NickAndJessicaInMO

I highly recommend- super convenient way to get to and from White Bay as the guide will meet you right at the port entrance gates and the water taxi is docked right at the port. I believe with travel, we got about 2 hours and 45 minutes of beach time. We left on the earlier tour (I want to say 9:15, maybe)? And we’re back at the port by 1:15-1:30. It was a beautiful day- great weather and gorgeous beach sites. Definitely one of my favorite excursions from our trip. We will absolutely be back.

Yes, it was Speedy’s.

Maybe not available outside of the excursion booking, but we traveled via ferry from Road Town as part of the ShoreExcursions.com booking. Maybe they have a contract with the excursion operator, who knows.

I would say logistically the only difference is the catamaran versus the ferry. The ferry was right at the port in Road Town, ironically docked right next to the Rebel Yell. For a 4 hour tour, we got about 2 hours 45 minutes of beach time. All in all pretty good all things considered. I have heard others suggest you could just take the ferry but I am not sure this is true. As I recall, Smith’s did not have a ferry directly from Road Town to JVD, at least on a Sunday (perhaps because the ferry is hired out on Sundays for this private tour?) and all of the other ferry’s required us to take a 30-35 minute taxi from cruise port to another dock. Unfortunately Virgin did not have a tour available so this was the best option.

So the tour is operated by Sebastian Transport Tours with Ferry (Smith’s) from dock in Tortola to White Bay.

Yes, just boarded Valiant Lady and confirmed- game will be shown at Red Room, Social and Athletic. We are also from KC (Lees Summit specifically). Go Chiefs!

Not quite. Specifically looking at Antigua. We want to do the stingray tour and then also tour Nelson’s Dockyard. Given both attractions are on the same part of the island, it makes very little sense for us to conclude the stingray excursion and return to the cruiseport only to travel 30 minutes back to essentially the same location. So, the question is, instead of getting on the bus to return to port, can I just stay in my location and then get a taxi to take us to the dockyard and eventually back to port?

Apologies as I was not sure where to post this question. We are debating whether to book an excursion during our cruise on valliant lady the 10th-17th versus booking on our own. Generally, I prefer to venture on my own as I do not like being tied to itineraries and want to cover more ground. That said, does anyone if there’s any consequence to not returning with the group if, for example, it saved travel time not having to return to port? Any help appreciated.

You must be from NOLA. We are from KC (go Chiefs), but recently left a NOLA-based firm from which I was working remotely.

We will be aboard Valliant Lady Feb 10-17. As I recall, streaming options were limited. Any way to watch the Super Bowl Sunday night on the ship, or have folks heard anything?

We will definitely report back. I think we paid like $146 per person for the excursion, plus maybe an additional $15 for protection. I did reach out to Foxys but have not heard back. Would be open to doing that as an alternative, as that was originally what I had wanted to do- perhaps tour the Callwood distillery in CGB then head to White Bay. However, while this was a popular topic some years ago, I had inquired in another thread and the answer I got was that the taxis operating in past years may not be offering the service anymore. It seems that CGB to JVD is not advertised as an option on the Foxys website, so curious where you had heard about it. Have you done the taxi service before?

That’s very helpful. I may reach out if you don’t mind sharing the response. I’m indifferent where they depart, just so long as the 4 hours wasn’t going to become something like 2 or 2.5 hours, you know? By the way, this is indeed different from the NCL excursion offered through the Rebel Yell power cat…I messaged them on WhatsApp and they confirmed it was not them and that 3-4 operators have adopted their excursion name (or a very similar name), thus creating confusion.

Thanks so much. I think I have seen a few references that indicate it is the same group. We just wanted to make sure we weren’t signing up for something only to find that the bulk of the day was spent traveling to and from the meeting point. Now just need to find a way to watch the Chiefs from the ship that night.

So, is this the same excursion group as the shoreexcursionsgroup.com site?

Thanks, this is the information I was looking for. Not counting travel to/from, do you have a sense of how much beach time you got?

Are you talking about the Aristocrat option, or the option booked through ShoreExcursionsGroup.com? The ShoreExcursionsGroup.com option seems to allow you to put in all of your itinerary and ship information and includes a guarantee that you will arrive back at the ship prior to departure, or they will pay for your travel costs to the next port, plus $1,000. For us, we have an 8 AM arrival time and 5 PM departure. ShoreExcursionsGroup.com seems to indicate we have the option of departing at 9:15 AM or at 12:30 PM. Given our departure time, makes sense that the 4 hours includes travel time, but again, still not clear to me whether this requires a taxi ride to another location (like West End), which, when adding up all of the time, leaves very little time to enjoy the beach :(.

Thanks for the info. Yes, ironically, I am between Aristocrat and the ShoreExcursionsGroup.com Option. From what I have been able to find out from Aristocrat, this would basically be a 9:30-3:30 affair, and sounds like would include the 30-35 minute trip to the West End and the 20-30 minute ferry from West End to JVD, and then the return to Tortola and the cruise port. All in all, I am assuming that this would likely amount to about 4-5 hours of beach time. From what I have been able to gather, we would be able to split the cost of chartering with others, so the cost I believe is around $170 or $175 per person. I did email ShoreExcursionsGroup.com for more info, but was only provided the following response: "The tour duration normally includes a buffer for travel time to and from the meeting location", so this seems to me that they are suggesting the 4 hours is inclusive of travel time. This might not be a bad option, if I could determine whether it departs directly from the cruise port, or if a tax ride to the West End/some other ferry terminal would be required. The description states "our tour includes four hours of fun and covers your round-trip ferry ride fee from your ship to explore the grand island of Jost Van Dyke (JVD)" which seems to indicate that they may be chartering a boat directly from the cruise port, but again, unfortunately this is somewhat unclear. The description also indicates it is from "near Romney-Pier Park".

Has anyone ever booked this excursion? The JVD excursion through Virgin is booked so wanting to find an alternative way to JVD. The itinerary seems to suggest that the excursion includes the cost of the ferry to and from JVD, and seems to suggest that this leaves from the cruise port. However, I am not aware of any ferries leaving directly from Road Town. Does anyone have any specifics on this? Is the 4 hours advertised as the excursion time including travel time to/from?

I have seen several older threads discussing a water taxi operating between CCG and dropping off at White Bay JVD. Does anyone know if these are still operating, or if any of them have websites where tickets/times can be booked in advance? Thanks in advance.