Mother/Daughter Cruise to Tortola, May 23rd, Lots of pics! COMPLETE 7/14

[Alice_on_WONDERland]

I LOVE your TR! You do such a great job writing and posting such beautiful pictures. Keep up the good work.

Let me give you props for making the text nice and big! It makes it nice and easy to read in bed late at night!

 

[bsusanmb]

I love your photos and you write so well. I look forward to MORE!!
Susan

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I LOVE your TR! You do such a great job writing and posting such beautiful pictures. Keep up the good work.

Let me give you props for making the text nice and big! It makes it nice and easy to read in bed late at night!

Thank You!

I know I always appreciate the larger text when reading, nothing like straining your eyes to read the screen when you are tured after a long and busy day.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I love your photos and you write so well. I look forward to MORE!!
Susan

Thanks for reading! Another update should be coming mid-day tomorrow!

 

[kittyscrap1]

The phone rang bright and early at 5:15 am. Mom and I wanted to go up on deck to watch the sunrise and to watch as the ship pulled into port.

Mom and I went on up to Deck 10, there were only a few other people up there that early in the morning.

While up on deck 10 it was VERY windy as can be expected. What I wasn't anticipating was the wind stealing my drivers license and key to the world card right out of my lanyard. I was very lucky, my drivers license landed a bit down the deck and one of the passengers picked it up for me before it blew away again. My Key to the World card however was lost at sea. I was so grateful that my drivers license was saved as I would need it later on in the trip.

Mom and I made our way down to Guest Services to get a new key card. We were snapping pictures along the way. I wasn't in too much of a hurry as I was pretty sure that the fish were not going to be making any room charges with my card. I have to wonder how often something like that happens? Not fish making room charges but key cards getting blown out to sea.

Guest Services issued me a new key right away, not a problem at all. Mom took my cards and put them in her lanyard as the pouch on hers zips shut unlike mine.

When we got up on deck we were starting to see land!

We decided to go grab something quick from Goofy's Galley and then go back to the room to eat and get dressed for the day. We had only thrown on something quick when we woke up so we had to dress for our excursion.


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Hey Leesa, Awesome TR. And you even got a cloud pix of Mickey Ears! Look at the photo after the atrium lobby shot...and the ears are right in the sunrise! Awesome!

 

[anetnmike]

I was wondering if that was just my overactive imagination! I saw it too! Awesome pictures Lessa! Keep them coming!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Hey Leesa, Awesome TR. And you even got a cloud pix of Mickey Ears! Look at the photo after the atrium lobby shot...and the ears are right in the sunrise! Awesome!

I was wondering if that was just my overactive imagination! I saw it too! Awesome pictures Lessa! Keep them coming!

Thanks for pointing that out, I hadn't noticed it before!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

The taxis dropped us off at the Top of the Baths. The tour guide gave us all instructions on when to be back up at the top for lunch and to catch our ride back to the dock. She also informed us that when going through the caves that you should go barefoot or in water shoes, no other footwear is allowed. I wonder how that is enforced as there was nobody down there to check and see what you are wearing on your feet?

The walk down to the beach was rather crowded as we were all going down at once but once we got to the beach it was very nice and everybody was spread out so it wasn't crowded at all. It really helped that we were the only cruise ship in port that day as it really cut back on the crowds.

The trail down is easy to navigate but you do have to watch your footing at some parts. Definitely not a difficult climb going down or up.

Spooky!

Once you get down to the beach area you will find a restroom and foot wash area. I strongly advise avoiding these washrooms if you can, they were disgusting! I find that most beach bathrooms are though.

There were also a few little stands selling souvenirs but I didn't even venture over to look at those.

I think Mom was all gung-ho to set off through the caves right away as she got annoyed with me when I started wandering down the beach. I had my swimsuit on under my clothes so first thing to do was to strip down to just my suit. I had also worn my running shoes for the climb down and back up from the beach as I heard you did not want to attempt it in flip flops. So once I had my shoes and clothes all packed away in the bag it was time to explore and take pictures!

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[Lifelong_Dreamer]

There were people climbing all over the huge boulders. I was not so adventurous though, I just knew that if I attempted it I would be sure to fall and break my neck, I am a huge klutz!










I could have spent a lot more time at the beach but we still had to make our way through the caves (which are the highlight of a trip to The Baths) and over to Devil's Bay.

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[my3m]

Love all the pictures and details.

Can't wait for more.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Love all the pictures and details.

Can't wait for more.

Thanks! More coming tomorrow night!

 

[Smileneyes]

Lessa, thanks for all of the great pictures and the details in your report. They've been a big help to us in looking forward to our trip in two days!

Thanks again!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

I am glad that we waited a bit before heading into the caves as we pretty much had them to ourselves. We ran into people every now and then but most of the time we were alone.

Going through the caves does require some agility. You are constantly having to bend down, crawl, squeeze or climb through the rocks. If you have mobility issues this area could be challenging for you. At one part you have to pull yourself up a boulder with some rope as well. Also unless you rent a locker you have to carry your stuff with you so keep that in mind as well when packing your day bag. Mom started out our exploration with the bag but it was proving too difficult for her to carry and climb around so I carried it the rest of the way through with no problems.

This is the part where you have to pull yourself up with the rope. It is not too steep but steep enough.

This is the most photographed area of The Baths. It was really beautiful, the pictures do not even do it justice. It is definitely something you need to see with your own eyes.

Also they have placed narrow stairs and pathways to help you cross at especially difficult areas. This is where the human traffic can get backed up as there is only room for one person to cross so if you have people wanting to go both ways you just have to wait your turn to cross.

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[Lifelong_Dreamer]

When you are 3/4 of the way through you come upon an open area. There are lots of boulders strewn about with shallow water with lots of colourful fish swimming about.




Mom and I situated ourselves on one of the boulders where we had a great view of the fish swimming around below us. The water was crystal clear so I was able to get some great photos of the fish without even stepping foot in the water.











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[Lifelong_Dreamer]

We were having a great time just hanging out but we had to continue on as the clock was ticking and we still had to get to Devil's Bay.

Devil's Bay was gorgeous! Absolutely beautiful! I was only mourning the fact that I didn't have a beautiful Caribbean sky to make the pictures dazzling.





I decided to go in the water for a bit, Mom decided to just hang out on the beach. She did have me pose for some pictures though.

 

[anetnmike]

You are doing such an awesome job, Lessa! I am really trying to decide if I want to book a Tortola cruise and you are helping me tremendously. Thank you so much!

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

You are doing such an awesome job, Lessa! I am really trying to decide if I want to book a Tortola cruise and you are helping me tremendously. Thank you so much!

I have pictures from Road Town, Tortola coming up in a few days.

I really loved going to The Baths. It was such a fun excursion and it is such a unique place. I just wish we had had a bit more time there. Of course if we had done it on our own we would have, you live, you learn.

 

[Lifelong_Dreamer]

Lessa, thanks for all of the great pictures and the details in your report. They've been a big help to us in looking forward to our trip in two days!

Thanks again!

Oops, I missed replying to this, so sorry!

You are so lucky to be leaving so soon! I wish I was back on vacation right now. Writing the trip reports helps though. This one will be done quickly but I like to drag out the ones I write on the WDW boards. I am only on day 3 of 14 on that TR.

 

[msmith07101]

We hung out for a little while, there was an origami class that I wanted to go to so I was keeping my eye on the time.

It was time for the class so I went down to the room to get changed, Mom went down too, she just hung out napping in the room while I went down to the origami class.

Oscar was teaching this class too!

We were learning how to make origami flowers, mine turned out awful as I mistakenly glued my flower onto its stem upside down. I threw it away as there was no point in keeping it. That class was more involved than I thought! Definitely not what I thought we would be doing. I used to be a pro at making origami cranes and penguins and frogs. None of those involved glue though....


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Hi Lessa! I was on your cruise too. Wasn't it fantastic?!?! It was my first cruise and I loved it! My DH and I also did this origami class...I found it to be a little tough too! Love your report so far...I am not very far into it...have to keep reading!

 

[msmith07101]

Just looked through all your pics of the baths...wasn't it amazing?? We opted to do it on our own to save some money. Pictures really do not do it justice...I loved it. My boys loved exploring and climbing the boulders...but I, Like you, was a little afraid my klutziness would get me in trouble!! I enjoy your trip report...since I was on this cruise I feel like I am reliving it!!