ST GEORGE
In order to get over to St George, it is easiest to take a Ferry there (and quickest). However, you can take the bus as well. We decided to take the ferry so that we could get there early and make the most of our day in St George.
We headed down the walkway, past the taxi stands and toward the ferry. Toward the ferry line. Toward the ferry line. Toward the end of the ferry line. Toward the end of....the island ferry line. WHERE THE HECK DOES THIS LINE END AT???? Geesh. It went all the way down and around and circled the block a few times and across the pier, up on RCI's ship, down the promenade deck, back out the door, jump onto Calico Jacks ship, down the slide into the water and swim back for your spot in the ferry line.
We made it. YIKES!! I figured there would be a line since the first orange ferry over to St George was at 9:30am, but I had no clue it would be like this. I guess with the ferry to St George not running on Sundays, everyone had the same idea as us and would head there on Monday.
Here are my plans for this nice Monday day in Bermuda...I had hoped at least.
DAY 2
9:30am orange ferry over to St George (45 minute ride)-3 tickets (or 2.75)
FERRY SCHEDULE (ORANGE):
Leaving Dockyard Leaving St George
*9:30 *3:30
*11:30 *5:30
10:15 Arrive at St George and proceed to Visitor Center for stamp
HOP ON HOP OFF BUS:
$6/pp x 2 = $12.00 (kids free) Runs every ½ hour
10:30 Bus to Unfinished Church
11:00 Bus to Tobacco Bay
11:15-2:15 At Tobacco Bay
TOBACCO BAY CONCESSIONS:
Jerk platter w/peas & rice or mac & cheese or fries & slaw $17
Hamburger & fries $12
Beer $7 ($35 bucket)
Frozen $10 for 12 oz and $15 for 20 oz.
Umbrella and lounger combo $25 or $15 each.
2:30-4:00-Hop on bus to Achilles Bay (Fort St Catherine Beach)or walk 15 minutes, there is a path from the parking lot next to Ft St Catherines to the beach at Achilles.
4:00pm-leave Achilles Bay bus to Alexandra Battery Sea Glass beach
5:30pm Catch ferry back to dockyard (3 tickets or 2 & $2.75 child)
6:15 arrive at dockyard
(Sunset is 8:25pm)
Shopping and dockyard time
Once we got into the long line in the hot sun one of the workers kept coming by and telling us "This ferry is full. You can take the ferry next to it that will leave in a few minutes and it will take you over to Hamilton and there's plenty of room on it.
Um...I don't want to go to Hamilton. You dock/ferry/bus workers are NOT going to screw me up again!! Not this time. No way Jose! I stood in line. I watched multiple people jump out of line and say "Come on, this ferry is full and we'll just get on the other ferry they are talking about that goes over"
Um yea, goes over alright...to Hamilton, which happens to be a good hour bus ride after that over to St George in case you people didn't do your homework. Well I did and I'm not budging.
The workers would continue to come around again, walking up and down the line telling people this ferry is full. Yep, you keep working your magic lady and people will just keep getting out of the line following your instructions and I WILL make it on this St George ferry that you claim is full.
HA!!! I WIN. I'm on the St George ferry and away we went! See ya suckers!
We didn't have the VIP seating inside, but we managed to line ourselves up and down one side and it was just enough to fit our family. Along the ride, some of us would just sit there, one of the munchkins would take a nap, one of us would continue to *turn camera on, *snap pictures, *turn camera off, another would run from the sun and I'm pretty sure another would be hyper and driving the one with the camera crazy. Just saying...
I want to say it was about 40 minutes over. Sakari was a hot mess from just waking up, still having her "make-up" on from the kids club the night before and trying to get excited about the beach day ahead.
We were getting close, they started slowing down.
Off the dock we went and it was time to try to figure out where it was we needed to go to find the new "Hop on-Hop off" bus.
We were just kinda walking down the streets following the crowd. I mean for sure they knew the right way to go right?
Every so often Kendra would turn to me and say "Which way?" or "Where do we go from here? and all the months of research I did and I would come back with the statement "I don't know, I have never been here before". Sigh. It's like I lost my mind going somewhere new. I'm pretty sure I had printed a map and it was in my handy dandy file in my bag, but it's like being put on the spot during a nursing test. All ways point to the correct answer, but only 1 is the best way to go.
So we just kept walking.
We seen a little street that somewhat resembles an "alley" (I'm sure every person on here has a different meaning for this after the "pop" terminology) and I decided we probably want to stick to a "main road".
So we head UP the hill. Who's idea was this???? Puff puff, pant pant. Whew. Once we made it up to the top of the hill. We turned right (because if there was one thing that I remembered from all my research and map searching, it was that I needed to turn right to head toward Kings somethingorother.
Here's those interesting roofs again.
See, honestly, I did have directions, but I froze for some reason and lost my mind.
We stopped at a little store along the way. Kendra wanted to buy some snacks for the beach to munch on. Billy took off to the building next door (which I believe was a bar LOL) and he didn't come out for a hot minute.
I told the hubby to ask the store clerk which was the way to the Kings Square or "Vistor Center" and he came out and said "She said go down and turn and then straight" :confused: Um...go down where? Turn what way? Seriously? I sent you in there for directions and this is what you come back with??? Sigh In I went for appropriate directions!
I was told to head down the stairs there were right between this store and the bar building and then turn left on the stone walkway and we'd run right in to the Visitor Center. Well don't you know that's the "alley-looking" road I decided, I mean someone in our party must have decided not to take and wanted to climb up the hill to stay on the main road instead.
So down we went...where we would continue to wait and wait and wait for Billy, who never came out of the bar until someone went looking for him. LOL
When he did come out, he had an entire bottle of booze with him. (He normally drinks Crown and Red Bull, this was not Crown, but he would have to settle I guess).
We got to the end of the street and there was the Visitor Center just like they said.
The Town Hall. I knew ahead of time that this is where you would purchase your tickets for the new St George bus system.
Here is the new wonderful St George Hop On, Hop Off bus system:
I thought it would be a great value to be able to hop on and off as you desired all day long. This would be a better way to see any place you wanted to see along the route and save your legs.
This is the route they take along with all the stops they make.
You will find bus stops along the way and they are clearly marked so you know you are waiting for one of these buses to come along.
You simply go inside to the counter and tell them you want to purchase the pass, pay them and they stamp your hand with a bright blue stamp and you are done.
Now I had heard that the bus stop is a little "difficult" or "confusing" to find. We didn't have a problem at all. You simply walk out of the visitor center and it's basically right beside it between that building and the red building. Not hard at all. There's a bench there and everything.
One of the buses pulled up the minute that we got there but we didn't quite have everyone together to get on yet...I bet you all can guess who's dragging behind...starts with K and ends with A. So that bus filled up and we waited on the next. The signs say the bus comes every 1/2 hour but I'm pretty darn sure they must have more than 1 running because we did not wait over 10-15 minutes before another pulled up.
Someone on another thread ask me how many seats and I was thinking around 13 or so, but I also forgot that these buses have the middle seat that also pulls down for a chair (that would block the isle) so quite a few people can get on. Looking at the picture, I'm thinking it might hold maybe 17 people??? I remember counting and I remember it being an odd number.
