Tuesday, March 29 - Tortola
This was going to be an exciting, but very long (as Tiago cautioned) day. Not only did we have a long excursion scheduled, it was also Pirate Night and we had Remy reservations at 6:00PM. We had our wake-up call, but I woke up around around 5:30. I guess I was too excited. I sat in a porthold and looked out at Tortola. It was beautiful and definitely looked less developed than other ports we've sailed into. Everyone was pretty much up by 6:30 and we went to Cabanas at opening at 7:00 with our bathing suits on and our day packs ready to go with sunscreen, towels and a life vest we had brought along for Nicholas.
As soon as I booked this cruise, I knew that we wanted to visit Virgin Gorda. The Port Adventure was for ages 5+, so I needed to figure out another way to get there. Our self-managed excursion to Atlantis on the last cruise gave me the confidence to look for something outside of
DCL. Many people on this board have had great experiences with Patouche, so I thought that was a good way to go. I originally looked for people from my cruise meet to book a charter, but because there wasn't that much interest, I ended up just getting spots for the four of us. I emailed a few times with Captain Joe but my deposit didn't go through. I finally called him in January to confirm and to give my credit card number. Because I paid offline, he didn't end up having my contact information. When I called a week before, he confirmed everything and gave me instructions for meeting up with the boat. He said that he had about 80 people coming off the Fantasy for today and so he had to find extra boat captains to help out. We needed to get off the ship, find the person with a "Tortola Cruise Excursions" sign, and get on Capt. Kinky's boat. (He apologized for the nickname
)
I think all ashore time was around 7:30, but we took our time and got off around 8:10 or so. We quickly found the sign and person told us to wait on the dock for Captain Kinky to come. The captain helped us onto the boat and told us the day's schedule. Everyone was from the Fantasy so that made the schedule easier. We were going to go to one snorkeling stop with some caves, then have lunch at Norman Island, then go near Cooper Island for some more snorkeling before we head to the Baths.
Capt. Kinky wasn't incredibly talkative and some of the people toward the front of the boat did have a bit of a conversation with him, but there wasn't a lot of explaining or guiding on his part. We stopped at our first snorkeling spot and after going back and forth a few times, Isabella decided that she would get into the water. She and I went around a bit, but she was very nervous. Nicholas took one dip into the water and decided it wasn't for him. He chose to sit on the side of the boat and kick water around instead. Alex and I then switched places and he mastered a technique with Isabella. She would rather use her swim goggles to look down. Alex would push her head into the water and she would lift her arm when she was ready to put her head up. We all saw a few fish, but nothing terribly spectacular.
After everyone came onto the boat, we headed to Norman Island. The captain said that the restaurant opens at 11, so we could hang out out on the beach and he would save us some seats. The kids were delighted to be able to play on the beach. One of the handy FEs that we had received so far was mini sand buckets, rakes and shovels. The kids had a great time walking and playing on the sand. As you look down through the clear water, you could see lots of fish right there. We saw some families from our group sitting down, but figured the captain would come get us when it was time to eat.
Eventually, Alex said that many of the families were already eating, so we should probably go find a seat. Turns out the captain didn't save us a table, but no matter. The lady sat us down fairly quickly and we looked at the menu. At that point, I was glad that I brought a couple hundred dollars cash with me. The entrees were all $20+. After we sat, the restaurant got more and more crowded with other tours. It took us a very long time to get the waitress to take our order. Then a very long time for our food to come. Capt. Kinky even had to intervene a few times to ask them to please hurry along (not sure if it really had an effect). In any case, lunch took a big chunk of time (maybe 1 hour and 30 minutes?) and we had to get back on the boat as soon as we were done.
After lunch, we went to a spot off of Cooper Island to snorkel some more. The captain said that there were many turtle sightings in the area, but we didn't get to see any. It was very pretty with a lot of fish though. The current was pretty strong, so it was very easy to get away from the boat, so we weren't in the water that long.
Next up was the highlight - The Baths at Virgin Gorda. We pulled up near the beach and the captain told us that we should swim to shore. We all put on our fins and lifejackets. Alex took Nicholas ashore and I took Isabella. Alex is much better at sidestroking so he made it up to the side beach fairly quickly. I pushed Isabella along bit by bit, but it took us a while. When we got to shore, Isabella and I got banged up a bit by the waves hitting the rocks. We should have gone off to the left more, where there was more of an opening. Oh well.
The Baths were very neat. The kids had a great time exploring among the boulders and grottos were like nothing I have ever seen before.
We had fun trying different route and climbing and getting pictures in the nooks. It was pretty hard to climb around though, and we all got nicks and scratches from the rocks. Even though the Baths are supposed to be less crowded in the afternoons, there was still quite a lot of people. When we had to go up and down the wooden steps, we had to wait for all the people to come down first, so it took a bit of time. We headed down the path as much as we could and turned back when we decided the kids couldn't make it past more boulders. When we reached the beach, the captain was looking for us. "We've been waiting for you - the whole boat!" he said. I said, we're coming as fast as we can. After quickly trying to get our fins and jackets on, the four us swam back to the boat. We tried to get there as quickly as we could, but with the current against us, it felt physically exhausting. When we got back to the boat, I looked at my watch and it was 4:00. We had a late all aboard time at 5:45, so I was glad we weren't holding the others in our group up, but was still feeling bad that we were causing people to wait.
When I thought about it afterwards, I wished that he had told us a time to be back at the boat. We could have measured our time better at the Baths. At the same time, I wish we didn't spend so much time at Norman Island. We definitely could have spent all afternoon at The Baths. Everyone raves about Capt. Joe from Patouche and I wish we could have been on his personal boat. Because it was spring break, I'm sure he was overwhelmed with requests, but I wish we had learned more about Tortola's history, culture, etc. during our tour. In any case, I'm glad that we did get to make it to The Baths at the end, which we couldn't have done through Port Adventures.
We walked through the port area at Tortola. Many shops are still in the process of opening up since I guess the port only reopened this year. There were a few T-shirt and souvenir shops, but given how tired we were, we didn't really look at much.
We quickly went back to our stateroom, washed up, and got ready for dinner. I put on a dress and Alex put on a jacket and pants (no tie) for Remy. We dropped the kids off at Oceaneer Club and asked them to feed the kids. They said that they were just finishing up dinner so they could join in and asked us if we were going to dinner. We told them we were headed to Remy and she noted it down. I guess they could locate us if they needed to. Nicholas was asking about Pirate Night because he was getting nervous and we assured him we would get him in time for the party at 10:30.
We got to Remy right at 6:00 for our reservation and waited outside of Meridian to be sat. We took a quick selfie and the host came to get us. We asked him to take a photo of us:
Turns out 6:00 was the perfect time for us to have dinner. We sat down just in time to see the ship pull away from the Tortola port. As the sun set, the backdrop turned from land to water.
Dinner at Remy was fabulous. Some highlights were a crusted ball with tomato soup on the inside, a three layer soup(?) with macadamia nut, burnt caramel, and a foie gras foam. It was unlike anything I've tasted before. Alex ordered the wine pairing and we shared a veal with black truffle course. It was great to see and smell the black truffle, but I don't think it was worth the $75 upcharge. After dessert, they sent us with bribes for the kids, including lollipops, chocolate and other sweets. We probably ate dinner for a good 2.5 hours!
We got the kids and went back to the room to change. Poor Nicholas was falling apart. He was super excited to put on his ARRGGG shirt and play with his sword and hook, but he was practically falling asleep standing up. After getting in trouble a few times, he went to lie on his bed and I wasn't sure if he would wake up.
At 10:15, I said we needed to get going to get a spot for the fireworks. Isabella and I went up on deck and were able to get some spots right next to the stage. I texted Alex to hurry and he said that they were on their way. They joined us around 10:25 and we watched the show and fireworks. As a lesson from the last cruise, Nicholas watched them with noise reduction headphones on.
Then the dance music started for the pirate party. Isabella wanted to keep dancing, but Nicholas was on the verge of collapsing right there. We decided to go to bed. It had been a very fun and memorable day.