St. John Island Tour

The last time I was in St. Thomas I went to Paradise Point and went on a tour that included Mountaintop and free time downtown. This time I wanted to see St. John. I wasn’t looking for a beach day so I booked the St. John Island tour through Norwegian.

They handed out black bracelets to everyone going over to St. John. St. John on your own got black, green bracelets went to the St. John beach excursion, and I received yellow for my St. John Island tour.

This is our boat over to St. John.

This looks like the same type of boat as the Orca Song which was the boat for my Kenai Fjords National Park tour our of Seward a couple years ago.

I took a seat on the outside for the views.

Another ship is coming in.

It’s a Princess ship coming in.

Enchanted Princess is the ship.

We’re getting soaked on this ferry. It’s like a water park.

We are approaching St. John.

We have arrived.

After we got off of the boat we were put on safari style buses. This is our bus.

Kevin is our tour guide.

The seating on this safari bus worked out really bad for me. There was a large group who took up the front of the bus. Then in the back there were a few couples who were intent on making sure they each got a “window” seat so I got forced into the middle. 

Our first stop was a viewpoint overlooking Cruz Bay.

Our next stop is another viewpoint. This time we’re overlooking Caneel Bay resort. This resort has been closed since the hurricane in 2017. Someone is going to have to invest $100 million in repairs and not own the property since it’s a National Park.

That is St. Thomas.

Some people found their way to the beach even thought the resort is closed.

Our next stop is overlooking Trunk Bay beach.

That is Jost Van Dyke which is one of the British Virgin Islands.

There are sugar mill ruins across from the entrance to Trunk Bay. There’s also a red, white, and blue trail at Trunk Bay. Our driver warned there are poisonous corals and sea urchins on that trail.

Of course I’m in the middle seat so I’m not getting good pictures, but this is a part of the sugar mill ruins.

This is what I can see of the Trunk Bay entrance from here.

We made another stop that only the driver got out at. He collected bay leaves for us to smell. 

This spot has more sugar mill and rum factory ruins.

Our next stop overlooks big and little Maho beaches.

You can see Tortola from here.

This is a termite nest.

This is what I can see of Maho Bay.

I pretty much gave up trying to shoot pictures from my seat after that. We were also supposed stop at Coral Bay but the driver said the road was closed so we had to back track to the dock. So if you were on an end you got to see anything you missed on the way there. I had the same view both ways in the middle.

We were told to be back at the ferry terminal at 12:15 for a shuttle leaving at 12:30. We were back at 11:35. I walked down to the shopping center.

This gives you an idea of  how far the shopping center is from the ferry terminal.

I’m heading to the taproom.

I got the toasted coconut brown and it was really good. You could taste the coconut in it.

I got there at 11:45 and left at 12:05 to get back to the terminal before 12:15. I wish I had more time here.

It was a three minute walk from the barstool to the white tent where you’re supposed to wait for the shuttle.

We were told to wait under the tent until they called us to board but as soon as our boat was in sight, people started lining up.

I made sure I got a seat upstairs this time.

It looks like I could’ve taken more time because this ferry was supposed to leave at 12:30 but we didn’t. The beach tour buses didn’t return until 12:45-12:50. We pulled out at 12:53. I’m not too happy about losing a half hour out of my day so they could get extra time at the beach.

I met a couple on the water shuttle who weren’t happy with the tour. We were back early and they wanted to see more of the island. I wouldn’t have minded that. Also wouldn’t have minded knowing we we leaving late so I could’ve spent more time at the taproom.

I also heard if you walk from the ferry terminal in the other direction and take a right, there’s a small beach and more bars and restaurants.

It wasn’t perfect but overall the tour accomplished my goal of getting to a new island and another National Park.