Vieques Island Bio Bay

[Fuzdaduck]

Just wanted to let everyone know that we did the eastwindcats.com tour on Sept 3rd and it was great. Hopefully you will end up with a good group to go on the catamaran with. My only regret is that I didn't take my kids along to see this..I will have to find a way to get back to there so that they can enjoy this amazing natural wonder...make sure you go on a new moon night!

[Cruisin'Round]

OTRLady,

 

Just wanted to let you know that we will be staying at the Carib Hilton.

 

I have not heard back from East Wind. I "reserved" through their website, and today sent them a direct e-mail. Will post when I hear from them. Am still very much interested in taking this tour as well.

 

Lana

[Cruisin'Round]

OTRLady,

 

This is what I heard back from East Wind Excursions regarding 11/25/05::)

 

Good afternoon - I have received your e-mail dated Sept 28 and am sending you a copy of the reply I had sent you on Sept 26. I had your request as November 25. Please verify if this is the correct date. Thank you. Joey

 

Good afternoon. Thank you for your inquiry. I have penciled in your

reservation for the Bio Bay excursion for Friday Nov 25 for a party of two.

I am forwarding additional information on this excursion. We do not provide transportation for the night time excursions, but can recommend a driver for you to make arrangements with (Jaime - 787-370-9243). Any other information that you need, please let us know.

BIO-BAY: Thank you for your inquiry about our BIO-BAY tour in Vieques. We depart the Puerto del Rey Marina in Fajardo at 5:30 pm returning at

approximately 11:00 pm. Upon leaving Marina Puerto del Rey, our guests enjoy

the breathtaking views of Puerto Rico's east coast, and the mountains of El

Yunque. After a short cruise along the north coast of the island of

Vieques, we arrive at the small town of Isabel Segunda, where guests are

taken by van or bus to a local restaurant for a casual local style dinner.

The Bioluminescent bay tour begins at 7:15, (or 6:15 in the wintertime). The

information center offers the opportunity to learn about the marine

ecosystem of the bio-bay, observe the organisms under microscope, and meet the marine critters, residents of the aquariums there. Guests are taken by bus down a bumpy dirt road to the bay where they are treated to a guided tour in (quiet) electric motor boats and can enjoy swimming in the

brilliance of the world's most prolific bioluminescent waters. A truly

magical experience! Guests should be at the marina by 4:45 pm and bring a

towel and swim suit if they would like to swim, which we highly recommend!

Guests may want to bring cash to purchase alcoholic drinks at the

restaurant, or for gratuities. Piña coladas, rum punch, sodas and snacks

are served onboard the Island Flyer. Beers are $2.00 each. The price is

$99.00 per person, which includes the tour at the Bio-Bay in electric boats,

dinner at a local restaurant and land transportations in Vieques. This is a

wonderfully enjoyable and educational trip! You can call our office at

1-877-937-4386 for further information or to confirm your reservation. We

require a credit card to guarantee the spaces of your reservations. Thank

you for selecting EAST ISLAND EXCURSIONS for your sailing adventure! Joey

Hiraldo, Marketing Manager

 

We are still interested in sharing a ride to Fajardo with you. Lana

[OTRlady]

Hi, Lana--

 

Sorry for the delay getting back to you; for some reason, I must not be properly subscribed to this thread, because I never got notification of your new post. Just stumbled across it when idly reviewing the SJ board this morning.

 

Anyway, here is where I'm at. East Wind has still not called me back to confirm my 11/25 reservation. From the e-mail you received, I would say that I'm not actually reserved on that date yet because they didn't take my credit card to guarantee the reservation. I have read elsewhere that they don't like to take reservations this early because they don't know if the boat will fill until the week of the trip. So, I put in another call this morning (s.b. 8:30am there), but got an answering machine saying to call back after 8:30. I left another message. Assuming I can get this reservation made, I plan to call to confirm our hotel reservation in SJ. I am pursuing the angle of arranging transportation through the hotel, if possible.

 

I'm not sure when you're flying in; we are arriving the night before, so we have a whole day to spend. One of the options we've been considering is a day trip, culminating with the Bio Bay tour. I've asked the hotel if it is possible to arrange a driver that would take us to El Yunque in the morning and Luquillo Beach in the afternoon, dropping us off in Fajardo for the Bio Bay tour about 4pm (I was told to be there by 4:15pm). This, I think would be do-able. My greatest concern is whether we can get the driver to come back for us at 10:30pm and take us back to SJ.

 

If I don't have any luck through the hotel, I planned to contact the two drivers whose names I had--Noel and Hector--directly.

 

I have not been able to get any price quotes on the day trip or the transportation alone, but I'm thinking that it might be as much as $40 pp (for a group of 4) for transportation. Would you be interested/able to share a day trip?

 

I'll post back as soon as I have more information.

[OTRlady]

Lana--Forgot to tell you that we are booked on Golden Princess 11/26/05. There is another couple on our roll call for that trip that had expressed interest in getting together pre-cruise. They are also flying in the night before. They had a cruise coming up in September, so they haven't posted on the roll call lately, but I'll check and see if they would like to join us on the Bio Bay tour.

[OTRlady]

Lana-- I just spoke to Jayanne at East Wind by phone. As it turns out, I really am on the list for November 25, and your party is also listed. We 4 are it, however. While it is not required until they have 12 to confirm the trip, I gave her my credit card info now. Somehow, even though it won't be charged until later, I feel as if I have a real reservation now.

 

The reason they didn't call me back is that they do not have 12 people yet, so the trip is not confirmed until they do. I was advised to call back again 1-2 days beforehand to see if we are still on for that date. I expect we will be, because the moon calendar looks good, and they usually fill every good date during the tourist season.

 

According to Jayanne, it is too early to book the drivers, but when they fill the trip, she will be calling them as well--no transportatin, no trip for most of us. Sounds like they will want cash when we go, so I'm still for contacting them now to reserve a spot in a car. I think one could safely cancel out if the trip didn't go.

 

More later, hopefully.

[Cruisin'Round]

Hi Theresa,

 

I'm so glad that you checked the boards! We are on the Serenade of the Seas 11/26/05 sailing and plan on traveling to SJ on 11/24/05 and arrive around 4:30 pm. I will check with my sister to see if she is interested in the remainder of your day plans prior to Fajardo. We currently planned on hanging out at the beach/pool on Friday prior to heading to Fajardo (rest up before the port intensive cruise.)

 

In my e-mail, Joey instructed me to contact them upon arrival to San Juan. Keep me posted as to whether the other couple from your sailing is interested. The more the merrier and we need 12.

 

Lana

[OTRlady]

Hi, Lana--

 

Now I'm subscribed, so I can find your posts!

 

We are confirmed at the El Canario by the Sea (Condado area), and I've asked them about our plans. They've found a driver, Victor, who would be able to do the day trip we've asked for, but he wants $250. I've asked whether that price is $125pp or for the car for the day, and am still waiting for an answer. It would be a good deal if we were able to split it 4 ways, as I understand the regular bus tour of the rain forest and Luquillo Beach is $60pp anyway, and this would be a private driver.

 

Alternatively, the hotel has suggested that we rent a car. I'm a little hesitant, but maybe that would be more cost-effective. I guess I'm most worried about traffic in a large, strange city; getting lost; and if the local drivers will be like in Mexico.

 

As to our plans, the earliest flight we could find on Thanksgiving Day puts us into SJ at 9pm, so we'll probably be lucky to find supper. But we don't plan to do anything Saturday morning, and our departure isn't until 11pm, so we'll do some resting once on board. Given the cost of airfare, we may not be back for some time, so we don't want to blow off the day. We weren't there long enough to do anything on the last trip, five years ago.

 

Still haven't called Noel or Hector to get prices. One option would be to take the bus trip and come back to SJ to pick up transportation to Fajardo. Have you tried contacting Jamie to see what he would charge for 4? Wonder if they do hotel pickups? Where are you staying in SJ?

 

Only 6 weeks away!

[OTRlady]

Hi, Lana:

 

Any news? Todd & Sheri (the other couple from our sailing) have not replied; I'm assuming they are not interested in the Bio Bay. I think for a lot of people the price seems too high. Meanwhile, I've had e-mail from Victor, dropping his price to $200; this really is probably a good price for what we are asking, but on top of the Bio Bay tour, I'm not sure we can afford it. May have to re-think this one. Have you been able to get any prices from the driver that East Wind recommended for comparison?

 

Only 4 weeks to go; I feel like I should be getting this nailed down soon--like yesterday.

[Cruisin'Round]

Theresa,

 

I spoke with my sister and we are going to pass on the El Yunque tour. We are still committed to the biobay, but are staying an extra day post cruise to have a little more touring time and want to leave options open for Friday day. We are both Longhorn fans, and would like to find a place to watch UT beat A&M. I thought about calling the concierge at the Hilton where we will be staying to ask them to call the three potential drivers or provide some options for us, but have not done so yet. Will post back when I hear something.

 

Lana

[thatbloominplace]

i have posted responses before regarding this trip and will do so again now. this is a wonderful experience and should not be missed. however, the appearance of even a little moonlight on a clear night will completely destroy the bioluminescence efect. we went and were told that with the cloud cover, we would still enjoy it. so after driving to fajardo and taking a boat to vieques and eating in a lousy restaurant with mediocre food and service and travelling by bus down a horribly bumpy road and arriving at the pier and finally getting out onto the water, we were then told we'd never see any of the effect that night because there was too much light. so, while this would all have been a very quaint and unique experience, it is a lot of time, effort and money to waste if there is nothing to see at the end of the trail. do your homework on the stages of the moon. don't go if there is a lot of moon scheduled and don't let them tell you it will be fine.

[OTRlady]

Thanks, Bloomin

 

We have two potential dates in PR, so I checked the moon phases months ago when I first started researching this excursion. I'm relatively confident that we'll be okay with the date. My bigger concern is the difficulty of getting information from East Wind and arranging transportation. You are right that it is a lot of time and money and effort--especially since my partner is blind and I don't swim, but we hope to have a good experience anyway.

[OTRlady]

Thanks, Lana. We'll see you at the Bio Bay; have fun on your relaxation day. You can tell us about the Longhorns.

 

It looks now like we will rent a car. With all the other shore excursion expenses, I just can't justify the cost of a driver.

[OTRlady]

Lana, have you heard anything from East Wind yet? I'm wondering if we are any closer to having 12 for the tour. I will probably call Monday or Tuesday just in case; given their track record, I'm not sure they'll remember to call me with a confirmation.

[Cruisin'Round]

Theresa,

 

I haven't tried to call or e-mail them. They said to give them a call a day or two in advance, so I was going to call them Friday morning. Luckily, we are staying overnight 12/3 to 12/4, so if it happened to fall through on the 11/25, then we have a back-up date. For your sake, I hope that we do indeed get the 12 needed since this is your only opportunity.

 

I was going to call my hotel this weekend to see if the concierge wouldn't call the drivers and make arrangements for my sister and myself. I'll let you know what they say.

 

Lana

[D & B]

Theresa 'n Lana,

 

We have a reservation for 6 with East Wind for BioBay on 12/3/05. We have not checked to see if it is full yet but I hope this helps.

 

D & B

[OTRlady]

Hi, Lana. Glad I caught your post. We leave in about 12 hours.

 

I spoke to Jayanne on the phone today. We are confirmed, so I guess there are 12!

 

We ended up renting a car. Not my first choice, but a lot less expensive ($35 vs. $200). We are picking up the car on Friday morning and will guide ourselves to El Yunque, I guess. The driving instructions don't sound too bad, especially if Spanish road signs don't scare you. I kind of miss the guide, but we couldn't justify spending so much on one day of a 14-day vacation. Jayanne said to be in Fajardo by 4:15pm; we depart at 5:00pm. There is parking at the marina. So we will see you there!

 

Go UT! Tell us how it all came out.