Snorkel Adventure

[catzle]

How is the snorkel adventure from Castaway Cay? Lots of tropical fish. Good for the kids? Worth Doing? We are doing the double dip so thought this might be good for one of the days.

 

[truck1]

Youre going to hear both sides of this one.
Imho, a lot depends on the weather nearby the islands.The badder the outlook in the next day or 2 and the less fish youll see.

To me its a great place for a beginner to get the basics down.Theres 2 snorkel trails you can follow, 1 for beginners and 1 for advanced.Theres reef balls and different man made objects from anchors to old boats that have been sunk.Theres also a Mickey and a Minnie statue as well as a sub from the 20k ride from the MK.

I think its worth doing and there something for everyone in the family to see.My dw saw a baby stingray in the shallow water on the beach and there was more than a few fish that were nibbling on the brass clip I use for my underwater camera.

 

[Anal Annie]

Are you talking about just snorkeling in the family lagoon or doing the Seahorse Catamaran tour? We did both. We have snorkeled all over and have our own equipment to bring. We thought the lagoon was OK. Since we had our own equipment it was free for us. It's shallow and as is often the case in off shore snorkeling the water can get pretty cloudy when you have a lot of people in it. Too many people try to stand up & they kick up the sand etc. I recommend going out there early to do this before it gets toooo stirred up. We easily spent an hour out there just toodling around.

We have done a lot of snorkeling tours and thought the Seahorse Catamaran & crew were pretty lame compared to ones we've done in the past say in Hawaii or elsewhere in the Caribbean. They wasted a LOT of time on the dock before we ever moved and the check-in time was absurdly early. We easily wasted an hour just sitting around. Of course since we've done a lot of snorkeling we may have just been extra impatient to just get underway. I thought the crew was really of no value to anyone who might have been a beginner so thankfully we knew what we were doing & were able to just get off the boat and go. The little reef they took us to was actually quite nice and made up for their lack of interaction. It was a clear morning with calm winds so it was good weather for it. If we ignore the unfriendly crew aspect it was actually some decent snorkeling.

We really enjoy snorkeling so I would recommend doing at least one or the other while you are there.

In the snorkeling lagoon:

From the Seahorse Catamaran excursion:

 

[musicgirl]

Are you talking about just snorkeling in the family lagoon or doing the Seahorse Catamaran tour? We did both. We have snorkeled all over and have our own equipment to bring. We thought the lagoon was OK. Since we had our own equipment it was free for us. It's shallow and as is often the case in off shore snorkeling the water can get pretty cloudy when you have a lot of people in it. Too many people try to stand up & they kick up the sand etc. I recommend going out there early to do this before it gets toooo stirred up. We easily spent an hour out there just toodling around.

We have done a lot of snorkeling tours and thought the Seahorse Catamaran & crew were pretty lame compared to ones we've done in the past say in Hawaii or elsewhere in the Caribbean. They wasted a LOT of time on the dock before we ever moved and the check-in time was absurdly early. We easily wasted an hour just sitting around. Of course since we've done a lot of snorkeling we may have just been extra impatient to just get underway. I thought the crew was really of no value to anyone who might have been a beginner so thankfully we knew what we were doing & were able to just get off the boat and go. The little reef they took us to was actually quite nice and made up for their lack of interaction. It was a clear morning with calm winds so it was good weather for it. If we ignore the unfriendly crew aspect it was actually some decent snorkeling.

We really enjoy snorkeling so I would recommend doing at least one or the other while you are there.

In the snorkeling lagoon:

From the Seahorse Catamaran excursion:

Those would be my thoughts as well about the snorkeling lagoon. Is Barry the barracuda still there? We got very personal when my family was first in the water. He went right under me as my son "ran on water" toward the shore when he saw it.

You had some great pics. What kind of a camera do you have? We use an underwater sony.

 

[Anal Annie]

Those would be my thoughts as well about the snorkeling lagoon. Is Barry the barracuda still there? We got very personal when my family was first in the water. He went right under me as my son "ran on water" toward the shore when he saw it.

You had some great pics. What kind of a camera do you have? We use an underwater sony.

The only barracuda we saw was out on the Seahorse excursion... We used an Underwater Vivitar ViviCam 6200. We had just purchased a Canon Powershot the year before to have as a small pocket camera & I'd hoped to buy a housing for it...but apparently it's one of the few that they never produced a housing for. Since we'd JUST spent a few bucks on that one we opted to purchase the Vivitar just to have as an underwater camera - it was cheaper that way AND it's good to a deeper depth than most of the land/water cameras so we can use it for diving too if we ever do that. I believe the 6200 has since been replaced with a newer model. It does a nice job for not toooo much $. Whenever I get around to replacing the Powershot I'm sure I'll get one that is waterproof - that is becoming more & more common now but was not so much 3 or 4 years ago.