which St. John's excursion ???

[Disneycruiser#1]

Which Princess St. John's excursion would you recommend for beach time AND snorkeling.

 

Which one of the excursions to St. John's gives you the most time. I hear some don't give enough or any beach time.

 

Or should we do it on our own??? We have done that in Grand Cayman, Playa, Cozumel and Nassau etc. but we have never been to St. Thomas and I think we should not miss St. John's accoding to you all?

 

We also just booked and sail 8/28/04 I assume according to the website we can book now. Do these St. John's excursions fill up fast....they may be filled up now?

 

Thanks!

Tiff

Thanks for ANY help you can give.

[39august]

If Princess is still offering the St. John snorkel through Captain Nautica, it is a great trip. The boat is a hard sided inflatable with 2 big engines and goes very fast. They typically take you to Christmas Cove for one snorkel stop and then on the Honeymoon Beach on St. John. There is snorkeling toward one end of the beach or you can just laze on the perfect beach. The ride back is always fun with snacks, sodas, and rock and roll music. The crew is young, ethusiastic and knowledgable. I think time at each stop was about 50 minutes to an hour. If you take this tour in the AM, you'd have plenty of time to taxi over to famous Megan's Bay Beach on St. Thomas in the PM. That way you get to see some highlights of both islands.

[Arlenedow]

St. John is an absolutely beautiful island. One of our favorites. We've done the tours through the ship and last Nov. did it on our own. I would recommend doing on your own. We took a taxi to the 9am ferry and when we got to St. John we hired a van to take us around the island. (Our son and daughter-in-law were with us and had never been there) Then we had the van driver drop us off at Cinnamon Bay beach and made arrangements for her to pick us up. That beach is not as crowded as Trunk Bay but I would recommend Trunk Bay for snorkeling. There is a marked snorkle trail there and it is one of the most beautiful beaches in the world!! You would have time to walk around Cruz Bay before catching the ferry back to St. Thomas. We went directly back to St. Thomas and had time to do a little shopping. You will have plenty of time. It all depends on how long you want to spend on the beach. I would recommend the tour first because the island is so beautiful.

 

When we went to Trunk Bay on a ship tour we had only 1 hour at the beach. Most of the time was spent coming and going.

 

Very easy to do it on your own. If you go to Ports of Call and go to St. Thomas and St John you will get lots of valuable information.

 

Good luck,

Arlene

[MaryPoppinz]

It's so easy to do on your own, and although St. John excursions from St. Thomas are not that much more expensive through the ship, the one thing you don't get with the excursions is enough time. If 'more time' is your goal, you probably will need to do it on your own:

 

Here's are a couple of ferry schedules:

http://www.*****/general_usvi/interisland_ferry/

http://www.usviguide.com/taxi/stjohn.htm

 

And, no, you shouldn't miss it. :)

[Disneycruiser#1]

Thanks everyone for the infomation. It sounds as if we can do it on our own for the same $$$ or close. Just to make sure I am correct. We take a taxi to one of the water taxi's (which one I know one takes longer), then we take a taxi to Trunk Bay. Then taxi back to water ferry, taxi back to ship.

 

What time is customs?

What time can we get off the ship?

With the taxi's and water ferry's? It seems we need to allow at least 1.5 hours for transfers to St. John's and back from the ship???

How does the ferry work, is it first come first serve once you purchase a round trip ticket?

 

Has anyone done the Princess excursion? "St. John Trunk Bay Beach Snorkel"?It says the ride is 45 minutes each way and you have only 1 hour for the beach and snorkeling :(. Since we are there from 7:00 am-6:00 pm. I assume we need to be back on board by 5:15 pm.

 

What time does this excursion leave?

 

I assume it gives you time to shop or such but on our own we would have more time but you have to take a taxi to the water ferry over to St. Johns and then another taxi to Trunk Bay and then work our way back. I may be nervous about the timing.

 

What have you all done?

 

Thanks! Tiff

[MaryPoppinz]

I'd done that excursion before and it's the reason I'd recommend you try this on your own instead! The snorkle time is very, very brief. And, there is no time for doing anything else in St. John on this excursion. Ferry, taxi, snorkle, taxi, ferry, done.

 

These threads might help you:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=30001

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=29985