Dock in St Thomas; Play in St John

Friday — December 4

We had two options for our day in St Thomas. One, stay on the island and go to Sapphire Beach; two, take the ferry to St John and go to Trunk Bay. Since Mui’s the snorkeler in the family, I left the decision to him. As you can tell from the title of this post, he chose ... (drum roll, please) ... door number 2! Since we’ll be visiting St Croix tomorrow, his decision has guaranteed a three-for-one for the US Virgin Islands on this cruise.

Virgin Islands Map
(courtesy of Here.VI)

We were up at 6:30a, but skipped our exercise routine and went straight down to the buffet to grab some breakfast, which, as usual, we ate on the veranda. In the distance was St Thomas, our first sight of land after three days at sea.

By the time we were dressed and ready for our day in port, Mercury was entering the familiar harbor fronting Charlotte Amalie. Under the hot Caribbean sun, with not even the slightest breeze stirring the air, our veranda was like an oven. So, we went to watch our arrival from the open deck above the navigation bridge where a light breeze made for a more pleasant "sail in" experience.

After several cruise ship visits to St Thomas, this is a familiar scene.

I was surprised to see that we were the only ship docking at Havensight — quite unusual for a port that usually hosts 5-7 ships a day. (If there was another ship docked at Crown Bay, we weren’t aware of it.)

Docking at Havensight

Disembarkation began right around 9:00a. Amongst the first to get off the ship, we made our way directly to the taxi stand. I didn’t quite believe the dispatcher when he said that the wait would be just 5 minutes, but he was true to his word. Even though we were the only two in the 10-pax van, the driver did not keep us waiting. Soon, we were on the narrow, winding road leading out of Charlotte Amalie.

This Google Earth image documents our “by sea and by land” day in two USVI islands.

Twenty minutes later we were at the ferry terminal in Red Hook. The last time we took the ferry to St John was in 2003. Red Hook was little more than a dirt parking lot and a rickety pier then. What we found today was much improved.

The Red Hook ferry terminal offers amenities and a waiting area.

The ferry to Cruz Bay departed promptly at 10:00a. Sitting on the rear-facing bench in the aft, we watched St Thomas recede into the distance. Twenty minutes later, we were docking in St John. Our timing couldn’t have been better — a nearly-full taxi was just about to leave for Trunk Bay.

On our way to St John.

Welcome to Cruz Bay, St John.

St John is an incredibly scenic island. It has a jagged, rocky coastline and crescent-shaped, white sand beaches. Compared to some of the other Caribbean islands, it is unspoiled, with development kept to a minimum. In fact, over half of the island and much of the coastal waters make up the Virgin Islands National Park (most of the land was donated by Laurance Rockefeller).

Although the taxi stopped at three overlooks for quick photo ops, there was no island touring per se — exactly what we were looking for since we’d done “the tour” in 2003. The ride to Trunk Bay took all of 15-20 minutes. Before long, we were paying the use fee and walking down the boardwalk to the narrow strip of white-sand beach.

Trunk Bay from the roadside overlook.

In 2003, there were no chairs for rent — that has now changed — thank you National Park Service. Shouldering two chairs ($7/each with an additional $25/chair deposit that was returned when we took the chairs back), we found a spot shaded by trees and the lifeguard tower and made ourselves comfortable. The weather was perfect — plenty of sunshine and blue skies, and the breeze coming off the water kept the heat from becoming unbearable.

Scenes from Trunk Bay.

I spent most of my time reading on the beach, but did take an occasional dip in the very inviting, calm waters of the bay. Mui was in the water almost the entire time we were at Trunk Bay. First, he snorkeled the underwater trail; later, he went to the far edge of the island just offshore to check out another spot that the lifeguard said was better. (Caution: there are strong currents in this latter area; it is not recommended unless you are a strong swimmer; the lifeguard had to go out in a kayak while we were there and tow a snorkeler back to safety.)

Look closely; it’s not often that you’ll see me in the water.

Mui’s off to check out the underwater snorkel trail.

Mui’s rating of Trunk Bay in comparison to Sapphire Beach on St Thomas — Trunk Bay gets an “A” as a swimming beach and a “B” as a snorkeling beach; the exact opposite of Sapphire. Not being a snorkeler, Trunk Bay was a better beach for me. I’m glad Mui picked the right outing for us today.

We stayed on the beach until 2:00p. Then we took a cab back to Cruz Bay. We had just enough time to wander around for a bit and have some ice cream before it was time to board the 3:00p ferry back to Red Hook.

Cruz Bay — St John

Once again, our timing was good; as soon as we were off the ferry at Red Hook we found a taxi that was about to depart for Havensight. We were back on the ship by 4:00p, completely satisfied with our day in port. We grabbed some snacks from the buffet and enjoyed them on the veranda while we sipped a glass of wine and watched passengers slowly stream back to the ship. The ship was a few minutes late departing, not that we really cared. Around 7:00p, we wandered down to the Palm Springs Café and picked up some made-to-order stir fry — beef this time — to eat on our veranda. Cesar and Gunowry will have to excuse us; it’s doubtful that they’ll see us in the dining room until we’re on the return leg back to Baltimore.

At the moment, the ship is barely moving — not surprising since we don’t have far to go. Tomorrow we are at another one of the US Virgin Islands. Nice planning on Celebrity’s part — by visiting the USVI immediately following our departure from a US port, we don’t have to deal with clearing customs until we return to Baltimore at the end of the cruise.

Next Up: St Croix — USVI