Don't know if there would be any alternative to the ferry but you should be fine. We went over on a Sunday in Feb to visit with friends. They actually met us at Tickles and took us back over. They gave us a tour of the whole island (by golf cart) and then we went down to lunch at Heidi's on Honeymoon Beach. We spent a lovely afternoon at the beach and got the (last) 3:15 ferry back. We were in plenty of time for a 5PM sail away at Havensight. I was concerned about whether there wouldn't be room on the last ferry of the day. But my friend, who has stayed there every winter for 13 years, assured us it wouldn't be a problem and that if by any chance the ferry was full, they'd come back and do another run. It wasn't full by any means.

An alternative to doing the trip on your own, would b to see if the ship has a planned excursion to Water Island. They sometimes do and you are gurenteed not to miss the ship.

Thank you both. In your opinions would it be worthwhile to do that or just pick a beach on St. Thomas and spend the day there? I have a 3yo and 6 yo. We have been to St. John, and love it, but want to maximize beach time at this stop.

dochawa wrote:
Thank you both. In your opinions would it be worthwhile to do that or just pick a beach on St. Thomas and spend the day there? I have a 3yo and 6 yo. We have been to St. John, and love it, but want to maximize beach time at this stop.

There is a walk (uphill) to get to Honeymoon beach. Can't remember just how far it is perhaps someone can clarify this for you.

Magen's beach would be great for the little ones, but you would have to take a taxi or I'm pretty sure the cruise line will have a trip to the beach.

Thanks Lydia. How would you compare Megan's Beach to Secret Harbor for the kids and my wife?

Magen's is probably you're best option with the little ones. It has the most facilities. Secret Harbour or Sapphire would be excllent alternatives however not sure if you can use chairs if not a quest at secret harbour. Lindquist aka Smith Bay Park, is my fave, however it could be tough with little children.

They are so different, in my mind.

Magen's is a mile long beach and has a bar, restaurant, picnic tables, bathrooms/showers, They have a boutique and a place to rent kayaks/snorkel gear as well as a trail for the arboretum. I believe the cruise ships contracts taxi's to shuttle their passengers back and forth to Magen's. It very pretty and usually very calm. Not terrific snorkeling as has a flat, smooth, sandy bottom, tho there are fish around that will nibble toes.

Secret Harbor is on east end and a resort beach. It has the same amenities, just more resort style, as far as beach bar, restaurant, dive shop, equipment rental, beach chairs for their guests and there is a swim raft out in the water. Snorkeling may be a better here but you are on your own as far as getting back and forth with taxi's. The beach area is not as long as Magen's.

Both can be crowded depending on time of yr. and cruise ship arrivals on that given day.

Magen's also has lifeguards on duty.

I was too lazy to make coffee this morning so my testiness is running over. Magens is Magens and has no apostrophes and only one "e" on the second syllable. It's the surname of the Danish family who came from St Croix and settled the estate back in the late 17th/early 18th century.

Either Magens or Secret Harbour would be great for children if you can't work out the Water Island logistics (which really should be easy) but Soxman is correct in that the beach chairs at Secret Harbour are for resort guests only. The Aqua Action Dive Shop has some to rent to day visitors but their supply is limited.

Lindqvist a/k/a Smith Bay Park is lovely but as yet there are only very limited facilities so nowhere to grab a drink or a bite.

As far as WI is concerned, you won't be off the ship until about an hour after docking. If your ship is at the Crown Bay port facility you're only a few minutes from the WI ferry but if you're at the WICO (Havensight) dock it's about a 5-10 minute taxi ride across the waterfront. Which ferry you take back depends entirely on what time your ship leaves and how much time you need to get back to it.

Have a great time!

I believe you can "rent' lounge chairs at Secret harbour for some thing like $15 a day. I saw someone doing this a while back. sitting on the sand works too and it's FREE.
There is also a fee for the chairs at magans. Can't give you any details on WI. With two kids, I doubt you'll be doing much sitting!!!

What ever beach you choose. I'd pack three small plastic beach buckets for the kids. This will give them hours of fun. Pouring sand. pouring water. building castles. gathering treasures. A blow-up floaty ring is fun too. These items fit nicely in your suit case and keep the kids occupied with out spending too much...

blu4u wrote:
I believe you can "rent' lounge chairs at Secret harbour for some thing like $15 a day. I saw someone doing this a while back.

Unless things have changed very recently, you can only rent them from the dive shop, as I mentioned. The resort management provides the lounge chairs on the beach only for their guests. It became quite an issue a couple of years back and thus their "policing" became much more stringent.

Interesting. I've never seen much "policing" at S.H. The beach is very "family' low key and caters mainly to the guests which rent around the cove, unlike sapphire which draws a large amount of day criusers, and pushy condo owners. Perhaps the young man offering the chairs in front of the condos (left of the restruant not in front of dive shop) worked for the dive shop and not the resort. Hard to tell. SH is nice place for kids to splash around. But if mom and dad are looking for beach to get thier dirnk on and pass out in lounge chair then it may not be the best place.

blu4u wrote:
Interesting. I've never seen much "policing" at S.H. The beach is very "family' low key and caters mainly to the guests which rent around the cove, unlike sapphire which draws a large amount of day criusers ..

The "policing" and new rules were quite the topic of discussion for a while on many travel forums and came about because of a larger influx of cruise ship visitors coming to the beach resulting in days when paying resort guests found no chairs available to them. Thus the owners of the dive shop filled the gap by making their own investment in chairs to rent to day visitors. It's not a major issue at all.

My observation about the chair rental was from first hand experience a few months ago.

To digress form the topic at hand and address the cruise visitor's general issue of "which beach to spend the day?"....
I personally think that STT is in need of some additional Park-Type-Beaches (like magens and lindquist). Parks would help the cruise industry market STT and preserve our shore line from further intrusive development.
STT has two major "developed" parks (ie legit parking lot, life guards, clean and patrolled) which are fabulous for visitors. The condo beaches are also available to visitors, since every beach in the VI is technically public. Different resorts have different policies abut how they control the resort's ammenities (like resort owned chairs placed on public beach). I think this can be confusing to the day visitor, as some resort owners/hotels like to pretend that they own a private beach.

The beach at Water Island would be very nice for young children.

I never visited when my children were small, but Magen's Bay is a nice place for a beach day off the ship. When I finally had a chance to stay for a week, we were at Sapphire and that's nice for families too. If you get off the ship reasonably early, you can grab a safari taxi to either and back again later without much trouble.

While it's true that the ship won't leave if it's one of it's own excursions that is delayed, they are super expensive and short trips.Not as much bang for your buck, for sure and you can't leave or return when you want. We have 20 cruises under our belts and always do things on our own. Just go earlyish and you'll probably be ready to leave the beach by 2 or 3 and will be back in plenty of time for sail away.