Turtle Cove or Shipwreck Cove?

[loves2cruz]

Has anyone done both of these? Trying to figure out if one or the other has better snorkeling, colorful coral, fish, etc. Are they close to each other? Would it be likely to find turtles at Shipwreck Cove as well as Turtle Cove?

 

Might be interesting to snorkel over the ship wreck. I wonder how deep it is and if it is shallow enough to have good visibility while snorkeling. Princess catamaran sails go to one or the other.

 

Princess used to have a catamaran trip that did both, but I don't think so any more.

 

There used to be a company, Captain Nautica that did both. Seems that Princess has dropped this from their excursions and I can't find a website any longer. If anyone has info on this I would greatly appreciate it.

 

Thanks

[vavasmom]

We did both using Captain Nautica from the RCCL Enchantment of the seas in August. They are close to each other - I think that they are coves off the same island but may be wrong. Turtle cove is shallower. We save a few fish but mainly turtles. This was the second time at turtle cove - last year we saw a few turtles and a few fish. If you stay very still the turtles will come very close.

 

Shipwreck cove is deeper. There are a lot more fish but we did not see any turtles. The shipweck is newer (not covered in coral) and broken into 3 pieces. Both my DD and our adult friend felt the shipweck itself was disappointing but the cove was great.

 

As an aside - Captain Nautica was a wonderful company - we were on one of their "power rafts". They are still in business and have a website - it is http://www.viwatersports.com/captain_nautica/ . If you are interested in both you could see if they are doing the 1/2 you could book on your own (since they are not you cruise ships vendor).

[loves2cruz]

Thank you so much for responding to my post. I'm going to check to see if it is a possibility to go out with Capt. Nautica. If this doesn't work perhaps we'll go to Turtle Cove with catamaran from cruise line.

 

We've been to Sapphire Beach before and snorkeling was decent. Could always do this too. Not sure if the snorkeling off the boat will be any better, but the turtles are interesting.

[Karysa]

We did the Dancing Dolphin Catamaran power snorkel trip to Turtle Cove at Bucks Island last year and it was great fun. With the power snorkel you had the choice of three speeds and you could snorkel on the surface or go down about 14 ft or so. One of our teens took full advantage of the power snorkel and visited the turtles and stingrays on the bottom of the sea. We can't say enough about this trip, all 5 of us really had a fantastic time.

[loves2cruz]

It seems that Capt. Nautica isn't being run as an excursion on Princess. I would have loved to do this excursion. Looks like we'll be going to Sapphire Beach. Good snorkeling and beautiful beach.