We returned a couple of weeks ago from our cruise on the Fantasy. I thought I would report back about our experience with Tortola. Our group consisted of 2 grandparents, my husband and I, and our 3 kids, ages 16, 12 and 8. We did the non-lunch Baths trip through Disney in the afternoon (the only option for us). In the morning, we got off the ship to experience Tortola shopping on our own. Our kids love the gift shops at the other ports where they can pick up a stuffed animal or a magnet or other little trinkets to remember the port. Tortola was a total disappointment! NOTHING was open besides Diamonds International and two elegant-looking clothing shops which didn't have any t-shirts or little trinkets. Bummer! My 12 year old was totally bummed! We did get some nice pics of the Fantasy in port, but besides that, there is nothing to do right outside the pier.
Now, on to the excursion. Our meeting time was around 1:15, I think, in the movie theater. They passed out towels to those who wanted them and then disembarked as a large group. We were then lead to a ferry which took us from Tortola to Virgin Gorda. It had seating upstairs out in the open and also an air-conditioned cabin inside which seated quite a few people as well. There were a few additional benches outside on the main level as well. The ferry ride was approximately 30 minutes long. We had pretty smooth seas, but it was still pretty rocky. A few of the kids near us were getting ill from the motion.
Once at Virgin Gorda, they separated us into open air taxis which seated approximately 20 people per vehicle. Our driver took us to two look-out points, which were not that great. I think they were trying to break up the crowd a bit, but it felt like wasted time. We met up with the rest of the group at the Baths, but then were late for the big group talk they did. They wanted us to hang around after the big group left to hear the rules, but we snuck away! We did hear that we were supposed to wait for the guide to take us through the caves and we were not supposed to go alone.
As a big group, everyone made their way along the path to the first beach. I would say that it took about 5-10 minutes to walk to the first beach. The path was uneven, but easy. They didn't give us any indication of how much time we would be there before we could go through the caves, so that was very awkward. The first beach was nice, but small unless you wandered away a bit, but then we were worried that we would miss the cave part. In our opinion, we were at the first beach entirely too long. Finally a guide came along the beach and rounded up the people that wanted to go through the caves to the other beach.
The cave-portion was surprising to us! There were very tight places and a lot of people trying to get through them. People coming on their own from the other direction had a difficult time getting through b/c of our group. It was a line of people going one by one through the tight spaces. At one point you had to hold onto a rope and pull yourself up a large rock (probably 12 feet tall), then walk along the rock and come back down through a tiny little hole. After the first little hole you had to crawl through, the grandparents in our group bailed out, which I think was best. It was more strenuous than I had anticipated. The cave part took quite awhile to get through since it was done as a large group. The payoff was great though. The second beach was incredible!!! We were sad that we couldn't have gotten to it sooner, as was another stranger that we ran into. We only ended up with about 25 minutes on the nice beach before we had to head up a different path to get back to the top.
The walk back to the top took about 20 minutes. It seemed to go on forever! I guess I was expecting just a short little hike, but when you're in a wet swimsuit and tired from going through the caves, the walk seems long. We finally got back to the top, washed off our feet and shoes, and then waited quite awhile for more open air taxis to arrive. There were about 20 people behind us from our group, so we weren't the last ones by any means, but the taxis were slow to get us, which made everyone late getting back to the ship. Luckily, since it was a Disney excursion, they held the boat for us, but it was a bit scary! We were thankful to have been with Disney on that one! The ferry ride back was again bumpy. They did serve some rum punch, but we passed b/c we weren't sure about drinking the water from the island.
All in all it was a great time and we enjoyed ourselves a lot. I would only recommend the excursion to people ages 8 and older if you want to explore the caves and see the better beach. Otherwise, you're not really seeing much at all besides an okay beach. I think there would be better excursions out there for people with younger kids or grandparents. Also, I wouldn't recommend it for people with back, knee, or other similar health problems. I'm a pretty Pooh sized person, so there were spots that made me nervous, but I made it through. Bigger than me...I'm not so sure! The second beach really is amazing, but if I were to do it again, I would not wait for the guide, like we were instructed. There were private groups doing it on their own and having a lot of fun. I think it would be better to do the caves part as a smaller group and get to the nicer beach earlier so you can really enjoy your time there. Let me know if there are any questions that I can answer about the excursion!
) equipment. Nothing to worry about. You will have a great day.
