RJE Posted August 8, 2022 Report Share Posted August 8, 2022 Hello everyone. I am debating on what to do from our dock in Crown Bay at St Thomas next week. I am referencing the excursion STY4, "St. John on your own" that says it runs from 9am to 1pm. Our ship is docked from 7am to 4pm. I am concerned that the excursion won't provide us much time on St. John - I'm assuming that we leave at 9am, arrive at 9:45, then have to be back at 12:15 or earlier, leaving just 2.5 hours on St. John. If anyone has been on this particular excursion, could you confirm that is how they time it? I read about person saying that they actually had 5-6 hours total according to their timestamps. This excursion would be vs taking a taxi to Red Hook, then Red Hook to Cruz Bay via ferry. I am not an experienced cruiser but read that it can take 30min-1hr after our 7am dock time to actually get off the ship. So if we don't get off until 7:45 we could make the 8:30 ferry to Cruz Bay, meaning we would arrive at 8:50. We would then get back to the Cruz bay ferry to Red Hook at 12:50 to catch the 1pm, meaning we would have 4 hours total on St John. Does that sound reasonable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twangster Posted August 8, 2022 Report Share Posted August 8, 2022 While St John is drop dead gorgeous the ferry boat ride over takes a lot of time out of your day. Having lived on St Thomas for a few years it can also run on island time. Royal knows this so they aim to be conservative with their excursion ferry times to ensure guests are back to the ship even when the locals are running on island time. When trying to build your St John excursion you run the risk of falling prey to the local ferry issues. When you don't book it through Royal the ship will leave without if the ferry you are on breaks down or runs behind schedule. Maybe the taxi gets stuck in traffic when the road to Red Hook has an accident or is under construction. Be careful doing such a day trip on your own. Some ships have longer port times based on different itineraries so be careful reviewing what others did. Allen2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FLTraveler Posted August 8, 2022 Report Share Posted August 8, 2022 It was years ago, but I once booked an excursion on my own with these folks and had an absolutely wonderful time: https://www.max-charters.com/?fbclid=IwAR1OzrQmkYajq7X1_qq-namo2RsSHwPHOwH1MSoXyEkm05QsLo1usFCtVME Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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