TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands August 15-25 charter, local knowledge please?

Hey Team,
Please help me fine tune my "plan A" itin for our charter that will begin Aug 15 through Aug 25?

This is my first time back since 2003! My wife and I chartered in BVI about a dozen times BC (before children) and BW (before wife). We got married @ Caneel Bay St. John in 2001, and honeymooned on a TMM monohull.

For my 60th birthday coming up in about a month, my wife insisted we bring our girls (now 14 and 19) to where it all began...

I am pretty confident I know what we want to share with the girls, and we are gonna high-tail it to Anegada by day 3 and spend at least 2 nights.

The planning has been fun! Revisiting a dozen trip logs from as far back as 25 years ago!!

What is VERY different now are the mega-cruise ships which we NEVER saw back in 97-03. I mean, a 200 passenger luxury ship was not uncommon then... but a 4000+ passenger mega is not something I can imagine in Road Town.

SO my goal is to be nowhere near the monstrosity (or the crowds).

According to https://bviports.org/cruise-schedule/

18 AUG - 07:00 dep 15:00
CELEBRITY EQUINOX
317.2 m | 2852 guests

23 AUG - 07:15 dep 18:00
DISNEY FANTASY
339.8 m | 4000 guests

25 AUG - 06:00 dep 13:00
NORWEGIAN SKY
258.6 m | 2480 guests

I do not care about the Norwegian Sky on Aug 25. This is our last day, we will return our charter to Horizon in the morning and hopefully beat the rush hour traffic to EIS for our flight home. If the ship is departing 13:00, you would expect most passengers to be back by noon? (um, what kind of port call is 6am - 1pm? Where will they all go? Not my concern.) #RushHourTraffic in Road Town?

I do not care about Celebrity Equinox on August 18. We will be on our way to Anegada.

But Aug 23 - 4000 passengers from Disney Fantasy, all day.
Oy.
According to Disney's website
AND this does not include activities offered by BVI businesses not paying Disney vig.

Besides going back to Anegada, where would you want to be on Aug 23?

My initial "plan A" proposed being on a ball in CGB the night of Aug 22nd, then head over to JVD and make it a dive day (my girls are not yet certified, and this is not the trip for the certifications -- perhaps next year - so they need to do the discover course) -- I spoke with Capt. Colin from JVD Scuba, and he said he will be shorthanded (he told me he will be out of the country that week) so diving JVD Aug 23 is off the table. Um... I think there may be more to this? Looking at Disney's offering on Aug 23, "Follow your guide for an approximately 2-minute walk to your custom-built Newton dive boat." = they probably contracted BVI SCUBA CO which is JVD SCUBA? LOL!
So perhaps I should hire a dive shop not involved with Disney and stay with Plan A?
In theory, there should be plenty of reef for everyone, right?

Do you still think my Plan A to dive on the Day of Disney is the right call, or should we just escape to our own private beach and wait it out with our personal open bar? What else would you do to avoid the 4000?

The rest of the itin is pretty obvious and falling into place with lots of fun sails, conditions permitting.
Except for boatyballs. Is this really a good thing? haha ;-)

Thx!!
Jeremy

First I would say for the month of Aug you are way over planning this thing. Second since you have 10 days get the girls certified. Complete the pool and classroom work at home. Can be done quickly and you still have time. Get a PADI referral and do the 4 open water dives in the BVI. Same cost per dive as the discovery dives you were all ready paying for! Diving in Aug is excellent.
As far as the cruise ships pretty much the only impact they have is the Baths and CDB. Even CDB they are gone at 4PM. The weather in Aug will be a bigger possible issue. You will likely get a tropical wave over 10 days. Not a big deal but you might need to hunker down for a day or two somewhere. This will affect a cruise plan. Be flexible!
G

When a big ship is in port, I would avoid the Baths, Long Bay East, Cane Garden Bay, Brewer's Bay and White Bay. The dive boats will go to the usual spots. You are safe at Anegada, North Sound and Guana.

This is not the trip for the certification dives. That will be next year.

> Be flexible!

Exactly -- that's why I always try to have plan B and plan C + pivot as needed.
Plan A is a good place to start though.

I'll reach out to dive shops and see what floats.
Thx

I would steer very clear of Colin...

Why is that?

Had an incident with him that not only caused me to question his business ethics but more importantly his approach to safety on boating...too each his own

I completely agree

Input please re: SCUBA shops - preferably a shop that can do a discover program for my girls?
Does anyone have a shop they LOVE?

The best place to practice for the discover course is Cooper Island. Sail Caribbean has a small dive shop right there and they do a nice job. Blue water Divers also runs a excellent operation but hard to beat the convenience of Cooper and SCD. It also gives you a good reason to get to Cooper about 9am where you won’t have a issue getting a ball and it’s a great place to spend the day while your daughters dive.

We have been out with everyone in the BVI and Sunchaser is by far our favorite shop. Their location at BEYC makes them accessible for the BEYC docks and Saba and BEYC mooring fields. Much better location than Cooper in our opinion with a dedicated training area. Sunchaser is friendly and extremely professional with great equipment. Even our dive master daughter was impressed. We have had two crew do discover programs with them - excellent.

The guys at Sunchaser are very nice. They just don’t have the variety of dives that fit the discovery program that Cooper has nearby. Still it’s a decent option.

We have been to many different sites with Discovery divers and Sunchaser - I didn’t find the variety limiting at all.

As a heads up for your sailing itinerary, North Sound will be pretty quiet for your dates.

Per your dive inquiry, Sunchaser Scuba (located at BEYC in the North Sound) is indeed absolutely awesome. But they will unfortunately be closed for the season starting August 13th (and have kids camp August 11th and 12th so their real last day is August 10th). Regardless, they will be closed for your trip.

North Sound Restaurant Closure Dates below:

Leverick Upstairs Restaurant - Already closed for the season
Leverick Downstairs Restaurant (Jumbiee's) - Will be open. But I would not expect there to be a Friday night BBQ or moko jumbiee dancers
Saba Rock - Closed August 15th to October 16th
Bitter End Yacht Club - Closed August 13th to October 18th
Nova @ Oil Nut Bay - Closed August 22nd to October 7th
Blunder Bay/North Sound Bistro - Unsure of their plan. Perhaps Tom will respond here.

In summary, your North Sound restaurant options are: Jumbiee's at Leverick, Nova before August 22nd and maybe Blunder Bay

Thank you for this local knowledge, VGR
I called Sunchaser office earlier today and spoke with (i think) Kay, who even suggested I call their competitors (it was a "Miracle on 34th Street/Kris Kringle sends the Macy's customer to Gimbel's" moment). Could not have been more wanting to help me as much as they could. I get the customer for life part..

And TY for the list of closures.
Helpful!

I spoke with "Gimbel's" (er, DiveBVI) -- and the options just didn't work out for us.

On a whim, I called Blue Water Divers and I spoke with Aja -- Chalk this up to "local knowledge for the win..."
Aja asked me about our proposed "plan A" itinerary.
With this info, she suggested we taxi from CGB to Nanny Cay on our SCUBA day - and not worry about sailing back around.
#bingo

Are taxis always available near CGB dinghy dock? Should we pre-arrange a driver?
Aja said the trip would take ~20 minutes. Anything I should be careful for?