Let's Book Your Cruise Blog

Is it the cheapest way to get to St. John when your cruise ship stops in St. Thomas? No, but it’s the easiest.

I’ve heard great things about St. John for years, but I’d never really spent much time there. This island in the U.S. Virgin Islands isn’t geographically far from the popular cruise port in St. Thomas, but the layout of the island makes it logistically challenging to get to St. John and back during a port-day stop of eight hours or so.

So when I saw that Royal Caribbean was offering an “excursion” that was basically just a transfer to St. John and back, I decided to give it a try. I did a similar excursion last summer where I purchased a “Pompeii On Your Own” transfer to the archeological site that included transportation only.

Like many cruise ship excursions, we met in the theater onboard the cruise ship and were led off the ship as a group to meet our tour. We took a short walk through the port area to where a ferry boat was waiting. Our “on your own” group was combined with several other groups that had purchased island tours or beach days in St. John. The picture above shows roughly how far we had to walk from the cruise ship to the ferry boat.

After a short ride of about 40 minutes, we were dropped off in Cruz Bay, St. John. We had about four hours before we needed to be back to catch the ferry back to the cruise port. After walking around a little get the lay of the land, we stopped for breakfast (and a few cocktails) at the well-known High Tide restaurant.

The tour’s short time frame really only left us enough time to walk around the downtown area, which wasn’t particularly large. It gave us time to get a taste of St. John — literally and figuratively — but I wouldn’t say it was enough time to really see the island. We spent the day walking around and drinking some beers with our toes in the sand, which honestly isn’t a bad way to spend a Monday.

The downtown did have a small beach, but it wasn’t really suitable for swimming. If it’s a beach day you’re looking for, you’re best to spend a little more to get an excursion that takes you directly to one of St. John’s famous beaches. We only paid $67/person for the transfer/on your own excursion, which I thought was a pretty reasonable price.

I probably wouldn’t do this excursion again, but without anything else really calling me in St. Thomas, it was a good way to spend a day and get a bit more familiar with a new place. I’ll definitely be back to St. John to see more of the island!