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Christmas is one week away and St. John is gearing up for its arrival! Here is a list of upcoming holiday events…

Sunday, December 17th 

The Governor’s Children’s Christmas Party has been rescheduled for this evening from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in Franklin Powell Park, which is located across from the ferry dock in Cruz Bay. All children up to age 12 can receive a present during this event.

Wednesday, December 20th

Dust off your tacky sweaters and your tinsel, because time for The Tap Room’s annual sweater party and bake-off! The party starts at 7 p.m. and continues until it ends! Bring a dozen or so cookies and/or baked goods to be judged and enjoy! Don’t forget to wear your most festive gear!

The All Island Holiday Party, more commonly called The Prom, was rescheduled for 9 p.m. on Wednesday night after this weekend’s soaking rains. The party starts at 9 p.m. in the courtyard near Sun Dog Cafe.

Thursday, December 21st

Sing St. John will hold its 6th annual Holiday Celebration in Cruz Bay’s Frank Powell Park on Thursday, December 21st, from 6 to 8:30 p.m.

Featuring the St. John Recovery Choir, the event is free and includes songs for Christmas, Hanukkah, Solstice, and the New Year.

The program begins with performances by the Bethany-Emmaus Moravian Joint Choir and the Nazareth Evangelical Lutheran Church Choir, and it concludes with a rousing all-choir rendition of Handel’s “Hallelujah Chorus.”

The Ocama Youth Choir will bring their voices to the bandstand, and the Love City Pan Dragons will fill the park with holiday steel band music.

The event includes a community carol sing, a necessary element for Kristen Carmichael-Bowers, director of Sing St. John.

“It doesn’t feel like the holidays to me until we have had a good old-fashioned carol sing,” Carmichael-Bowers said. ”It’s so good to be among friends and neighbors of all ages, feeling a sense of wonder at that special connection. When we join our different voices together, we produce such a joyful and satisfying tapestry of sound. And when we add the lights and the beautifully decorated park to the experience, ah! It’s a bit of heaven!”

Saturday, December 23rd

The Love City Pan Dragons are holding a Christmas concert to help raise funds for a summer trip to Antigua. The Pan Dragons are scheduled to perform in Antigua Panorama with the Cool & Smooth Ebonites, the home band of their instructor and arranger, Ikema Dyer. Ikema plays steel pan at the Windmill Bar quite often, so chances are, you’ve had the opportunity to see him perform. The event costs just $15 and will feature passed apps and a cash bar. It is being held at 5 p.m. at St. John School of the Arts.

You can purchase tickets via Paypal at www.paypal.me/lovecitypandragons or via Venmo @lovecitypandragons. Please include your name, phone number, and email when you purchase your ticket. Looking to support this trip? You can simply send a donation via either PayPal or Venmo too.

Sunday, December 24th 

I am very sad to share that Santa will not be arriving by ferry as usual. This is an event sponsored by Caneel Bay Resort, and they have decided not to do it this year. I think it goes without saying, but EHI Acquisition (the firm that operated the hotel at Caneel Bay), you are getting a boatload of coal this holiday season.

However, over in Coral Bay, the first annual Coral Bay Holiday Boat Parade will begin at 4:30 p.m. when Santa arrives to greet the children. His visit will be followed by a snowball fight at the Johnny Lime volleyball courts. The boat parade starts at 6 p.m. and there will be live music afterward at Johnny Lime and Salty Mongoose.

A BIG THANKS to our friends in Coral Bay for stepping up and holding this new event for the kids!

I don’t know about you, but I LOVE Christmas time in the islands! Have a great day everyone!

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The island is starting to get busy, which means it’s time to keep an eye on the St. Thomas cruise ship schedule.

Our busy season coincides with the winter months in the States. The colder you all are up there, the busier we tend to get down here. This also holds true for the cruise ships. We’ve seen an increase in people visiting St. John over the past month or so, and now I am starting to see a pretty decent uptick in cruise ship visitors.

You may be wondering why this matters when the larger ships dock over in St. Thomas. (We get the smaller ships that anchor off of St. John, which I posted about last week. Click here to read all about that.) Well those folks, like many of you, prefer to spend their day on St. John. Many of those ships provide their own ferry service to St. John, and then their guests hop into taxis and head to the beach. And overwhelmingly, that beach is Trunk Bay.

So if you have a ton of ships docked in St. Thomas, you may want to skip Trunk Bay. Next Wednesday, for example, has more than 15,000 people visiting on five ships in St. Thomas. I’d highly recommend picking another beach that day.

So how do you know when there are a lot of ships scheduled to dock in St. Thomas? VINow.com keeps a comprehensive list on its website. It includes the name of the ship, the number of people expected to be on board, and the hours that it will be in port. Here’s a quick portion of next week’s schedule:

WICO is the dock near Havensight in St. Thomas. CB stands for Crown Bay, which is also in St. Thomas. If a ship is scheduled to anchor off of St. John, it will say Cruz Bay on the schedule.

If you would like to see which ships are scheduled to visit, please click here to visit vinow.com. Schedules are posted months in advance.

Informtion you can use right here on ExploreSTJ.com! Want to know more about the island? Consider taking an island tour with me! Explore STJ Island Tours are rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor. You can learn more about my tours, plus read my 5-star reviews at www.explorestj.com/tour.

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Well folks, I finally have a positive update to share regarding the current state of the now-defunct Caneel Bay Resort.

The National Park recently announced that it will begin environmental cleanup at Caneel Bay this winter. The exact start date has yet to be announced.

Asbestos-containing materials have been found in various buildings, in piping systems and in hurricane-damaged roof debris found on the ground at the former Caneel Bay Resort. These materials “were judged to be not friable, meaning that it could not be crushed by hand and did not present an immediate risk to human health or the environment. However, many of the (asbestos-containing materials) are exposed to wind, rain, and sunlight, which are likely to weather or deteriorate the materials with time, increasing the potential for asbestos fibers to be released to the environment and present an exposure risk,” according to the National Park.

Lead-based paint and other hazards have also been found on the property.

Once work begins this winter, it is expected to last two to three weeks. The debris is expected to fill six 20-foot shipping containers and will be removed from the island. It will be disposed of in a permitted landfill in the continental United States, according to the National Park.

Anticipated future removal actions include the removal of contaminated soil in Caneel Bay’s landscaping, maintenance, and engineering area, as well as the removal of soil and waste from the landfill near Honeymoon Beach.

With regards to whether or not Caneel Bay will reopen as a resort, that remains to be seen. The land that Caneel Bay Resort sits on was supposed to become part of the Virgin Islands National Park on October 1st, however, that did not occur due to a messy federal court battle, which is essentially all about the definition of a “gift.” It’s pretty silly if you ask me, but that’s what’s happening. The latest document filed in this case was a mediation report that indicated both sides are at a complete impasse. The trial has been postponed indefinitely. It’s an unfortunate situation all around.

Want to know exactly what’s happening at Caneel Bay? Click the links below to get additional information.

• Caneel Bay Will Not Become Part of the National Park Today – Oct. 1, 2023
• National Park Service Announces Plan to Reopen Caneel Bay – July 31, 2023
• Caneel Bay: The Messy Legal Battle for Ownership – June 11, 2023

Want to learn more about St. John? Take an island tour with us!

Learn more here –> www.explorestj.com/tour Full & half days available. Rated “Excellent” on TripAdvisor.

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