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I just looked at the Cruise ship schedule, and there are going to be THREE cruise ships docked in St. Thomas on the day of our wedding. Wedding is at 4pm on St. John on the beach - how crowded is Hawksnest beach around that time on average when there are that many cruise ships? We have to get our license on the same day - how crazy is downtown Charlotte Amalie around 10am with this many cruise ships? We wanted to do a little window shopping that morning but may decide against it if there are alot of people.
Hello again Diane,
St. Thomas is used to many people from cruise ships. At 4 pm in St. John, you will have no cruise ship passengers. They usually head for the ships by three or four and at the lastest 5, but from St. John they will leave earlier to make sure they are on St. Thomas to make their cruise ship. Downtown will be busy, my recommendation is to get your license then head to St. John. There is nice shopping in St. John as well and less crowded. Many days there will be as many as four ships in St. Thomas. What is good about having a lot of ships is that more stores are open. On days with one or no ships, many stores will be closed. Not all the passengers even go to St. John, so don't worry about the beach. Have fun! Be sure and post here how your whole trip went!
Teresa
Hello Diane,
As mentioned cruise ship guest need to be back to the ship usually around 5pm so would need to catch the ferry earlier then that to get back on time so the beach should not be to busy. If its a weekend there may be a few residents enjoying the beach. Downtown will have moderate traffic. I would say collect your license and then walk over to town through the Fort Christian Parking lot, take a look or walk through the Fort and then walk through Vendors Plaza if you want souvenirs then through town... you can walk through town shopping and then catch the St. John ferry from the Waterfront when you are done. Or if you find town is too busy catch a taxi at Vendors Plaza to either of the ferries.
Have fun.
--Islander
Diane -
There were FIVE cruise ships in port the day we married on Hawksnest (including our own ship). That was on a Thursday during Spring Break. There was nobody on the beach during our wedding (9AM) and only about two people came later about the time we were doing pictures. The cruise ships really don't sell excursions to Hawksnest - mainly only to Trunk Bay - and like Islander said - most leave early.
On the flip side.... we are booked on a cruise over Thanksgiving that is showing a St Thomas port time of 8A-11:30P - and I am totally excited about the longer time in port! This was the big reason we booked this itinerary. (We had to cancel our trip to STT this summer, so this might help get me over that grief...) So hopefully the cruises you see listed do leave at the normal time on your wedding day. 🙂
~Mandy
