St. Thomas, USVI – This is heaven for shoppers and tourist-junk-hell for almost everyone else, although there are some nice secure beaches like Magens Bay for about $8 US taxi fare and about $3 US entry fee. If you dock in the Crown Point yacht basin instead of the usual Havensight area, consider taking a water taxi from nearby Tickles restaurant (walking distance from the ship) to Water Island. This is a local hideaway with a very quiet beach just over the island crest. The ship’s concierge can give the ferry schedule. It is the antithesis of the rest of St. Thomas and is kept a quiet secret by the locals. On this cruise we took a taxi ($8 US per person tip included) and then the ferry ($3 US) from Red Hook (alternately $7 US from downtown Charlotte) to neighboring Cruz Bay, St. Johns (again, the ship’s concierge can give you the ferry schedules). We have been to St. Thomas and/or St. John’s almost a dozen times, and the less-developed St. Johns is infinitely more pleasant in our opinion. I think that future cruise itineraries may even spend a day at each island. In any case, watch the ferry schedule closely since you need to allow time to return to the ship. The north shore beaches on St. Johns (Hawksbill, Trunk, Cinnamon) are run by the US National Park Service and are world famous. Open air taxis will take you from the Cruz Bay ferry dock to any of these for about $4 US, or you can hike from the park headquarters building to Honeymoon beach – the rangers can give you maps and specifics. Each north shore beach has good snorkeling around the peninsulas which separate them, and some have their own snorkel trails with underwater signage (but more people). The fish are protected here and are larger and more colorful than on some other islands – with luck you might even see a Hawksbill turtle or spotted moray, both of which I saw this time.
Finally, a word about cruise fares – rumor has it that RCCL/Celebrity will institute a uniform pricing policy which disallows the rebates which some cruise agents offer their clients. I do not know how this will play out, but I hope it does not backfire -- other fine cruise lines like Holland offer a very competitive product and will increase market share if their prices are much lower than Celebrity’s. In any case, I recommend surfing the Internet to find the itinerary, ship, and price you want. Websites like www.cruise.com or www.icruise.com are good places to start. The former seems to cover a wider array of cruise lines and the latter seems to have more detailed (by cabin category) pricing information. After you know what the price should be (and, again, the pre-Christmas season is a great time for bargains), check with your personal agent since the agencies sometimes purchase blocks of cabins to be sold by a certain date at even lower rates. Some of these agencies (and unaffiliated groups like www.cruisemates.com) have e-mail newsletters to alert you to cruise bargains. On this cruise I used Pavlus Travel’s website/cruise link and booked the cruise directly on the net, down to the cabin choice) at an even further discount. You can give your credit card number over the phone if you like. Later, when we received a promotional coupon through Celebrity’s Captain’s Club, I simply called Pavlus and they added that credit to our final bill, which was about $560 US per person for a category 7 outside cabin (no balcony but a large window), including port charges and taxes.
What other vacation could give you so much at such a reasonable cost! But do not forget to budget for tips of about $10-15 US per passenger per day for the wonderful staff. Celebrity now offers a fixed tipping option by which one simply puts the tips on one’s shipboard account. I prefer to tip personally, since I tend to be more generous than the usual guidelines (which are left in your cabin with the envelopes for tips). After all, the great staff is what makes the cruise so enjoyable. I am always angered when cruisers spend money on all sorts of tourist junk and expensive shore excursions only to short-change the people who really matter. Instead, please put your discretionary spending in the hands of those who deserve it, and don’t just give them an envelope with money, write each a personal note about what you specifically enjoyed about their service. If they had been born in America, they might have been your own kids.
Last but not least, have a wonderful cruise!
