KLA Posted February 14, 2022 Report Share Posted February 14, 2022 Hi All, We'll be making our first stop to St. Thomas in early May, and I was curious what some favorite ways to see the island might be? Discover Scuba looked cool, but since it's our first time there I was curious what options we might have to explore the island a bit more and get familiar. Does anyone have a recommended island tour they've done? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjac Posted February 15, 2022 Report Share Posted February 15, 2022 10 hours ago, KLA said: Hi All, We'll be making our first stop to St. Thomas in early May, and I was curious what some favorite ways to see the island might be? Discover Scuba looked cool, but since it's our first time there I was curious what options we might have to explore the island a bit more and get familiar. Does anyone have a recommended island tour they've done? Hello KLA, Glad you're back. We have been to St. Thomas a number of times. We like the "Secret Sands Beach Getaway", been there three times. I think the name of the beach is Smith Beach and it is a national park. Very good toilet and shower facility. Great beach with loungers and shade. For me, the best part was the grass covered shoal about 50' offshore. No current, easy swim, less than 10' deep and loaded with tropical fish and an occasional green sea turtle munching on the sea grass. Th swim from the shore drops down to about 20' and comes back up to the shoal. Don't be surprised if there are some Southern sting rays swimming through that deeper part. Enjoy! Baked Alaska, CruisingOz and cruisellama 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KLA Posted February 15, 2022 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2022 14 hours ago, rjac said: Hello KLA, Glad you're back. We have been to St. Thomas a number of times. We like the "Secret Sands Beach Getaway", been there three times. I think the name of the beach is Smith Beach and it is a national park. Very good toilet and shower facility. Great beach with loungers and shade. For me, the best part was the grass covered shoal about 50' offshore. No current, easy swim, less than 10' deep and loaded with tropical fish and an occasional green sea turtle munching on the sea grass. Th swim from the shore drops down to about 20' and comes back up to the shoal. Don't be surprised if there are some Southern sting rays swimming through that deeper part. Enjoy! Thanks, rjac! Was this something you booked through Royal or through a third party? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjac Posted February 15, 2022 Report Share Posted February 15, 2022 1 hour ago, KLA said: Thanks, rjac! Was this something you booked through Royal or through a third party? Booked it through Royal. It was one of their excursions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JennaRCB Posted February 15, 2022 Report Share Posted February 15, 2022 On 2/14/2022 at 5:33 AM, KLA said: Hi All, We'll be making our first stop to St. Thomas in early May, and I was curious what some favorite ways to see the island might be? Discover Scuba looked cool, but since it's our first time there I was curious what options we might have to explore the island a bit more and get familiar. Does anyone have a recommended island tour they've done? I did the Discover Scuba tour and loved it! However, I didn't get to see the island other than the scuba tour because of time constraints. But if you're considering the scuba tour, it was really enjoyable and brought us to an old shipwreck where we practiced diving. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pooch Posted February 15, 2022 Report Share Posted February 15, 2022 18 hours ago, rjac said: Hello KLA, Glad you're back. We have been to St. Thomas a number of times. We like the "Secret Sands Beach Getaway", been there three times. I think the name of the beach is Smith Beach and it is a national park. Very good toilet and shower facility. Great beach with loungers and shade. For me, the best part was the grass covered shoal about 50' offshore. No current, easy swim, less than 10' deep and loaded with tropical fish and an occasional green sea turtle munching on the sea grass. Th swim from the shore drops down to about 20' and comes back up to the shoal. Don't be surprised if there are some Southern sting rays swimming through that deeper part. Enjoy! Could certainly be an aberration but there’s a very bad review of this excursion a couple of pages back. YMMV Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Floski Posted February 15, 2022 Report Share Posted February 15, 2022 KLA! How have you been? Missed your posts. When we go to St Thomas, we shop/stroll downtown a bit, maybe grab a bite, and then we just find a taxi and tell him where we would like to go. They'll take you on a tour, or take you to anywhere you want. It's a lot of fun if you have other people with you. I remember one time this lady says as we're on our way up the mountain that she doesn't like curvy roads... well, it's a mountain so there are a ton of 'em! She was a hot mess when we got back to town! I do like getting a banana daiquiri up on Mountaintop. One of the taxi drivers we've had - Timothy - at Mountaintop: MichelleB1234, Pooch and KLA 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KJ777 Posted March 3, 2022 Report Share Posted March 3, 2022 We're looking for ideas for St. Thomas as well, never been here! We'll be there May 18th between noon - 8pm. Was looking into Frenchtown Brewery but looks like it doesn't open until 530pm. Best options for an island tour? Is it like most ports where there's taxis lined up to get? For this stop I think we're more interested in seeing/touring the island instead of a beach stop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Posted March 6, 2022 Report Share Posted March 6, 2022 We really enjoyed the 1/2 day champagne catamaran to St John. Normally we just go to Magen’s Bay and drink Pain Killers and float. Patchy, PeloAl and KJ777 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snotarni Posted March 7, 2022 Report Share Posted March 7, 2022 We take the water taxi over to water island; hang out at Honeymoon beach and drink beers at Dinghy's... it's very quiet and nice. KJ777 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terri Smith Johnson Posted March 8, 2022 Report Share Posted March 8, 2022 St Thomas has some of the most beautiful water anywhere around, IMO. I love to snorkel in ST...We are doing that again on our Oasis at the end of the month. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Va4fam Posted March 8, 2022 Report Share Posted March 8, 2022 We were in St. Thomas last week and after some port shopping, we grabbed a taxi to Magen's Bay, rented lounge chairs and drank bushwhackers all day. Beautiful beach with very small waves. The ride back included a stop near the top of the mountain with a great view of the water below. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmptyNestTravels Posted March 14, 2022 Report Share Posted March 14, 2022 On 2/14/2022 at 8:33 AM, KLA said: Hi All, We'll be making our first stop to St. Thomas in early May, and I was curious what some favorite ways to see the island might be? Discover Scuba looked cool, but since it's our first time there I was curious what options we might have to explore the island a bit more and get familiar. Does anyone have a recommended island tour they've done? Recently, I took the "5 Star Island Tour, Magen's Bay Beach & Shopping" excursion (from the Cruise Planner) which cost $79.00 per person and ran from about 7:30 AM - 3:30 PM. We took a tour of the island in a small open jitney-style bus - driving tour around the island, up the hill to the famous Banana Daiquiri & souvenir shop on the mountain top (daiquiris at 10:00 AM?!), and then spent two hours at the beautiful Magens Bay beach (private beach with paid entrance - included with excursion, changing/rest-room facilities, restaurant, bar & snorkeling). (Snorkel rentals at the beach shop seemed to be a pain and expensive, so recommend bringing your own gear if you have it). It was very nice except that we got hit with intermittent strong downpours on the day we were there. The "shopping" portion at the end was a bit disappointing. Perhaps because of the rain - on the way back to the ship, they stopped downtown to let people off the bus who wanted to go shopping (about 1.5 hours before we had to be back onboard), and said they would come back and pick them up in a hour. With the weather issues, and concern from some of us pax about maybe not getting back in time, only two people from our bus group opted to check out the shopping. It was a very good tour overall. There were several shops to buy souvenirs at the pier, so not sure we missed too much. Next time I will check out the local shops, etc. St. Thomas required masks to be work on the pier and bus. But once we got away from the pier, almost nobody wore their mask - and of course not at the beach, bar, or restaurant. WAAAYTOOO and KLA 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zacharius Posted March 14, 2022 Report Share Posted March 14, 2022 My favorite thing to do in St. Thomas is to leave it...by taking the ferry over to St. John and enjoying the beaches and national park over there. Very easy to do on your own, too. WAAAYTOOO, EmptyNestTravels and KLA 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KLA Posted March 14, 2022 Author Report Share Posted March 14, 2022 Thanks for the feedback, all! We wound up booking a tour that does a little of everything by way of open top vehicle (Skyride, Drake's Seat, & Magen's Bay), so will report back my findings once we return! I actually realized this is probably the first tour we've booked directly through Royal in several years. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlos A. Posted March 16, 2022 Report Share Posted March 16, 2022 On 3/14/2022 at 1:11 PM, Zacharius said: My favorite thing to do in St. Thomas is to leave it...by taking the ferry over to St. John and enjoying the beaches and national park over there. Very easy to do on your own, too. Hi!, couple of questions. How do you move in St John? I remember there's some kind of public transport but doesn't seems very reliable And What is the best way to get there? On your own or with a RC excursion ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zacharius Posted March 16, 2022 Report Share Posted March 16, 2022 50 minutes ago, carlosalonsor said: Hi!, couple of questions. How do you move in St John? I remember there's some kind of public transport but doesn't seems very reliable And What is the best way to get there? On your own or with a RC excursion ? The easiest way to get around St. John on a day trip are the "taxi's". They're really more like small trucks with bench seating that are shared amongst different groups of people rather than an individual ride (like you may be used to for a taxi or Uber/Lyft). You'll say where you are going, but often you'll need to wait just a bit for more people either going to the same place or somewhere along the way...you can request/pay for an individual one, but of course that will cost more. As far as getting to/from St. John, I would never use the ship excursion for this. It's so easy to get off the ship, grab a taxi to the ferry, ferry across from St. Thomas to St. John, and grab a "taxi" on the St. John end. Then, of course, reverse it to get back. Ferries are roughly every hour, but I would give myself a one-hour cushion on the way back - for example, if you need to be back on the ship at 4:30, and there's a ferry leaving at 3pm that could get you were for 4:30...take the 2pm ferry, just in case something happens and you need the 3pm ferry to fall back on. I also recommend, if you like them, to get the phone number of the taxi driver who takes you from the ship to the ferry, and ask them to be back for your return ferry to take you back to the ship. That always works well for me. Carlos A. and KJ777 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RDDAILY Posted March 16, 2022 Report Share Posted March 16, 2022 On 3/14/2022 at 4:31 PM, KLA said: Thanks for the feedback, all! We wound up booking a tour that does a little of everything by way of open top vehicle (Skyride, Drake's Seat, & Magen's Bay), so will report back my findings once we return! I actually realized this is probably the first tour we've booked directly through Royal in several years. Hi! We are thinking of doing this same tour on our cruise in July. Would love to know what you thought about it when you return! KLA and KJ777 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KJ777 Posted April 7, 2022 Report Share Posted April 7, 2022 On 3/14/2022 at 4:31 PM, KLA said: Thanks for the feedback, all! We wound up booking a tour that does a little of everything by way of open top vehicle (Skyride, Drake's Seat, & Magen's Bay), so will report back my findings once we return! I actually realized this is probably the first tour we've booked directly through Royal in several years. KLA, that's the same excussion that we signed up for! Agree with RDDAILY, would love to hear how it is! KLA 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KLA Posted April 7, 2022 Author Report Share Posted April 7, 2022 12 minutes ago, RDU said: KLA, that's the same excussion that we signed up for! Agree with RDDAILY, would love to hear how it is! Awesome! Will definitely let you know. 3 weeks until we leave! KJ777 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pooch Posted April 7, 2022 Report Share Posted April 7, 2022 We found the shopping area downtown to be a big waste of taxi $ unless you want jewelry. The shops at the port have the same things for the same prices. If we ever go there again, it will definitely be a taxi to a beach. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KLA Posted May 7, 2022 Author Report Share Posted May 7, 2022 Overall we really enjoyed the excursion (Drakes Seat, Magens Bay, Skyride). The open air taxis are a fun way to see the island and tour provides some great views. Drakes Seat - only stopped for a couple minutes, but it’s a great view. Good option for some photos. Magens Bay - easily our favorite stop. Can be crowded right where the taxis drop off, so you can wander down the beach a bit for some space. There’s a beach bar with drinks and some chair rentals available, but the sand is super soft and we were happy just with our towels. We will probably just take a taxi here in the future. Skyride - unique, but definitely touristy. And stunning views. Skip the restaurant at the top. A couple shops with some cool souvenirs. There’s a shop run by a charity where we found some local coffee and a Christmas ornament that we were happy with. As a side note, if you are considering taking an independent taxi or ferry somewhere like St. John’s, we saw a couple actually get left for the first time when we departed. Please pay attention to all aboard times. It was actually super sad to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TKinRock Posted July 3, 2022 Report Share Posted July 3, 2022 LOL, Well this would be if the all-aboard time wasn't 3:30! What up Royal? When are you ever in port late enough (well Bermuda). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morris Family Posted July 9, 2022 Report Share Posted July 9, 2022 On 3/6/2022 at 2:32 PM, Jill said: We really enjoyed the 1/2 day champagne catamaran to St John. Normally we just go to Magen’s Bay and drink Pain Killers and float. Any advice on getting to Magen's Bay? I noticed the Magan's Bay excursion limits you to I think like 2 hours. We think we may want to spend the day there. On that same note, is it worth staying there for longer than 2 hours? Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jill Posted August 21, 2022 Report Share Posted August 21, 2022 On 7/8/2022 at 11:38 PM, Morris Family said: Any advice on getting to Magen's Bay? I noticed the Magan's Bay excursion limits you to I think like 2 hours. We think we may want to spend the day there. On that same note, is it worth staying there for longer than 2 hours? Thanks Just grab a taxi at the port. Taxi stand has numerous taxis waiting. They are mostly open air taxis with bench seating so you’ll end up with a group of passengers going there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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