Bio Bay with full moon?

[bobmacliberty]

We will be in San Juan for 1.5 days before our cruise.  We're interested in visiting the Bio Bay.  Most threads mention timing a visit around a new moon for max darkness.  Unfortunately, there is a full moon the night that we could do this tour (May 18).  Is it worth doing with a full moon?  We could always hope for an overcast sky but that's a bit of a gamble.

[nicoleinwi]

We did the tour the night after a full moon, didn't bother checking the moon schedule like you did.  The day before our tour we received a text that conditions would not be great and we could cancel and get our money back or $20PP credit if we chose to take the tour.  We will did the tour.  It was OK.  

 

What I didn't like about it, you would have regardless if dark conditions or not.  The kayaks are so packed in, you go down long mangrove type rivers and you aren't really able to paddle much as there is literally a kayak inches in front and in back of you.  

 

After the mangrove you got out into a large bay and all the operators have you stop in different areas so it is not as packed.  They had a big plastic tarp that they would come around to a couple kayaks and put it over you so you could see the bioluminescences.  Even given number of kayaks, we'd probably still do it again.  It was something to do at night, since we aren't big drinkers. 

 

We did our excursions pre-cruise and did a full day tour.  Picked us up in Old San Juan then took us to the rainforest, after rainforest to get late lunch / early dinner, kayak tour then pack to Old San Juan.  

Edited April 7, 2019 by nicoleinwi

[mitsugirly]

We did a precruise stay a few years ago and although we had fun doing the tour (we went by boat), it wasn't at all what I expected to see. They also had to put tarps over the side of the boat and look and it was really hard to see even without a full moon. The comments the tour guides told us were...after the last hurricane, before we were there, the dinoflagellates, which are a type of plankton that glows when they are disturbed, had went away and were slowly coming back. They also said a factor was the lights off in the distance in town. They had been complaining about it disrupting the lagoon but hadn't made any progress with it yet. At least these were the reasons they told us they were not that bright at the time. Now since then, they had the huge hurricane in 2017, it might have affected it even more. I haven't read up on it since then. 

 

I do know that the biobay (there are 3 in PR I believe) that is located off of PR (I believe Viegues and is called Mosquito Bay) is supposed to be the brightest there (but you have to take a boat over to that island). We went to Laguan Grande Bay which is located in Fajardo.

 

It was an interesting trip none-the-less and they show you animals and things along the way in the mangroves (and up in the trees).