Very best Snorkeling on Eastern

[mketting]

The one and only thing DH absolutely wants to do on our cruise next year is go snorkeling. Please I would love suggestions for the best excursions, DCl or otherwise. We will have 2 children ages 7 and 9 who are excellent swimmers.

 

[musicgirl]

Are the ages of your kids now or at the time of the cruise/ The reason I ask is that the Capt. Nautica is for 8 and up. If they will both be over 8, I suggest this excursion. It was a speed boat ride to 3 different reefs ( the 1st was to swim a Turtle Cove-awesome). If you have any questions, let me know!!!

 

[frank2271]

Are the ages of your kids now or at the time of the cruise/ The reason I ask is that the Capt. Nautica is for 8 and up. If they will both be over 8, I suggest this excursion. It was a speed boat ride to 3 different reefs ( the 1st was to swim a Turtle Cove-awesome). If you have any questions, let me know!!!

What island is this on and is it available through DCL or outside vendors? It sounds cool.

Frank

 

[ashman]

I did the tour to Turtle Cove on the Doubloon when I went to St. Thomas with another cruise line last year. I had a FABULOUS time. I thought the crew was great, you sail out on a ship have a great snorkel time and on the return trip everyone gets pirate tattoos! It was the best excursion I have ever been on. I think they operate with Disney as well. If you want more info go to their website:

http://www.doubloon.com/

Another neat feature is they take pictures of everyone on the ship and post them on their website mine are still up

http://www.doubloon.com/2004/february_8-14,2004.htm


Great trip!

 

[jrabbit]

The St. Thomas stop will have much better snorkeling than St. Maarten. I don't think that you can go wrong with any DCL snorkel trip here. My preference is to go over to St. John's to snorkel, but anywhere in the area is pretty good.

We've done the Barefoot Catamanran and Trunk Bay - both great - but going to Trunk bay was the best.

 

[luv2boys]

Trunk Bay is great because it has the underwater snorkel tour. Just left there this weekend and it was great.

 

[musicgirl]

Oops, sorry about that! Capt. Nautica is on St. Thomas day. It is offered through DCL. I don't know if they schedule outside of dcl.

It was truly an awesome trip!!! It was definitely the highlight of ours.

Since it is a speedboat, you get there well ahead of the other excursions. Not to brag, but this excursion went to reefs where there were other excursions.

For example, We "flew" to the Turtle Cove before anyone else. We snorkeled for almost an hour before the other excursions started arriving. And boy was it getting crowded!!! For some excursions, this is the ONLY stop they make.

We then went around the corner to a shipwreck site. It was very crowded here with excursions, and again may I add this is the ONLY stop they make. We snorkeled for about 30 min.

We then went to St. James and we were their almost exclusively the entire time. There was a group of 6 or 8 that were scuba diving and they passed through our group in a few minutes. This was the most spectacular snorkeling. We stayed for about 1 hour.

2 1/2 hours of snorkeling at 3 different places with snacks and drinks in between the stops. The guides were VERY helpful. They had underwater cameras to buy for those who forgot, and they were cheap too. They were very informative about the area. They will change destinations if a site is too busy or the conditions are not good. In fact, we were suppose to go to Christmas Bay for the last stop and they took us to St. James.

Top notch!!!

 

[mketting]

My kids will be 7 and 9 when we go. Is Disney absolutely strict on the ages for excursions?

 

[musicgirl]

I'm not sure about how strict they are when it comes to the excursions. I would definitely ask DCL. If they say no, I would try to contact the company and ask.

www.captainnautica.com

We booked through DCL, but you might be able to book the youngest (or maybe all of you if it's cheaper ).

 

[jhorstma]

Something to factor in - most any sail and snorkel excursion you do will have snorkeling from anchor, not from the beach. Snorkeling from the boat is better because you don't have to wade thru potentially murky water (and stand on the reef or sea urchins), but if you're snorkeling rookies as we were this is a bit of a leap of faith - jumping/sliding into deep water. DD9, DW, and I had no problem (bit of hesitation for DD) with this, but DS11 wouldn't do it (and he's a competitive swimmer). I suggest a sail and snorkel at St. Martin and then a Trunk Bay excursion (or on your own) at St. Thomas where you can snorkel from the beach. You'll also be able to snorkel from the beach at CC, though this pales in comparison to snorkeling at the other islands.

 

[mketting]

I went to Capt. Nautica's site and after reading their description am even more interested!! I was unable to get their email address though from the site. Would anyone have their email address?

 

[CableKC]

In the DCL package that we recieved....it looks like there is some type of snorkeling adventure on a catamaran ( I think ) that is ON Castaway Cay.

Is that right?

If so...has anyone gone on it?

I want to do some snorkeling as well...but wasn't planning on leaving the boat when we go to Nassau.

 

[mketting]

Would you suggest the Golden Eagle Catamaran Sail in St. Martin? Is the Snokeling as good as a St Thomas sail and snorkel?

Several have said St Thomas is better for snorkeling but if Trunk Bay has good off the beach snorkeling, That would be great because there are actually 20 of us going on the trip and my sister will have 2, 3 year olds (to young to do any sail and snorkel trip) but I know she would love to be able to be at a beach where she could go out snorkeling, taking turns leaving the kids with family back on the beach.

Please keep the info coming. I am the family planner so the more I can get to know the better.

 

[Figaro57]

Golden Eagle in St. Maarten is not good for snorkeling. They don't even supply snorkel vests, just noodles to bob around the water in. It's more of a beach break than a snorkel destination and IMHOP way overpriced for what you get. Shipwreck cove is pretty good. They divide you into groups depending on if you are new to snorkeling or not. They also have a snub group (that costs extra). We had a guide in the water who took us around to differnet spots for the shipwreck, fish feeding and coral. It's also an easy entry into the water because the boat was designed for military vehicles so there's a ramp to get in and out of the water instead of a ladder.

Captain Nautica will not book you independently if you are on a cruise. They contract with the cruise lines to be exclusive so they won't risk violating their contract if they know you're on a ship and you usually have to provide a local hotel or some other information to establish where you're staying on St. Thomas.

Trunk Bay is beauitful but it is also an ordeal getting there. You need to take a cab to the ferry, take the ferry and then another ferry to get to Trunk Bay. There is an admission fee for those over 16, I think. If you want terrfici snorkeling on St. Thomas (but I agree that Captain Nautica is awesome), you can take the ferry to Coki Beach. It gets very crowded but it has all your facilities and there are tons of fish in the water there. The beach is sheltered, so it's an easy entry into the water. You can even wade in the water and watch the fish. According to my Captain Nautica captain, it is the best place in St. Thomas to snorkel from shore. Good luck!

 

[mketting]

Glad to have the info on the Catamaran sail.

Do you know if Capt Nautica would allow a seven year old on their excursion, it really sounds like what we are looking for. In looking over the excursion info I have printed out I notice that some excursions give an age range
(8-9) and then also say No one under age 8 while others , including Captain Nautica says ages (8-9) but do not have the extra notation. Does that mean they give a little on the ages?

Please keep posting ideas and opinions everyone.

 

[musicgirl]

The captain nautica e-mail is as follows.

captainnautica@earthlink.net

If you click on the "e-mail us" it will bring up your e-mail, but once you log in, it will automatically click in this address for you. That's how I found it!

I believe they will take around 25 on the boats. I highly doubt that they will take the wee ones!!! I would imagine that you will have a difficult time trying to find something like a snorkeling excursion with that young of an age.
You may want to reconsider the entire group going if some really want to do something like this.

 

[musicgirl]

Ok, here are what the excursion books list that all ages can go on. These are from dave's site, they may not be the most recent, but close.

ST. Thomas:
-St. Thomas Beach day-beach with a lunch buffet. It is a Sapphire Beach. I'm not sure about adequate snorkeling.

-St. Thomas Island tour-a tour on a bus with little kids, I don't think is what you're looking for!!

-Coral World & tour- Coral World (aquarium & beach), but I believe you have a very limited amount of time at Coral World to swim and see the aquarium.

-Paradise Tram- Tram ride up the hillside for scenic views.

St. Martin:
Under 2 flags island tour- again a tour in a bus!!!

French Riviera Beach- I know nothing of the snorkeling here.

Butterfly Tour-I've heard this is pretty good, but no beach and no snorkeling

See & Sea Island tour- land tour and a ride in a semi-submerged sub (there are windows to see the fish through)

Afternoon beach bash-This is at orient beach. It is a 30 min ride. 2 hours at the beach. I don't know how the snorkeling is.

There you have it for DCL excursions.

There are more available if you are going to split up groups. There are many that will take 5 years and up.

Good Luck!! Trying to choose, especially with that many is very difficult!!!

 

[mketting]

Sorry for the confusion but I am not concerned about my sisters 3 year olds going on the excursion with us. We will definitely do some things together but don't feel the need to always be together,

When someone mentioned a beach that had good snorkeling it made me think of her and other family members that cannot or will not due an excursion on a boat and that maybe on St. John we could do a beach thing with them and at St. Martin to a boat excursion or vice-versa.

My son will be 7 when we go and is an excellent swimmer so my question about age restriction was concerning him and excursions that say 8-9 year olds.

 

[musicgirl]

sorry for the mis-read mketting. Did you try to e-mail Capt. Nautica yet?

It really is worth it a try. They were soooo very nice!!!!

 

[mketting]

I called Captain Nautica directly and they said that a seven year old would be no problem. Their area of concern is the speed of the boat and for some very young children that can be overwhelming.

So I am very excited and will definitely be booking that excursion!!