St thomas with 15 year old boy

I was thinking of going to coral world on St. Thomas. Since I'm
traveling with a teenager who is, let us say, not a morning person,
rather than use a ship excursion I wanted to hire a cab to get back
and forth. How easy will this be and how much time do I need to leave
to get from Coral World back to the ship? Thanks in advance

In article
,
nekochan wrote:

I was thinking of going to coral world on St. Thomas. Since I'm
traveling with a teenager who is, let us say, not a morning person,
rather than use a ship excursion I wanted to hire a cab to get back
and forth. How easy will this be and how much time do I need to leave
to get from Coral World back to the ship? Thanks in advance

It will be easy to get a taxi back and forth. It will take about the
same amount of time to get back from Coral World as it takes to get
there. Not saying that to be smart but that is how I figure such things
out. When I take a taxi or bus somewhere I am going to return from I
time the trip there. Since there are two docks at different locations
giving an estimate would be difficult in the absence of info on which
one your ship will use.

--
Charles

Stu wrote:

George perhaps I didn't dumb it down enough, I should of said $5 for
each person which I mentioned in the above post was actually $4 each.

You need to dumb it down enough so you understand what you are writing.

$4 per person in a cab will NOT get you anywhere on the island that you
want to go.

Four people in a cab comes to $16 and that will NOT get you anywhere you
want to go on St. Thomas.

Fact.


--

George Leppla

Countryside Travel http://www.CruiseMaster.com
Blog http://cruisemaster.typepad.com/my_weblog/
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/CruiseMaster

Sounds to me like your son is living a very sheltered life! When I
traveled with my teenage son if he saw a topless or nude woman that was
the least of my worries. You might want to avoid the Miami beaches as
you would probably blush at the brief bikinis and thong bottoms.

On Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:58:46 -0500, Charles
wrote:

In article
,
nekochan wrote:

I was thinking of going to coral world on St. Thomas. Since I'm
traveling with a teenager who is, let us say, not a morning person,
rather than use a ship excursion I wanted to hire a cab to get back
and forth. How easy will this be and how much time do I need to leave
to get from Coral World back to the ship? Thanks in advance

It will be easy to get a taxi back and forth. It will take about the
same amount of time to get back from Coral World as it takes to get
there. Not saying that to be smart but that is how I figure such things
out. When I take a taxi or bus somewhere I am going to return from I
time the trip there. Since there are two docks at different locations
giving an estimate would be difficult in the absence of info on which
one your ship will use.

To answer your question - yes you can go to Coral World on your own
even if you don't leave at the crack of dawn. You don't have to take
a ship tour. You don't have to hire a taxi - you can get one at the
ship and at Coral World very easily.

We got off the boat about 9:30 (it was docked at Havensight), and
walked up to the Paradise Point Skyride. After we finished the
Skyride (we didn't wait for the bird show or the drinks - we just went
for the view), we got a taxi at the bottom to Coki Beach which was
$9.00 EACH. Bob gave him $20. We really wanted to go to Coral World,
but Coki Beach was about the same place. He took us over Donkey Hill.

As we walked up to Coral World, one of the other taxi drivers gave us
some coupons for $4 off each adult admission. So we paid $14 @ instead
of $18. We got an orange arm band. We walked all around Coral World.
Originally I had been going to swim at Coki Beach, but it was about
12:30 by now, and I didn't feel like eating at Coral World, so we got
a cab back to the ship. We got back to the ship about one o'clock so
the ride (with several other people) took about a half an hour.

Coral World is very nice.
http://cache.virtualtourist.com/4027...-St_Thomas.jpg
We saw quite a lot of iguanas running around loose.
http://cache.virtualtourist.com/2464...-St_Thomas.jpg
There was also a shark shallows pool with juvenile sharks,
http://cache.virtualtourist.com/2464...-St_Thomas.jpg
a touching area with starfish etc.,
http://cache.virtualtourist.com/2464...-St_Thomas.jpg
a sea turtle area, and a stingray pool. There was an underwater
observatory
http://cache.virtualtourist.com/2464...-St_Thomas.jpg
which had a predator tank and another level with other fish such as
black bar soldier fish, puffer, barracuda,
http://cache.virtualtourist.com/2440...-St_Thomas.jpg
trumpet fish, and various angelfish plus coral. This was a diver from
inside the tower
http://cache.virtualtourist.com/4027...-St_Thomas.jpg
They also had a separate Caribbean Reef area with an 80,000 gallon
tank,
http://cache.virtualtourist.com/2464...-St_Thomas.jpg
and several smaller tanks with seahorses, bluehead wrasses, yellowhead
jawfishes, morey eels, lobster, coral shrimp, and toadfish, including
some under black lights.

Open daily and holidays 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. The ticket booth closes at
4:00 pm.
Coral World Admission
$18 Adults, $9 Children (3-12 years), $52 Family (2 adults and up to 4
children)

Sea Trekkin'
$68 Adults, $59 Children. Includes admission to Coral World

Locker rentals
Lockers are available to Coral World guests for $3 per day with a $10
security deposit.

To correct Stu and reinforce what Sue is saying - this is the straight
skinny on taxis

Taxis in the USVI are not like the taxis most American or European
cities. The most popular are vans, open air safaris vehicles
(converted trucks; truck beds are customized with bench seating in an
open-air covered area) and SUVs/cars such as you see lined up beside
the ship.
http://cache.virtualtourist.com/2464...-St_Thomas.jpg

Taxis on St. Thomas are not metered; rates are per person and per
destination. As an example of how the fares work: From Havensight
crossroads (near the cruise ship docks) to Charlotte Amalie would be
$6 for one person and $5 EACH for two or more people. Because of this,
many cabs will wait until they are full before they will leave. This
makes sense for them. Why take two people for $5 each if you can take
10 people for $5 each? If you want to go before they get filled up,
you will pay more.

Rules are set by the VI Taxicab Division.

http://www.vinow.com/stthomas/gettin...tt/#provisions

According to their rules: Licensed taxi vehicles are labeled with: a
taxi placard or dome light on the roof, license plates that indicate
Taxi status, On Duty/Off Duty sign in the window of the vehicle and a
sign, usually on the fender, indicating passenger capacity. The
drivers personal identification/taxi license should be on the vehicles
dash board.

If you take a gypsy cab (without identification), you do so at your
own risk.

The taxi that we took to Coki Beach had a rate card,
http://cache.virtualtourist.com/2464...-St_Thomas.jpg but
you should still ask before you get into the cab. about the rate for
your party. (Waiting charges: $1.00 per minute. First five minutes
free.)

You can also book a cab by the hour or for Sightseeing Tours: 2 hours
- One passenger $50; two or more passengers $25 per person. 3 hours -
One passenger $60; two or more passengers $30 per person.