St. Thomas / St. John - Just Returned

[CaribbeanBound]

Charlotte Amalie, St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands

 

We berthed at Havensight. We and another couple were first off the ship at 7:10am. Our destination this trip was Trunk Bay and Cinnamon Bay on the Island of St. John for snorkeling. Despite what everyone at the pier will tell you (and they will lie to you), you can get local transportation for $2 per person in an open-air taxi to Red Hook to catch a ferry to Cruz Bay on St. John.. Simply walk out of the Havensight pier main gate, cross the street, turn left and walk until you get to the Bus Stop (there is a pullover area) across from K-Mart and cross the street so that you are standing on the K-Mart side of the street. It is a leisurely 15-minute level walk. When you see an open-air taxi drive up, flag him down, tell him where you wish to go and enjoy the trip. The drive takes about 20 to 30 minutes each way depending upon traffic. The taxi will drop you off at the Red Hook ferry terminal. Pay upon exiting the taxi, go through the gates and hop on the ferry to St. John.

 

We caught the 8:00am ferry and paid our $5.00/pp fare. Normally, you would pay at the booth prior to boarding. The very pretty ride across the bay runs about 15 minutes.

 

Upon arrival at Cruz Bay, St. John, we caught a 10-minute taxi ride ($6.00/pp) to Trunk Bay, stopping once along the way to take pictures of Trunk Bay from a picturesque spot along the road. We arrived at 8:30am which allowed us to get in free. Once the admission booth opens, it costs $4.00/pp to enter this beautiful white sand beach with clear waters, awesome views of islands and cays, nice facilities, and an underwater snorkeling trail. The snorkeling trail can be found on the right hand side of the beach. It begins on the far side of the little island and works its way around the island and ends on the closer side. The snorkeling is very good, with lots of fish and colorful coral. Including the four of us, there was a total of 7 people enjoying this beach from 8:30am to 10:15am when larger groups began arriving —– at which time we left and caught a $4/pp taxi for Cinnamon Bay. (Trunk Bay is now one of our top three Caribbean beaches).

 

Cinnamon Bay is part of a campground with good facilities, snorkeling equipment rentals, and kayak rentals. The beach is not as pretty as Trunk Bay but offers good snorkeling as well. Sea Turtles can be spotted here in the middle of the bay feeding on the sea grass, but we did not spot any this trip. We caught a taxi back to Cruz Bay ($7/pp) at 11:40am.

 

We just missed the noon ferry so we ate lunch at High Tide Bar and Grill adjacent to the pier. We enjoyed the Virgin Island Pale Ale (a fruity beer made for distribution in St. John by a brewery in Maine), and especially liked the sweet mango salsa which accompanies the chips and salsa appetizer. We shopped until 1:45pm and bought tickets for the 2:00pm ferry, which was 30 minutes late arriving.

 

A very large crowd anxiously waited in a long line in the hot sun on the pier. There was no problem getting everyone on the ferry. We arrived back in Red Hook at 2:40pm. Ignore the $7/pp taxis and wait for a $2.00 taxi again EXACTLY where it dropped you off. (Do not cross the street). We got dropped off a couple blocks closer to Havensight than the K-Mart where we picked up the taxi. St. Thomas is a major shopping destination. Havensight has a large number of shops convenient to the ship, however, the real shoppers head into Charlotte Amalie to do their shopping. It is very easy to get to St. John from the ship. We look forward to doing this excursion on our own again.

 

Complete review of recent 14-day / 9 port Caribbean cruise: http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/zenith14.html

[spocruiser]

Thanks for the review. I enjoyed the write up on your entire trip as well. Glad you had a good trip.

[Dubsolute]

Just wondering what part of the coral in St. John you found colorful?

[CaribbeanBound]

The coral itself. There were black, red, orange and yellow fan coral.

Or maybe I'm an idiot and don't know wht the fan coral really is. (Certainly possible).

[Dubsolute]

I'm just asking because I didn't see any colorful coral there at all. I was there 10/30. All of it looked gray and dead. I found only 2 very small patches of pink. I swam around the cay just off shore. Did I miss something?

[CaribbeanBound]

That's odd. But friends that went with us reported not seeing much along the trail on the right hand side of the caye.

Did you follow the underwater trail? If you actually followed the underwater trail itself, you would have missed a lot. Strangely, the trail starts well to the right of the caye and then gets closer when it comes around to the left (as you face the ocean from the beach). Most of the coral (and a lot of fish) are right up against the caye. We snorkeled close to the caye all the way around it.

[jccruiser]

Did you go past Sapphire Beach, Coral World/Coki Beach on your way to Red Hook, or is that a different bus?

 

thanks for any info.

 

:)