You have Wasted 60 Bucks in St Thomas - a crew member saves you money.

[scroll down to see money saving tip and skip the witty banter]

Hello, Readers, and thank you for tuning in to trumptettravels - the true accounts of my 11 year career on cruise ships as a crew member aboard Royal Caribbean, Princess Cruises, Carnival Cruises, Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, P&O Cruises, Premier Cruises and the Holland America Line.

I think some day, when I get my act together, I'd like to have seperate blog entries for each amazing port I've been to in my 11 years as a crew member.  If I do, one of the longest entries would be St Thomas.  Home of great shopping and amazing beaches.  Duty-free everything and the bushwhacker (drink). And, of course, that SKYRIDE to paradise that thouasands of cruise ship passengers go up and down every week.  At $21 a pop.

Before I tell you my secret way to save 60 bucks I want to welcome you to trumpet travels.  I am an ex-crew member who has been sharing a few of the inside secrets of the cruise industry.  If you read my older posts you'll see how I got the job and what it is like for the crew, staff, and officers on a ship.  Happy reading and thank you for supporting my hobby.  After two entries I almost quit but I've received alot of question from readers and comments about how they've learned a few things and that kept me going.

Fodor's Island Guidebook

Once upon a time I wanted to go to the SKYRIDE up to paradise point.  The view is the BEST in St Thomas.  Since I was a crew member, I just showed my ID and for $5 (instead of the passenger $21) I got my ticket.  I seem to remember that the price was higher, but I just checked their site and it is only $21.  Well, when I was on Costa as an Art Auctioneer I took my cruise card to go up for a bushwacker and they would not give me the discount because I had a passenger cruise card. I explained to them all about my job, but still they would not budge.  I was very angry because my wife was with me and we'd been up there so many times I didn't want to pay $42 dollars.

Well, I bumped into a taxi driver, who was obliged I guess to offer us "some smoke" as all islanders are obliged to.  Well, I declined the offer and as I do struck up a conversation. I told him about my mountainous woes (I wanted to go up the mountain) and he said, "Well I'll take you."  I thought, "HOW?"  He said up the road!  How much? "5-10 bucks."

I was thinking that it was funny all the tens of thousands of dollars everyone pays every week to go up that tram - if they only knew about that road!!!

SO - the trick is - take a TAXI to paradise point instead of the tram!  With 4 people it will cost you max $20 roundtrip, instead of the $84!  That saves you $64!!!
That's it - very simple.  If you think you're going to St Thomas and you might use this trick - congrats you are smarter than 99% of cruise ship passengers!  go get yourself some Bushwhackers (AWESOME) at the top - for FREE (with your $64).  If you enjoyed this tip you can give me a free "thank you" by clicking on an ad on this web page.

OK - one more tip.  At the top of St Thomas/Paradise Point there is a shop that sells rare shipwreck gold coins. They claim 100% authenticity and I am not saying they are not authentic.  What I would like to say is that gold is an element.  It does not decay and does not age.  What this means is that if you created a gold coin in the image of a Roman gold coin there would be absolutely NO test to prove wheter is was 2000 years old or 2000 seconds old.  I'm not sayin nothin bout nothin, just putting that out there.  So many people lose their heads to romance on vacation and an ancient gold coin certainly does have a degree of romance to it.

Happy Travels Everyone and a Prosperous New Year to All!

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