Need info for Ferry from St.Thomas to St. Johns for beach day

[findwaldo]

Hi Everyone, I am hoping someone can give me some info. We are traveling Carnival in February. We will be docking in St.Thomas and we would like to go to St.Johns for a relaxing beach day. What I need to know is how do we get there? There are 9 people in our group. Do we take a taxi? Is the ferry reliable for time?

And once on St.Johns where do we go from there? Any info is great. We were in St.Thomas in 2007 and I want to do something different.

Thanks, and happy cruising to all:D

[caribsun]

We booked a trip to St. Johns with the ship excursions. Yes it did cost a little more but we had peace of mind.

[TheVegasMan]

We went to Trunk Bay on St. John, it's very easy to get to, less than a 15 minute drive from the port by taxi. There are two ferry ports on STT, Red Hook (RH) and Charlotte Amalie (CA), when you factor in the taxi there is no difference in price, all depends on which ferry meets your time schedule.

 

http://st-thomas.com/ferries.html

 

Taxi from CA to RH is $10 pp ferry from RH to Cruz Bay St. John is $6.10 pp. Taxi to Trunk Bay was $6 pp, ferry from Cruz Bay to CA was $11.10 pp and taxi from CA to cruise pier was $5 pp. Entry fee to Trunk Bay is $4 or so.

 

Trunk Bay is VERY pretty with decent snorkeling, if you want a pretty place to lay in the sun Trunk Bay is great. We found out afterwards that other beaches are nicer and have better snorkeling.

[findwaldo]

Thanks for the info, it sounds easy enought to do.

[hubofhockey]

This was one debate that I had been having with myself for the longest time. Our ship is in port from 7 to 4 and docked at Crown Bay. We are family of four and want to go to St John. At the end of the day, I decided on the ship's full day excursion that includes lunch and drinks and was $500 for the four of us. The way I saw it was that lunch and drinks would come out close to $150. So, we're talking about $350 versus a bit less than $200 for all of the cabs, ferries, etc. For a couple hundred extra for the four of us, I like not having to lug all of our beach stuff around from cab to ferry to cab to beach and then over again. I want to do the "no worry" St John day. Normally, I don't book ship sponsored excursions. This was an exception.

[TTEllis]

I did Trunk Bay last month, I was on the Emerald Princess and caught the very first taxi over to Redhook. The last 3 times I went to STT I went straight over to St. John. Once you do Trunk other beaches simply dont cut it anymore Cinnamon Bay is nice but the facilities and snack bar at Trunk Bay are very nice thanks to the US Parks Service, my US Park Service receipt was stamped at exactly 9:40am and I ended up catching the 3pm ferry back to Redhook(ship left at 5pm and I HAD to shop before we left) . Last year on St. John the weather was wishy washy so I stayed at J.J's Texas Style Cafe(even though I hate Texas:D) and ended up getting hammered with Whitey the bartender it was a GREAT time even though I didnt do a beach. This year the weather the water and the beach were incredible spent as much of the day as I possibly could on the beach, could never tell you how great a job the Park service does with Trunk, Im going back again in Nov. my 3rd trip to St. John and 7th time to STT. We ported at Havensight which really surprised me, I thought Princess always ported at Crown Bay, I havent ported at Havensight since 2001 so it was a nice change plus the shop's and bars at Havensight are great. If you port at Havensight walk ALL THE WAY OUT to the taxi station about a quarter mile or so from the ship to catch a taxi it saved me about $8 each way. I miss Charlotte Amalie and havent been down there the last several times on STT(always bought my limit at AH Rhiise) but I have to get over to St. John so I can spend as much time on Trunk as I can. For those of you familiar with the somewhat infamous Whitey the bartender at J'J's he's not there anymore he's over on St. Croix, very dissappointed I didnt get to see him this year. St. John is thee only way to go when porting in St. Thomas, Im gonna rent my own vehicle this fall instead of doing the taxi thing on St. John. Hope that helps Todd

[copper6606]

I hope I don't confuse everyone with my questions:o!

First- we were in St. Thomas last year. We tendered in [ Costa] and we then went by taxi to catch the Red Hook Ferry to go to St Johns. That said- when we got back we found out that our tender had dropped us off right beside ANOTHER Ferry that we could have taken over to St. John's . The Ferry ride would have been longer- but it would have cut out the taxi ride to Red Hook! Does anyone know the name of That Ferry and is that one close to where the Crown Princess usually docks [ we'll be there in March]??? I understand it doesn't have as many trips over , but I would rather have the longer Ferry ride- than taxi ride!

Is any of this making sense to anyone out there by chance?;)

[Jeanne B]

copper6606 - It sounds like you're referring to the Charlotte Amalie ferry which is much closer to the cruise ship dock than Red Hook (we've only been to St Thomas for land vacations but if I recall it's a bit of a walk but a very short taxi ride from the cruiseship terminal).

 

When we did the St John part of our trip during our first visit two years ago we took the Charlotte Amalie ferry. When we went this past December we took the Red Hook ferry only because we rented our jeep on St Thomas so we needed to take the car barge.

 

I'm with you, I'd rather have the longer ferry ride rather than a longer taxi ride.:)

 

I don't think I'm allowed to post the link here but if you go to vinow dot com you can click on the ferry schedule link to get the ferry times for both RH and CA.

[TheVegasMan]

Copper,

 

See my original post on this thread, it tells about both ferries and has the link to the schedule.

 

TheVegasMan

[copper6606]

Thanks Jeanne B and Vegas man - That was VERY helpful! Just have to ask and people always come through. Gotta love CC!:D