Another excursion other than Patouche

[lyndaedris]

Hi

I was on the tortola sight last month when we went on NCL Spirit(never again). Anyway I was going to book and excursion through someone by the name of Sir Speedy. I can't remember. But, his excursion was longer than we were in port so I had to take the excursion through NCL.

 

We are going again on the new Noordam March 15. This time we are in port for a nice long time. So now we can take his excursion.

 

Can anyone help me out here? I can't find a website for his tours and I know he has one because I was on it. :(

 

Also what has happened to all the pages for each port! I know there were many entries for this person and now I couldn't find one! I ev en did a search.:confused:

 

Thanks everyone!

 

Also, the excursion from NCL on the catamaran you had to swim 300 yards into shore. You have a life vest on though so don't worry. Also they provided NO raft or anything to carry in a towel, camera, water etc. I put my camera in a double zip lock bag and held it over my head both in and out and it worked fine. I am glad I did or I never would have gotten the nice pictures that I did. It is really worth going there. If you travel by car, van you will miss the walking through all the rocks and boulders, up small ladders and down, through little pools etc. to get to the 2nd beach.

 

We had the snorkel equip. provided for us. I thought the snorkelling was pretty good. The water was clear and I did see quite a few brilliantly colored fish. But to an advanced snorkelor I'd say "not so hot". But everything else is really neat!:D :)

[Pyrate13]

I don't know if they will fit your schedule but if you don't want Patouche (and I can't imagine why, great folks) try White Squall II. They are located at the Village Cay Marina.

[zydecocruiser]

Speedy's Ferry?

 

http://www.speedysbvi.com/ferryservice/specials.html

 

I think the price went up a little.

[lyndaedris]

thanks everyone.

 

Neither one will fit the schedule. Guess I am stuck with the ship excursion again. Although HAL is somewhat different than NCL. I love the "baths" and besides I really don't know what else to do there.

 

Does anyone know of a good tour guide who will take you around the island?

[CruisinKat]

Lyndaedris,

 

If you are into having a few drinks at a fun beach bar, there is a well-known bar called Bomba Shack (Bomba's Shack?). I hear it's a "must do". We'll be in Tortola in July and are faced with a short time in port, as well, and the dilemma of what to do. We've been to The Baths before, so, we'll probably just beach it and have a few drinks at Bomba's before heading back to the ship.

 

I'm not sure of any tour guides, but, from what I understand; you can grab a cab and they will take you around the island to see the sights. Not sure of the cost.

 

We're sailing on Norwegian Spirit....and I see you said "never again". I'm afraid to ask why, but I'm a glutton for punishment. What were your dislikes?

 

If you find something fun to do while in Tortola, please post back to this thread and let us know!!!

 

Cruisinkat

[lyndaedris]

CruisinKat,

Ohhhhh the Spirit. I am in the process of writing a review of the ship to post. However: here are two big complaints:

 

1. We had horrible service in the dining room. Service in the Outback, Applebee's etc. was better than here. No water, no asking if you would like more bread let alone water, no conversation, just "what would you like to order", returned with food plopped it down and left!

 

On the fourth day we found Jose and Colbert. They were great and we requested their section from there on in. Jose(head waiter) even opened up a table for us when there wasn't any available. If you find a waiter,waitress you like just be insistant that you have their station.

 

2. Granted I have only cruised 10 times but my husband has cruised 30 times. I am not a fussy eater. If I don't have to cook, I love it. BUT!!!!! the food was bland, bland, bland and the selections not great. I ended up sticking with the alternative of Salmon towards the end because it was about the best. My H is a vegetarian and his stuffed was dried out most of the time. I wasn't the only one complaining. There was a group of 24 people and they were all dissatisfied as well and many many more. The formal night dinner was not what we were use to which is lobster/steak. Nothing special at all. However, in all fairness, the Captains dinner was awesome. I had both lobster tail and filet mignon. The best meal of the whole week!

 

3. FreeStyly dining is a joke! "Eat whenever you want" they say. If you want to eat say at 6:30 be there by 6 or you will get a beeper because you will wait anywhere from 20 min to 45 min for a table. SOOOOOO we went to the front desk and made reservations for the Main Dining Room Windows for ever night after the 4th night. I just happened to overhear someone say it on the ship. It was a godsend. We just went in said we had a reservation for 6:30 and off we went after telling them we wanted Jose's and Colbert"s station. The waiters rotate different stations like every two day so they are not in the same place.

 

Hopefully my review will be done in the next few days. Check it out. I will say that the people we met who have sailed on the Dawn, told us it was sooooo much better than the Spirit! But after the Spirit exp. we are hesitant to cruise them again. We aren't fussy but there are just some things that we don't like. We had a good trip because we decided nothing was going to interfere with the fun we wanted to have. But, it was even better after we got rid of all the kinks and that took 5 days!

 

We are trying HAL on the new Noordam March 15. WE decided that before we cruise them for 30 days to New Zealand and Sydney we better try them out first and be sure we liked them. So far so good for HAL and the Noordam. We will see.

 

Oh, one more thing. I read on these threads before we went about the "honeymoon/anniv. package for $78 and that it was super. Well, I ordered it and it was the best thing I ever did. WE had champagne and choc. dipped strawberries in our room when we boarded. Dinner and a bottle of wine at LeBistro(the food was awesome!)They gave you $22 for a bottle of wine if you wanted a different selection you just paid the diff. Then we got Hordeurves in our cabin one night. We got a free 5x7 picture, and an Anniv/honeymoon party. We went to it because we figured it was our 6 months Anniv. There were about 10 couples there and we had free champagne and a delicious cake. But you don't need to go to that if you don't want to. If you can, order it it is well worth the money. I just did it on line about two weeks before we sailed.

 

Oh, another thing. We were in Tortole only a short time so had to take the ship excursion to the "baths". It was a good excursion. The Baths are wonderful. But, they don't have anything to carry your towel, camera, etc into shore as you have to swim 300 yards in and out. No problem, you have on a life vest. But it makes for no picture taking. I put my camera in a double zip lock bag and held it over my head as I slowly swam in. Worked out just fine.

 

Hope this helps; Sorry I rambled on so.

[CruisinKat]

lyndaedris,

 

That's too bad about your experience on the Spirit. My fiancee' and I have cruised many times and I know how disappointing it is when you come to expect certain things with the cruise lines and it just doesn't turn out that way. We have sailed with Norwegian (Dawn) before, and found the service to be less desirable than other lines we've sailed on. We had a blast on the Dawn, but, it just wasn't the same as we've experienced before. I definitely think the Freestyle dining leaves a lot to be desired. While on the Dawn, we had bad service in the dining room, as well. We ended up going to the premium restaurants most other nights, which were awesome. I truly believe that they skimp on service in the dining rooms to "force" you into the premium restaurants. It may be corny, but, I really look forward to the formal nights offered on the other cruise lines. There's a definite feeling that it's a special night and everyone gets pumped for it. I'm going to miss that on this cruise. I found that with Freestyle, most people don't get all decked out. On the Dawn, it felt strange being all dressed up and having other guests dressed so casual.

 

Anyway, our upcoming cruise on the Spirit is going to be our wedding cruise and we'll be sailing with 28 of our friends and family. The only reason we went with the Spirit is because we had to book something in early July to fit eveyrone's schedules and the only other ship sailing on the dates we needed was the Carnival Legend. The itinerary on the Spirit was better than what was being offered on Carnival Legend (an "overnight" stay in St. Thomas, and a stop in Bermuda, as opposed to Puerto Rico). Being that we're getting married on St. Thomas, we felt that having the entire afternoon and the evening there, we'd be able to really enjoy the day and spend more time with our guests (20 of whom will be flying in to St. Thomas for the wedding). This way, we didn't have to run back to the ship at 5:00!!! Plus, Bermuda is soooo much nicer than Puerto Rico. I've had my fill of Puerto Rico. Most of our friends/family joining us on the cruise have never cruised before, so, I think the islands we'll be visiting will give them a much better cruise experience.

 

We've gone all out and booked the Owner's Suite on the Spirit, with my brother and his family in a suite directly next to us. All others are on the same deck, but in different categories of cabins. My hope is, that since we're paying through the nose for this cruise, our level of service will be better than if we had booked another cabin category.

 

With all of that said, I am taking your experience and making a note of it. I will not hesitate to speak up if "things" are falling short of our expectations; not only for us, but for our entire group. Like I said, most of them have never cruised before, so they really won't know what to expect. I have a big enough mouth for all of us!!!

 

I will also take your suggestion of going to the Purser's desk and requesting dinner reservations in the dining room I think since our group is fairly large, they will need to make accomodations for all of us to be seated together. Hopefully, our waiters will be enjoyable.

 

Well, I guess it was my turn to ramble!!!! Thanks for posting your thoughts and I hope that your upcoming cruise with HAL is a great one! They sail out of NJ certain times of the year, right? It's one line we haven't cruised on yet, but, we would really like to try them.

 

Groovy Cruisin'!!

 

Cruisinkat