Snorkel with the turtles in St. Thomas

[barbiepastrick]

We are first time cruisers. My husband and I have snorkeled in Hawaii before but we wanted to take the kids to experience it. We'll be in St. Thomas in early April. Is it better to take an excursion or just get gear and snorkel at one of the beaches? We're thinking of taking the Doubloon to Turtle Cove thinking that the pirate ship and sea turtles would be an added bonus. Any input would be great! We'd love to snorkel but we don't want to miss out on the beautiful looking beaches.

[cello56]

We did that excursion earlier this month and it was a blast!! The crew was wonderful - ask for Chrisy and Chris! The crew were all from the USA mainland, and because the US Virgin Islands are governed by the laws of the US Coast Guard, we felt very confident about the ship and the training of the staff.

 

We started off by motoring our pirate ship out three miles to Turtle Cove where we dropped anchor. Then safety training was done and the equipment handed out. Chrisy got in the water with us and led the group on a snorkel to find the sea turtles. She had already been on a trip earlier that morning, so she knew exactly where they were that day. After spending some time with the huge turtles, she took us over to a coral reef. Here she warned us about what coral to stay away from. She scooped a sea urchin up in her hands and let each of us have a turn holding him for a moment - very cool! Then we were on our own to snorkel for the rest of the time.

 

Back on the boat, it was non stop comedy from the crew - so much fun. Lots of free drinks - soda/beer/rum punch and some chips and sala. They even had pirate tee shirts for sale that my husband had to have. On the way back to the ship we hoisted the sails and sailed all the home which was a lot of fun.

 

All in all we thought that it was well worth the money and a fun way to spend the afternoon.

 

 

[Islandbear]

I vote for a boat trip. I love snorkeling from shore, but St Thomas is not the best place to do it. A lot of people will boast about coki beach and saphire where they feed the fish to keep them in the shallow water. But to see real reefs and a wide variety of healthy fish, turtles, rays, squid, eels, and more take a boat to any of the many great reefs off of St Thomas.

[barbiepastrick]

Thanks for the help. I think we'll take the excursion. It sounds too good to pass up.

[DirtyNanners]

IslandBear, Coki IS a really nice reef, lots of varieties of fish, coral and larger sea life like stingrays and turtles. The area called Turtle cove, is just a bunch of rock covered in fire coral. I was so disappointed compared to my previous snorkeling trip to Coki. Oh, and they were feeding the fish at Turtle Cove too...

I don't feed the fish, I try to encourage others not too as well.

[SLPloves2cruise]

. The area called Turtle cove, is just a bunch of rock covered in fire coral. I was so disappointed compared to my previous snorkeling trip to Coki.

 

We went on an excursion to Turtle Cove through Princess last summer, and we thought the same thing. While seeing the turtles was awesome (we saw a good number of turtles) the rest of the underwater coral and fish were unimpressive. We also didn't get as much time in the water as I would have liked. We didn't do the the Doubloon, but a sister ship, the Dancing Dolphin. The drinks on board afterward were amazing, though. :)

[BWDscotty]

I vaguely remember staggering back to the Emerald Princess last April after we snorkeled Turtle Bay with the pirates... It was an adequate snorkeling experience. The trip, under full-sail, and the rum punch, made for a FANTASTIC time!!