Travel Tips

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CSY ketch

We came into St. Thomas for the second time on Monday January 1st, and the boat docked exactly where it was before, but this time there were two different ships ahead of us. One of them was Carnival Destiny that we had just seen in Barbados.

We got off the boat about 9 am, and took a taxi to Red Hook where we took the ferry over to St. John. We saw a CSY ketch on a mooring there. We got on the ferry and went up to the top deck. I wanted to sit in the shade, but to be able to take pictures. I remember the wheelhouse of 10 years ago to be such that we could sit on the deck beside it and see the helmsman steering with his (bare) feet. But now that wasn't possible.

The ferry was supposed to leave on the hour, but quite a few last minute people came on board at the end - we didn't actually leave until about 10 after 10. We arrived in St. John about 15 minutes later. The ferry was $5 each for this trip

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Schedule for ferry to Charlotte Amalie

The first thing I did was look to see when we'd have to return if we were going to go back to Charlotte Amalie. We've never taken that ferry, and it takes longer to make that run (and it costs $10 each), but it is a shorter cab ride to get to Havensight, where the ship is docked. Those boats left Cruz Bay at 15 past the hour and got to Charlotte Amalie 45 minutes later. That meant that the latest we could leave Cruz Bay was 2:15 and 1:15 would be better.

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Steps with sign

The next thing I did was find where St. John Spice was - this is a shop that is run by Ruth who was on the AOL Virgin Islands board. So I climbed the stairs (with the sign that said "Do not sit on stairs") and at the top I saw a lady cleaning the glass door. I said - I'm looking for Ruth. She was Ruth.

So I bought stuff for people there, and I decided to have the stuff for two of my daughters shipped, which they would do for me. They also said they would mail my roll of film from Dominica, although the PO was closed for New Years Day, and was going to be closed Tuesday for the national day of morning for Pres. Ford.

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Taxi area near ferry dock

Shopping took about a hour, and then we walked around Cruz Bay a little bit. After Bob used the facilities near the dock, we decided to have lunch.

We went to a place called High Tide which was across from the ferry dock. Bob had coconut shrimp ($11) which was an appetizer, and I had a chicken club sandwich ($10) which included a pasta salad. I had iced tea ($2) and he had a virgin colada ($6.50). We ate out on the deck (top picture) where we could see the ferry terminal.

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Sitting in the shade

I had told Bob to go get a ferry ticket when we arrived and he refused, so he went to get one now when there wasn't a line, and there wasn't a line because they wouldn't sell him a Charlotte Amalie ferry ticket until 13:00. They said it was because the Red Hook ferry left first and they didn't want people to get confused.

So we sat at the ferry dock with our packages (for the other families). I sat in the shade. Bob sat near the ticket office in the sun.

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Maasdam from the ferry

I had never ridden the Charlotte Amalie ferry before - we'd gone from Red Hook the one time that we'd taken a ferry. I took a bunch of pictures on the way back - we saw someone parasailing. We came around the point where we could see the Sky Ride, and then docked across on the other side from the ship about 2 pm. Then we got a taxi around to the ship.

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Route on the map on the ship

Jan 3

Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas for Parasailing