I am on a quest to see all of the US National Parks and am looking at a cruise that would enable my husband to go with me. He has some handicaps and would be unable to walk around VINP, so I was wondering about a cruise with an excursion to VINP so that he could stay on the ship and I could go on the excursion. Has anyone had any experience with a cruise that either includes St John or has an excursion to VINP?

Book a cruise that goes to St. Thomas. It's easy to take a ferry over to St. John.

We saw cruise ships docked off of Cruz Bay St John, they were bringing people in on tenders. You could grab one of the open air taxis by the dock to trunk bay that is in the park for cheap. Alternately snooping around it appears Holland America goes to St John and offer a Trunk Bay excursion. Alternately as Schmerl mentions I'm sure the At. Thomas cruises ships offer excursions that require taking the ferry over.

I'm not sure I understand your comment about "walking around VINP". Yes, there are hiking trails up into the hills, but for most visitors the "walk" is from the road or parking lot onto the beach. At some beaches, such as Cinnamon Bay that may be a few hundred yards, at others it's about 20 feet.

The beauty of the park is the undeveloped coves with white sandy beaches,warm, clear caribbean water. A few beaches have lots of sea turtles, some have coral reefs for snorkeling,- mostly to see fish as most of the coral that you could see snorkeling off the beach 50 or more years ago is gone or heavily damaged.

Yes I see what you thought I meant. I just meant he would be unable to walk pretty much any distance at all even from the road to the beach. So my idea of a cruise was so that he could stay on the ship and happily be on the internet while I was on the island. As opposed to a vacation on our own where he would have to be with me.

makes sense. Getting to the beaches while relatively easy, does involve several steps..

1. catching a ferry from St Thomas to St John - Ferries depart from 3 locations, one of which is quite close to the cruise ship port, the others require taking a taxi.
2. from St John ferry arrival, take a taxi (these are shared ride, open air taxis with seats for about 12-15 people on the back of a pick up truck chasis. Cost will be about $20 per person each way.
3. taxi back to the ferry, and timing it right to get the right ferry at the right time. Cell phone service in the park isn't great - the strongest signal may actually come from the BVI you can see across the water. There will be lots of people headed back to the ferry area, so taxis aren't scarce, and they are all shared ride (pay per person)
4. get back to your ship in time.

schlepping chairs, etc can be a pain, so if all you need is a towel, and maybe a mask and snorkel so you can see under the water, then you can fit that into a small carry bag.
Since I know the ferry system, taxi system, and which beach i'd want to go to, I'd be comfortable doing this on my own. Timing is everything as well - you could burn a lot of time on ferrie schedules, figuriong out taxi rides, etc.

For someone who is not, then doing this as a cruise ship arranged excursion would be a lot less stressful and efficient use of time.

We took a cruise that stopped at St. John, and they had options where one of us could chill on the ship - made it way easier for my partner who can’t do much walking.

Duckies, what cruise line did you use and were you happy with it?

Thank you, J62 - that was very helpful. It does seem like it would be way easier for me to take an excursion from the ship instead of trying to do it on my own.