Just returned 4/10 Western - Excursions

[DVC4US]

Excursions we did on our western cruise and their outcome.
Key West – We took the jet ski tour with Island Watersports which is located right at the pier where the ship docks. It is $95 per jet ski with $10 for each additional rider up to 3 riders. You must be 18 to ride alone. It was a great tour and we really enjoyed it. I would recommend this tour to anyone. They take you on a 27-mile tour around the island of Key West through both the Gulf and Atlantic sides. It does get very rough at times so you might want to take children’s ages and scare factor into account. We did not take our 8yo DD.

Grand Cayman – We did the half-day snorkel with Capt. Marvin’s. Very efficient and knowledgeable crew. We had 6 DIS families from our cruise doing this excursion so I requested that we all be on the same boat and Capt Marvin’s had no problem with this. We did have one family miss the first set of busses to the boats so they were put on another boat.(Sorry Jeff & Beth) Our first stop was a small reef area where we could snorkel for about 25 minutes, and then we went to stingray city. Paul from the crew caught a stingray for us to touch and hold. After stingray city we went to another reef to snorkel. There were two eels at this reef and Paul got into the water again and lured one of them out of hiding so we could get an up close view. This was a wonderful excursion and Capt Marvin’s was so easy to work with. Again, anyone thinking about snorkeling or doing stingray city in GC should use Capt Marvin’s.

Cozumel – DH & FIL had a snorkel trip set up through DCL but it was cancelled due to high winds. The girls and I went to the Royal Swim with Dolphin Discovery. The swim was really good and you got to do some neat things with the dolphins. There were only a couple of bad things. One is that the place is so busy and they are running groups in and out so fast that you could easily get lost from you group if you are not paying attention. Also, since Chankanaab is on open water it can be difficult when it is a little rough on the water. We also had these small brown jellyfish everywhere. They did not seem to be bothering anyone but my 8yo DD was sure freaked out about them.

Castaway Cay – DH & FIL went on the Seahorse Snorkel. They said it was really good but very rough out on the water. They would not recommend it for very young kids or others who are not strong swimmers. DD & her friend went parasailing and had a great time. Because of the wind they could only go up 250 ft instead of the usual 500 ft but they still had a blast.

Other things we did this week:
Wine tasting
Beer tasting
Elemis Absolute Face & Body (couples)
High Tea
Brunch in Palo
Dinner in Palo
Tea with Wendy
British Pub Night

If anyone should have any questions, I would be happy to answer them if I can.

LeiLani

 

[traycie2201]

Thanks so much LeiLani, your reports on the trip were great and this is really useful info, bet you're already planning the next one.

 

[aliwas]

Thanks for the great reports LeiLani, just wondered what you thought of Chankanaab, is it worth the time to go there and snorkle? Also, what is the beach area like, are there chairs to lounge in? Thanks!

 

[tas190]

Can you tell me more about the "Beer Tasting" and the "British Pub Night"

 

[markey]

Could you please tell me if you booked the jet ski tour in advance and if so how. We took the trolly tour in 2002 and found it boring, in fact we found the daytime activities in Key West to be very few. Did injoy laughing at the night crowd however. That was the main reason for booking the Eastern for 2003-also did in 2001. So this year it's back to the Western which except for Key West we really injoyed in 2002. Looking for something different and we love to Jet Ski. Thanks

 

[Tonyspad]

How did you sign-up for the Key West jet-ski tour?? And how long (time ) was it??? Sounds like fun.

 

[zacsmom]

This is the first time I have heard about a beer tasting, is ths new? This is on the ship? We love the wine tasting and would be very interested in a beer tasting.

 

[mmouse37]

Beer tasting and British Pub Night on held in Diversions...the newly designed space that used to be where Dueling Pianos was.

We saw beer tasting announced in the Navigator but we did not attend....we did attend British Pub night, which is held on the last night of the cruise and it was a scream....the Cruise Staff puts on skits that are just too funny!!!!

MJ

 

[disneydawn]

Is Captain Marvin's the excursion company in Grand Cayman? I am assuming that you did not book this through DCL. Any info is appreciated. Thanks,

 

[two-foxes]

Forget the excursions, how was the Catagory 1???? How did you force yourself out of your stateroom!???!!!?



OK, I was excited to hear Capt Marvins went well, as we are booking them for our Sept cruise!

 

[tinkerbellmagic]

Thanks so much for the excursion report! Those of us that are trying to figure out which ones we are interested in, sure appreciate it!



Tink

 

[jlawall]

Thx for the updates! Keep 'em comin'

 

[DVC4US]

Hi All!

First of all let me say the Cat 1 was GREAT. I am not sure how we are going to stay in anything else in the future. We have a Cat 3 booked for the 10 day Christmas cruise and I bet we will be falling all over ourselves even in that room.

To answer some of your quetions:

I personally would not go to Chankanaab if I was looking to go to the beach. It is very crowded and really does not have a nice beach area. There is suppose to be okay snorkeling but I did not see anyone doing this. The only lounge chairs they have are plastic curved shaped chairs that sit in the sand. If you are looking for a beach area in Cozumel I would suggest Paradise Beach or Mr Sancho's(I think that is the name). I have never been to either one, but these are the two that CozumelSally recomends.

Beer tasting is offered on Sea Days (Mon & Thurs for Western) at 2:30 in Diversions. It costs $8. I did not go personally, but my DH and FIL really enjoyed it. I believe you got to try about 6 beers and FIL said you get a pretty good sized glass. I am guessing about 12-16oz. British Pub Night is also held in Diversions on Friday night at 11pm. It starts out a little slow but hang around until they start doing the skits. They did a couple of things with the audience which were pretty funny, and then the CMs did a skit which was a blast.

I booked the jet ski tour with Island Watersports. Phone number 1-888-382-7864. Website address http://www.island-watersports.com/. I believe they will answer and anything they send you will come up Extreme Travel Club but they are the same company. I booked the tour with them in Feb for our April cruise. I called them on their 888 number to make the reservation. I would definitely not wait until the last minute. Our tour went out fully booked.

Yes, Capt Marvin's is an excursion company in Grand Cayman. We have always booked our excursions through DCL and I was a little leary about doing it myself but I had seen great reports about Capt Marvin's on the boards so we decided to try them and they did not disappoint us. We liked their excursion because it gave us a chance to snorkel at a reef and swim with the stingrays. One other thing about Capt. Marvin's which we learned. You can request to have a videographer(sp?) on board and they will film the trip and then sell video's or DVD's of the excursion. We lucked out and had one on board so we ordered a copy of the DVD.

LeiLani

 

[snelsonbrown]

Hello LeiLani,
I am glad you had such a nice time - were you able to use any of the information I send you? Let me know I am curious if the Key West information does help -
Glad you and yours are home safe.
Always
Shirley

 

[DVC4US]

Hi Shirley,

Yes, the information on Key West was very helpful. My MIL sat there one day and perused through all of it.

I also wanted to tell you the baskets were awesome. Everyone loved the welcome aboard baskets and it was so great having the Easter baskets to give out on Sunday morning. We are going on the 10 day Christmas cruise so when the time comes I will be calling again. Thanks again so much.

LeiLani