Eastern Snorkeling Excursions?

[PoohJen]

Hi! Looking for feedback on what snorkelling excursions you have tried and preferred for St. Maarten and St. Thomas/St. John. Particularly w/ family in mind - me, DH and DSs 12, 7 and 7.

p.s. anyone know if the water is pretty warm in mid-Nov? I hate being cold!

Thanks!

 

[Reignman]

Our family, DW, DS(11), DD (8) and myself did the Cpt. Nautica's snorkle excursion on our 8-21 cruise while in St. Thomas. It was awesome. Go for it.

 

[denise5374]

We did a non-DCL excursion on St. Thomas. It was FABULOUS!! The boat name is the Jester and the website is www.sailjester.com. The noat takes only 6 people and the captain, Capt. Jim is GREAT!! He is an ex-chef who moved to St. Thomas and now does charters. We met him at a hotel and we sailed to St. John, snorkeled and he made us lunch. The lunch was GREAT...bbq chicken with fruit salsa, past sald with fresh veggies, grilled corn on the cob. He also offers refreshments, and a lite breakfast (granola bars, etc). I cannot say enough good stuff about the trip, it was the highlight of our trip.

It was me my DH and 2 kids, DD11 and DS7. The kids didn't snorkel all that long so Capt. Jim, took them in the dingy to the beach where they threw a football, he had "noodles" and rafts if you wanted to float. My DH and I snorkeled, we went to Honeymoon Bay on St. John. Absolutely beautiful loaction!! The whole trip was about 7 hours. We met him at 9am and got back alittle before 4pm. You can charter the whole boat for $600 or ther price is $120 per person. It was only the four of us on the boat although we didn't pay for it. I guess it depends on if anyone else wants to go.

When we were at St. John, there were other bigger boats there as well and they had about 50 people on and there lunch was a sandwich plus they had to pay for their drinks on board.

I would defintely recommend Jester Sailing!!

Oh and the boat has a cabin with a "head" so you could go cown there and relax. we stayed up on deck , there is a cockpit with 2 benchs and a area up front where you can lay down. He even let the kids steer the boat, they esp. my DS loved that!

If you have any other questions, please let me know.

 

[bassoongirl]

My family which consists of me, my DH, DD-12 and DS-9, did the Golden Eagle Catamaran excursion in St. Maarten on our cruise last February and had a blast! The snorkeling wasn't the greatest (I don't think we swam out far enough), but the boat ride and the beach we stopped at were great!

We also did the St. John Trunk Bay excursion and loved it! The snorkleing was a lot better there, especially for kids. There is an underwater trail to follow. We saw all kinds of sea creatures. The workers at the beach gave a quick lesson on how to use the snorkeling equipment, which was very helpful. My DS-9 had never snorkeled before. He reluctantly tried it and loved it, especially when a huge school of fish totally surrounded us!

I would highly recommend either excursion, however Trunk Bay was my favorite!

Gayl

 

[PoohJen]

Thanks for the info - I'll look into each of those!

I'm looking for something the seven year olds can handle and enjoy. I remember reading about a pirate-themed one...anyone know what I'm talking about?

 

[jhorstma]

I believe you're referring to "The Doubloon"
http://www.doubloon.com/
Looks like a lot of fun!

For my family of me , DW , DS(11) , and DD(9) , I'm looking at swimming with the dolphins w/DD on St. Maartin while DW and DS do the 12 meter regatta (maybe fudge DS's age by a year :) or rhino boats (or both!). On St. Thomas gotta go to St. John, either on the Champagne catamaran, on Capt. Jim's boat Jester (sounds like a blast, albeit an expensive blast), or via cab/ferry on our own. CC cries out with jetskies and banana boats.

 

[Disneycrazymom]

We did the Doubloon 2 weeks ago. It is really fun although the spot they take you to snorkle is not the best one in St. Thomas/St. John. We did see 3 sea turtles and that was cool! They give out Pirate tatoos on the way back and put up the sails so that you get to sail a little bit. The crew was very nice and they had cold drinks on the way out and then beer and rum drinks on the way back. Try the banana one! We had a good time!

 

[PoohJen]

Yikes! - I get to book my excursions tomorrow and I'm still undecided!!!! anyone care to twist my arm as to Eastern excursions??!!!! (you'd think after all these months of planning I'd be ready!...)

 

[musicgirl]

I'm with reighnman. We did the Capt. nautica and I highly recommend it. It was a blast. We had 3 different snorkeling stops since you are on a speed boat. The ride itself is fun!!!!

Lorie

 

[PoohJen]

Originally posted by bassoongirl
My family which consists of me, my DH, DD-12 and DS-9, did the Golden Eagle Catamaran excursion in St. Maarten and had a blast! The snorkeling wasn't the greatest (I don't think we swam out far enough), but the boat ride and the beach we stopped at were great!

We also did the St. John Trunk Bay excursion and loved it! The snorkleing was a lot better there, especially for kids. There is an underwater trail to follow. We saw all kinds of sea creatures. The workers at the beach gave a quick lesson on how to use the snorkeling equipment, which was very helpful.

I would highly recommend either excursion, however Trunk Bay was my favorite!
Gayl

From DCL's description of the Trunk Bay excursion (and several of the other excursions), the trip time will be 4 to 4.5 hours, but only about 1 to 1.5 swim/snorkel. Are you "travelling" all the rest of the time?