Good morning, St. Thomas!! One of our very favorite Caribbean islands. This is one island we would like to come to for an entire week. You can easily catch a ferry to St. John, Tortola or St. Croix from St. Thomas so you could be as busy, or not, as you prefer.
We were supposed to meet our tablemates from last night on the pier as they wanted to go to Honeymoon Beach with us. We walked around and waited for about 10 minutes but couldn’t find them. We found out later that day that they had gone past the gate and were waiting on the other side for us. We never caught sight of each other : - ( We couldn’t wait any longer because we were determined that we were not going to miss the ferry to Water Island again…like we had the last two times we were on St. Thomas! We walked through the Havensight shops , all the way to the exit where the taxi stand was located. If we were just going downtown, we could have caught a safari cab once we got off the ship but since our destination was not a regular one that a lot of people would go to, we had to get to the taxi stand. We were waiting to leave and another couple got into the van. We started chatting and we asked them where they were going (Emerald Beach) and told them where we were headed when they asked. They thought Water Island sounded perfect and asked if we minded if they came along with us for the day. So, we picked up a couple of great travel companions from the great state of Texas.
The ferry leaves from Tickles Dockside Pub over in the Crown Bay Marina.
There are two cruise docks on St. Thomas: Havensight and Crown Bay. The town of Charlotte Amalie is between the two locations so we had to travel a bit of a distance to get there. We arrived well in advance for the 10:30am ferry. We spent the time getting to know our new travel buddies and all piled on to the ferry when the captain arrived and opened the cabin (ie: removing the rope across the open doorway).
The ferry was completely full and left early so we were extra glad that we got there in good time. The ferry costs $10 per person for a round trip. We met a couple of cops from Montreal on the ferry and they joined our group for the day as well.
There are two cruise docks on St. Thomas: Havensight and Crown Bay. The town of Charlotte Amalie is between the two locations so we had to travel a bit of a distance to get there. We arrived well in advance for the 10:30am ferry. We spent the time getting to know our new travel buddies and all piled on to the ferry when the captain arrived and opened the cabin (ie: removing the rope across the open doorway).
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| Ferry schedule |
The ferry was completely full and left early so we were extra glad that we got there in good time. The ferry costs $10 per person for a round trip. We met a couple of cops from Montreal on the ferry and they joined our group for the day as well.
On arrival at Water Island, we all walked up the hill and then turned to the right at the top of the hill to make our way down to our own little bit of paradise.
The walk takes a leisurely 10 minutes and the beach is powdery white sand and the water is crystalline blue. Usually the only people on the beach are a few adventurous cruisers who take the ferry over and the rest are either year-round residents or those who are renting properties on Water Island for vacation.
The walk takes a leisurely 10 minutes and the beach is powdery white sand and the water is crystalline blue. Usually the only people on the beach are a few adventurous cruisers who take the ferry over and the rest are either year-round residents or those who are renting properties on Water Island for vacation.
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| Bathrooms |
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| Heidi's Honeymoon Grill for a bite to eat |
We swam, walked the beach and laid in the sun all morning. There is a beach bar at the far left hand side of the beach and also a grill at the far right hand side if you want to have lunch. The food is very good but it will cost you $10 for a burger and coleslaw...but it's a good burger!! Around 1:30pm, the Kon Tiki party boat arrived and the beach started to fill up. Fortunately, we planned to catch the 2:15pm ferry back to St. Thomas so we didn’t feel too crowded for very long. I guess the word is getting out about our ‘secret’ beach! We headed back to the dock a little before 2pm and waited in the little stand that held the residents’ post office boxes and a good ‘put and take’ library as well.
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| Water Island dock with St. Thomas in the background |
The trip back across only takes about 15 minutes, at the most, and there was a cab already waiting to take us downtown or back to the ship. I had planned on doing some browsing at the Vendor’s Market in Charlotte Amalie but Dave’s hip and leg were bothering him and I decided that there really wasn’t anything critical I wanted to buy and we just headed back to the ship.
We grabbed a late lunch at the buffet, took a shower and a nap before supper. We had our assigned table for four all to ourselves for supper. After supper, we went to the family comedy show and the Welcome Aboard show and then crashed. Sun, sand and surf sure makes a girl (and guy) pretty tired : - )
Can you give me general directions from the water ferry drop off area to Honeymoon Beach? Do you just follow the road to the right? Are there signs? Thanks!
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