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We will be in St. Thomas on November 5th (on the Golden Princess).
Children are 5 and 4 years old.
I want to know if it is easy to get to Trunk Bay and will we save money doing it ourselves versus taking excursion from ship (which I believe for 2 adults and 2 kid is about $175).
Is it better(less expensive) to take the ferry from Charlotte Amalie or shoud we take a taxi to Red Hook.
What are the taxi costs for:
Ship to ferry in Charlotte Amalie?
Ship to ferry in Red Hook?
Ferry dock in St. John to Trunk Bay?
If we try to get the 1rst ferry from Charlotte Amalie does it have enough capacity to handle people from the 4 cruise ships docking that day?
We just did the same thing. We were on the Dawn Princess. When it docked in Charlotte Amalie we were some of the first passengers off the ship. It was a short taxi ride (15-20 minutes) to get the ferry. I forget how much the taxi ride was (maybe $10). Then the ferry ride was a few dollars, also. Admission to Trunk Bay was $4 for adult. I don't know the price for children. If I were you I would definitely do it myself. As you can see, it will not cost you anywhere near $175.
Trunk Bay is very beautiful. Have a great time.
Sherri
CA is much closer to the docks, but I believe they have limited times during the day to ferry over to St John. Ferry ride from CA was $7.00 pp I think and takes 45 minutes. I think the ferry from Red Hook runs on the hour for $2.00 pp and takes 20 minutes.
I'd definately get more tips from folks on this board for planning the trip yourself. I'd imagine you could get by on your own for maybe $100 or less including taxi, ferry, and beach fees for 4. There are also a lot of free beaches that are just as beautiful as Trunk in my opinion.
I suppose it also depends on what all is included with the ships excursion. If they include water sports rentals or whatever.
Try to get off the ship as soon as possible to beat the traffic. 🙂 That's where I messed up on my cruise (Carnival) in 99. The friendly folks in St Croix had a huge festival/dock party that our ship stayed for. I had just a couple (or few) too many Cruzan rum punches and when I woke up we were already docked in St Thomas for about an hour. I felt so bad about missing out on some of St Thomas that I had to go back in Sept this year to make up for it. 🙂
Jay - loved your cruzan story - I wonder how many other visitors have the same experience. LOL. Glad you woke up only one hour late rather then missing the whole day...
Howard, there is a comparison of the two ferries with rates, time, taxi from ship to dock at:
https://www.vinow.com/general_usvi/cruiseship/cruiseguide_page1.php
In general in terms of cost they work out to be about the same when you have more then one person in the group. In terms of time - the Red Hook method is shorter if you don't encounter traffic getting to Red Hook.
Your kids will be half price on the taxi fares.
Taxi costs for:
Ship to ferry in Charlotte Amalie? $3 a person each way... kids $1.50
Ship to ferry in Red Hook? $ $8 and $4 for kids
Ferry dock in St. John to Trunk Bay? $4 each for trunk bay ride.
If you go to the cruise ship guide at
https://www.vinow.com/general_usvi/cruiseship/ you will find taxi rates, time it takes, beach info ect.
It is possiable for ferries to get full, they only can fit around 200 people, give or take depending on the ferry.
$4 entry fee for Trunk Bay for the adults... the kids are free.
Visit https://www.vinow.com/stjohn/nationalpark/ for more information.
--Islander
