Snorkel question

[Phrebert]

Are there any good NON-excursion place to swim/snorkel in Key West & Cayman? We are on a tight budget and can only afford one Excursion. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Tandyc]

bump

 

[mrsfuzzmo]

There are a ton of places to snorkel in Grand Cayman. Do you have your own gear? If that is the case, you can take a cab to Cemetary beach. I don't know if there is gear rental there. You can rent gear at Eden Rock area to the Right of the tender pier. There is great snorkeling there and you can also rent gear. You can probably rent gear for the week on the ship. That would help.

Key west doesn't have great snorkeling right off the beach. You'd have to take a boat/excursion.

 

[JLSE50]

In Key West we snorkeled with FURY CATAMARAN and loved it. Did it a couple different times. For my money, since there is no snorkeling close to Key West, I would use the excursion money for snorkeling there.

Then in Grand Cayman and Cozumel, get a taxi to a location that has snorkeling. It will be your own private excrusion, you can stay as long as you want and be in the water as long as you want. Taxi is cheaper than an excursion and if you have your own geer from home, there is no rental and you know who used it last. You can use your own geer at Castaway Cay and the line to get an inflatable vest (that I press all the air out of as I float well enough by myself) is shorter than the line to get snorkeling geer. Then you can get in the CC snorkeling trail before the sand gets kicked up. We enjoyed snorkeling at the adult beach too. (Note, that is adults only, not the same thing as a nude beach. Some of my friends thought I meant nude beach and were surprised that Disney would do that. Well, they don't.)

In Grand Cayman we took an excursion for snorkeling, but if there is good snorkeling at Cemetary Beach and you could just get a taxi there, I might try that. You can arrange for the taxi to come back and get you at a set time if you want.

We went to Chankanaab at Cozumel. Took our own geer. Got a taxi and had a great day. Paid for food there and nothing else. We left Chakanaab when we were ready and there was a young lady who worked there waving to the parked taxi's one at a time to come get passengers. We took a van with another DCL family back to the pier.

Some people order food from room service the night before, sandwiches or whatever they want, put them in the in-room cooler for the night and pack a bag to take with them on their outing. If you do that, you might want to figure a way to take some ice in a tupperware or ziplock bag and put it all in a thermal beach-type bag so the food does not spoil.

In Grand Cayman we snorkeled in the morning, took the tender back to the ship for showers, change of clothes and lunch. Then we took the tender back to shore and walked around the town. We bought some postcards and stamps, wrote them in the PO as it was air conditioned and mailed them to friends and one ot ourselves for our scrapbook.

In Chakanaab we figured eating there was part of the island experience and since we were not buying souvenirs we could justify the food. The only souvenir we got was the change. I asked the waiter for Mexican change and those coins are in my change purse with coins from Grand Cayman and other places we have been as reminders of great trips. (He would have given us our change in American money if we wanted. They have no problem with the exchange rate.)

Jan

 

[The4OfUs]

While I didn't skorkle in Key West (shopped) or Grand Cayman (just swam and played in the sand), I can say that we did the Fury Catamaran in Cozumel and that was a GREAT excursion. It's owned by the same company that does the one mentioned above in Key West, and I can't say enough good things about it...they took care of EVERYTHING and the equipment was wonderful, the catamaran was fun and comfortable, and the crew was spectacular in how they made it fun for us.

I may consider this in Key West next time we're there!!

 

[JLSE50]

We did not use FURY in Cozumel but your description fits the crew in Key West!!

Jan

 

[DoomBuggieDriver]

Originally posted by Phrebert
Are there any good NON-excursion place to swim/snorkel in Key West & Cayman? We are on a tight budget and can only afford one Excursion. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Ph,
I did a little checking on this myself, and found a link about snorkeling sites on Grand Cayman that might help you plan. Hope this helps.

http://caymanislandsdiscounts.com/OffshoreSnorkeling.htm#WBCemetery

We are thinking of renting a car to see the sites as well as snorkeling, but I'm not sure just yet as we are all newbies to snorkeling and don't want to get in over our head, pardon the pun.

Have fun planning and let us know what you decide to do.
Kathy

 

[Phrebert]

Thank you, Doombuggie this helps big time.

 

[The4OfUs]

Originally posted by DoomBuggieDriver
We are thinking of renting a car to see the sites as well as snorkeling, but I'm not sure just yet as we are all newbies to snorkeling and don't want to get in over our head, pardon the pun.

Keep in mind that on Grand Cayman, they drive on the left, but the steering wheels are on the left still anyhow (at least in the taxi we were in...)...the kids got a kick out of that, but I'd be nervous to drive it myself! *grin*