Thread: St. John By The Surf Report

We did this excursion in September 2009. The following is what I wrote in my Trip Report from the cruise..

We had been to St. Thomas before and wanted to see some of the area surrounding St. John since we heard that the snorkeling there is beautiful. We booked the St. John By the Surf excursion offered through Royal Caribbean.

We left the Ship and headed onto the Pier area looking for someone holding our "St. John by Surf" sign and didn't see anyone. We were approached by a Royal Caribbean employee who asked if she could help us and we told her the name of our tour, she said the driver was running a few minutes late and would be there momentarily and pointed out where the others on our tour were waiting. We introduced ourselves and within a couple minutes our Driver arrived, his name was Eighty-Eight. He asked where we were all from, and each place we mentioned he had a story about someone he knew who he just dropped off to college there

We loaded into his vehicle, it was a taxi and I knew to grab the very back seat since the taxi drivers in St. Thomas border on demolition derby drivers. I didn't realize until we started driving that we were heading to Red Hook to board our boats for the trip to St. John. We chatted with the other people on the excursion about the fact that we didn't realize our excursion would also include what felt like a roller coaster ride to the boats Eighty eight played some real good music for us on the ride so the whole experience was really very cool We had a lot of fun before we even boarded the boats.

Once we got to the boats, we were instructed on the safety equipment and procedures. This excursion provided 2 person boats, they had similar to inflatable bumper sides, but the bottoms were fiberglass, as were the seats. We had to wear our life jackets whenever we were moving in the boat. This was a little bit of a bummer for Mike and I. We've had many boats in the past and normally just left our jackets within grabbing distance. We also thought if they're going to make us wear them, could we get life vests and not those goofy cheap orange ones with no back to them that seem to choke you if you really had to use them We had a hard time not being annoyed with the guide and his assistant who weren't wearing their life jackets after telling us the importance of wearing them We decided to not make an issue about it, unless we weren't within ear shot of the Guide

We headed out to St. John, of course Mike always likes to be last, so even though we were launched first, he waved the other 2 couples ahead of us. We followed the guide across the channel to St. John's and stopped for some pictures at a couple areas while the guide told us what we were looking at. There were names to the things, but I didn't have a pen or paper to jot them down. We then headed to our first snorkel destination where we were instructed on the best way to get off and back on the boat. Luckily we got to nix the life jacket when we were snorkeling, but had to wear the snorkel vest. I'm not sure which was worse for me? The jacket that was uncomfy around my neck and shoulders or the snorkel vest with the strap floating where I didn't want it the whole time? I decided to just use the waist strap and put the other one, that goes between the legs, around my waist also

The snorkeling was the prettiest we had ever seen/done Mike was so engrossed in snorkeling that we ended up in different areas. The Guide blew the whistle 5 times and he still didn't hear him I had just put my fins back on to go get Mike and he finally looked up to the rest of us being on the boats and waiting for him He apologized to everyone and the Guide took it in stride and said he could see where he wouldn't hear him since the snorkeling was very good where we were.

We headed off to snorkeling site #2, which was even better than #1. We even saw a tiny octopus, just a little guy and he was blending well with the sand but it was so cool to see.

After our snorkeling stops, we went over to see an area of St. John's where the Guide lived from the shoreline. The guide informed us how expensive it is to live in St. John's because everything is imported and their only source of income is tourism. He said milk is $10/gallon and a loaf of bread is $6 He and his wife had just had a baby and he said only cigarettes and rum are cheap there, so unless your a smoking alcoholic, and the baby wasn't, it could be very costly!

This tour is a bit pricey, but worth the money and I would highly recommend it If you're looking for a semi-private excursion this was similar even though booked through the ship. There were only 3 couples in addition to our 2 guides on this tour.

Some pictures from the Tour...

More pictures...

Lovely! Thanks Judy!

Great pictures and report!

Sometimes, half the fun is Getting There!

What sort of boat was used to get you to St.John?

Thank you Char and LuLu

LuLu, the small boats in photo 1, 2 and 3 of Post #2 were what we used to get from Red Hook to St. John. The whole tour was on the water so when we got to the snorkeling spots you just got off your boat into the water and used the back part of the motor to climb back into the boat. At the snorkeling spots the boats were hooked to each other and the guide's boat would be anchored to a snorkeling rope/anchor.

My DH is backing up the boat in photo 1. It was a very nice small tour that really felt more like a private tour since it was just the 2 of us in our boat.

Oh, so you went from Red Hook to St. John in the little two-man boats. That must have been an experience for sure!

DH and I both loved it! Even though we were following the guide it was wonderful to go around the coast of St. John in your own private boat, and those little boats could reach surprising speeds.

Really, the only down side, to us, was having to wear those orange life vests; since we've both grown up on boats we're used to ski jacket type life vests and usually don't wear them unless we're in the water while waterskiing, kneelboarding, or tubing. I understand safety first, but the guides didn't have theirs on

Judy, wow! That looked like a ton of fun