As best I can tell, the only company on St. Thomas that won't allow their cars on St. John is Hertz.

We always rent a jeep at Budget when we land and head straight for the ferry at Red Hook.
We spend the entire week with the Jeep on St. John. There is nothing in their policy that says you can't do that.
Current weekly Jeep rental rate at Budget at STT is $337.

You might want to take a look at this article before you decide if you are going soon.
http://www.virginislandsdailynews.com/index.pl/article_home?id=17605545
Apparently three of the four car ferry's aren't running.
Jay

Yeah, I read that yesterday.
We still have 3 1/2 weeks to go, so I'm hoping it will be better by then.
One of the companies is putting a ferry back in commission after nearly a year of repair work so maybe there will
be even 1 more running.

Crystal, no rental companies let you take vehicles from STJ to STT, but some let you take them from STT to STJ. Both Avis & Budget let you take cars from STT to STJ, but I don't know if there are others or not.

We are renting from Thrifty, they also allow you to take your car from St. Thomas to St. John.

We rode the car ferry a few times to St. John when we stayed in St. Thomas in Dec. On one of the trips, there was one boat out of service. We waited about 2 hours in St. John to get on a boat to go back to our hotel, and people were getting very aggressive and competitive about getting on the boats. The security guards were letting people cut in the lines, and everyone was going crazy! It was a bit nerve wracking, but we eventually got on a boat and made it back to St. Thomas.

You're on an island. These things happen. As my husband said, what's the worst thing that can happen? You end up spending the night on St. John or St. Thomas? Vacations are bound to have some adventures! I just wouldn't assume if you wanted to be on a 2 p.m. boat, that that is necessarily what's going to happen. Island time, island time!

We also rented from Thrifty in STT & got upgraded from compact to jeep for no extra $. Worth the ferry cost. It is a personal choice. Taxi ride/cost - carry luggage off & on ferry then to car place on STJ and repeat backwards to go home or get car in STT find way to Red Hook...was not a problem for us..drive backwards onto ferry ( park back end facing the water while you wait for ferry), drive off & you are good to go. No trouble using ferry the week before Xmas.

Wow! Thanks Captain Jay. It sounds like I better start reading the online newspaper. We're 2 1/2 week away. I would assume Easter is the second busiest week on the island after Presidents' Day.

How does one line up for the ferry if you have to back onto the ferry?

Does anyone know the status of the car ferry's this week? Is there still only 1 running?
Still 4 hour waits?

Thanks

You park in the spaces with your rear facing in STT. In STJ you line up forward & one at a time you drive to the right a little and line up to boat ramp & back in. Pretty simple in a jeep. Never did it in a car.

check out www.on-stjohn.com and it will clear up the ferry question.

Which ferry service is the best?

Also, do you know if there is a time limit on the round-trip price? Meaning, can we go to STJ on Thursday and return the following Thursday for the round-trip price?

How early should we arrive at the STJ ferry and how much time would you allow for the ferry ride and the drive to the airport during a week day?

Thanks!

The best ferry service is the one that's there when you are 🙂

Yes, you can use a roundtrip ticket a week or a month or 6 months later.

I always like to get to the ferry pretty early...if you get there and there is already a long line and you can't get on, it'll be awhile until the next one comes. I'd get to the ferry 30 minutes early at the very least, and that is cutting it closer than I like...I'd rather be safe than sorry. The ferry usually takes around 15 minutes to load (and usually departs within 5 or 10 minutes either way of the departure time...they'll leave early if they're full), 20 minutes or so to get between islands, and about 5 minutes to unload (of course it depends where you are on the ferry...the last one on is the first one off). Then the drive from Red Hook to the airport is around 45 minutes, but I'd count on an hour just in case.