Half Moon Cay Snorkeling

[divinmule]

Trying to figure our plan for our cruise with the family in April. I noticed that they offer snorkeling off the boat at half moon cay that actually goes to the reef. anyone have experience with this? Was it a good experience? Were the fish fairly plentiful? will be the first for the neices and nephews...trying to decide about doing it there or nassau.

 

Thanks

Lari

[Stevesan]

Trying to figure our plan for our cruise with the family in April. I noticed that they offer snorkeling off the boat at half moon cay that actually goes to the reef. anyone have experience with this? Was it a good experience? Were the fish fairly plentiful? will be the first for the neices and nephews...trying to decide about doing it there or nassau.

 

Thanks

Lari

 

The snorkel trip I took (the only one on offer at the time) the boat anchored near shore over a coral garden. not a reef.

Considering that most of the near shore bottom is sand, the snorkeling was pretty good. Since the shore snorkeling is nonexistent (unless you enjoy looking at sand bottoms :p),

the snorkel trip was a good way to spend a couple hours.

 

Sidebar: In an effort (futile) to attract fish, HAL placed some strawberry planters just off the beach.

There are some fish along the rock wall, but hardly worth the effort.

[unavox]

I did snorkel, but it was not worth it. Found it rather sparce.

I would spend the money on a private lounger & enjoy the day!

Enjoy whatever you decide.

[CRUISEMAN72]

I had singed up for that excursion but due to bad weather we did not do it. (yeah, i know not alot of help, sorry) so we dove from the beach it is not worth it nothing but sand. So hopefully it will be beter in june when i am, there but half moon is awesome, awesome soooooooo much to do. Carnival has there stuff together unlike nor. Cheap line their private island sux.

 

As for nassau its fair at best 20 foot vis and merky or murky either way its fair. Nothing to get excited over. Just not good snorkling in the bahamas now turks is a different story.

[topspot]

We did that trip last year and it wasn't bad.

[divinmule]

Thanks for the info.

 

Still haven't quite figured out which way we will go.

 

Really hoping to dive when in Nassau so we'll probably let the kids snorkel from the boat at Half Moon Cay...but who knows. I really want them to get some interaction with wildlife...so maybe we'll snorkel with them both days.

 

Lari

[ninkb]

Did the boat snorkel several years back and was surprised how strong the current was at their "spot of the day." Sounds like they go different places. The guides on the boat had to throw buoys to some of the adults so they could get back to the boat.

 

There were fish, but it wasn't outstanding. The reef was pretty far "down" so unless the snorkelers are comfortable diving down it's probably not the place for you.

[topspot]

We did the snorkel last year (yes I know I posted this before). This year the excursion desk on the Eurodam was offering a NEW dive excursion. The info said the divers would be taken on a "shallow" dive, and they would be going out on the same boat as the snorkelers. We had just done a dive in Grand Turk, and weren't really interested in diving at Half Moon Cay. Only reason why I bring this up is you had mentioned snorkeling with the children, and also that you would like to dive in another port. This may be something to interest you both:).

 

What other ports will you be in??

[Stevesan]

Thanks for the info.

 

Still haven't quite figured out which way we will go.

 

Really hoping to dive when in Nassau so we'll probably let the kids snorkel from the boat at Half Moon Cay...but who knows. I really want them to get some interaction with wildlife...so maybe we'll snorkel with them both days.

 

Lari

 

 

Maybe you can do both, and still dive at Nassau:

Stuart's Cove might take your kids on their Dive trip. Give them a shout about their "Bubble Watcher" program.

 

http://www.dive-bahamas.com/divehome.aspx

[divinmule]

We did the snorkel last year (yes I know I posted this before). This year the excursion desk on the Eurodam was offering a NEW dive excursion. The info said the divers would be taken on a "shallow" dive, and they would be going out on the same boat as the snorkelers. We had just done a dive in Grand Turk, and weren't really interested in diving at Half Moon Cay. Only reason why I bring this up is you had mentioned snorkeling with the children, and also that you would like to dive in another port. This may be something to interest you both:).

 

What other ports will you be in??

 

So this was offered at Half Moon Cay? Has anyone seen this offered of one of the Carnival ships like Fascination? Sure sounds like that could be fun.

Thanks for the info.

Our next port is Nassau.

 

Lari

[txpom]

Did the boat snorkel several years back and was surprised how strong the current was at their "spot of the day." Sounds like they go different places. The guides on the boat had to throw buoys to some of the adults so they could get back to the boat.

 

There were fish, but it wasn't outstanding. The reef was pretty far "down" so unless the snorkelers are comfortable diving down it's probably not the place for you.

 

This was exactly my experience. Very strong current and not great access to the reef or fish.

[mcmarya]

We actually managed to do a bit of snorkeling at Half Moon Cay without taking the excursion. The one small reef area is at the far end of the beach--walk until the sign says not to go any further. The better area was just before the sign--you can see the dark area in the water. You can also swim farther along the forbidden rocky area where there are a lot of fish, but there were some jellyfish in the water in that area the day we were there so I didn't hang around. We did see a couple of large schools of fish as well as assorted other fish.