Crown Bay to Red Hook (Ferry)

[peterm]

We will take the Red Hook ferry to St John and need a cab from Crown Bay to Red Hook. A few questions:

 

Are cabs available at Crown Bay?

How long is the trip from Crown Bay to Red Hook?

Are cabs available for the return trip from Red Hook to Crown Bay?

 

In the past we docked at the old place and cabs were no problem - even if they treat the passengers like cattle!

 

Thanks for your help.

[The Islander]

Yes taxis are available at Crown Bay and also from Red Hook.

Crown Bay to Red Hook is about a 35 minute drive in low/medium traffic.

 

--Islander

[rocks]

Hi!

We will be docking at Crown Bay...Is it quicker to get on the ferry in the middle of town or to go to Red Hook to catch it?

We want to head to St. John to rent one of those little rubber dinghys. What would you consider a safe amount of time for all of the travels (taxi to ferry & then ferry to taxi back to the ship) Hoping we will have enough time to get the dinghy to a nice beach for a little swim.

THANKS in advance!

Pat

[figmentdj]

Rocks,

 

we are planning the same thing, but after your trip. So please, please please, report back on the transportation to st john and the dinghy rental.

[The Islander]

Hello Pat,

 

The drive between Crown Bay and the Charlotte Amalie ferry is shorter, however the ferry has a less regular schedule and is a longer ferry ride. So, you need to compare the two ferry's schedules and determine which would work for you.

 

Figure around an hour for the travel time (taxi + ferry) in low/medium traffic. That timing is based on getting to the ferry dock just in time for a departure, so add a few minutes should that not be the case and you end up waiting for a ferry. Keep potential traffic in town in mind when planning your return, you might ask the taxi that takes you to the ferry about what time you should head back - they have a good idea of what traffic is like based on residents and cruise ships in for the day.

 

--Islander

[rocks]

It sounds like Red Hook will be the best. We have been to just about all of the Caribbean Islands, but St. John is BY FAR my favorite! The first time there, sitting on the sand at Trunk Bay, I had tears in my eyes just taking in all the beauty. SO peaceful & and 'heaven-like'. One of these days I want to rent a condo and stay a week & really explore the island.

THANKS again, Islander! :)

Pat

[rocks]

Rocks,

 

we are planning the same thing, but after your trip. So please, please please, report back on the transportation to st john and the dinghy rental.

 

Hi!

Would be glad to 'pay it forward'...so many people on these boards have helped me, I will be glad to let you know how it went for us. My husband & I go to St John every time we sail into St. Thomas & have always looked at those rubber dinghys and swore we would try them out one time. This cruise we are going with friends & when I mentioned this, they jumped all over it. So, even though none of us have ever been on one (or captained any other kind of boat) we are finally going to do it! I do have to admit to being slightly nervous about it all, but I'm at the age where if I don't do things like this now, I'll never do them!

When is your cruise? Please remind me if you don't hear from me in time (another one of those 'age' things happening to me!) We get back 10/31.

Pat

[flvol77]

We have made the taxi ride from Crown Bay to Red hook and it was interesting to say the least. We docked at Crown bay at 7am were the first ones off the ship (group of 6) grabbed a taxi at 7:27 am and made the 8 am ferry to Cruz bay by 5 mins. It was scary and all six of us were green....My wife about broke my hand because she was so scared.

 

We didn't want to wait til the 9am ferry to Cruz bay....We were on the beach by 8:30 am and we had a great time.

[figmentdj]

Rocks wrote:

When is your cruise? Please remind me if you don't hear from me in time (another one of those 'age' things happening to me!) We get back 10/31.

 

We're sailing Nov 3. Going to try to get to Cruz bay by 8:30. We're going to rent a car and head to Red Hook. Then take the ferry. Noah's Little Arks hhave been on my radar for years, I think we'll finally do it. Have a great cruise. I look forward to your report.

[ndavis7515]

When we were in St. Thomas in June we took a taxi to Red Hook from Crown Bay and one way it was $11/person. We cut it pretty close. We were meeting our day sail at Red Hook and told the taxi driver that, but he still waited around for more people to get into the taxi. There were 5 or us and the taxi ended up with 7 more people. Allow enough time in case that happens.

[Missybud]

Nancy, Which daysail did you charter? L.

[ndavis7515]

Nancy, Which daysail did you charter? L.

Are you stalking me:D ?

Here is the website:http://www.alauntcharters.com.

 

I would stick with one that will pick you up at Crown Bay. Because $11/person each way by taxi is alot of money on top of the cost of the charter.

 

But, I loved them. They made a wonderful meal & beverages too and we went to 2 snorkeling sites off of St. John. My son & family had cartered them before and loved them so that is why we chartered again.

 

They are such a personable couple, and I think that they would take you where you would like to go if it is feasible.

[Missybud]

Ouch, you told me that a few months ago. Hmmm, must be a blonde thing. Thanks Nancy. See you on the roll call.

[jmo1]

We just returned last week from a great land based vacation with two nights at St. Thomas and three nights at St. John. We rented a car at St. Thomas and took it to St. John on the car barge for $50 round trip. We rented a dinghy for a whole day from Noah's Little Arks at St. John and had the time of our lives. :D

http://www.divelowkey.com/watersports.htm

They let you go as far is Waterlemon Cay in Leinster Bay on the north shore of St. John. It only took about 30-minutes to get to Waterlemon Cay at 14-mph top speed (per GPS) with two people in the dinghy. That left lots of time for snorkeling and beach combing. Waterlemon Cay is probably the best snorkeling we have ever done that includes Maui, Grand Cayman, Cozumel, Granada, Barbados, and St. Lucia. The coral there is pristine with many fish. Cinnamon Cay has excellent snorkeling too. Trunk Bay is my favorite beach in terms of beauty, water clarity, sand quality, low waves, and snorkeling. Hawksnest Beach is very nice, as is Cinnamon Beach.

St. John is such a nice getaway from the hustle and bustle of St. Thomas, and St. John's beach are all world class.

[morrispa]

We've rented a dingy from Noah's Ark in St. John and if was fun. The only problem I had was it was a smaller dingy as there were only 2 of us and there wasn't a seat for me, I had to sit on the side of the dingy and my bottom got sore from all the bouncing around.

[rocks]

Rocks wrote:

 

 

We're sailing Nov 3. Going to try to get to Cruz bay by 8:30. We're going to rent a car and head to Red Hook. Then take the ferry. Noah's Little Arks hhave been on my radar for years, I think we'll finally do it. Have a great cruise. I look forward to your report.

 

Hi!

We ended up taking a cab to Red Hook (we also had to wait till the cab filled up at the port-this wasted a good half hour b/c they didn't have enough going where we were going, so they added other stops-REAL drag!)

We got to the raft place (Noahs Ark) and all of their dinghys were rented. We were bummed; but didn't let it ruin the day. We grabbed a cab & went to Cinnamon Bay. It was a BEAUTIFUL day at an AWESOME beach. Not many people there at all & the water was GREAT!

We had talked about reserving a dinghy at Noah's Ark, but decided against it in case it was a rainy day & didn't want to go over. I think if our group sails together again, we will reserve it. We had 2 dinghys come into Cinnamon when we were there & it looked like a lot of fun.

Hope you get this in time...& hope you have a GREAT cruise! :D

rocks

[Beach710]

Hello Pat,

 

The drive between Crown Bay and the Charlotte Amalie ferry is shorter,

 

 

 

Do you know how much shorter? Is this drive less precarious?

 

I was pretty scared last time we took one of the open taxis from Havensight to Red Hook.

 

Thank for the info.

[The Islander]

Hello,

 

Crown Bay to CA ferry is about 1.7 miles, flat road. Crown Bay to Red Hook about 9-10 miles, you will go up/around some hills.

 

--Islander

[Beach710]

Hello,

 

Crown Bay to CA ferry is about 1.7 miles, flat road. Crown Bay to Red Hook about 9-10 miles, you will go up/around some hills.

 

--Islander

 

Thank you. This seems like a better option to me. Another question if you don't mind.

Will the taxi take us to the dock or somewhere else in town?

Thanks again.

[The Islander]

Hello,

 

The Red hook ferry has a more frequent schedule, so review the departure times to see which works best with your plans. Timewise getting to the CA ferry is shorter but the ferry to St. John is longer and for Red Hook its the opposite, longer taxi ride, shorter ferry ride.

 

The St. John ferry pulls up along the waterfront harbor apron. A taxi will drop you there.

 

--Islander

[Beach710]

Hello Islander,

 

I am sorry my question wasn't very clear. I am trying to figure the way to the CA ferry dock - does the taxi from Crown Bay drop off at the dock?

 

We took the Red Hook Ferry from the Havensight dock a couple of years ago and I am trying to avoid that perilous taxi ride.

 

Thank you for all your help.

[The Islander]

I think it was my answer that wasn't clear ;)... here's another try:

 

There isn't a ferry dock in Charlotte Amalie for the St. John ferry. The St. John ferry pulls up along the waterfront apron in the Charlotte Amalie harbor. A taxi from Crown Bay would drop you at the area where the St. John ferry pulls up. Just let the taxi know you want to take the ferry to St. John from Charlotte Amalie.

 

The ferry area is about 1.7 miles from Crown Bay. It's just before Vendor's Plaza, which is just next to Fort Christian.

 

--Islander

[Beach710]

Thank you so much!

[figmentdj]

rocks wrote:

Hi!

We ended up taking a cab to Red Hook (we also had to wait till the cab filled up at the port-this wasted a good half hour b/c they didn't have enough going where we were going, so they added other stops-REAL drag!)

We got to the raft place (Noahs Ark) and all of their dinghys were rented. We were bummed; but didn't let it ruin the day. We grabbed a cab & went to Cinnamon Bay. It was a BEAUTIFUL day at an AWESOME beach. Not many people there at all & the water was GREAT!

We had talked about reserving a dinghy at Noah's Ark, but decided against it in case it was a rainy day & didn't want to go over. I think if our group sails together again, we will reserve it. We had 2 dinghys come into Cinnamon when we were there & it looked like a lot of fun.

Hope you get this in time...& hope you have a GREAT cruise!

rocks

 

Thanks for the info.. We're back now, too. We were going to rent a car at a place 5 minutes walk from the crown bay pier. They didn't take debit cards so we walked to the safari taxi "stand" and got on the first one heading to red hook. After what seemed like a long drive we made it with time to spare for the 9:00 ferry. Got over to Cruz bay and walked to Noahs. They had our reservation but was worried cause it was getting late. We talked them into letting us go out til 1:00. She agreed. It was alot of fun. Kinda got lost. But snorkled some. Brought the dinghy back before 1:00 and in time to catch he 1:00 ferry cak. Took another safari taxi back to downtown and a $4 cab to the pier (didn't want to walk from the safari stop). Will do it again. I'm sorry you didn't get a chance to do the dinghy but glad you had a good time anyways.

[sadie8]

We have group of six heading to Red Hook marina. We would have a huge savings if we could take advantage of the "safari taxi stand" at crown bay. Do you have any input on how we would go about getting to this stand???