We're going in December and I'm torn on the same thing. I would feel more comfortable doing the Disney tour of Virgin Gorda but I hate to get there and wish that we had more time. Please follow up when you get back and let me know how it worked out!
We went in Dec and 7:45am ferry worked for us. Be at the gangway at 7:25am, ready to go the moment they open. There were a couple other families there that did that too. Speedy's is on the left side of the dock and really does take 10 - 15 minutes of speed walking through parking lot, etc. It is a commuter ferry, so they don't wait too long. If one of your party is there, they might wait a minute or two for the rest to join. Getting there with the 7:45am ferry gives you about 1hr of quiet time in Bath amd Devils Bay, which is really nice. There is a bar that serves food at Lower Bath. Pay attention to the return ferry timing. There are a lot of buses going back to the dock, but you can only ride the one for the ferry (instead of prepaid tour) even though they all look the same. They know by the color of your armband. I recommend going on your own for this excursion. You might wait a little on the way back, but you save money and got some beautiful quiet beach for 1hr before the tour group comes.
We purchased round trip, paid at the boat with credit card. Grab a brochure with the return times. There are only several, I believe 10:40 (enough time to make it through Bath but not linger at the beach because you need to board the bus at 10) and 1:30pm (I took this one and spent 2 hrs playing at the beach). There's 3pm ferry too I think. Actually, go to Speedys website, they list the times there. Have fun! We really like the excursion. The granite rocks look like the giants from Frozen 2.
. I remember we carried our stuff in a beach bag through the boulders. We didn't have to get more than knee-thigh deep in the water at any time, and the times that some of us wanted to do more swimming, we had one person in our family hold the bag.Yes, that's it. As someone else posted, there may be another option besides Speedy's, but Speedy's was what we took.
