johns.htm A lot of people go over to St John from St Thomas since it is so close. Especially if you have been to St Thomas a few times, it's nice to change it up a bit, and I have heard just wonderful things about their beaches Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravelerThom Posted July 23, 2016 #24 Share Posted July 23, 2016 Is St. John which is discussed here any different from St. John's / AntiguaDiscussion is on island of Saint John, USVI, a couple of miles from St. Thomas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dani negreanu Posted July 23, 2016 #25 Share Posted July 23, 2016 I just did a quick Google, it appears there is a town St John's on the island of Antigua. That is different from the island of St John, although very confusing 😆 below is the link I found http://www.whatsinport.com/Saint-Johns.htm A lot of people go over to St John from St Thomas since it is so close. Especially if you have been to St Thomas a few times, it's nice to change it up a bit, and I have heard just wonderful things about their beaches Thanks, NECruiser83 :) Appreciate the detailed reply. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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