Day Two of CruiseNReview's ChristmasNTheCaribbean group cruise stops in Tortola, British Virgin Islands
Our second day onboard Virgin Voyages' Resilient Lady brought our first port of call. The island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands was our shoreside kick-off sight for CruiseNReview's first-ever hosted group cruise, ChristmasNTheCaribbean.
Blake and I have never visited Tortola and neither had any of our guests, so it was the perfect day to take our guests on our favorite adventure, trying to find the best beach on the island.
Prior to the cruise and an unexpected surgery, Blake had done research to try to find our clients the best beach day in possible. This was our promise to the group, to take them to our favorite and prettiest beaches on our favorite itinerary. Since we had never been here, we thought we'd give them a taste of the adventure of adding a new beach to the list. Since the BVI is known for its beaches, it was the perfect setting.
Here is our criteria for a a great beach:
Authenticity
Water Quality
Sand Quality
Safety
After plenty of research, we settled on Smuggler's Cove. A beach located on the northwest side of Tortola.
To say this beach checked all the boxes was an understatement, it was off the beaten path, check on authenticity. It had calm, blue, and clear water, check on water quality. The sand was soft, powdery, and white, check on sand quality. And finally, Tortola is a very safe place and we felt very comfortable with out surroundings, this one officially checked all of our boxes.
It really was a great beach day. Smuggler's Cove has virtually no development, is lined with palm trees, and has a small snack stand run on a generator that serves beer, drinks, and snacks. The water was crystal clear, relatively calm, and was perfect chilling with a drink in your hand and looking out at the scenery around us.
CruiseNReview guests had private transportation to/from Smuggler's Cove so we could maximize our time at the beach. The cruise line also didn't offer any excursions to this beach so this was our only way to get there. It got a 10/10 from all of our clients and is something we definitely add to our lists of recommendations if you visit Tortola or the BVI.
Meanwhile, our remaining guests that had travel delays flew from San Juan over to Tortola and where able to catch the ship. We are so glad they were able to join us and missed only one night of the cruise. We might with their blessing share the entire story at some point but are very thankful for their patience and couldn't wait to get them started on their vacation. Let's just a say it proved Blake’s air travel has become unacceptably bad column from a few months ago correct.
We took the 45 minute private ride back to the cruise terminal. Back on board we went to "The Miss Behave Show" in the Red Room onboard Resilient Lady. I could try to explain this show but I really don't know where to start and how to describe. I'll put it this way: It's wild, it's edgy, it's a blast. All shows are Virgin Voyages are different but their are high quality and well executed. You are always in for a surprise.
The entertainment onboard Virgin Voyages is more like Las Vegas than typical cruise ship shows.
After the show, we took our guests to a group dinner at The Wake. It's Virgin Voyages signature steak house that boasts a nice menu with plenty of steak and seafood options. We talked more about how dining works on Virgin Voyages in yesterday's live blog. You can find a link to that at the end of this blog.
The Wake was Blake and I's favorite restaurant on the previous Virgin Voyages sailing so we had high hopes going into dinner with ChristmasNTheCaribbean group. Good news! It did no disappoint. It was liked by everyone and we were treated to great bread, steaks, and seafood tower loaded with fresh options straight from the sea. A sample menu is below for your viewing pleasure.
The seafood towers are an additional charge. This was a thank you gift from CruiseNReview to our ChristmasNTheCaribbean guests.
With a full day of activities under our belt and dinner ending around 11:15 pm, it was time for everyone to retreat to their rooms and look forward to our next day.
Coming Up Next!
Tomorrow's live blog will cover our day at sea. After several days of travel (some more than others), it'll be nice to sleep in, explore the ship, see shows, and get ready for several days in a row of ChristmasNTheCaribbean adventures.
You can find our itinerary and links to previous days blogs below:
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