Day 4: The Baths of Virgin Gorda and Dew Detected
Upon waking I conducted a full body scan and evaluation to be sure that bronchitis bugs hadnt devoured me whole in the middle of the night. My skin was still holding everything in, my chest only gave the slightest wheeze when I inhaled, and my head was no longer on fire. I felt pretty good. Im not going to say I felt like a million bucks, but I was feeling kinda like $5.99. Once I made my way to the bathroom and partook of my morning blinding, I discovered that it was only 5:30 am. Eesh. My internal clock needs a new battery. Ah well
once Im up, Im up so I did my usual morning thing and headed up top to see where we were and to watch our approach into Tortola!
Tortola day! Land at last! This was of course the day we were all most excited about. Its a place weve never been before, and a place that Disney doesnt go to regularly so it just felt special. Pre-cruise, wed done an insane amount of research regarding what we were going to do on Tortola, and it was decided very early on that we were going to take in The Baths at Virgin Gorda. Now, this is an excursion offered through Disney which is where we landed in our research travels first, but upon further internet searches and DIS searches we decided that the process of getting to The Baths did not sound difficult at all to do it on our own. Plus it would be about $100 cheaper to do it on our own by way of ferry and taxi. So more research led us to Speedys ferry/taxi service which is only about a 15 minute walk from the Disney Magic dock. The plan was set!
I watched our approach into Tortola for awhile, and then I ran back down to the room to force my wife to get her buns up because she was missing it! So I told her to shake a leg and meet me up there, and I ran back up there. She joined me shortly after. Heres pictures of our approach.
We did Topsiders breakfast and were back in the room to get ready to get off the ship by 7:45 am. We knew that the first Speedys ferry to Virgin Gorda was at 9:00 am so we were planning around that. We packed bags and backpacks with all the essentials: sunscreen, towels, cameras, and the video camera. That darn blasted video camera. If you recall from a previous installment this was the first voyage weve taken with a video camera. We were SO excited to have it so that we could capture the ship and The Baths
so of course we took it along as well. My wife also affixed her Ollie button to the front of her shirt because dont you know he wanted to see The Baths as well. By 8:15 am we were off the ship, and as soon as we stepped onto dry land I wanted to get the video camera out. I got it out of the bag, turned it on, fiddled with it, started down at the display
and was greeted with two words in all caps in red: DEW DETECTED. Uh
huh? Dew? As in moisture? As in droplets of water? Humidity? On the lens? On the tape? So I rubbed my shirt over the lens to clear the condensation, turned it off then on again, cursed under my breath, and got the same thing. DEW DETECTED. DRAT and BLAST to tarnation! UGH! I ejected the tape. Looked at it. Warmed it with my Sink King laser beam eyes. Cursed at it. Inserted it again. Turned the camera back on. DEW DETECTED. Well DOO! Annoyed, I put the camera away and we kept walking up the pier.
You have to walk through an Information Station so we stopped there to ask the lady about Speedys to be sure we were going in the right direction. She was very kind and gave us a map and pointed the way. Its very simple: just take a left down the main road and youll run right into it. Once we were outside of the ports security checkpoint we were immediately approached by all kinds of people wanting us to take taxis somewhere or take an island tour or sell their ferry excursions. We politely declined and kept walking
after walking a ways, I could see the sign for Speedys just up ahead, and it was then that another man approached us offering Speedys service.
He escorted us towards his building where we paid and got everything situated. The tickets include both the ferry to get over to Virgin Gorda and also the open-air taxi to get from the Virgin Gorda drop off location to The Baths. It was $114 for the three of us so we considered it a good deal. We still had a bit of time before the ferry was scheduled to leave so we ran across the street to a small souvenir shop to look around. They had a great selection of straw hats which is exactly what my wife was looking for. Her poor scalp is the first and fastest to get sun burnt so she wanted to invest in head cover. She picked one out and donned it immediately!
Isnt it lovely?
When we boarded the Speedys ferry we sat up top right at the back, and we noticed that we were surrounded by many nice folks we recognized from the ship, so we were certainly not the only ones making this adventure alone without the help of Disney. So we were on our way, and while we sat there this lovely woman who was sitting across from my wife piped up and made a comment about her Ollie button. She was saying how cute he was when a dawning realization swept over her face and she exclaimed, Wait a minute, did you write a trip report on the DIS. And I cracked up. I guess I never realize just how many people are reading these trip reports that dont actually post any replies or comments. I guess with over 6,000 views to this thread more people are reading than are showing their faces so to speak.
Hi Joanne from Texas! If you are out there I insist you post and say hey! In fact
all lurkers reveal yourselves! Im taking lurker roll-call!
Now heres where I made a complete idiot out of myself once again, something that I am quite good at. I considered leaving this out, but that wouldnt be fair as I promised myself I would give a complete and accurate account of the weeks events. It was hot. Really hot. And sunny. And sitting there on the top deck of the ferry I could already feel the suns rays beating down on my face, filling my pores with sweet sweet sunshine. So I needed sunscreen. Now this wasnt to be the first time Id applied sunscreen on this cruise (or in my life) but I wanted to use more today because I just knew that the sun was burning hotter and brighter today. I mean, hello
its Tortola sun instead of sea day sun! So I squirted an extremely generous amount of sunscreen into my palm, rubbed my hands together (at this point wondering if perhaps Id gotten too much) and then applied to face. IDIOT! I would LOVE
LOVE to know what everyone surrounding me was thinking. Joanne from Texas, by all means, jump in here for Id love to hear your thoughts (or anyone else reading who was there). Were you thinking, What the heck is with this guy? Does he think he going to burst into flames at any moment, and he needs a WHOLE TUBE OF SUN BLOCK to protect him from impending Armageddon? Does he fear Apollo himself is going to strike him square in the face with a sun stick and singe his goatee right off of his face? You could coat an entire army of lifeguards from head toe with that amount of sun protection goop. Does he think the sun itself is going to careen from its orbit and shoot up his nose? Surely these are the thoughts that were being thought as I slathered an insane amount of sunscreen into my face. Im sure my pores were screaming and drowning! Believe me
not one UV molecule was going to conquer the barrier I had installed.
This picture doesnt quite visually portray the reality of the moment.
I think after about 20 minutes I'd finally gotten it all rubbed in... kinda.
The DIS only allows 25 photos per post so... TO BE CONTINUED.