Calabaza or Ships Excursion

[LS78]

Hi All,

 

We are wanting to do the cat and turtles trip whilst in Barbados and have been looking into Calabaza after all the good reviews. This is $100 dollars per person and includes lunch, banana bread etc

 

The ships is called Cat Caribe and turtles and sounds exactly the same and is £58 per person including lunch and drinks.

 

Do you think we would be better off booking with Calabaza? I have no idea who the ship use (P&O cruise) and Calabaza is definitely only 12 people.

 

Thanks

Laura

[ncsteeler]

I loved our trip with Calabaza. I heard the ships trip was over loaded, but I don't have personal experience.

[sharkwl]

We just came off the Emerald (Oct 19-29) and had booked the catamaran cruise with Calabaza. Gina (the owner) was a superb host and we had a wonderful time! A wonderful boat, with only 12 guests, a huge lunch, free rum punch (awesome!), beer, 2 snorkel stops ( feeding turtles and a reef) including gear. This was an awesome trip and worth every penny! We would highly recommend Gina and Calabaza tours!

[LS78]

Thanks guys - we are going to book with Calabaza :-)

[lanabanana]

Just returned from a day with them and have to say it was worth every penny. I'm sure you'll agree. Have fun!

[Fourseventeen]

calabaza is the way to go IF you can get booked with them. I tried to book them for our Jan 30 2011 stop and they were already booked for the day when I called them in Oct 2010!

[CaribQween]

Could anyone tell me about how much of the time is spent on the catamaran versus in the water or on the beach? It looks like the Silvermoon and Calabaza excursions are about 5 hours each so I wondered how much of that time would be sailing time.

[NnJ2010]

FYI as an alternative to a smaller and less expensive (i believe) excursion my thoughts from our recent trip (taken from my trip review) with shasa:

 

Barbados – can’t say enough…… if you want to snorkel – book Shasa! Shasa is an independent company with a husband and wife owner. They are a great couple and hard workers! We opted for the 3 hour snorkel but everyone else on the cat opted for the 5 hour. The 3 hour had 2 snorkel stops plus lots of great sailing. The 5 hour had 3 snorkel stops and a homemade lunch. Definitely one of our better excursion bookings. And Jason and Tess are such great hosts that you will have a very enjoyable time! (Plus I love booking with ‘companies’ that are folks who are trying to make their own business flourish.) Jason has been sailing for many many years and has worked for many of the other big name companies over the years in Barbados but about 5 years ago they decided to start their own. Drop them an email and Tess will respond very promptly and answer all your questions! I don’t recall who I booked in Barbados the last time but I know it was a bigger boat and more crowded than I’d like. Our cat this time had 12 people total on it. It was quite comfortable, not crowded and Jason made sure to steer clear of all the other excursion groups.

[halos]

FYI as an alternative to a smaller and less expensive (i believe) excursion my thoughts from our recent trip (taken from my trip review) with shasa:

 

Barbados – can’t say enough…… if you want to snorkel – book Shasa! Shasa is an independent company with a husband and wife owner. They are a great couple and hard workers! We opted for the 3 hour snorkel but everyone else on the cat opted for the 5 hour. The 3 hour had 2 snorkel stops plus lots of great sailing. The 5 hour had 3 snorkel stops and a homemade lunch. Definitely one of our better excursion bookings. And Jason and Tess are such great hosts that you will have a very enjoyable time! (Plus I love booking with ‘companies’ that are folks who are trying to make their own business flourish.) Jason has been sailing for many many years and has worked for many of the other big name companies over the years in Barbados but about 5 years ago they decided to start their own. Drop them an email and Tess will respond very promptly and answer all your questions! I don’t recall who I booked in Barbados the last time but I know it was a bigger boat and more crowded than I’d like. Our cat this time had 12 people total on it. It was quite comfortable, not crowded and Jason made sure to steer clear of all the other excursion groups.

 

Thanks for posting that!

I was about to give up on a catamaran sail in Barbados. I waited too long and most of the places I contacted (Silver Moon and probably 3 others) are all already full...which is understandable because they don't hold many passengers.

I was about to either book the catamaran sail through NCL (which likely would be very crowded) or give up on the sail abd just take a cab to the Boatyard for the day...but I saw your recommendation and figured I'd give this one more shot. I just emailed Shasa....I hope to get a positive response! :)

[cruiseguy1016]

I am looking for pricing for Calabaza. OP says $100/pp. I can't find pricing on their web site. Can someone that may have used them recently confirm the cost?

[savvymcb]

We are booked for March 2 at $110 for adults and $90 for kids.

[TraceyP]

Thanks for posting that!

I was about to give up on a catamaran sail in Barbados. I waited too long and most of the places I contacted (Silver Moon and probably 3 others) are all already full...which is understandable because they don't hold many passengers.

I was about to either book the catamaran sail through NCL (which likely would be very crowded) or give up on the sail abd just take a cab to the Boatyard for the day...but I saw your recommendation and figured I'd give this one more shot. I just emailed Shasa....I hope to get a positive response! :)

 

You won't be disappointed. We had a great day with Jason aboard Shasa on December 18th. The snorkel with the turtles was amazing!!!

[NnJ2010]

Thanks for posting that!

I was about to give up on a catamaran sail in Barbados. I waited too long and most of the places I contacted (Silver Moon and probably 3 others) are all already full...which is understandable because they don't hold many passengers.

I was about to either book the catamaran sail through NCL (which likely would be very crowded) or give up on the sail abd just take a cab to the Boatyard for the day...but I saw your recommendation and figured I'd give this one more shot. I just emailed Shasa....I hope to get a positive response! :)

Cool!! hope it works out. I really enjoyed that excursion! can't say enough good things about Shasa and Jason and Tess!

[iflyrc5]

We are booked on Calabaza for $100 per person on 23 Jan 2011 - 5 hour tour - includes transportation to and from port.

[dutchiegirl6]

We just recently took a trip with Silver Moon. We inquired with Calabaza, Shasa and Silver Moon and the only one with availability for our group when we went was Silver Moon. We were not disappointed. It was one of the best excursions. We were on Silver Moon III which is the larger cat that they limit to 24 people. There were only 20 ppl when we went and it definitely never felt crowded. Plenty of food, drinks, sun, shade, and seating area for everyone. We saw the Cats that were for the ship's excursions and they were packed to the breaking point. So glad we went with Silver Moon. It was 92 pp and worth every penny.

[canadiansue]

FYI as an alternative to a smaller and less expensive (i believe) excursion my thoughts from our recent trip (taken from my trip review) with shasa:

 

Barbados – can’t say enough…… if you want to snorkel – book Shasa! Shasa is an independent company with a husband and wife owner. They are a great couple and hard workers! We opted for the 3 hour snorkel but everyone else on the cat opted for the 5 hour. The 3 hour had 2 snorkel stops plus lots of great sailing. The 5 hour had 3 snorkel stops and a homemade lunch. Definitely one of our better excursion bookings. And Jason and Tess are such great hosts that you will have a very enjoyable time! (Plus I love booking with ‘companies’ that are folks who are trying to make their own business flourish.) Jason has been sailing for many many years and has worked for many of the other big name companies over the years in Barbados but about 5 years ago they decided to start their own. Drop them an email and Tess will respond very promptly and answer all your questions! I don’t recall who I booked in Barbados the last time but I know it was a bigger boat and more crowded than I’d like. Our cat this time had 12 people total on it. It was quite comfortable, not crowded and Jason made sure to steer clear of all the other excursion groups.

Could you post Sasha's email addy? I'd like to look into going out with them.

[WaggesAZ]

Could you post Sasha's email addy? I'd like to look into going out with them.

 

shasacatamarancruises@gmail.com

 

We are very much looking forward to our day n March with them.

 

Safe travels to you!

[LoveOBX]

Does Shasa have a website? We are leaving in April for our cruise. Sounds like we need to book swimming with the turtles early.

[constantlearner]

Just got back from Barbados and you can't do better than Calabaza for a personal 12 person tour. It's a nice big catamaran that easily could fit more people but they don't stuff people in their boat! We saw many crammed excursions go by and we had our own personal staff and boat! We loved it! Food and drinks flow and the staff is wonderful. This is local run and owned as well.

[MindTheGap1918]

Does Shasa have a website? We are leaving in April for our cruise. Sounds like we need to book swimming with the turtles early.

 

http://www.shasacatamarancruises.com/

 

we are booked with them next week. Can't wait!

[GSRDPM]

Just got back from Barbados and you can't do better than Calabaza for a personal 12 person tour. It's a nice big catamaran that easily could fit more people but they don't stuff people in their boat! We saw many crammed excursions go by and we had our own personal staff and boat! We loved it! Food and drinks flow and the staff is wonderful. This is local run and owned as well.

 

We are scheduled for a sail with Calabaza in March. Has their boat been repaired from the hurricane damage or are they still using the rental. Do you have any pictures? Thanks!

[pauly]

Just emailed Calabaza, so we will see if they can fit us in for March 16.

[constantlearner]

The new boat is beautiful. The staff said they prefer it to the one that was damaged in the hurricane. Would've attached the photo but it failed:confused: to upload.

[GSRDPM]

The new boat is beautiful. The staff said they prefer it to the one that was damaged in the hurricane. Would've attached the photo but it failed:confused: to upload.

 

Thanks for the update!

[ExRockyMountainGal]

We sailed with Calabaza on January 18, 2011. The new boat is beautiful.

 

 

Unfortunately, Gina wasn't feeling well, so we didn't get to meet her. Captain Danny did a wonderful job, as did Chad and Gregory. The only bad thing about the trip was the weather, but that clearly wasn't something that anyone had any control over. We still had a fantastic time.

 

The taxi was waiting for us when we got off the ship and took us straight to the boat. There were 10 of us in total, and we had plenty of room. We passed a couple of other catamarans, and they were all very crowded.

 

There was coffee and tea waiting for us as soon as we got on the boat. Once we started moving, we got homemade banana bread (still warm) and then fish hush puppies with a Bajan remoulade sauce. They were very tasty.

 

Our first snorkeling stop was over a sunken wreck/reef. There were tons of fish. Chad went snorkeling with us to make sure we saw everything there was to see. When we got out of the water, they had put out crackers and three types of Mediterranean dips. We also tried the rum punch, which is the best we had on all of our excursions. The fresh ground nutmeg really made the difference.

 

There was a short sail to the next stop, which is where we saw with the turtles. There were at least 6 of them, and they got close enough to touch them. Best of all, there were no other boats around us, so we had the turtles all to ourselves.

 

Lunch was amazing. There was tons of food, and it was all good. A picture is below:

 

 

There were plenty of beverages, but several of us had white wine -- served in real wine glasses. It was casually elegant.

 

After lunch, we had the option to swim to the beach, snorkel with turtles some more or just hang out on the catamaran.

 

On the way back, we had dessert: fresh coconut bread and and a warm brownie.

 

A cab was waiting for us when we arrived, and we had no problem getting back to the ship.

 

The very next day we got a thank you email from Gina with all of the recipes.

 

I would do this excursion again without hesitation. It was one of the highlights of our cruise, and I just don't have enough good things to say about Gina and the Calabaza family.