Snorkeling in Nassau??

[MeLaNie9]

We are on a 4 night Dream cruise in Aug. This was my DS13's vacation choice as he is just about to start high school - a few days at Universal and then a Disney cruise. We have made absolutely no plans and are calling this the "cruise of nothing", just planning to relax and enjoy the ship and the sun. We don't even plan to get off the boat at CC (which we also did on our last cruise and it was great!)

However, suddenly, DS 11 wants to go snorkeling. He really doesn't want to do it at CC again since we never see much except for seaweed and the things planted there by Disney. He really wants to see some tropical fish. So that leaves Nassau. Has anyone done the Disney snorkeling excursions in Nassau? There seem to be 2 offered, but they may go to the same spot. I think the difference is the type of boat you take and the time snorkeling. Any thoughts on these? Is Nassau a reasonable place to snorkel to see fish? It would just be me and DS11 as DH isn't much of a swimmer and DS13 isn't interested. TIA

 

[Capt_BJ]

I've been a diver since the 70's and been to Nassau many times over the years

I've looked at the excursion descriptions for DCL in Nassau for snorkeling. It appears they stay on the 'nassau' side of the island

IME this is not a great place for diving/snorkeling but for a first experience not horrible. I'd be afraid that the fish sightings might not be impressive ...

I see two excursions in the current offerings. One is all snork' and one is a sail and snork' ..... if all you want to do is snork' I'd pick that one (no sail) but IME BOTH would snork the same amount of time .. the sail costs more cuz they spend time sailing after the snork' .....

dunno if I helped .....

I do remember when dd decided she wanted to do 'real' snork' for the first time. I took her to Key Largo and out on a boat for a snork trip. She'd been snorkeling in the pool (Miami) for a year. We went out on a boat to the reef and she jumped in with new mask, fins and snork and was fine for about 10 minutes.

AND THEN spotted a small 'cuda with its mouth open - TEETH - and subsequently did a walk on water courtesy of fins going 9000 rpm back to the boat, not to be coaxed back to the water!!!! She was young ... 7 maybe ....

She got over it tho .... this picture is from her time as a research intern on Roatan ...

 

[Psychodisney]

It’s been a few years since we snorkeled in Nassau. Both times we took a catamaran into the Nassau harbor. It is a deep water snorkel off the boat. Make sure he’s comfortable with that. They will have inflatable vests to put on. When my DD was 5 i put her in a life vest which helped her be more comfortable in the deep water. We saw some fish, nothing amazing but there will be fish.

 

[DisneyLove2015]

If you can find a tour that goes to rainbow reef... it is pretty spectacular. We cruised to Nassau with Carnival a few years ago and we had very low expectations for snorkeling in Nassau. We went to rainbow reef on our tour and it was some of the best coral and fish diversity I’ve seen snorkeling. We’ve snorkeled st Thomas, St. John, Antigua, st. Kitts, grand Turk, Aruba, Bonaire, cayman, Cozumel, Belize and Honduras. Rainbow reef is still one of the prettiest ones we’ve done.


No clue if DCL tours go there, though.

 

[DIS_MIKE]

I've been a diver since the 70's and been to Nassau many times over the years

I've looked at the excursion descriptions for DCL in Nassau for snorkeling. It appears they stay on the 'nassau' side of the island

IME this is not a great place for diving/snorkeling but for a first experience not horrible. I'd be afraid that the fish sightings might not be impressive ...

I see two excursions in the current offerings. One is all snork' and one is a sail and snork' ..... if all you want to do is snork' I'd pick that one (no sail) but IME BOTH would snork the same amount of time .. the sail costs more cuz they spend time sailing after the snork' .....

dunno if I helped .....

I do remember when dd decided she wanted to do 'real' snork' for the first time. I took her to Key Largo and out on a boat for a snork trip. She'd been snorkeling in the pool (Miami) for a year. We went out on a boat to the reef and she jumped in with new mask, fins and snork and was fine for about 10 minutes.

AND THEN spotted a small 'cuda with its mouth open - TEETH - and subsequently did a walk on water courtesy of fins going 9000 rpm back to the boat, not to be coaxed back to the water!!!! She was young ... 7 maybe ....

She got over it tho .... this picture is from her time as a research intern on Roatan ...

Heh...those ‘cudas are ugly bastards. I remember seeing one as a young teen in Key West and I never swam so fast back to the boat. I could’ve been a young Michael Phelps. The funny thing was I saw a nurse shark earlier but that didn’t bother me.

Glad to see your DD conquered her fears.

 

[crossfitmama]

Check with https://bahamascruiseexcursions.com we did a great snorkeling tour with them, they have a few options