Hi all, happy Wednesday. We made it to the middle of the week! Yahoo! Although all the days seem to feel the same when you’re on St. John. 🙂
So we receive a ton of emails and Facebook messages here at News of St. John. And as you know, we do our best to answer all as quickly as we can. Today I am going to give you a quick rundown on some of the more recent questions we’ve received plus some more details you may find helpful.
Let’s start with the government shutdown. Yes, it is affecting St. John, but fortunately, it’s not affecting us too dramatically. The most visible impact is on the restrooms within the park. The majority are closed. Thankfully volunteers with Friends of the VI National Park are opening the restrooms at the Visitor’s Center in Cruz Bay and also the restrooms at Trunk Bay daily. All of the others – Hawksnest, Cinnamon, Maho, Francis and Annaberg – are all closed. So plan according when you leave Cruz Bay or Coral Bay and head to the North Shore beaches.
Speaking of Trunk, the concessions are open once again. Food and drink is being served. There is also a small retail shop that opened last month. And the booth that rents snorkel gear and chairs is open too. The entry fee is still being waived at Trunk. This means that all of our beaches can be accessed free of charge.
Honeymoon beach has become a more popular spot thanks to the dinghy shuttle. One operates all day, every day. All you have to do is look for the dinghy with the hot pink motor pulling up in front of High Tide, which is next to the ferry dock in Cruz Bay. The cost is $5 per person and the ride takes less than 10 minutes. When you reach Honeymoon, be sure you sign up for a time slot to get back to Cruz Bay. We hear they fill up fast. But don’t worry if you can’t get a ride back. You can always walk back via the Lind Point Trail. It takes about a half hour and it’s an easy walk back.
Now let’s move on to Maho. We told you all last month how a new food truck is opening up there. It hasn’t opened up yet, but it looks to be close. The VW bus is on site, which will be serving food, and I’ve seen them working on the tiki bar, which will serve drinks. They cleared an abundance of dead trees, and I have to say, the space looks pretty neat. I’m definitely interested in checking it out when it opens.
I walked down to Denis over the weekend, and it looked great. This beach is a lesser known beach that is accessed from the small trail up to Peace Hill. You will see a trail off to your right. That is the trail down to Denis. It takes about eight minutes or so to get there. Denis is a more exposed beach, so it tends to be much wavier. It’s a long beach, with a fair amount of sand and great views.
And last but not least today, Hawksnest holds a church service every Sunday at 10 a.m. in the western pavilion. This has to be the most beautiful view for any church service in the world.
Well folks, that’s it for today … a Seinfeld story of sorts. 🙂 It was sort of about nothing, but sort of about something. I hope you enjoyed it! And more importantly, I hope you enjoy your day today!
Getting out of Ohio just in time, arriving in the VI Friday afternoon with a big snowstorm to hit Ohio Saturday, great timing, the info on the north shore beaches status is very helpful for us, thanks!
Um, Jenn, in my universe it’s only Tuesday today? And yesterday was … you guessed it … Monday?
It’s OK. You have a baby … good ’nuff excuse for almost anything!
So, in our opinion, St John is one of the most wonderful places in the world – and YES! We’d have to agree that the church service at Hawksnest has the most beautiful view of any Sunday morning service anywhere! It was one of our most memorable times to go there and then snorkeling afterwards ….. God is good! 🙂
I am always grateful for your updates. Keep up the excellent work!
I love Maho as it is. Drinks and food will bring more people, more disturbance for the beautiful turtles.
I agree and a lot more garbage. Absolutely ridiculous and totally unnecessary.
I loved this update. St. John has been a favorite spot of ours for a long time and we are always looking for news of progress after the devastating hurricanes. Thank you and keep up the good work! We are hoping to come back and visit soon.
Jenn, your posts have meant so much to us, and are making our visit / planning so much easier! XO
Jen,
Thank you so much for the update… We have a big group coming down next week, we will be at High Tide at 4:30 next Wednesday and if you can make it – would love to buy you a drink for all your updates…
I would LOVE to meet you all!! I will do my best to be there!
We arrive 1/29 and are so happy to be coming back and great to hear food at trunk bay. Thanks
Hi Jenn,
We were on island last week and enjoyed every bit of it! The beaches were beautiful and the restaurants wonderful! We had a delightful vacation and looking forward to returning. Thanks for all your updates.
We are coming for a wedding at the beach near Half Moon House this coming Thursday. There’s 15 in our party, and we’re all addicted to this site and the awesome, thumbs up updates. We can meet you sometime and buy your lunch to pay it forward!
Aww, thank you so much!! I would love to say hello to you all!
Your update was so good to read. Each new step keeps my hope alive. I know the process of rebuilding is happening and there are countless beautiful places to soak in and your effort to remind us of all St. John offers is essential.
I have a question about Cinnamon Bay camping…is it ever going to return? I read everything I can in an effort to learn where the rebuilding is at. I’ve camped there over 15 times since 1980 and my heart lives there. Can you please let me know anything you can find out? Thank you again.
Thank you for keeping us up to date.
We will be back on island in February, and we can’t wait to see the changes from last year.
Thanks for all the wonderful updates. We arrived tomorrow for 2 weeks of relaxation and warm weather. Thanks for the update on Maho food truck. Hope it opens while we are there.
THANK YOU so much for your continual updates! We are heading back down in early March and love hearing about the progress. Just wondering how Cinnamon is doing? Has there been any work clearing the debris? Thanks Jen! Cynthia
We are so excited to finally return to St. John next week! Would love to meet you and the baby and thank you in person for all that you have done to keep us off-islanders informed and connected. Could we take you to lunch? We’ll be there 1/29-2/6 so let us know if that is an option. You are the best!
With Caneel closed are the beaches of the former resort accessible and usable? Is there parking at Caneel? Would the Honeymoon Beach shuttle take you to one of the Caneel beaches. We could always rent a dinghy for the day. Visiting in March and it would be an experience to access these beaches as uncrowded National Park beaches.
Spent the week of January 5th at the Weston and everything is moving along wonderfully. The beach there while usually a little cloudy, is decidedly clearer. You could actually see the bottom. Snorkels, dining on the beach, is also up and running nicely.
We’re on-island right now and I can tell you all that you don’t need to hesitate…come on down!! The island looks great and loads of places are open and waiting for you to visit.
Lazed on Francis yesterday and it’s gorgeous and the restroom was open.
Get on down here! You’re missing it!
HI Jenn
Thanks for the updates!
We were at Honeymoon on Saturday and they have doubled the price of the boat taxi to $ 10. Disappointing : )
Also, the beach bar at the Westin does not allow non-guests to eat at the bar. Bummer.
So miss that as a beach front lunch spot!
Cheers