There are more than 17,000 people visiting St. Thomas by cruise ship today, and this will undoubtedly affect St. John. If you’re planning on visiting Trunk Bay today, I would highly recommend picking another beach. 🙂
Five ships are docking in Charlotte Amalie today, including Icon of the Seas which is the largest cruise ship in the world. Icon of the Seas left Miami on its maiden voyage over the weekend. St. Thomas is its second port stop. (It visited St. Kitts yesterday.)
None of these ships are docked in St. John; however, all offer excursions over here. Several of the ships hire their own ferries to shuttle people into Cruz Bay. These ferries arrive at the bulkhead in the Creek, which is near the National Park Visitor Center. Taxis are waiting to pick them up and provide island tours and typically dropoffs to Trunk Bay.
Numerous passengers will likely make their way over on their own using the regular ferry to Cruz Bay. I’m sure the restaurants and shops along Cruz Bay beach will be very busy today.
So where should you go if you’re on St. John today? I would suggest Hawksnest or Jumbie because there are not any food or beverage offerings. That isn’t as appealing to people visiting by ship. Trunk is going to be crawling with people, so I would avoid that at all costs. It’s quite possible that Cinnamon and Maho will be a tad busier than usual too today considering that those two beaches are easy to taxi to, and both have food and beverages for sale. All other beaches should be normal, but our normal right now means rather full.
It’s a busy time of year, folks!
Not on island, but want to see some of the action? You can see what’s happening by checking out some of our webcams. Check out the St. John Spice Cam around 8:45 a.m., 9:15 a.m., and 10:15 a.m. to see how many people are coming in via the regular ferry. (These times are AST, which is an hour ahead of New York City time.) You can also check out The Beach Bar’s barcam to see how many are visiting the restaurant today. See these webcams and more at www.explorestj.com/webcams.
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Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.
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Glad I cruised years ago. Ships these day are huge ugly amusement parks. I sailed on the beautiful, elegant SS Norway in 1988 and 1991.We hung out on St. Thomas the first time. The second time we tendered to Cruz Bay, rented a jeep and discovered how beautiful St. John is. From then on, we just vacationed to St. John.
I’ll be on a cruise ship next week and also plan to visit St John via catamaran. My husband and I honeymooned there 28 years ago so we’re looking forward to getting back to your beautiful little island but I imagine it will be a whole different feel with the crowds. We had such a wonderful, peaceful time back then. Alas, things they are a changin.
It is a shame what is happening to St John. We honeymooned there 40 years ago. We stayed in a friends house. It was so beautiful back then. The roads were mostly dirt and there were very few stores and restaurants. It was such a beautiful island. The Westin wasn’t there then, it was mostly woods and beaches. There were very few homes. Now, it’s so busy. Our friends house was halfway up centerline road and he he had the blueprints for the Westin. It was so beautiful back then. We go back a few times a year now, it sure was beautiful. It’s beautiful now but just so busy. There are way to many cruise ships now.