We are going on our first Disney cruise at the beginning of June and have booked the port excursion going to The Baths in Tortola. However, I was only able to get the afternoon tour since the early time was sold out. I’ve been debating whether or not we should keep it or plan to do it ourselves so we can go in the morning. Will we be miserable from the heat going in the afternoon? Is it more crowded in the afternoon?
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We haven’t (yet) been to Tortola (next year though!) so I’m not sure of the specifics for the Baths.
But I can suggest to keep checking, especially as you get within a week of the trip when most people finalize their plans and drop anything they no longer want. Also onboard you can visit the port adventures desk and they can check for availability, sometimes they leave availability to fill with requests onboard/in person.
Lastly, you could look into booking a tour with a vendor outside of DCL. Viator and TripAdvisor have good sourced and reviewed information on tours like that and you can find something that fits your schedule/budget. Happy planning!
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@Enchantedbythemouse : For some reason, I seem to remember you going to the Baths? Maybe you have advice.
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We did it by ourselves. It was an easy 10 min walk to the ferry. Happy to answer any questions.
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We also did it ourselves based on @Enchantedbythemouse experience/advice and it worked out great.
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Yay!!
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I remember reading your trip report before and we are doing the same jeep tour at St. Thomas because of your review. It seems pretty simple to do the Baths on our own. Someone pointed out the pros of not going until afternoon which includes sleeping in and having the ship to ourselves in the morning. Didn’t you leave about mid morning for the tour? And about what time did you get back? Was the lack of crowds because of the time you left?
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I definitely will keep checking. I did look into other tour groups but they cost a lot and we are already paying for a private tour in St, Thomas.
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That’s a good question. Let me go back and look at the timestamp on my photos and I can give you more information for sure. I do feel like we beat the crowds to the Baths.
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This is what our timeline looked like that day
Docked at Tortola at 7:20am.
Off ship by 8:45 and took our time walking to the ferry and taking pictures along the way. (I believe we waited probably 20 to 30 minutes once we bought the ferry ticket.) There are two ferry vendors right next to one another. The first one ended up canceling our ride because there weren’t enough people on it. But the other company got us on the next ferry. This was in March so it may have been a slower time of year. I’m not sure.
I will also say that the locals were very helpful and pointing us directly to the ferry. Nobody was trying to sell anything to us or harass us in anyway. They were very friendly.
Once you get off the ferry, then you take a shuttle to the park.
We Arrived at Baths national park at 11:37 and walked slowly to the Baths (there are lots of great photo spots).
Entered baths at 12:00
Out of baths at 12:35
We ate a quick lunch at the Poor man’s bar exit on the beach and then walked up a hill and over to the other beach at Devils Bay at 1 PM. The beach was empty at that point.
Took shuttle back to the ferry at 2:30 and got on the ferry at 3.
We did some shopping and then got back on the ship at 4:45 .
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I’m on the March 3 treasure and now my Tortola day is planned. Yay!!! Thanks @Enchantedbythemouse
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Man I’m jealous!
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I need to re-re-read your report because we are (hopefully) going on the Treasure June 7 next year and I know nothing about the 7 day Eastern Itinerary. Thanks for this timeline of the Baths!!
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The funny thing about the shuttle to the Baths is that they don’t tell you to keep your arms inside the vehicle. I would definitely recommend it though. I think our shuttle scraped two vehicles on our way over. They just kept going like nothing happened. 
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This sounds very doable. Thank you!
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