virgin islands sailaway excursion

[skylar64]

Just back from trip on the Noordam. Just wanted to let people know that we did the ship excursion "Virgin Islands Sailaway" in that our ship docked at 12:00pm and it was hard to schedule anything else but a ship thing. Have to say that we had the best time. The catamaran was smooth and held thirty of us comfortably. Went snorkling and to a small beach on norman island. Served punch and rum punch after the snorkling. They had the snorkling equipment on board, but I had brought it for all of the kids. Crew was very good and snorkling was great. Lots of fun.

[OCruisers]

Agree with skylar! The "Virgin Island Sailaway" is GREAT! Really, it's our favorite in Tortola! Sure, everyone will probably want to see The Baths once ... but, but, but .... For a wonderful, fun, and relaxing time this excursion can't be beat! :cool:

 

Happy Sailing! OCruisers :)

[nybumpkin]

Thanks so much for posting about this excursion. We've booked it through Carnival for our upcoming cruise, and it looks like a lot of fun. We're in port 7 AM to 2 PM, and the excursion is scheduled from 8 AM to noon. Hopefully we'll have a little time to walk around after the excursion.

[lisad63]

We just did this excursion last week from the Carnival Legend. The snorkeling was excellent! Say tons of fish of every color and size. At the first stop on one side of Norman Island, we snorkeled from the catamaran and could snorkel inside one small cave. We had 45 minutes at this location.

 

Word of caution: The excursion operators ran out of masks and snorkels!! My son and another woman did not get one. It took about 20 minutes of our snorkeling time for them to look around trying to find pieces of old masks that could be put together to make do. While they were looking, my daughter came back saying that her mask was cracked and leaking. They ended up finding a small child's mask for her - she's 19 - that worked well enough to suffice. My husband's mask was very rough on the inside and left scratches on his face. I was the only one who had my own mask and did not have to wait. I was very disappointed they they were not outfitted with enough equipment. We eventually all got outfitted to the point we could snorkel, but the frustration on the front end of waiting and wondering if they would even get a mask was irritating, to say the least.

 

Next stop was at Pirate's beach on Norman Island. There were only 3 other people on the whole beach when we first got there. We had 45 minutes to snorkel or lay on the beach. They also started the rum punch flowing on the way to this stop. Again, wonderful snorkeling. There were several very large fish in this area. I was told they were tuna, but have no clue if that was truly what they were.

 

It took an hour to sail back from Norman Island to Tortola. It was so nice to lay on the net of the catamaran and watch the sails in the wind.

 

When we got back to the ship area, we had a little over an hour to shop with the vendors set up close to the pier.

 

Other than the issue with the masks, this was an excellent excursion. It rates high on our list. The island and water were absolutely beautiful. I can't wait to get my underwater camera film developed.

[nybumpkin]

Lisa - Thanks so much for the review! Do you know how many people went on the excursion from the ship? (I have a snorkel mask that I was planning to bring - sounds like a good idea:) ).

[lisad63]

I would guess there were probably 25 or so on the excursion. They did have plenty of fins and vests.

[nybumpkin]

Thanks, Lisa! I can't wait to try this one. Last year we booked a Stingray City/snorkel in Grand Cayman, but our ship had to skip GC thanks to Hurricane Dennis.

[inai]

Does anyone remember the cost of the SailAway?

[lisad63]

Yes, we purchased it through Carnival for $65 per person.

[nybumpkin]

We just returned from our cruise on Legend, and this excursion really was one of the highlights of our vacation. We had about 40 people on the catamaran, but there was planty of room. The channel was a bit rough, so everyone up on the bow got a bit wet during the sail. The snorkeling was excellent; our kids had never snorkeled before, but the older two took to it as if they'd been doing it all their life. (The 6 YO was more hesitant, and was happy to stick to the beach area.) Our tour ended up taking five hours instead of four because a line became fouled in one of the propellers, and one of the crew had to go overboard to cut it free, so we didn't have any shopping time when we returned - but I was very happy to just hang out on the catamaran. We had the underwater cameras developed back on the ship, and we did get some nice photos of sea life. We paid $65.00 for adults and oldest son, and $52.25 for the two younger kids; while I know lots of folks question the value of excursions booked through the ship, this one was worth it.

[BrynnP]

This excursion sounds wonderful! Does anyone know if it can be booked directly through the company, or only through the ship?

[nybumpkin]

Brynn - I looked for an independent, but couldn't find one - one of my reasons for booking through Carnival. I didn't see any other tour operators at Norman Island - just a number of private boats with small numbers of passengers (although some of them appeared to be charters).

[BrynnP]

Thanks for the reply. I'll check the excursions on my ship for that tour. Our stay in Tortola is very short, 1p-7p, so it might not work for us this time. Gives me an excuse to book another cruise that includes Tortola!