TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Ferry from Road Town to STT, schedule

This is great advice. If it turns out they don’t operate a ferry when you need it they will not refund your money! The best you will get is a credit for future use.
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If they can afford a water taxi, it will be much faster. The people who arrived on the 4:30 ferry last week didn't get out of the terminal until close to 10pm.

Yikes! We’ve booked the water taxi for our upcoming trip. First time using them. Fingers crossed it’s a good experience!

They seem to know what days and times are available on the web site. Coming out of low season, 65 passengers per ferry may quickly become inadequate. I'm not sure if the if government will anticipate the up tick in demand. I just don't want to be the 66th person trying to get a ferry ticket in late November.

They are just selling tickets thinking they know the schedule. There was just a post last week from someone that bought a Native Son ticket before the schedule was released and then the schedule came out and Native Son didn't run that day.

Premier Faye announced last week the ferry passenger limit would be increased to 100. He said he thought it might happen this week.

I hope they staff up the ferry terminal to get the testing done faster.

Was that 10pm because the ferry didn’t leave at 4:30 or because everything at Road Town took so long? I assume they are processing people and then letting them through and that not everyone had to wait until 10pm to get through.

I'm sure the boat was a little late like normal but it was the processing at the ferry. These passengers were towards the end of the line. I'm sure some people were done by 6:30.

We were very last last week and it took about 90 minutes to get through.

I wonder if the processing time is different for private water taxi patrons vs regular ferry? Anyone travelled via water taxi lately?

It should be much faster. The water taxis come into West End, JVD, or VG and have a lot less passengers.

My entry at Beef Island with 4 passengers took about 20 minutes.

Our November 11th flights were just cancelled and AA is not offering a refund, only rebooking or a voucher!!! I'm now scrambling to figure out all of our options, including flights to STT. A few questions:

* Is there an updated ferry schedule for November?
* Are Native Son, Road Town Fast Ferry, and Smiths Ferry the only options for getting from St. Thomas to Road Town?
* Jason, where did that BVI Ports Authority image you posted come from? Facebook?

Edit: Looks like I've found the answers to my questions. For anyone else looking: International Ferry Schedule during Covid-19

Native Son published combined schedules for the next three months. These should be fairly accurate but, until "blessed" by BVI Ports cannot be taken as gospel.

I already posted these in a different thread, but here you go.

* Native Son, Road Town Fast Ferry, and Smiths Ferry are the only public ferries but there are LOTS of water taxi options. They cost more but are very convenient, much faster, and very popular.
* Yes, the Port Authority image would have come from Facebook. I have not seem them post the new schedule but the ferry companies worked together to compile the November, December, January schedules I have included here.

Thank you! Looks like 3 sailings each day, which is much better than the October schedule posted earlier.

Yes. Daily now -
Departing Charlotte Amalie - 9am, 2:30pm, and 5:30pm
Departing Road Town - 7:30am, 11:30am, and 3pm

Do we need to still book ahead?

AA must by law give you a full refund if they canceled your flight.

Jason - Moorings is now sending out the 3-month schedule you posted recently. Have you seen anything official on this yet? I've been checking the port authority FB page, but haven't seen anything new.
Thanks.

Nope. Nothing from the port but I believe the schedule as posted is accurate

Would anyone know if it’s possible to catch a 530 ferry to Tortola from st thomas if your flight arrives at 430?

No checked bags should be fine. If you have checked bags a bit tight but use a driver like Stanley at Love Cab or Kevin. They will call ahead and tell the ferry you are coming. The gotcha is that if the flight is late and you have to go over in the morning they will not refund your tickets. They will give you a credit to use another time. The next days ferry might be a different company so you could pay twice.

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