HAL excursion to Trunk Bay question?

[nates04]

I tried posting this in the St. Thomas board, but didn't really get my question fully answered, so I thought I would try it here. Really I have two questions regarding the HAL excursion to Trunk Bay, and I would appreciatiate any help anyone can offer.

 

#1. It appears that you have about 2 hours or so at Trunk Bay for the excursion through HAL, are we required to follow a guide through the snorkle trail, or can we explore the area on our own? We would rather enjoy the time there on our own as we are experienced snorklers.

 

#2. How crowded does Trunk Bay get? We will be there with 4 other ships. I don't mind a bit of a crowd, but don't want to be swimming over & around people in the water. Would appreciate any input.

 

This board has been so helpful for us in preparing for our first HAL cruise. Thanks for your help and only 5 weeks till we are out of here!

[shipmix]

Maybe this will help. Last year we did the same on our own. We left the ship at 08:00 took a cab to the pier and arrived for the 08:300 ferry. We arrived at St John, cab to Trunk Bay and were on the beach at 09:40. It was for sure not busy then. In the middle of the day once the tours arrived it got very busy. We were so happy to be able to have time there without the crowds. We left the beach at 2:30 and made it back to the ship in plenty of time. In total it was a lot less than the excursion from the ship and we were not the only ones doing it.

 

Yes you can do the snorkel thing on your own, they can not force you to stay in the group and follow everyone around. However as I said it will be very busy with the groups and tours in the afternoon.

 

Good luck

[nates04]

Our tour is scheduled for the morning with HAL, but maybe we will just attempt to do this on our own.

 

Do you know where we can get a ferry schedule to see times going and comming? Also, did you have difficulty finding a taxi going or comming on St. Johns? Does the same taxi come back and get you and Trunk Bay, or was there just taxis waiting there? Thanks for you help, it is very helpful.

[missygirl]

Our tour is scheduled for the morning with HAL, but maybe we will just attempt to do this on our own.

 

Do you know where we can get a ferry schedule to see times going and comming? Also, did you have difficulty finding a taxi going or comming on St. Johns? Does the same taxi come back and get you and Trunk Bay, or was there just taxis waiting there? Thanks for you help, it is very helpful.

 

 

We were just there...docked at Crown Bay

Taxi from Crown Bay to Red Hook (ferry) $22 for couple

Ferry (which leaves every hour) $5 per person one way

Taxi ( ferry at St. John to Trunk Bay) $12 for couple

 

We spent around $90 which was a lot less than the ship's excursion...got there around 9:00 and left at 3:00. We also took our own snorkle equipment and saw a lot of fish on the snorkle trail. Hope this helps.

 

Missygirl

[Spinner2]

Nate, we used the HAL tour to Trunk Bay and it worked out very well. The narrator on the "taxi" service over to St. John's was interesting, and an open air van was waiting for us when we arrived at St. John's so there was no delay there. When we got to Trunk Bay a guide was available immediately; he walked us down to the beach, pointing out the showers, changing facilities, etc. as we went. At the beach there was a station to pick up snorkeling gear, but we had our own so we went on down to the water. The buoys that had been described to us marking the trail were easy to match to the instructions we'd been given, and there was help on the beach if you needed it. The HAL group was the only one there that morning; the water was uncrowded; no problems at all. We snorkeled around the trail twice and then kind of snorkeled all over the rest of the area. We felt like we had enough time to see everything.

 

I'll have some photos from this excursion up on the Maasdam Oct 20 sailing either tonight or tomorrow.

 

As we left there were more groups arriving; I saw taxis around the Trunk Bay entrance and I'm sure you can do it on your own. We didn't know how crowded the St. Thomas port would be that day and we wanted to spend our time in the water, not arranging transportation and waiting for taxis.

[nates04]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I would love to see your pictures Spinner. You are the first person Ihave talked with that has actually done the tour with HAL. I have a couple of questions for you if you don't mind.

 

Did you leave right away in the morning? Do you remember what time you got there? How long approximately did you have at the beach? When the tour ends, do you think you would have enough time to do a little shopping in St. Thomas.

 

Again, thanks for your help.

[Stevesan]

Our tour is scheduled for the morning with HAL, but maybe we will just attempt to do this on our own.

 

Do you know where we can get a ferry schedule to see times going and comming? Also, did you have difficulty finding a taxi going or comming on St. Johns? Does the same taxi come back and get you and Trunk Bay, or was there just taxis waiting there? Thanks for you help, it is very helpful.

 

Ferry/taxi schedules and fares. Select "Transportation", then follow the links:

 

http://st-thomas.com/

 

Vinow also has even more info about USVI. Can't insert a link (CC rules).

Enter www then vinow followed by dot com. Or just enrter vinow and press ctrl and enter simultaneously.

[alonzo14]

Stevesan: I can't really answer about the HAl excrusion to Trunk Bay. We are taking this tour through HAl next month and I can say it laevaes at 8:30a.m. and is four hours long. This should give you plenty of time to have lunch and shop either in town or elsewhere.

 

We have taken this tour with tow different ships and I'm pretty sure they are all very similar to each other. We did not snorkel so we left the group and went to the beach. It was not very crowded at either time. However in the afternoon it does get more crowded.

 

We enjoyed Trunk Bay immensely!!! You will too!!

[MYMOTHERSCHILD]

I tried posting this in the St. Thomas board, but didn't really get my question fully answered, so I thought I would try it here. Really I have two questions regarding the HAL excursion to Trunk Bay, and I would appreciatiate any help anyone can offer.

 

#1. It appears that you have about 2 hours or so at Trunk Bay for the excursion through HAL, are we required to follow a guide through the snorkle trail, or can we explore the area on our own? We would rather enjoy the time there on our own as we are experienced snorklers.}

 

I suggest that you take the advice given--taxi to Red Hook for the ferry, etc. I snorkeled at Trunk Bay in the mid sixties and many times since, while camping at Cinnamon Bay where the snorkeling was also great. No crowds, of course. When the camp ground first opened, I was one of only seven registered, and often swam alone.

MCC

[Spinner2]

Questions answered, as best as I can remember. We snorkeled somewhere every day but one on our cruise and the time management details kind of run together.

 

We did leave early in the morning. I'd say we had about 2 hours of time in the water; they warn you when you need to get out and they allowed about a half hour to get changed and be ready to leave. There are showers so we rinsed off and rinsed off our gear; nothing fancy.

 

You certainly don't need to follow anyone around the trail; there are no guides. There are 3 markers visible from the beach, they point them out to you and suggest the order of following them. We went around the route the first time, just to get a feel for it and the second time, we strayed pretty far from the markers, returning to the route to move on so we wouldn't miss any of the information on the underwater markers. There are a lot of those.

 

I'm sure there was time to shop afterwards; I hate to shop :p so I'm a poor guide on that but I know that we got some lunch onboard in the Lido when we got back and did some stuff onboard before sailaway.

 

The only thing HAL is providing is transportation; once we got to Trunk Bay one of their staff took over to guide us down to the beach and point out the ammenities, such as they are. They're around on the beach to answer questions and help with gear if you borrowed it from them.

 

Our only reason for choosing the HAL excursion was that we knew of people from a cruise last year who went to Trunk Bay on their own and had to arrange expensive last-minute private transportation back to St. Thomas because the line at the ferry was so long that they thought they'd miss the ship's departure. Not knowing how big the crowd would be over there, it just wasn't worth saving some money to work out the transportation details. As it turned out there was no one else around, we saw no lines and it would have been fine.

 

I've attached one underwater photo; when my DH finishes sorting his photos I can share some that show the underwater markers.

[Spinner2]

Don't have any photos of the beach area (our minds were on the water!) but here's a picture of one of the underwater markers.

[nates04]

Spinner,

 

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate it. We will have to figure out what to do, but your info is very helpful. I really don't want to worry about transportation stess (we are on vacation) so I am likely to go through HAL.

 

Thanks again.

[Spinner2]

Nate, I'm sure whatever you decide will work out just fine. You've certainly done your homework. Check back and let us know how it all went; that's how we'll all learn as we plan our own next trips.

[cnvh]

Hubby and I just got back from the Noordam yesterday and we did the Trunk Bay Beach Tour in St. Thomas, for $69/pp through the ship. We might have been able to do it cheaper on our own, but I'm glad we did the ship tour-- the ferry (In our case, the "Island Girl" I believe it was called) picked us up just around the corner from where we were docked. maybe a hundred yards off the pier; the ferry trip was longer than if we had gone to Red Hook, but I don't know how long it would TAKE one to get to Red Hook from the pier, so maybe it all balances out??

 

Anyway, the Island Girl crew was great; the "announcer" or "guide" or whatever he was called pointed out all sorts of interesting landmarks we passed along our way, talked about the history of the islands, etc.-- even pointed out famous peoples' homes, whcih islands are FOR SALE, stuff like that; it was pretty neat. The ferry ride was about 45 minutes each way, and drinks and snacks are available for purchase onboard. (TIP: it's much cheaper to purchase bottled water on the ferry-- at $1-- than on the cruise ship or on St. John.)

 

Once we got to St. John, we boarded an open-air taxi to Trunk Bay; we stopped a couple of times along the way to take pictures at various scenic overlooks; the taxi ride was maybe 15-20 minutes. Once at Trunk Bay, the taxi waits there and you board the same one back after beach time is up. Snorkel gear (if you want to use it) is provided when you get to the beach, and the cost is included in the tour price. Hubby and I had never snorkeled before, but we listened to the instructions from the nice woman handing out the snorkel gear and we had no problems.

 

All told, we ended up with about an hour and 45 minutes at the beach, which at first didn't seem like enough time, but it ended up being just right for us-- we had plenty of time to do the snorkel trail, as well as to just play around in the gorgeous water. There were only two ships in St. Thomas that day-- us and a Carnival ship-- so Trunk Bay was blissfully uncrowded; I can imagine that, on a busy port day (Wednesdays through Saturdays), it might get pretty bad.

 

I would definitely recommend this excursion; we had a great time, and there were no worries about crowded ferries, traffic to/from Red Hook, etc.

[Wide Open Sea]

Greetings everyone,

My wife and I are sailing on the Noordam to arrive in St. Thomas on 12/18

Am interested in the excursion to Trunk Bay:

"St. John Snorkel & Beach Adventure"

Regarding food/beverage options for this excursion:

1. any problem in packing one's own for a picnic on the beach

2. is there any food and drink included in the excursion while at Trunk Bay

3. if not then what are the food and beverage options like tat are available to purchase

thanks.

Happy Cruising everyone!:)

[Stevesan]

Greetings everyone,

My wife and I are sailing on the Noordam to arrive in St. Thomas on 12/18

Am interested in the excursion to Trunk Bay:

"St. John Snorkel & Beach Adventure"

Regarding food/beverage options for this excursion:

1. any problem in packing one's own for a picnic on the beach

2. is there any food and drink included in the excursion while at Trunk Bay

3. if not then what are the food and beverage options like tat are available to purchase

thanks.

Happy Cruising everyone!:)

 

Taking food from the ship would violate local agriculture laws.

It's not necessary. There's a snack bar at Trunk Bay.

 

Others have mentioned the limited time, less than two hours, at the beach.

That is not enough time to enjoy the beach,the snorkeling and have a picnic, too.

Your best bet for a leisurely trip is DIY.

 

Here's a description from HAL's online Shorex e-brochure:

 

 

https://www.hollandamerica.com/pdfs/shorex/20072008ECarib.pdf