St John USVI

Our Caribbean cruise is an all-inclusive affair. That is, the price we paid includes everything, such as meals, drinks, and excursions in every port. We also received some shipboard credit that we’ve put to good use for spa treatments and reservations at the ship’s fine-dining restaurant.

To make the most of it, I signed us up for an excursion at every port more than a year ago. However, Garry wanted to retain a little flexibility along the way. I researched the ports we were scheduled to visit and identified three where we could do our own thing in our own time. The first of these was Cruz Bay on the island of St. John, which we visited today. The second is St. Barthélemy, which we’ll visit tomorrow.

Today was designated a beach day. One of the excursions on offer involved a guided walk to a nearby beach. After a little Google Maps research, I decided we could do this without a guide and choose our own departure time. St John is also part of the U.S. Virgin Islands. As a result, everyone on board had to be individually cleared by immigration agents this morning, regardless of whether they were going ashore.

The immigration agents ran late. They didn’t board until after 9:30am, so every excursion was running late. Cruz Bay is also another tender port, so passengers booked on excursions automatically received priority on the tender. You could say that the decision to do our own thing paid off today. We eventually caught a tender ashore around 10:30am, then made our way to Honeymoon Beach via the Lind Point Trail.

The trail features two routes around Lind Point. The Upper Trail takes you to a lookout offering a panoramic view of Cruz Bay township and Galge Cove, while the Lower Trail offers more shade during the heat of the day. We took the upper trail to the beach, about two kilometres in total. The view from the lookout was well worth the climb. The beach was equally divine. We’ve voted this beach the most aquamarine water we’ve seen so far.

Our beach time was briefly interrupted by a passing shower. However, I took to the water and thus was happy to get wet. We decided to head back after a couple of hours, as fresh rain clouds were building on the horizon. We timed our departure to perfection as the heavens opened minutes after we started walking back along the Lower Trail. Thank goodness I had the forethought to pack an umbrella this morning. Given the inclement weather, we decided to return to the boat rather than explore the town.

Today’s fun fact. St John USVI covers the same land area as Manhattan. My total number of countries visited now stands at 81. I’m delighted to have finally reached my eighties.