Tortola

Our first port day was Tortola, in the British Virgin Islands. 

Beautiful, right?  Jason took that picture because he was a go-getter and got up early to watch us dock.  I was snoozing.

Breakfast before excursion time.  Mindy’s cruise travel tip #3:  when they say “meet in the theater at 10am for your excursion,” that means “be in the theater at 9:45 so you hear instructions about all-aboard time because if you show up at 10:00 on the dot your excursion group is already walking off the ship.”  Not sure why so punctual this year, as last year we waited a long time at the meet-up points to be dismissed. Something about covid, I’m sure.

Step one was to take a very quick selfie in front of the BVI sign,

and then board our water ferry.

This was the only day we had kind of icky weather. It was cloudy and spitting rain while we rode to Virgin Gorda, but it cleared up after a bit.  See: sunshiney photos below.

Travel tip #4:  If you’re on the back seat of a boat and there’s no wall behind you, not even a raised lip, don’t put your snorkel mask under your seat or it will disappear into this at high speed:

(It’s ok. It was only one of us and that one who would least mourn its loss.  And it wasn’t our government-issued ID, thank God.)

Once on Virgin Gorda, we debarked the ship and boarded open-air mini-buses, which took us to where we could begin our hike to The Baths.

With scenic overlooks!

And cute little lizards

After a brief swimming stop at one very beautiful beach, where we snorkeled some and explored little tidal caves between the boulders; we hiked some more on a path that wound in and out through little spaces between boulders and cool shallow waters in the shade to another beach.

At the second beach we did what might be called “white-water snorkeling,” meaning the waves may possibly bash your brains out on the boulders you’re swimming between.  It was exciting.  Overall The Baths was gorgeous and not quite like anything I’ve seen before.

A hike, mini-bus ride, and boat ride later, during which I may or may not have fallen asleep with my head on a table, we arrived back on Tortola, where Jed and Ada came with me to stroll the little strip of shops while keeping a VERY CLOSE WATCH on the time, making sure we were back on board an hour before all-aboard.

A coffee break with Ada was very welcome.  Swimming, white-water snorkeling, hiking, sunburning, boating, clinging to the bars of a mini-bus that lacked basic safety features [like a door or wall or floor or seat belt separating me from the ground going past at 50mph], worrying about missing all-aboard and getting left behind, spelunking watery caves…all made me somewhat fatigued by afternoon.

Sunset over BVI

Apparently Tortola day was also Pirate Night, which I didn’t know was a thing on every Disney cruise, except, apparently, during covid times.  They left us pirate bandanas in our room when we had the day’s cleaning service, which was very fun.  Somehow after spending the day hiking and swimming in the Caribbean sun and then getting I-don’t-know-what-they-put-in-that-drink at the adult bar, my perception of Pirate Night was about as fuzzy as this pic I took during the pirate deck party.

Piratey fireworks, arrr. 

Time to drink lots of water and go to bed, because next day was an early port call!