Fan-Ta-Sea Catamaran To St. Nevis excursion

[lawgirl]

I booked this tour on an RCI cruise this Spring for my mom and I. She is 70 and agile, but can't swim. I know she won't be able to snorkel, but can she get to the beach in Nevis? Does the boat pull up on the beach or do you have to swim to shore? She isn't afraid and likes water, but just can't swim. Thanks!

[paul58]

There is a ladder that is lowered from the bow of the catamaran to get on shore. There may be a short distance to wade ashore. The crew will help her to shore and the reverse on the return to the boat.

[CruiseyCatLady]

We booked this excursion in February and are excited to go! It's been my experience with trips like this that you still have to swim a ways to get to shore. They pull up as far as they can to the beach and drop stairs, but you usually can't just walk down the stairs right to a place you can touch the sea floor. Hope this helps!

 

 

Emerald Princess - February 2015

Celebrity Summit - April 2014

Carnival Sensation - May 2010

Carnival Fascination - April 2008

[LoLa_in_GA]

We booked this excursion in February and are excited to go! It's been my experience with trips like this that you still have to swim a ways to get to shore. They pull up as far as they can to the beach and drop stairs, but you usually can't just walk down the stairs right to a place you can touch the sea floor. Hope this helps!

 

 

Emerald Princess - February 2015

Celebrity Summit - April 2014

Carnival Sensation - May 2010

Carnival Fascination - April 2008

 

Hi,

Can you give me an objective review when you return, of course--want to see if it is worth it.

Thanks--have a great time (any day at the beach is better than a day at home!);)

Edited January 12, 2016 by LoLa_in_GA

[LoLa_in_GA]

We booked this excursion in February and are excited to go! It's been my experience with trips like this that you still have to swim a ways to get to shore. They pull up as far as they can to the beach and drop stairs, but you usually can't just walk down the stairs right to a place you can touch the sea floor. Hope this helps!

 

 

Emerald Princess - February 2015

Celebrity Summit - April 2014

Carnival Sensation - May 2010

Carnival Fascination - April 2008

 

 

Of course, when you return...no previews necessary! Would NOT let me edit!--annnd then it did... and i can't delete this thing! ha!

Edited January 12, 2016 by LoLa_in_GA
duh. i'm just DUH today

[Mom.to.2]

I'm also curious if anyone has taken this excursion before? It was just added as an option to our April cruise. There are no reviews on the RCL website yet.

 

TIA for any firsthand input!

[khm1]

I'm also curious if anyone has taken this excursion before? It was just added as an option to our April cruise. There are no reviews on the RCL website yet.

 

 

 

TIA for any firsthand input!

 

 

I am taking this excursion in mid February. If you look for Blue water safaris on TripAdvisor, you will find some reviews from cruise passengers there. It has very good reviews.

[Mom.to.2]

I am taking this excursion in mid February. If you look for Blue water safaris on TripAdvisor, you will find some reviews from cruise passengers there. It has very good reviews.

 

Thanks! Just curious...how do you know the vendor is Blue Water Safaris?

[ilovetexas]

Thanks! Just curious...how do you know the vendor is Blue Water Safaris?

 

Compare the pics on Carnival's site and on Blue Water Safari's site. It's printed on the side of the catamaran pictured on CCLs site.

[khm1]

Thanks! Just curious...how do you know the vendor is Blue Water Safaris?

 

 

I emailed the company to try to take a non-ship excursion. They emailed back and told me that I would need to book through the cruise line. They told me the name of the excursion to book.

[PORT ROYAL]

I booked this tour on an RCI cruise this Spring for my mom and I. She is 70 and agile, but can't swim. I know she won't be able to snorkel, but can she get to the beach in Nevis? Does the boat pull up on the beach or do you have to swim to shore? She isn't afraid and likes water, but just can't swim. Thanks!

 

http://www.bluewatersafaris.com/en/mobile

 

Either try for a booking online , or contact direct saying you are looking to stay at ...... Hotel and would like a cat cruise for .... (Date)

 

Do not mention the cruise, or ship name.

 

Did this four years ago, with no problem, saving about $100 for the two of us. Blue Water did ask why we wanted the date. Our reply was we had friends arriving by ship and would like to spend the day with them being unable to book via the ship as not a guest.

 

Good luck.

Edited January 18, 2016 by PORT ROYAL

[macaroni]

Are all these excursions the same no matter what ship you are on? I will be on the celebrity eclipse with the same excursion title.....

[PORT ROYAL]

Are all these excursions the same no matter what ship you are on? I will be on the celebrity eclipse with the same excursion title.....

 

Some profit centred Lines actually reduce the 'benefits"' (drinks, nibbles etc) quality of the trip to maximise their profits, against what the operator usually provides to the guests for the same, or less, money.

Conversation along the lines of .... Dear supplier we only want to pay you $X, so just reduce the quality and variety of food/drinks. If you do not agree, you will be blacklisted. So what is a supplier supposed to say when faced with this?

 

For example: The Prickly Pear Island trip (Antigua) via the ship is a greatly scaled down version with regard to food and drink, to what is offered when booked direct.

Edited January 18, 2016 by PORT ROYAL

[khm1]

http://www.bluewatersafaris.com/en/mobile

 

Either try for a booking online , or contact direct saying you are looking to stay at ...... Hotel and would like a cat cruise for .... (Date)

 

Do not mention the cruise, or ship name.

 

Did this four years ago, with no problem, saving about $100 for the two of us. Blue Water did ask why we wanted the date. Our reply was we had friends arriving by ship and would like to spend the day with them being unable to book via the ship as not a guest.

 

Good luck.

 

 

We booked through RCL. I am not much for bending the rules. I wouldn't want to get the tour company in trouble by being less than truthful. I am no good at not telling the truth. I'd give myself away for sure.

[paul58]

I applaud your honesty!

[CruiseyCatLady]

I'm finally back!! Here is all the info for all of you wondering about Fan-ta-Sea!

 

The trip was with Blue Water Safaris. It was a short walk down the pier right to the catamaran we went out on. They gathered our shoes from us as we got on and we were shortly on our way. The catamaran was very clean, and felt very spacious even full of people. We were easily able to find seating for the 6 of us in our party. The crew was very friendly and helpful, and served us drinks (non-alcoholic).

 

The day we went out it was sunny and nice... but VERY VERY windy! So windy it made us very nervous about how this whole trip was going to go. However, once we raised the sails and were on our way it was pretty smooth sailing. The sea was choppy but we never felt like we were rocking too much (and some in our group are prone to seasickness). Our first stop was about a half our away at ****ten Bay. The sail towards our first stop was absolutely beautiful. If you decided to go on this trip and never get of the boat, the view is worth it!!!

 

As we entered ****ten Bay the wind died down and the water was incredibly calm! Apparently we didn't need to be too worried. We snorkeled for about an hour at this site. There was not a lot of coral here, but there was a large shipwreck which was pretty cool. The water was incredibly clear and we saw lots of fish including a barracuda and several cuttlefish all swimming together.

 

After the snorkel stop lunch was served. They served chicken salad, pasta salad, regular salad, bread and desert. The bar was also open after snorkeling. It was an open bar serving Carib beer (a local lager which is perfect for sunny days!) and rum punch, as well as non alcoholic drinks. Once lunch was over the sails went back up and we were sailing towards Nevis.

 

Our next stop was at Felix beach on Nevis. Once again the water was choppy but not a problem. When we arrived at Felix beach they brought the catamaran as close to shore as they could and dropped a staircase off of the front of the boat in to the water. When we got off at the beach we were in about waist deep water and then walked to shore where beach chairs were waiting for us.

 

We had about an hour at the beach to hang out and swim. The catamaran dropped us off and then went and anchored off shore while we swam. I didn't remember to look, but I am pretty positive there were people who stayed on the catamaran instead of going to the beach. The beach was clean, but I can't speak for the bathrooms as I didn't need them at this stop :) The crew took a cooler off the boat to the beach and we continued to have open bar! When it was time to get back on they pulled back up and we climbed up the stairs. I will say that the surf made it difficult to easily get back on!

 

After this it was time to head back to the cruise port. The bar continued to stay open and the crew turned on some fun music for everyone to dance to! The crew got everyone in to the spirit by starting off the dance party, which continued until we returned to the port. Upon our arrival at port our shoes were all nicely set out for us (unlike the boat trip we took the day before).

 

All in all we really enjoyed this trip. The scenery on the ride was truly beautiful, the crew was a lot of fun, and both stops were fantastic! While I'm sure there are lots of fun things to do in St. Kitts, I'm not sure I could pass this up if I came back again!

[Mom.to.2]

Thanks for coming back and providing a thorough review!

 

Did you notice if anyone snorkeled off the beach too? I was hoping for more than 1 hr. of snorkel time.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[crewsweeper]

http://www.bluewatersafaris.com/en/mobile

 

Either try for a booking online , or contact direct saying you are looking to stay at ...... Hotel and would like a cat cruise for .... (Date)

 

Do not mention the cruise, or ship name.

 

Did this four years ago, with no problem, saving about $100 for the two of us. Blue Water did ask why we wanted the date. Our reply was we had friends arriving by ship and would like to spend the day with them being unable to book via the ship as not a guest.

 

Good luck.

This has been a trick used by some in many ports. However, vendors are getting wise to this and won't book you unless you provide the name of the hotel where they will have a shuttle come pick you up and your excursion time will be different from the cruise line excursion. Don't know if they do this on St Kitts yet or not. But if you have to meet the excursion at the pier along with everyone else who booked the cruise line excursion, you might stick out. The $ saved versus a private booking aren't that big of a deal for some types of excursions and if you know the cost in advance, you can add a small part of the difference to your "cruise savings account" each month.

[ToddMnIT]

Thanks for the write up on this excursion. I have it booked a few weeks from now. Now I am really excited for it.

[runner15km]

We took this tour and everything was great except for the snorkeling. No coral and very few fish.

[Herrbeir]

I'm finally back!! Here is all the info for all of you wondering about Fan-ta-Sea!

 

Thank you very much for your detailed review. We did this 4 years ago, some things have changed, but I think RCI's description is faithful to your review. We booked this for April and I am looking forward to the long sail back to the ship. It put me in a very happy place.