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Will be docking at Charlotte Amalie on June 14. Plane to take taxi to Red Hook, then ferry to Cruz Bay, and acquire transportation to St. John. Ship departs at 5 PM. Several questions: Is this too ambitious for the time allowed? We will have 6 persons in our group. Is a taxi the way to get to Red Hook? How should I plan to get from Cruz Bay to Trunk Bay? Are snorkel rentals available at Trunk Bay? What is the admission at T. Bay? Thanks in advance for any advice.
We did the exact thing 2 years ago off the ship. Immediately upon leaving the ship we took a cab directly to Red Hook, took the ferry over ( I think they leave every 15 minutes or so) arrived on St.John, rented a car and went over to Trunk Bay. There were reps from the car rental agency waiting for cruise ship passengers to come off of the ferry. They drove us to the office and gave us directions to the beaches on St.John. We enjoyed our day and easily made it back to St. Thomas to do a little shopping. I think the key is to get off of the boat early and beat the rush to the taxi's and ferry dock. They also have covered transportation (open air buses) to take a party of 6 to Trunk Bay or where ever you want to go. I think we paid 3 dollars for admission to the park.
Hello DLM,
Note on the Red Hook ferry; it leaves every hour on the hour and takes about 15-20 minutes. Cut and paste the following link for the ferry information.
https://www.vinow.com/general_usvi/interisland_ferry/
Lots of people take the ferry over and visit St. John while in port on a ship; so it can be done. Taking a taxi over to Red Hook (about $8 a person) is good; then take the ferry ($3 a person). You can then take a taxi to Trunk Bay, there are alwasy taxis waiting right at the end of the ferry dock pier (about $4 a person). Trunk bay has a admission charge of $4 a person and there are snorkel rentals there. (All rates were one way)
Another option would be to rent a small van on St. Thomas accross from the cruise ship docking area and then drive to Red Hook yourselves and get the car on the car barge ($35 round trip) and then drive around St. John on your own and back to St. Thomas on the barge. OR rent a small van on St. John and use the passenger ferry to get back and forth.
--Islander
