Snorkeling excursions in St. Maarten

[mitsguy2001]

My wife and I were hoping to go on a snorkeling excursion in St. Maarten (we usually go on a snorkeling excursion in one port on each cruise). However, all of Disney's snorkeling excursions (we want to do Disney's excursions, and not book ones on our own) give a warning that we will be near topless / nude beaches. Honestly, that is not something that my wife and I are comfortable with. Are these warnings just Disney covering themselves, or would we actually be seeing nude / topless beaches on these excursions? Yes, I do know that nude / topless beaches are common in St. Maarten, but I don't know if nudity and toplessness is common at every beach there.

As an alternative, we are considering the Under Two Flags island tour. Is that tour any good?

Thank you.

 

[GioCruise]

So in 2000 we did the Magic in November and my older boys who are 24 and 20 now call St Maarten "The Booby Beach"... They still talk about the experience and back then if you remember the famous Kodak disposable cameras?? Well when I developed them both cameras had nothing but Booby Pics on them!! They were 10 and 6 at the time and while it makes for a fun story now....I was freaked out at the time! So yes you will more then likely see some nudity as it is a pretty common practice on the island.

I now have another 8year old son who by the way is very intrigued by the memory his older brothers shared with him and is dying to goto Orient Bay just because it's so funny to him. I have been contemplating the under two flags tour so as to provide him some education rather then the whole Booby Beach thing....

 

[mitsguy2001]

Does anybody have any specific experience with any of the snorkeling excursions that Disney offers in St. Maarten? What about the Under Two Flags island tour?

 

[Lisa Lisa]

Hi. We were on the Fantasy last spring and stopped in St. Maarten. We weren't thrilled with any of the excursions offered by DCL, so we researched other options. We ended up booking the Random Wind sail boat charter and had an amazing day. The snorkeling was just okay the day we went, but there were so many other fun aspects of the trip -- particularly the Tarzan swing. Here's a link to their web site:

http://www.randomwind.com/

This year for spring break we went to St. Maarten/St. Martin for a full week. We debated going on the Random Wind again since we'd had such a great time the previous year, but instead we decided to try Soualiga Destinations / Capt Bob. What a great day! I would actually give Soualiga Destinations the edge over the Random Wind, primarily because you cover a lot more ground (water), there are more and better snorkeling opportunities, you spend some time at Pinel Island (gorgeous), and lunch is served at a restaurant on land in Grand Case. Here is a link to their web site:

http://www.soualigadestinations.com/soualiga_destinations/Welcome.html (click on the "Most Popular" link).

Both tours stop near Maho beach so you can see a couple of planes fly in low overhead, and both get great reviews on Trip Advisor and Cruise Critic. I really don't think you can go wrong with either!

 

[hanscarlet]

that randomwind site looks great! thanks for sharing

 

[MUN]

My wife and I were hoping to go on a snorkeling excursion in St. Maarten (we usually go on a snorkeling excursion in one port on each cruise). However, all of Disney's snorkeling excursions (we want to do Disney's excursions, and not book ones on our own) give a warning that we will be near topless / nude beaches. Honestly, that is not something that my wife and I are comfortable with. Are these warnings just Disney covering themselves, or would we actually be seeing nude / topless beaches on these excursions? Yes, I do know that nude / topless beaches are common in St. Maarten, but I don't know if nudity and toplessness is common at every beach there.

As an alternative, we are considering the Under Two Flags island tour. Is that tour any good?

Thank you.

There are no nude beaches in St. Martin. However, there are clothing optional beaches. Also, I don't believe the French and Dutch consider topless to mean nude. When I was in St. Martin, I did take my top off and my wife was OK with it.

I hope that makes you feel better.

MUN

 

[Mama2o]

We were there last week. When scheduling our excursion before our trip I tried to book Soualiga Destinations but they were booked. Captain Bob referred me to Billy Bones Charter and we had a wonderful experience with them on a half day beach and snorkeling. I wish we had done a full day as the weather was beautiful and our kids were having a great time.

 

[mitsguy2001]

Hi. We were on the Fantasy last spring and stopped in St. Maarten. We weren't thrilled with any of the excursions offered by DCL, so we researched other options. We ended up booking the Random Wind sail boat charter and had an amazing day. The snorkeling was just okay the day we went, but there were so many other fun aspects of the trip -- particularly the Tarzan swing. Here's a link to their web site:

http://www.randomwind.com/

This year for spring break we went to St. Maarten/St. Martin for a full week. We debated going on the Random Wind again since we'd had such a great time the previous year, but instead we decided to try Soualiga Destinations / Capt Bob. What a great day! I would actually give Soualiga Destinations the edge over the Random Wind, primarily because you cover a lot more ground (water), there are more and better snorkeling opportunities, you spend some time at Pinel Island (gorgeous), and lunch is served at a restaurant on land in Grand Case. Here is a link to their web site:

http://www.soualigadestinations.com/soualiga_destinations/Welcome.html (click on the "Most Popular" link).

Both tours stop near Maho beach so you can see a couple of planes fly in low overhead, and both get great reviews on Trip Advisor and Cruise Critic. I really don't think you can go wrong with either!

Thank you for the suggestions. However, those don't seem to be Disney excursions, and, to be honest, we're not really comfortable doing excursions not booked through Disney. Are there any Disney excursions that we can book?

There are no nude beaches in St. Martin. However, there are clothing optional beaches. Also, I don't believe the French and Dutch consider topless to mean nude. When I was in St. Martin, I did take my top off and my wife was OK with it.

I hope that makes you feel better.

MUN

We don't want to go to a clothing optional beach, which seems to be all of the beaches in St. Maarten. Again, are there any snorkeling excursions where we could avoid that?

We were there last week. When scheduling our excursion before our trip I tried to book Soualiga Destinations but they were booked. Captain Bob referred me to Billy Bones Charter and we had a wonderful experience with them on a half day beach and snorkeling. I wish we had done a full day as the weather was beautiful and our kids were having a great time.

I don't think those are Disney excursions either.

 

[MUN]

We don't want to go to a clothing optional beach, which seems to be all of the beaches in St. Maarten. Again, are there any snorkeling excursions where we could avoid that?

Only part of Orient Bay (which is a great beach) is clothing optional, and that part of the beach is well marked and sort of by itself. However, as I mentioned earlier, they don't consider topless to be nudity. In fact a topless lady sat across from my wife and I as we had lunch at a restaurant at the beach.

MUN

 

[mitsguy2001]

Only part of Orient Bay (which is a great beach) is clothing optional, and that part of the beach is well marked and sort of by itself. However, as I mentioned earlier, they don't consider topless to be nudity. In fact a topless lady sat across from my wife and I as we had lunch at a restaurant at the beach.

MUN

We don't want to go to a topless beach either. Does anybody have any info on the snorkeling excursions offered by Disney? Alternatively, does anybody have any info on the Under 2 Flags Island Tour? Thank you.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

does anybody have any info on the Under 2 Flags Island Tour?

We took this tour, but it was a few years ago. It's basically a bus ride around the island (sort of in a figure 8) We had a stop on the "other" side of the island (from where the ship was docked) at a shopping bazaar, as well as a stop at the top of the mountain that separates the two sides. Lots of pretty scenery.

 

[Devoosha]

In October 2014 we were on the Fantasy with a stop at St. Maarten...and we booked the Disney Golden Eagle Catamaran excursion...a snorkeling and beach adventure. The boat dropped anchor not far from a beach and we snorkeled off the boat...then were able to swim and hang out on the beach. I'm not sure if the beach was private or just had no-one on it that day...but the only people I saw on it were from ours and another excursions. To be honest, I didn't see any nudity the entire excursion. We never got close enough to any of the beaches we were passing to see anyone and anything that might be hanging out. I think you should be fine. The snorkeling was nice...as was our time on the beach. If you are really concerned...and still want to snorkel...maybe call the cruiseline and ask if the beach they use for the excursion is a private one they have access to?

 

[PrincessShmoo]

In October 2014 we were on the Fantasy with a stop at St. Maarten...and we booked the Disney Golden Eagle Catamaran excursion...a snorkeling and beach adventure. The boat dropped anchor not far from a beach and we snorkeled off the boat...then were able to swim and hang out on the beach. I'm not sure if the beach was private or just had no-one on it that day...but the only people I saw on it were from ours and another excursions. To be honest, I didn't see any nudity the entire excursion. We never got close enough to any of the beaches we were passing to see anyone and anything that might be hanging out. I think you should be fine. The snorkeling was nice...as was our time on the beach. If you are really concerned...and still want to snorkel...maybe call the cruiseline and ask if the beach they use for the excursion is a private one they have access to?

We took this same excursion last September. I don't recall any nude/topless sunbathers on the beach (but, then, I wasn't looking for it). It's now called The Ultimate Charter Choice.

The beach we were at was Mullet Bay, I think. There were umbrellas there, but you had to pay to use them.