Eastern Caribbean - Secret Sands excursion questions

[VAB2013]

We will be on our third Disney cruise (first Eastern Caribbean) in a few weeks. We have two children that are 11 years old and 5 years old. We have booked the half day Jost Van Dyke excursion in Tortola and the half day Secret Sands excursion in St. Thomas. We can't decide whether to keep Secret Sands or just wander around St. Thomas on our own. If we don't do an excursion in St. Thomas we would probably go to the pirate museum and do the sky tram.

My concerns with the Secret Sands excursion are 1) having two beach days in a row and 2) the drive to the beach. For those who have been on the Secret Sands excursion, what are the roads like? What was the transportation like? How long is the drive to the beach? My 5 year old is still in a carseat at home and the thought of driving around windy, hilly roads makes me nervous.

I need to make a decision soon so that I can still cancel the excursion before the cruise so I thought I would post here in case anyone has been on this specific excursion and has thoughts about the drive.

Thank you!

 

[lklgoodman]

We went there earlier this year. We had the same type of open air vehicle in Tortola and St. Thomas. They do have roofs and high sides on the vehicles. The drive in St. Thomas wasn't bad, the one in Tortola was much more bumpy/curvy and seemed like there were no road rules in Tortola. My dd was 10 yrs old and I wasn't worried for her safety on the drive in St. Thomas. I don't remember it being very bumpy/curvy like Tortola. Our St. Thomas driver went slow around any bumps/curves while the Tortola one wasn't as cautious. We had people with babies on their laps in Tortola and they had a good grip on them, but they seemed ok. Secret Sands was a nice relaxing day. They only allow 1 ship there at a time, and limit it to 75 or less people. We went to a beach in Tortola also. I'm not a huge beach person, but I still enjoyed going to beaches at both places. If we go to St. Thomas again, we will go back to Secret Sands. If I remember correctly the drive was around 20 mins and we had about 3 hrs at the beach. We were there in the morning, so we were able to eat lunch on the ship afterwards and enjoy the pool/aquaduck.