Snorkel at Cococay?

[tampadee]

Is there a place to snorkel from the beach at cococay where Royal Caribbean docks?  Anything to see?

[OCSC Mike]

Yes. My wife went snorkeling right off one of the beaches (I forget which, it was 3 years ago). Can't remember if she saw anything besides fish but can't expect a ton for just walking into the ocean there.

[suesnake2002]

Over chill beach. There is a plane and cannon. This is where the purchased guides go

[aring75]

2 minutes ago, suesnake2002 said:

Over chill beach. There is a plane and cannon. This is where the purchased guides go

 

^^This is where we've had the most luck too.

 

See the rocks on the left side of the map below protecting the Chill Island lagoon areas? Plenty of fish around those rocks, plus if you swim further out to the roped off area (if they let you), that's where the sunken ship is. Still not quality reef snorkeling, but okay. Also, go early. Once the water gets crowded with swimmers, the sand gets churned up and the water can get really cloudy.

 

[SG65CB]

On the Cruise Critic "Private Islands" message board you'll find several threads with information about snorkeling at Coco Cay. Check it out!

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/forum/308-private-islands/

 

 

p.s. Here's my post on that board showing what I saw while snorkeling at Coco Cay, and how to find it when you go there:

 

https://boards.cruisecritic.com/topic/2830964-coco-cay-cannons-snorkel-photos

 

 

Edited April 21, 2022 by SG65CB

[LeeW]

Go early in the day.  Once people start using those beaches you can't see anything around the rocks.

[1ballerina]

Chill island area beach - we travel with our own snorkel gear - we saw large sea turtles the last time we were there 🙂 

[broadwaybaby123]

On 4/21/2022 at 12:47 PM, tampadee said:

Is there a place to snorkel from the beach at cococay where Royal Caribbean docks?  Anything to see?

Yes.  There's a school of beautiful Angel Fish over on Chill Island.  Be careful, there's a few young sharks there too (not big enough to kill or you or anything like that, but I still run when I see them).

 

The fish themselves swim right up to you.  The Angel Fish even posed for pictures, and when I was there last week, a school of black fish (not sure the type, didn't get a good look) kept swimming right by us.  They can scare the *insert choice word here* a few times if you're not expecting them to swim up to you!  That happened to me last week and I did scream, so my mom turns to me and say "you know fish are people too!" 😄

[Cruiser 5452]

Have snorkeled several times at Coco Cay.  Like someone said, the earlier the better.   Have seen several sting rays,  barracuda,  parrotfish, lion fish.   The one thing I saw that really got my attention was a rather large hammerhead shark.    Different times different things.  Varies with the time of year.

[snowbird1]

Like many have said, go early before sand gets stirred up.  Sadly and to my big disappointment RCCL degraded the snorkeling options greatly when the did all the CoCo expansion.  The area’s further out which were better and you can no longer go to.  They have roped off the area you can go and in my experience (many times) the best areas were further out near rocks however there are some decent areas on the right side looking towards the water. The good news is snorkeling is still better here than Labadee.

 

[twins_to_alaska]

I was quite happy I brought my snorkel gear for my stop Saturday. Thought very good non-reef from shore snorkeling. Don't expect Bonaire. 🙂 Was first in the water after signing the waiver and getting a snorkel vest so visibility nice and clear. 20 mph winds but luckily out of the SSW. Plenty of schools of fish and juveniles and good variety around the rocks and the cannon & boat piece areas. Pretty school of blue tangs. Over a dozen 1.5'+ fish not far from the boat piece. 3 rays and a humongous sea cucumber. Such easy sandy entry and no waves (can get close to rocks) and warm warm water.