St. Thomas in the evening---

[new2cruiseamy]

We will be taking our VERY first cruise on RC Exployer beginning of June---will be docked in St. Thomas from 1 pm until 11 pm. We were planning on either doing Sapphire Beach in the afternoon or St. John shore excursion with ship (not sure yet)--- is there anything to do in the evening that my 2 teenage daughters could also enjoy with me and my husband as the ship only leaves at 11???? I see that all of the shops close at 5. Also, what is your feeling about which beach for the afternoon---Trunk Bay or Sapphire?:)

 

Thanks

[jimbug]

We are also having a long port stop (till 11pm) in St. Thomas when we will be there on the Zuiderdam. We booked Sunny Liston for a tour during the day, ending our afternoon at Sapphire Beach. After that, we have a sunset dinner cruise booked with New Horizons (http://www.newhorizonsvi.com). It's $68 for cruise passengers, and comes with a gourmet dinner served on a beautiful sailboat...all while watching the gorgeous Caribbean sunset. It's from 4:45pm-8:00pm and it leaves from the Sapphire Beach marina. I haven't gotten clarification from them on this yet, but the actual price is $85...they give a 10% discount for booking online, which brings it down to $76.50. However, they also have a 20% discount for cruise passengers, which I think would be $68...but I don't know if they add the 10% online discount as well. Wouldn't that be nice! Anyway, they come highly recommended and we are looking forward to it (2 mid-20's females and my 50-something mother)

[jimbug]

Oh, also I thought I might add about Sunny Liston. His website is http://www.sunnylistontours.com and the tour is $20/pp. He picks you up at your ship at either 9, 10, or 11 am, and you can shop until noon. He then picks you up from the shopping area at noon and takes you on a fab island tour with all the major tourist stops. After that you can pick the beach you want to be dropped at--in our case, Sapphire--and he will return you to your ship when it's time. However, for us, we are leaving the tour upon being dropped at Sapphire because of our evening sail from the marina there. (He said we should get to Sapphire between 1:30-2:00 p.m., so that gives us plenty of time to enjoy the beach prior to the evening sail.)

[new2cruiseamy]

Thanks for the information- I will definitely check out the sunset tour online----

 

Our ship is only docking at 1:00 so we really won't have anytime to tour if we want to do the beach. We will probably just take a taxi and go to Sapphire. If you are doing the dinner cruise, do you know if there is a place at Sapphire to change/shower off from being at the beach? How are you getting back to the dock from Sapphire Beach after the dinner cruise? Do you know if they will have taxi's around in the evening after dark?

 

:)

[jimbug]

From everyone I've asked, there's not really a changing facility, but there are very clean public restrooms and also one of those outdoor rinse showers to get rid of sand. The New Horizons sunset cruise is casual attire, so we're just going to bring dry clothes and not worry about really dressing up. I understand there will be plenty of taxis around after the sunset sail is over, but if not, our tour operators can certainly point us in the direction of one...or the Sapphire Resort may be able to call us one (it's right there, too).

[The Islander]

Depending on what day of the week it is you could go to one of the happy hour functions and have an early dinner, listen to music. Greenhouse has two for Tuesdays, Paradise Point has live music and a sunset happy hour on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Bolongo has a nice Caribbean show, I believe on Wednesday evenings. Or you could go out for a nice dinner? or Sunset Sail?

 

--Islander

http://www.*****

[new2cruiseamy]

Do you know if it would be appropriate ok to do the "happy hour" with our 2 teenage daughters 14 & 16? We don't have a problem taking them to a bar/restaurant as long as long as it is ok to do so and won't be uncomfortable.

 

Where is "Paradise Point"? Is that near the cruise dock?

 

Thanks to everyone for all the information.......it's such a big help!!

[The Islander]

Hello New2cruiseamy,

 

I should have mentioned the age info. Sorry about that. The drinking age here is 18. Most bars/restaurants allow minors as long as they are with their parents until a certain time; this is because most offer food. (I've seen 10pm posted at a few bars that serve food; I will guess that this is because most kitchens close around 9:30-10pm so dinner service would be closed at that time.).

 

Greenhouse is more bar atmosphere then restaurant the later in the night you get. In retrospect, knowing your daughter’s ages and also I just looked up their event schedule to see when things get started http://www.thegreenhouserestaurant.com/greenhousestt/events.html, I would say this isn't a great choice for your family unless you want to have an early dinner. The bands ect. are later in the evening.

 

Paradise Point might be a good bet, it’s an earlier 'happy hour' with live music and dinner so your family can eat and enjoy the band. Or Bolongo's Caribbean show, it includes a buffet and show with mocko jumbie dancers, broken glass walking and stuff like that. Those would work, if you were on island on the days of the week that they hold their events.

 

As for your question, you wouldn’t get funny looks in the early evening if your family was having dinner or listening to a band in a bar… you would get looks as it got later into the night. While it’s not everyday common, it is seen often enough (visitors with young teenage kids dining at bar/restaurants in the early evening).

 

Hope that helps.

 

--Islander

*****

[new2cruiseamy]

Thank you Islander----this helps alot. Our cruise leaves port at 11:00 so we would need to be back fairly early 9:30-10:00, so it seems like we could enjoy some of the places you mentioned without feeling weird with the girls. :)