We’ll admit it up front: we were not expecting much from our second stop in St. Croix. The first time we sailed into this port, we left bored. St. Croix isn’t exactly a mainstream cruise destination — Royal Caribbean is about the only major line that stops here — and that means the excursion options are thin compared to, say, St. Thomas or St. Maarten. So when we booked our southern Caribbean cruise out of San Juan and saw St. Croix on the itinerary again, we went in with tempered expectations.
This time, St. Croix turned out to be one of the highlights of the whole trip.
The Search for Something to Do
When we started digging into what there actually was to do in St. Croix, options were slim. We scrolled through Viator, we googled around, and the one thing that kept catching our attention was a place called Prosperity Farm Distillery. It sounded interesting enough, but we couldn’t find a way to book it independently. So, breaking our usual rule, we booked it through the cruise line.
We almost always book excursions through third-party operators instead of the cruise ship. It’s not that ship excursions are bad, it’s that they tend to be large group tours, on a fixed schedule, at a price markup. This time, we didn’t see another way in, so we signed up for the 9:00 AM distillery tour and hoped for the best.
Here’s the plot twist: you don’t actually need the cruise line for this one. Once we got off the ship, we found a tent set up right at the pier where you could book the exact same tour, on the exact same shuttle, for a less money. We watched people walk up, sign up on the spot, and end up on our bus. The only difference? They didn’t pay the cruise line markup, and they ended up getting a tour to themselves. Lesson learned, and one we’re passing straight on to you: if you want to visit Prosperity Farm Distillery from a St. Croix cruise stop, skip the ship excursion desk and just look for the tent at the pier.
What Makes Prosperity Farm So Special
Complaints about the 9 AM timing aside, the tour itself blew us away.
Prosperity Farm sits on an old sugarcane plantation, and in recent years they’ve replanted sugarcane on the property — something that’s genuinely rare in the U.S. today. Sugarcane isn’t usually an economically viable crop here anymore, and the molasses most rum distilleries in the U.S. need, they import. Prosperity Farm is doing something different: they’re farming the land with the help of tax credits, growing sugarcane alongside a handful of other crops they grow to feed the local people, and turning it into spirits right there on site.
Here’s the catch, and it’s a fun bit of island trivia: they’re not legally allowed to call anything they make “rum” under the tax credit program they operate within. It’s easy to guess why. St. Croix is already home to major rum producers, Captain Morgan and Cruzan among them, and there’s not much appetite for a small farm operation muscling in on the word “rum” while using tax incentives to do it.
So instead, Prosperity Farm leans into a different tradition. Their process is closer to what’s used in Martinique to make rhum agricole — instead of starting with molasses like most rum production, they press the sugarcane directly and ferment that juice, right out in the open air. It’s a hands-on, agricultural approach, and it’s the same method that’s made Martinique’s rhum agricole so well regarded among spirits people.
Since they can’t call the result rum, they call it gin instead — technically, it’s an unaged rhum agricole redistilled with botanicals. They make two of these gins, plus four liqueurs: an allspice dram, one made with mavi (a bitter bark), a ginger liqueur, and a banana liqueur.
We tried everything on the tour (left), and we mean everything. Not every bottle is going to be for everyone, but we genuinely loved the whole lineup. Bottles run about $50, which felt a little steep, but given the process and the story behind it, it made sense. Our only regret is that suitcase space didn’t allow us to bring home more than we did.
If you’ve ever been to Iron Fish Distillery here in Michigan, where they grow much of what they distill right on their own land, Prosperity Farm will feel like its Caribbean cousin — same farm-to-bottle philosophy, very different climate and history.
Beyond the spirits, the property has real depth. There’s a rich plantation history on-site that we won’t try to cram into this post, but it’s worth asking your guide plenty of questions. You can even stay on the property: they offer farm stay cottages, and there’s a historic house available for events.
Our Advice If You’re Going
- Skip the cruise excursion desk. Book the same tour at the pier tent for less, and you’ll likely get a smaller, more relaxed group.
- Avoid the 9 AM slot if you can. An early start eats into the rest of your day in port, especially when there isn’t a ton else on the St. Croix itinerary to fill the afternoon.
- Ask about the history. The plantation backstory here is genuinely fascinating and worth the extra ten minutes with your guide.
- Bring extra luggage space. At $50 a bottle, you’ll probably want more than you planned for.
One More Thing About Cruise Excursions in St. Croix
While we’re on the subject of cruise line shore excursions in this port, here’s one more thing worth flagging: there’s a completely free beach within walking distance of the cruise pier in St. Croix. You can see it from the ship deck. And yes, Royal Caribbean will sell you an excursion to get there — around $40 a person, last we checked.
This isn’t a St. Croix problem specifically, it’s a cruise industry thing. The lines have every incentive to make you nervous about wandering off on your own, because if you miss the ship, that’s on you, not them. But a lot of Caribbean beaches are public and free, and this is a great example. Grab the towels from your stateroom, walk off the pier, and enjoy a completely free beach day.
We’re not saying never book through the cruise line. Sometimes it’s genuinely the easiest or only option, like it was for us with Prosperity Farm. But it pays to do a little research before you dock, because sometimes “the excursion” is just a walk down the pier away.
Thanks for stopping by! Check out our Go See Do Explore Podcast, available wherever you listen to podcasts. To read more about this trip, check out the Island Hopping from San Juan Trip Report. To read about some of our previous trips, visit my Trips Page. If you like my photos be sure to “like” my Facebook Page and follow me on Instagram! For my list of gadgets to make your travels easier, click here.
Leave a Reply