Patouche Review - Crown Princess in Tortola

[joyride]

We were in Tortola on April 10th and booked online with Patouche for a Sail & Snorkel to Norman Island Treasure Caves. Patouche does charters, but they also will book their offered daily excursions. I hadn't read much about their tours on Cruise Critic and some people seemed to have concerns about timing for cruise passengers.

 

The Crown Princess was in Tortola from 7 AM to 5 PM. I contacted Julie at Patouche and she assured me that we could do our trip and be back in plenty of time. Patouche has recently relocated their boats from the harbor (Road Town) near the ship to east of there by Fat Hog's Bay. So, we disembarked the ship at around 8:30 AM and were met by a driver who took us for a 20 minute drive to Patouche's location. There were 6 of us who booked independently for the sail to Norman Island and then another group who were doing a Charter to the Baths. Our day trip was $100 each and we paid $12 each for our transportation and bought our own lunch.

 

Wow, we really lucked out. There were 6 of us on the Catamaran, my DH and I and 2 other couples from our Cruise Critic group. We had an awesome day. Our Captain was Shane and the first mate was Jess. Both of them were extremely attentive the whole day, and Jess was a real treat. She is a marine biologist and naturalist - so we got the extra bonus of very informative stories and information from her throughout the day. She had stories about the islands, pirate tales, birds, fish, etc. all day long!

 

The sail out to Norman Island was relaxing and beautiful. When we arrived, Jess got in the water with us and took us into the caves. We saw a barricuda, lots of fish and some unusual cave dwelling marine life. It was not crowded at all. After snorkeling the caves we headed to Willie T's, which is a floating bar/restaraunt pirate ship. Very Cool. We had an awesome lunch and then headed back to Tortola. The sail out there is rather long, so we decided that we really didn't have time for a second snorkel. That was OK by us, and Jess broke out the Rum Punch and we leisurely made our way back. On the trip back, Shane suddenly slowed the Cat down and pointed out a couple of sea turtles that were coming up for air. We got some awesome pictures of the turtles.

 

It was a wonderful, calm and relaxing day with no crowds and the Patouche crew totally catered to us and whatever we wanted to do. The water and scenery were awesome. I know a lot of folks went to the Baths, and I'm sure that was great too - but I think we got to experience a much less crowded and relaxing day on this trip.

 

So, if you want to do something a bit different away from the crowds, contact Patouche and see what they might have for you. Julie is very responsive and helpful. Unfortunately, I think Jess is gone for the summer - she was heading up to Alaska the week after we left. But, I am sure that Patouche will still have some awesome trips to choose from for those of you heading to Tortola.

[KathShe]

We were on this trip with joyride and DH... It was one of the best trips of our cruise. We all had a wonderful time and The Shamwari Catamarran was just perfect. The day was perfect. Capt. Shane and Jess were just great and knowledgeable and very informative...AND fun. Normans Island and The Willey T were very unusual. Not like all the other excursions. That is one reason why we thought this was one of the best excursions we had taken. Joyride found this for us, our group of 6! We tried to get others to join in but the 6 of us were the only ones. We had the whole Catamaran to ourselves.. It was a great day of sailing and snorkeling! The Mahi Mahi grilled sandwiches were the best on the Willie T. The Hamburgers were good too but make sure you get Medium cooked if you don't like your hamburger too raw! Was really fun on the Willy T. Can't say enough about the Patouche "Family." Julie met us and was very nice. Just a nice group of people. Had us back in plenty of time to catch our ship, as promised. Patouch was THE BEST!