Buck Island from a Cruise ship
 

We will be traveling in December with Royal Caribbean and will be docking at St. Croix. I am wondering whether it is worthwhile to take the tour to Buck Island for $100/person. According to the Cruise ship's itinerary it would be 45 minutes ride to Christiansted 40 minutes on the boat and an hour snorkeling. Is it possible to get a tour locally that would allow for more play time while still getting back to the cruise ship in time?

How long will the ship be docked? All of the tours to Buck Island leave from C'sted, and I don't think any of them spend more than an hour on the snorkel trail - it doesn't really take that long, and it is in a fairly unprotected area, so if the winds are up it can get a little rough. The half day snorkel trips (which is what I think this probably is) are $70 pp from C'sted, so the extra $30 is probably just to cover the transportation between F'sted and C'sted (not bad if you are on your own, but if there is a group of you you could probably do better getting a cab on your own or even renting a car). Think about just getting a cab to C'sted on your own, and then you can either explore around C'sted later or get another cab to a good beach for a couple of hours and really enjoy the island (Cane Bay on the North Shore is a personal favorite - exceptionally close to the wall so there is terrific snorkeling - or there are several good ones on the west end that are within a mile or so of the ship dock). You can also hire a cab to give you an independent tour of the island - I've heard that most of them will probably charge you $50 for a good tour, including taking you through the rain forest, to the Whim Plantation, Botanical Gardens, and the rum factory.

For a first time visitor to Croix, I think that Buck Island is worth it if the weather is good (and as long as the winds aren't too strong from the north that day), but Croix has alot of other things going for it, too, so if you can't make it to Buck don't feel too bad. Crois has no shortage of good beaches and really good snorkeling from shore.

tejana, does cane bay beach have walk-in snorkeling? are there more beaches with walk-in snorkeling on st. croix?

Cane Bay definitely has walk in snorkeling - people even scuba from shore because the Cane Bay Wall is close enough that you can swim out to a wall dive. Davis Bay (a couple of miles away, where the Carambola is) also has excellent snorkeling from shore, but you don't get the whole local beach and beach bar atmosphere there that you would at Cane Bay.

The east end (F'sted side) is probably the only part where the snorkeling isn't good, but the trade off is that it is so protected from the wind (and has no breaking reef) that it is usually smooth as glass for just beach swimming. It has been a long time since I have been around to the south or east ends of the islands to visit the beaches, so I can't speak with much authority on now the snorkeling is there. The reef and the wall are closest to shore on the North side, so those are usually known as better for snorkeling.

I think most of the "beach excursions" that the cruise ships plan either go to Divi or to Chenay, but I think that lately they have also been doing deals with the Carambola to use their beach (great snorkeling) and the hotel facilities for the day. That is terrific, but if that is all you want, just grab a cab and tell them to take you to Cane Bay, and when to pick you up. Definitely a real local beach, with VERY few cruiseshippers.

The ship is docked from 8 am to 5 pm. One hour just seems too short to me. Is Cane Bay a good alternative to Buck Island? I am thinking about going there instead of Buck Island. How do they compare in rough weather something we have no way of predicting.

Completely different experience. You go to Buck Island for the underwater trail - an official underwater national park - with a truly amazing variety of coral formations. I had really forgotten how beautiful it is until we went with friends last year (we hadn't been in about 10 years). But that is really all there is to it other than a nice sail out there (but it is a long enough trip that none of the boats actually rely on wind power - you will be using the engine). Cane Bay is a classic local beach that has very good snorkeling (especially if you are adventurious enough to snorkel out over the wall itself - very creepy when the sea floor basically disappears!), plus a couple of good beach bars a very short walk away (two within a few feet, a third one a couple of hundred feet down the road but worth the trip). If the weather is a little rough, Cane Bay is better than Buck, since Buck is basically unprotected, but you might still get a little more chop than normal since the winds will be coming from the North. Personally, with that limited amount of time my choice would probably be to hire a cab for an hour or two to give me a little bit of a tour of the high points of the island, then settle in to Cane Bay for a few hours and just relax, snorkel, drink, eat and relax some more. The "Eat" bar across the street from the beach has some of the best burgers on the island, Calvin's place (Spratnet) is an open air bar right on the beach with good drinks, great bartenders and a decent kitchen, and Off the Wall (a couple of hundred feet east of the main beach) has good drinks, hammocks and terrific pizza. Cane Bay Dive Shop is right across the street from the beach (connected to Eat), and has plenty of snorkel equipment for rent.

You've convinced me - We're heading to Cane Bay. It must be the call of the burger or maybe it was the hammock. With our limited amount of time, I think snorkeling by the wall sounds the best. Thanks.

There are no wrong answers, but I can't imagine anyone not enjoying a day at Cane Bay.

tejana, tell me what 'the wall' is. We are taking Celebrity's excursion to Bucks Island in a few weeks. I am not a strong swimmer and decided that I will wait and see what the seas are like before entering the water...If I am hesitant, I will just stay onboard the boat. How deep is the underwater trail...please inform me about it...thank you

cd - a wall is basically an underwater cliff, a vertical "wall" that drops hundreds or thousands of feet. At Cane Bay, if you are swimming on the surface about 150 yards from the beach, one moment you can see the bottom about 30 or 40 feet down, the next moment you see nothing but dark blue, as the bottom drops off to 200, 500 and then 3000 feet very abruptly. A wall dive is nirvana for divers (although you really have to keep an eye on your gauges so you don't accidently go too deep), and the location and depth of the Cane Bay Wall is one of the main reasons that the US Navy used to do so many deep sea submarine exercises in St Croix - the sea floor drops to more than a half mile deep just 150 yards from shore. Buck Island isn't near the wall - it has a more gradual slope surrounding it. In both places there is great snorkeling in pretty shallow water, and often the tall coral heads are so close to the surface that you have to swim around them or consciously hold your breath and glide over them quickly. According to the NPS website, the Buck Island trail itself is in no more than 12 feet of water.

and cd - if I remember right, because the Buck Island trail is a national park, you are actually required to follow your "guide" through the trail the first time. The last time we were there, one of our friends was a really nervous swimmer, and she was fine because she just hung on to a ring that the guide towed. After that she was fine on her own, although she was one of the first people back on the boat <g>

Thanks tejana, I hope our guide has a ring!

Should we be concerned about anything (man of war, sharks) at Cane Bay near the wall?

lusty... nope. Probably a barracuda or two, but other than that you will probably see nothing bigger than the occasional ray or turtle.

Sounds good. I'm not that comfortable swimming into an area with no bottom in sight.

it's a fun experience to snorkel over the wall, just to say you did it, but you will probably turn around quickly and return to the point where you can see clear bottom and coral -- snorkeling is only good when you can see something!

Does anyone have any ideas about renting a car versus getting a taxi? Obviously the car rental allows for more freedom but the taxi might provide us more information? Cost comparison? There are 4 of us.

lusty - I've never tried to rent a car in F'sted, so I don't know how long the checkin/checkout process will take, particularly if there are a lot of cruiseship people doing the same thing (I know that sometimes the checkout process seems like FOREVER at the airport, and there you are only dealing with a couple of dozen people with car reservations on the same flight). Cost-wise, you are probably looking at 50-70 for the day for a rental, maybe less.

I believe I can have it delivered by the pier, but I'm wondering if I would feel comfortable driving on the left side.

good point - it isn't hard but it takes some getting used to (it's a whole lot easier if someone is riding shotgun when you are trying to make a right hand turn, though!). I would be more worried about finding the right roads to get from F'sted over to Cane Bay - it isn't really really bad, but there is a mid-island neighborhood that is confusing, and not all of the roads are well-marked, shall we say. Once you get on The Beast (the road across the mountain that connects to the North Shore road) you are fine, but I would really think about the comfort factor of having someone else doing the driving (plus you would get a nice tour thrown in).

I think I'm renting a taxi. Maybe I'll get a tour thrown in!

hey lusty - I'm in St Croix for Thanksgiving week, so I can give you an update regarding Cane Bay. If your ship is docked on Sunday, you should have a great time. If you are one of the Tuesday ships, you should know that "Eat @ Cane Bay" (the beach bar with the great burgers) is closed on Tuesdays. It might not make a difference to you, but I thought you should know. You should also know that November has not been kind to the island - the most rain in history (22 inches in one 3 day period earlier in the month, and way too much every other day, too) has really taken a toll on the North Shore (on the entire island, actually), and the winds have been up and from the north every day. Weve been here almost a week and haven't been diving or snorkeling yet, but we did notice that yesterday it had finally calmed down enough for some snorkelers at Cane Bay, and today was the first day I saw anyone diving on the north side of the island at all. There is some pretty significant road and beach damage. If it turns out the North Shore is too windy the day you are in, definitely make a trip on the West side (the Fredricksted side) up to Rhythms's Beach Bar - we were there on Tuesday and it was great. They have a good kitchen and they are on a really nice beach on the calm side of the island. Not much in the way of snorkeling, but a very nice day.

and I feel really bad because I think cd's ship was docked here on Tuesday. I have no idea if the Buck Island boats even went out, but if they did, it was probably rough. Visibility on the North side was beyond awful on Monday, following a really really REALLY bad rain on Sunday night.

tejana, we just returned last night from our cruise and yes, we were in St Croix Tueday the 23rd. We did go to Bucks Island but it was rough, very rough. The boat ride reminded me of an amusement park ride :-) The boat even lost her steering halfway there and we were at the mercy of the tossing sea until the crew got it fixed, thank heaven they did! There were about 20 on board and I saw five get really sea sick. Once we got to Bucks Island, my husband snorkeled, I did not, it was just too rough and he said he could not see much because of the conditions. It was still an adventure and I am not sorry we went.

cd - I really feel for you. We were in Croix for two weeks, and it was only last Friday that it finally calmed down enough to feel "normal" in terms of North Shore diving. We go Thanksgiving week every year, and I've never seen it like this. The air temp was in the low 80s during the day, and sometimes got into the high 60s at night. It was actually too cold to swim in the pool, and for about 10 days the north shore surf was so rough that it was bordering on dangerous. They apparently have had a very bad hurricane season - not any real winds or storms to speak of, but there was enough activity around them that they got a helluva lot of rain from several passing fronts. There is significant road damage, but a lot of the beach damage, particularly on the west end, has apparently corrected itself (the sand came back).

We will be docking on Sunday, so we may try out the burgers. After reviewing the weather reports and this post we won't go to Buck Island. We will take our chances at either Cane Bay or the West Side. This site has been fabulous in planning our trip.

lusty - Sundays at Cane Bay are great. "Eat @ Cane Bay" (the bar/restaurant with the great burgers) opens at 11, and on Sundays they have both the regular menu and a great brunch menu (they will be packed, btw). Both "Eat" and Spratnet (the bar right on the beach) will have bands starting about 3. But if it is just too cold or windy to get in the water on the Cane Bay side, you will love Rhythms beach bar over on the west end -- calm water, a really nice beach, and a great beach bar.

If you take a cab over to Cane Bay, ask your cab driver if he will take the Crique Dam road instead of Mahogany Road (and meet up with Mahogany Road at the Domino Club). There has been so much rain that the waterfalls are running nicely, so the Crique Dam road is a really pretty drive (and for some reason it is in better shape than the first half of Mahogany Road right now), and you still get the whole rainforest thing that you would get by taking Mahogany Raod all the way. It meets up with Mahogany Road just before you get to Norma's (the Domino Club), so you can still stop there if you want to (I personally don't care about visiting the pigs anymore, but Norma is still a hoot and it is a good place to pick up a rum-and-whatever for the road, with or without visiting the beer drinking pig).

I did notice on this last trip that more of the "hire a cab for the day" people are spending time at Cane Bay, which made it a nice mix of locals and some day trippers. There were also quite a few people on the beach at the Carambola that were obviously on an excursion from the ship, but I think you will have more fun at either Cane Bay or Rainbow Beach (where Rhythms is on the F'sted side).

You can't control the weather, so just go with the flow. As long as it isn't raining too much, you will have a good time anywhere. If it is raining (and it looks like it will be more than a passing shower), I would probably recommend Rhythms because the beach bar there has a much larger sheltered area than the others, so you can still enjoy hanging out.

Well, we have returned from our lovely cruise. I'd like to tell you we were well rested but then we wouldn't have had as much fun. Cane Bay was an excellant choice. The weather provided many snorkeling opportunities. I can't recommend Eat's though. The burgers were raw and the service (not just ours)was very poor. The bar on the beach was fine though. We highly recommend taking a taxi as the roads aren't great and you do get a better tour that way. The nice thing about the taxi service in Antiqua($16- Long Bay) and St. Croix ($18- Cane Bay) is that the cost is per person, so you don't have to worry about finding someone with whom you can split a cab. If you find yourself in Antiqua, I highly recommend going to Long Bay. Great snorkeling and beach. It's about 1/2 hour away from the cruise port but that works out well when there are 3 cruise ships in port. It has a resort there for those who want to shop but we hardly got out of the water it was so lovely.

Welcome back lusty! Sorry about Eat (must have been a really bad day - I've never had a bad burger there!), but it sounds like Calvin took care of you on the beach. Did you get to snorkel over the Wall?

We will be docking in St. Thomas Feb. 14 with Princess. I'm not sure the docking point. I was interested in a tour they offered "Pirate Schooner to Turtle Cove" This tour does not mention the underwater trail as some other tours do. Is it a different area of Buck Island? It states just over an hour of snorkeling for a total of 3.5 hours for the tour. The cost is not high, I think we are looking at $100 for two. The only thing that interests me is the chance to swim with turtles. It sounds from the comments here that this is rare, not as commonplace as the tours make it sound?
There is another tour (same price) that goes to "shipwreck cove" at Buck. I haven't found much info on this being a good snorkel or not.
Other snorkel options include 1-honeymoon bay (as a full day tour when combined with Turtle Cove, and 2-Trunk Bay. Cas Cay is offered as a kayak/snorkel trip.
Cane Bay sound nice. Are our chances of seeing turtles just as good as "Turtle Cove"? We'd have to grab a cab becasue this isn't offered from the ship (which would probably mean less crowded)
Thanks for the help!

The Buck Island off of St Thomas is the National Wildlife Refuge - a completely different place from the Buck Island off of St Croix that is the Reef National Monument(they don't try to make it too confusing, do they?). Two different Buck Islands, about 40 miles apart. Sorry, I don't know enough about St Thomas to recommend day trips there, but you are right that it is rare to see turtles when you are snorkeling (pretty rare to see them even when diving).

I guess I didn't pay enough attention to that. Thanks!

It happens a lot, especially since they are both USVI and both protected park areas.

Yes,I did a little snorkeling over the wall, but it's a bit unnerving. We were fortunate as there had been a storm just 2 days prior to our visit which impacted the other vacationer's ability to snorkel.