Ferry from STT to STX question

travelwoman,

In a word, nope. Your only option is to travel by air using one of several carriers (including American Eagle, which just added that route after making a shady deal with the Lt. Governor in which the VI taxpayers will pay a subsidy to American Eagle if there aren't enough paying passengers taking the STX to STT flights).

Sorry!

HC

HipCrip - Thanks for the reply... We are really focusing our pre-move visit on STX but I have this fear of feeling much more isolated than being on STT. Am I off-base ? Need I worry ?
I've been on STT on cruise ship days - no thanks; but I like the ferry option from STX. Sure wish it were year-around.
Any thoughts ?? Thanks in advance

I've heard rumor that another ferry service is supposed to be starting up soon and that they will run year round. I don't know the exact date, but they were talking about it last time I was at Gallows Bay (I'm a contractor for Customs). The guys down there told me the new service was going to have two boats. We'll see what happens.

I've been on STX for about 9 months now, and I don't really feel isolated. There's plenty to do here.

Thanks Blaze. We just need to get down there and "get a feel" for the island as living there rather than being tourists (which we've always been). Our pre-move visit is in one more week. I'm hoping to get on with an airline at STX once we get settled - its what I've done for the past eon or so.

travelwoman,

I also left you a private message (as if I didn't write enough here already!), so please check your inbox, too. 😎

I also had some concerns about getting rock fever -- St. Croix does have a much more rural feeling than STT because island is so much larger than STT but is home to the same amount of people (excluding the hoardes of cruise ship passengers).

After being here for almost a year and having also spent time on STT, it's my theory that choosing a place to live on STX can make all the difference in the world re: feeling just far enough away vs. feeling too isloated.

The East End of the island is far less developed than the central and western ends of STX. We looked at a few different houses on the East side, most of which were in neighborhoods with large lots that keep the houses spaced well apart from one another. After looking at three or four of these, I started to feel very isolated: I worried about how quickly I could get help should I have a medical emergency, how long it would take to meet my neighbors, and since there really aren't any stores at all beyond the eastern edge of C'sted, how cut off I would be from the main shopping areas/grocery stores. Right or wrong, we also got the impression that the folks who lived in these neighborhoods were primarily upper-middle class caucasian continentals, so it would be harder to get as immersed in the history and culture of the island than it would be if we lived in a more diverse neighborhood.

We decided right then that we'd rather look for a home mid-island, which would put us at the meeting of east, west, and shopping. 😉 We ended up in a neighborhood that has decent sized lots (we have 1/3 of an acre) that put us just far enough away from the other houses that we don't feel piled on one another yet are still close enough to say good afternoon from one yard to the next. (It didn't hurt to have two of our neighbors come out and ask if they could help us with something when we pulled into the gate on the first day we owned the house - they knew it had been empty for a few weeks and were keeping an eye on it. Talk about a great neighborhood watch!) We find that being close to Sunny Isle** and its traffic keep us feeling connected to some semblance of "normal" life while still giving us the option to drive for 30-40 minutes east or west to "get away from it all" *lol* and remind us just how big this little island really feels.

The advice we got about handling the occasional feelings of isolation was to take an overnight trip to Puerto Rico instead of going to STT. It seems there is a Mall of America-type shopping center in San Juan that has everything you'd find in a mainland multi-level mall, plus all of the fast food you can't get here (see the post about 5 best/most missed things for more info on that subject!). We have to go to San Juan about every other month to visit my neurologist/pain management specialist -- between the bumper to bumper cars, trucks and cabs that all drive on the wrong side of the road (which is now the right side), narrow streets and parking problems, mobs of people, and buildings, buildings, buildings, we are always more than ready to head back to "our" isolated little island at the end of the day. Several airlines fly to San Juan -- while some fly only small planes (10 seater types), American Eagle offers prop jet service.

Even though I've been my usual exceedingly wordy self, I'm not sure I've really addressed the heart of your concerns -- maybe it's just the need for more caffeine that's making me feel off base. Hope this dioes help in some small way -- I'd be happy to take another crack at a better explanation if you're brave enough to face anther noveletta of an answer! *lol* Ric, stxer, FOG and others should also be able to help out with this subject -- let's see if we can lure them in.

HC

**Sunny Isle is where you can find just about everything you need shopping wise, which means KMart, both Plaza Extra and Pueblo grocery stores, banking, restaurants, and other strip mall type establishments plus eight movie screens with first run films (a big plus in our book). There is also another mall with a KMart toward F'sted, and is directly across the road from my favorite store, Cost U Less (the VI version of Costco minus the need to pay a membership fee).

That was a PERFECT answer - exactly what I needed to hear ! Thankyou for the generosity of your words, ann the kindness of your time.