Starting to figure out my options for the March cruise and see now that our stop in St Thomas has a total of five ships in port that day. How does the port handle almost 20k people in at the same time?
All I’d like to do is do the skyride to the top, and find a beach to plop down on. I’ve been eyeing Sapphire Beach as it looks amazing and it’s supposed to be quieter. Now I’m concerned there will be hoards of folks all over.
We were there in Feb 2023. There are two different piers. We had to dock at the newer/farther pier because we were such a big ship. Do you know which ships will be there? That could make a difference.
Below you can see that there were at least 3 ships when we were here, 2 of them being mega ships (background). It didn’t seem crowded to me. We did the pirate museum and the gondola. There were plenty of seats at the top. Get a Bushwhacker!
If you aren’t already over there, I do encourage the Cruise Critic message boards.
St. Thomas/St. John - Cruise Critic Community
I get a lot of helpful feedback there, even if the responses aren’t quite as rapid as they are here.
Icon of the seas, ms Nieuw Statendam, Norwegian Aqua, Celebrity Beyond.
We’ll be on the massive Carnival Celebration. Third arrival of the day after the ms and Icon. I’m trying to find a day pass or similar setup.
Oh I’ve been on CC for a while. I much prefer the culture of this forum though 
Absolutely. I do find that if I ask early enough the info I need does find me. They have a solid number of faithful posters. The board is really strict about where you post your question, so it can be aggravating.
I wish I could remember who we were next to. We were on the massive Oasis. That’s the Nieuw Amsterdam that you can see in the foreground.
I seem to remember an excursion that involved a shuttle boat to another island that rented golf carts for the beach? Is that on your radar?
No, but that sounds fun. DW wouldn’t like the idea of going off to another island and getting in a tangle trying to get back though.
if it’s through the ship, though, it is guaranteed
To clarify… What is guaranteed is that they will ensure you get back to the ship. It may be via a smaller boat if the ship has to leave due to tides, charges, etc. It won’t wait indefinitely. But if you book an excursion through the cruise they handle the logistics of getting you to the ship.
Assuming, of course, that you haven’t told the guide you’re going off on your own and will make your own way back. That makes the cruiseline getting you to the ship null and void.
If I remember correctly they have 2 ship ports:
Typically DCL, Norwegian, Carnival, Royal (except Oasis and Allure), and Celebrity dock at Havensight while Cunard, Holland America, Princess, and Royal’s Oasis and Allure dock at Crown Bay.
Granted, they’re only like a 10 minute drive from each other, but they probably won’t all be at the same port.
Yes. You and presumably 60-150 of your fellow passengers.
Yep. But sometimes they can’t hold the ship.
We did an excursion through Disney to Drake’s Seat (quick stop and picture at an overlook) > Magen’s Beach > Skyride.
All the views were beautiful, and the beach was nice, but it was getting more and more crowded as our excursion left for the next stop (we only got 2 hrs there). We were there on the early end though and were able to buy some front row chairs (they were extra not included with our excursion but we wanted some dedicated shade as my family is not all very heat tolerant).
There was SOOOO much space up at the restaurant at the top of the Skyride so it was no issue finding a table up there, and the line for the gondola itself was long, but moved along pretty decently. They had exact numbers of chairs for people who were next to load to sit in so they could tell what room they had left for each gondola and were booking it through that line.
Sapphire Beach looked good. I also had Emerald beach on our short list to try based on reviews of it being quiet and out of the way. But our family also wanted to check out the views from Drake’s Seat & the Skyride so we picked something that included those plus a beach.
