Tortola/St. Thomas/St. John excersions

[Lisa F]

We did the Baths with Disney - we weren't in port long and I didn't want the hassle with the ferry. Highly recommend Trunk Bay Beach on St. John - great snorkeling!

I know I am bumping up an older thread but it's not THAT old

Can you tell me more about the Disney excursion? I am traveling solo with my 10 year old and trying to decide whether to just do this on our own or do the disney excursion, it seems like it's a $100pp difference which is pretty steep!

 

[angie7911922]

You should be able to do the Baths on your own. It's a quick taxi ride and you are there.

The eco-hike does not take all day. You will have time after your hike (or before if you prefer) to get your NP stamp. We always have to get our stamp - my kids insist

 

[Keyser]

We just got off the Fantasy yesterday. We did the Baths on our own, and it's very easy to do. You get off the ship, and take about a 10 minute walk to another dock and catch the Speedy's ferry. You can pay onboard for the taxi ride to and from the Baths, and they give you a wristband. The fare for the roundtrip ferry and roundtrip taxi to the Baths was $38 for adults and $28 for kids. I don't know if they take credit cards. Everyone we saw paid in cash. There is a small admission fee to the Baths - I think it was $3 for adults and maybe $2 for kids?

Just wondering (since it seems time would be tight for the 7:45): did you have to buy your ferry tickets somewhere before boarding, or did you just board the ferry and pay once on board? I assume the ferry let you pay in US Dollars?

Speedy's leaves the dock at 7:45. You can make it if you get off the ship as soon as you can disembark (we never heard an announcement that we could begin disembarking, so don't wait for that or you won't make the first ferry). Speedy's makes a few trips a day, but we wanted to get there early before it got too busy.

How did you know to get off - did you just go down to the disembark area (is that Deck 1 or Deck 3?) and wait until they started letting people off?

 

[KashasMom]

I know I am bumping up an older thread but it's not THAT old

Can you tell me more about the Disney excursion? I am traveling solo with my 10 year old and trying to decide whether to just do this on our own or do the disney excursion, it seems like it's a $100pp difference which is pretty steep!

We drove to the Baths and started the climb down. We stopped about mid-way at a beautiful spot to swim for a while. Then we continued the climb down and through the caves/rocks. I really only booked with Disney because we were in Tortola less than half a day. Many people go on their own and I would have considered that if we were in port all day.

 

[Michelle smith]

We just got off the Fantasy yesterday. We did the Baths on our own, and it's very easy to do. You get off the ship, and take about a 10 minute walk to another dock and catch the Speedy's ferry. You can pay onboard for the taxi ride to and from the Baths, and they give you a wristband. The fare for the roundtrip ferry and roundtrip taxi to the Baths was $38 for adults and $28 for kids. I don't know if they take credit cards. Everyone we saw paid in cash. There is a small admission fee to the Baths - I think it was $3 for adults and maybe $2 for kids?

Speedy's leaves the dock at 7:45. You can make it if you get off the ship as soon as you can disembark (we never heard an announcement that we could begin disembarking, so don't wait for that or you won't make the first ferry). Speedy's makes a few trips a day, but we wanted to get there early before it got too busy.

We have been to both St. Thomas and St. John and prefer St. John - however, it really depends on what your group is interested in doing. Last week, we did the "St. John On Your Own" excursion through Disney. The boat ride to and from on the Island Princess was great because a crew member talked the entire time about the history of the island, pointed out interesting landmarks and celebrity homes, and shared fun facts. I doubt you would get that on the public ferry.

In St. John, you have to take a taxi to get to Trunk Bay but there is a neat shopping area right by where the boat docks in Cruz Bay. We snorkeled for an hour in Trunk Bay which was really cool - there is a coral reef there with lots of colorful fish.

All of those islands have large open air taxis so it won't be a problem for all 9 in your party to ride together.

Did you have to rent your snorkel or where you provided your own?

 

[butterfly0202]

We were in a party of 9 and did a private excursion in St. Johns -- we hired One Love Charters and arranged to be brought to a completely secluded beach. We absolutely loved it and enjoyed a quiet day on a completely empty gorgeous beach (Dennis Beach). They then took us to eat at a waterside restaurant and brought us back where our taxi brought us back to port. This is when the Magic went to St.Maarten/St. Johns -- not sure if something like this could work with your itinerary but we absolutely loved it and still talk about it to this day.

 

[Karen Zimmerman]

How long is the ferry ride to the baths?

 

[tlprice]

I know I am bumping up an older thread but it's not THAT old

Can you tell me more about the Disney excursion? I am traveling solo with my 10 year old and trying to decide whether to just do this on our own or do the disney excursion, it seems like it's a $100pp difference which is pretty steep!

My 11 year old and I did this on our own in September. We hustled over to the ferry terminal to catch the 7:45 ferry, but it was broken down that day so we had to wait for the 9:00. There is a ticket window where you pay and get a wrist band. Just make sure you pay for the ferry and taxi there. We had some people on the ferry that didn't and they were very upset because then they ended up paying a lot more for just the taxi afterward. We enjoyed the Baths immensely. We left the Baths shortly after the DCL groups arrived. We were so glad we did it on our own. As somebody described earlier, the DCL groups were like a conga line through. We were able to explore what we wanted at our own pace.
We wore our sea bands on the ferry and glad we did. There were several people that got quite sick on the ferry ride over. I would definitely do this on our own again. It was so beautiful and amazing. (Also, wear good water shoes with traction for climbing on some rough and slippery surfaces.)

 

[ChicosWife]

You will have time after your hike (or before if you prefer) to get your NP stamp.

What is an NP stamp?

 

[Keyser]

What is an NP stamp?

National Park stamp. At National Parks, you can buy these "passport" books, and then each national park visitor center has a place you can go to stamp your passport. Our kids have had fun doing them - it sometimes seemed they cared more about the stamp than they did the park itself...

 

[TXAg83]

We just got off the Fantasy yesterday. We did the Baths on our own, and it's very easy to do. You get off the ship, and take about a 10 minute walk to another dock and catch the Speedy's ferry. You can pay onboard for the taxi ride to and from the Baths, and they give you a wristband. The fare for the roundtrip ferry and roundtrip taxi to the Baths was $38 for adults and $28 for kids. I don't know if they take credit cards. Everyone we saw paid in cash. There is a small admission fee to the Baths - I think it was $3 for adults and maybe $2 for kids?

Speedy's leaves the dock at 7:45. You can make it if you get off the ship as soon as you can disembark (we never heard an announcement that we could begin disembarking, so don't wait for that or you won't make the first ferry). Speedy's makes a few trips a day, but we wanted to get there early before it got too busy.

We are currently booked on the Tour To Virgin Gorda. But with all the talk about it being so crowded at the Baths with the excursion, we're considering going with Speedy's and catching the 7:45 to beat the crowds. However, on their webpage it says be there 15 minutes before departure. I emailed them today, and in their mostly canned response, it said be there 30 minutes prior. I asked them if we can make the 7:45, but they didn't answer that question. I'm sure they didn't want to say yes because they can't guarantee that we can make it. So can you really get there in time? Can you actually get off the ship earlier than the listed ashore time of 7:30. We've always have done DCL excursions so trying to get off the ship right a way has never been a factor. I'd hate to cancel our DCL excursion and then not make the 7:45 and have to catch the 9:00 Speedy's and be right in the middle of all the excursions.

 

[ajo]

We are currently booked on the Tour To Virgin Gorda. But with all the talk about it being so crowded at the Baths with the excursion, we're considering going with Speedy's and catching the 7:45 to beat the crowds. However, on their webpage it says be there 15 minutes before departure. I emailed them today, and in their mostly canned response, it said be there 30 minutes prior. I asked them if we can make the 7:45, but they didn't answer that question. I'm sure they didn't want to say yes because they can't guarantee that we can make it. So can you really get there in time? Can you actually get off the ship earlier than the listed ashore time of 7:30. We've always have done DCL excursions so trying to get off the ship right a way has never been a factor. I'd hate to cancel our DCL excursion and then not make the 7:45 and have to catch the 9:00 Speedy's and be right in the middle of all the excursions.

We did the all day Baths excursion through Disney and it wasn't terribly crowded. There was a line to go through the boulders, but you're not going to be able to book it through there anyway, so it didn't matter much to us.

 

[ChicosWife]

Has anyone done the rib boats?