Day 8 Tortola, British Virgin Island

Some time ago I saw a picture in a cruise brochure that looked amazing.  It was the back of a woman walking in water through caves.  That image inspired us to want to visit the Baths on the Island of Virgin Gorda - and that is what we did today!

This was my inspiration photo from long ago!

Today we docked at the island of Tortola.  We were cleared for exit off the ship just a few minutes after 7 am and we were dressed and ready to exit as soon as that announcement was made.  We had to disembark and walk to Speedy's ferry service - about an 8 minute walk away.  I knew we had to be there by 7:30 am but J thought we had to be there by 7:15 am so we were on the move.  Our goal was to board the first ferry offered to the island ofVirgin Gorda today at 7:45 am.  We and a handful of other Princess cruise guests made it to Speedy's in ample time.  We paid $50 US each for a green wristband which allowed a return trip to take the ferry over to Virgin Gorda, catch a taxi to travel the 11 km to The Greater Baths National Park.

We boarded the ferry along with a number of secondary school kids dressed in uniform who were taking the ferry to go to school!  The ferry ride from Road Town to Virgin Gorda is about 35 minutes.

Once we arrived in Virgin Gorda, an open air bus with five rows of seats pulled up and 25 of us loaded onto it to drive to the Baths.

We arrived at the site at 8:38 am (perfect timing as it is open from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm) and paid our $3 US entrance fee.  And so our adventure began.  We had 3 hours to explore a park of 2.5 km with a single one directional trail so we felt we had ample time to explore the first side trail we came upon.  

These were some of the amazing sights we saw:

J insisted we make our way to Devil's Bay Beach area around the big rocks - not on the well trodden path by many - so that is what we did.  As such, we entered Devil's Bay Beach area on the opposite side of how most people approach it.  Just as we arrived, a woman who had ridden the taxi with us, told us we just missed a crowd from a cruise ship that had visited.  So this is the glorious site that we came upon:

I found a patch of shade under a palapa and spread out my sarong to act as my beach blanket.  I went in the water to cool down, then enjoyed sitting in the shade.  The current in the water was strong.  While J stayed out longer in the water a Norwegian cruise ship excursion found their way to our beach.  It became very busy with those 40 or 50 people.

Now let me pause and say that J and I are cruisers, but we don't necessarily like taking cruise excursions organized by the cruise line.  They generally are very expensive, offer limited time at a site and have large numbers of people creating a huge impact on whatever they are visiting.  So we generally try to travel independently whenever we stop at a port.  Today's excursion cost us $53 pp.  Had we booked through the ship, we would have paid $134.95 pp and had two hours less time at the Baths.  The downside is, the cruise ship will not wait for you if you get delayed for any reason and miss the all aboard call.  

This was the Devil's Bay beach as the Norwegian cruise ship excursion was leaving:

We enjoyed the peace and quiet on the beach as the cruise excursion left.  Then maybe 15 or 20 minutes later we decided to move along.  We would follow the path to the caves and then get to the Baths beach.  Now in all of our research, nowhere did I hear that the one way circuit on this day might be problematic due to congestion, but it was.  Because that group and another group from Princess that didn't stop at this beach all were on the single path to walk to the caves.  That meant congestion for everybody, ourselves included.  We spent an hour walking 250 metres between our beach and the Baths.

The above was our view for the next hour.

Fortunately we were rewarded with some cool rock formations.  And here we have our own picture worthy moment:

And here is J's instagram worthy moment below:

We did emerge at Cathedral Pool (The Baths) but we actually preferred Devil's Bay Beach better!  Cathedral Pool did have restrooms and a cafe, but the beach was quite a bit smaller.

We stayed just a few minutes here (had a quick dip in the water) and then made our way back to the start of the loop and where we were to meet the taxi.  We travelled back by taxi at noon to catch the last ferry (for us) at 12:45 pm.  The next ferry wasn't until 3:30 pm and our all aboard call was 3:30 pm.

I met a woman from Boston on the ferry who was travelling on the NCL cruise.  As we approached Road Town, Tortola I asked what time her all aboard time was and she said 1:30 pm.  Wait, what???  We are pulling in on Tortola Island at 1:22 pm and it is an 8 minute walk to the ship....you don't have time to spare!  She said, "I know.  I planned to get on the 11 am ferry, but the line up through the caves was so long that I missed the 11 am ferry!"  We stood aside and let her (and a few others on the ferry) exit first.  She ran to the ship...and as far as we could tell she made it on time.  We walked up to our ship by about 1:32 pm and NCL (who shared our pier) still had guests walking on.  J talked to a ship's officer and he said one of their excursions was late and wouldn't be arriving until 2 pm, so the ship was waiting for them to return!

Once back on the ship, we showered, ate and relaxed.  Tonight I had a Princess Cruises Captain's Circle event (for platinum and elite cruisers).  I learned a few things.  There are 3148 guests on this ship.  1100 guests are first time cruisers (and Princess is really happy about that).  The top three most travelled guests had travelled 856, 1365 and 1740 cruise days with Princess.  That is a lot of time on a cruise ship!

We have two days at sea to look forward to.  Despite my pictures and whining, the Virgin Gorda Baths really were spectacular and it was a delight to experience them in person!