HAL Excursion for BATHS leaves at 3:15pm?

[littledylansmom]

Hi,

We will be in Tortola in Feb. on the Noordam. Our ship doesn't arrive until 3pm and leaves at 9pm... There is an excursion thru HAL that goes to "The Baths". My question is...Is it going to be too dark out by the time we reach "The Baths"? Are we better off skipping this excursion? Or is this an OK time to go? We will be traveling with our 4 year old, does he need to climb in and out of the boulders to get to the beach or can we just go directly to the beach part? Thanks for any help you can give me!

[vpoopsy]

I read this on another post yesterday and then cancelled my excursion!!

 

Tortola.

This was our least favorite island and I might not being fair. By the time you dock it was dark in 21/2 hours. They offer a island tour on the ship for $59. They offer the same tour at the pier for $20; we were riding with people who paid the ship. They were going to complain but I don’t know how that worked out.

[gx123]

Thank you for the information. But did you mean the HAL sells the Bath tour for $20 at the pier, while for $59 on the ship? We are taking the Noordam on 12/16/2006 and will be in Tortola on 3pm as well...aand your help will be appreciated.

[canadagal]

Hi, we are arriving at the same time as you on the Noordam but at the end of January. Was looking forward to the Baths but after research of threads we decided that there just would not be much daylight time left to justify this excursion once we finally arrived in Virgin Gorda. Another concern for us was........I was always instructed by my scuba teacher to never swim or enter the water at dusk or dawn as that's when the fish start to feed and when the ones with big teeth come out and it's really hard to see them.

[littledylansmom]

Great...We don't want to be eaten by big fish with teeth!!! So, I think we are going to skip the baths this trip around. Especially with a 4 year old. Thanks everyone for all your help and suggestions. :)

[missygirl]

We recently cruised to Tortola on HAL's Zuiderdam and booked a sight-seeing tour through HAL, very disappointing. It was rushed the entire time, jump out...take a picture...jump back on the bus. We arrived at Skyworld for the views and free drink and spent most of the time standing in a long line for the ladies restroom, of which was only one of those. We then went to Pusser's Landing for a little shopping, first was the restroom, naturally one stall. Now are we going to shop, no...most was closed because it was getting dark and they only gave us 15 minutes. So back on the bus and by this time it was totally dark. If we had known this we would have skipped the excursion and just walked into town and shopped.:(

 

Missygirl

[Joanandjoe]

We had a wonderful cruise on the Noordam (11/25 to 12/6); but the 3 p.m. arrival time in Tortola is a gyp. We took the Virgin Islands sailaway, scheduled for 3:15. By the time we got to the boat, it was between 3:45 and 4. We signed up for a sailboat experience, but they had to use the motor instead of the sails. We went to one snorkel site instead of two; even so, the snorkeling was cut short due to darkness, it was pitch black outside by the time the catamarin docked, and we had to stumble to our safari bus back to the ship (a five to 10 minute ride) in darkness. The tour operators couldn't have been nicer, and the rum punch they served was great and very boozy; but the time before sunset was woefully inadequate. We feel we were charged full price for half an excursion.

 

Since the Baths is a longer trip than the snorkel site, I can't imagine that there's adequate time before sunset.