Ultimate St. Thomas Excursion Review

While taking a cruise in November 2022 on the Disney Fantasy, I decided to book the Ultimate St. Thomas through the DCL app while onboard. This excursion started at the bright and early time of 8:15am.

The wait to meet with our group in the Walt Disney Theater was notable. When we were told where to sit, we noticed the color of our sticker did not match the others and double checked with the Cast Member. It turns out he had accidentally placed us with the wrong excursion group. I'm mentioning this so if it happens to you, you know to double check as well. Cast Members are human too.

We funneled into a group of open air taxis pretty quickly once off the ship. It is not a far walk off the pier and would be challenging to lose the group.

The tour was comprised of three separate parts. The first was an island tour where our driver, Perry, told us about the various buildings we drove next to, a history of the island, and some fun facts. We were fascinated to learn that graffiti has a mandatory minimum of $25,000 fine and 6 months hard labor jail time. That being said, the jail cells generally come with a beautiful view and there are less than 100 cells that are rarely at over 50% capacity. We stopped really quickly for everyone to grab a quick picture and get back on board.

Our first real stop was a beautiful mountain view with a very touristy shop.

We could try the banana daiquiri, a staple of the island, but it felt a bit too early for us that day. We did find a few souvenirs that we really liked and weren't too big to lug around all day. We took in the beautiful views and headed back to our taxi.

On the way out we noticed an old, pirate age cannon that was really cool, but I was too slow to grab a picture.

The second part of the excursion was time at Megan's Bay Beach. This beach was donated on the one condition that not hotel / resort ever be built on it. It is therefore, a public beach. There are many cost effective excursions that will allow guests to spend time here. If this is the primary reason you are considering this excursion, I'd recommend alternative options. Those without car seat aged kids could easily grab a quick taxi from the port.

Lunch did not come with this part of the excursion, which we knew in advance. There was a standard beach side restaurant offering burgers etc. We spent most of the two hours we were given here in the water. It was just beautiful. The water was so clear we could see a huge sea creature crawling on the ocean floor. The proximity of this beach to the port makes this a must do if you're a beach person. I would gladly go back tomorrow.

The last part of the excursion is shopping time at the Dutch downtown.

My friend and I were the only ones in our taxi to do this part of the excursion. Everyone else chose to go back to the boat, and if we had been doing this excursion with kids, I could see why. The time downtown was also two hours. If I had been with hungry or tired kids, I would be inclined to head back where I knew they would have food options they enjoyed and a bed to rest in. I wondered if this was the only excursion left to get to the beach for some of the other families in our taxi. I'm not sure the time allotted for shopping would feel worth it for them, but we were excited for the last stop. We were famished and really wanted to try some local food and boy were we in for a treat. Perry recommended we eat at Glady's and to ask to locals how to get there after pointing us in the right direction.

(maybe skip this shop)

We ran into someone at a shop called Pirana Joe who essentially hinted that we should buy something before asking for directions but that she did know the way. After checking out, she told us to ask for directions when we came to a different building the exact same way we had been going. Ouch. She did mention it was down an ally way but after wandering down two, we ended up using my maps app to find it.

Glady's was a gem. You could feel the age of the building that has been built into a charming cafe. 

It felt like where to locals go, and we therefore had a 5-10 minute wait to be seated. The drinks were strong, and the jerk wings so delicious we ordered seconds even after our meal.

We left Glady's full, happy, and with a big highlight from our trip. We were able to check out one more shop near where Perry came to pick us up right on time. After thanking him (verbally and with a tip) for the suggestion, we headed back to the ship. I really liked this excursion and would definitely recommend it to others. It was a great price and filled with lots of fun St. Thomas memories.

This might be for you if:

• You want a scenic view without the hassle of driving on steep roads
• You want a bit of history, but time to go to the beach and shop
• You want to check out Glady's

You might want to skip this if:

• You don't want to possibly be on different rows during transportation if you have a large travel group
• You mainly want a beach day
• Open air taxis aren't for you

Elizabeth Guffre

Elizabeth's priority as your travel consultant is to make your vacation as fun and stress free as possible. You can email Elizabeth at liz@kingdomkonsultant.com.