Expedition Snorkel excursions

[Kane]

Read the scuba thread and it seems to be a bit marginally organized.  I can understand how Seabourn would want to contract it out instead of doing it all on board.

 

Snorkel excursions were not well described.  On other cruise lines, I have experienced some pretty poorly organized snorkel excursions. Is Seabourne  well done?

 

The main issue we encountered is that the contractors do not provide fins.  If you are flopping around in calm waters 4-5 feet deep, no problems.

 

I have been on a couple of (harmless) shark viewing excursions in 40-50 feet of water with 3-5 foot seas and no fins.  Maneuvering to get back aboard a boarding ladder that is  rising and falling 3-5 feet with no fins can get dicey, especially for a bunch of geezers.

 

What are the Seabourn snorkel excursions like?

[kej1]

My husband and I were on Papeete to Guam on Pursuit in April/May.  We love to snorkel so were very much looking forward to this aspect of the cruise and had never snorkeled from a cruise ship in the past.  Always at various resorts in the past where we could snorkel at the resort or on a private or semi private  boat trip.  We also used to dive quite a bit but did not on the cruise as we hadn’t been in several years and it wasn’t allowed unless you’d done two open water dives in the last 6 months or year.
 

The first opportunity  for snorkeling was in the Cook Islands.  It was third party and I believe we paid for it even though it was an “ expedition” cruise.  There had been a previous opportunity at another Polynesian island which was also third party with a cost but it was cancelled due to poor weather and lots of wind.  ( the divers found their own dive shop and went btw not organized by Seabourn despite the weather).  The Cook Islands snorkel trip was ok.  The snorkeling itself was very good, but almost all 200 people went in a number of small boats that each took maybe 12 or 14.  We were one of the first boats to leave but within about 20 minutes or so  there were so many people snorkeling in the area one was more concerned with bumping into people than finding  fish.  That was not great and put a damper on what could have been and started out to be a good snorkel trip.

 

We did not have another snorkel opportunity until a remote island in Fiji.  It was a beach snorkel.  The expedition team did not seem very familiar with the area so went off exploring and found a spot.  The beach was tiny and again you had almost 200 people crammed on to a small beach and the water was a bit rough and not a lot to see.  
It was a poor experience in my personal opinion.  
 

Things improved later in the cruise. All of the snorkeling that followed was through the Seabourn expedition team, not  third party.   It did however seem that the team didn’t really know where to go ( unlike when you do this at a resort).  So it was hit or miss as to whether the conditions and snorkeling was good, fair, or not great.  Snorkeling was either done from a beach you’d arrive to from a zodiac, or off a zodiac in deep water.    We had a couple of very good experiences, but others that were average to poor.  One of the biggest problems was although people went in color groups spread out, ultimately everyone ended up at the same place so particularly on the beach snorkels it was crowded.  
We preferred the snorkeling off the zodiacs. 
 

Ours was one of if not the first expedition of this type Seabourn did and there was a lot of feedback from guests so I hope others will share their experiences as I assume with time and experience it will improve,  I believe there are ways to spread  people out more in some cases. I’m not sure what other expedition cruises do that might help with the crowded feeling but I came away having enjoyed it but thinking the snorkeling is usually better to do on private  boat trips from resorts where they know where to go that aren’t crowded or where you can snorkel off their beach.  Now this will not preclude us from another expedition trip as we are scheduled to go from Broome to Indonesia and back to PNG on the Pursuit next summer!  But I am hoping some of the disorganization we experienced will be worked out by the time we go back.  We loved the ship, thought the service was really good, loved the spots we visited, just the expedition part was a work in progress and too many paid excursions along the way.  ( we had private guides in Honaria and Rabaul as wanted to see the WW 2 stuff and nothing was published in advance and typically not til the night before.  In the end they put things together but given it was 200 people in buses all going to the same sites more or less at the same time we were happy we had done privates in those two places.  
 

I hope this helps.  I’m happy to answer any questions.  BTW Seabourn provided masks and fins whether the snorkeling was through them or a third party although we did bring our own masks and snorkels.  

[highplanesdrifters]

@kej1

Thanks for that great recap from your recent trip report. It has reminded me to temper my expectations. We'll see if Seabourn gets their act together. Except for a handful of mostly paid excursions there are no excursions posted for our upcoming Guam to Santiago trip. Will this lead to the last minute chaos you experienced? Scuba has been cancelled. 

[kej1]

@highplanesdriftersI think you should have a wonderful time.  I’m hoping by now they have worked out some of the “ issues” on the expedition side.  We were in a sense guinea pigs on this route so I have high hopes things will just get better! The ship is beautiful and the ship crew was great as well.  I look forward to your feedback given your extensive experience on various expedition cruises.  It will be very helpful in preparing us for our August 2025 trip from Broome to Fiji via Indonesia and PNG!

[highplanesdrifters]

5 hours ago, kej1 said:

@highplanesdriftersI think you should have a wonderful time.  I’m hoping by now they have worked out some of the “ issues” on the expedition side.  We were in a sense guinea pigs on this route so I have high hopes things will just get better! The ship is beautiful and the ship crew was great as well.  I look forward to your feedback given your extensive experience on various expedition cruises.  It will be very helpful in preparing us for our August 2025 trip from Broome to Fiji via Indonesia and PNG!

 

Going to be an awesome trip floating around the South Pacific on a great ship.  We have only 2 repeat stops, yay. After some doing our TA finally got the SS suite for us. Following in your footsteps. 😃  Thanks again for all your tips and advice.

 

See below - if I may ask, is this the PNG Indonesia trip?  We are already booked for 2025, so I'm hoping they offer it in 2026. Raja Ampat and Cenderwash, sweet.  High on my list.  Also looking at Ponant and Paspaley Ponant for that area. They have a tad more experience there.

 

Can't wait for your report.

 

[kej1]

Yes, that’s our trip! There are a few repeat ports for us but many new ones and I’m already looking forward to it.  I just wish we were going this year but too many other things going on.  Family stuff and a bit over a month at the beach ( where we are now) right on the ocean.  Also heaven so I can’t complain.  Looking forward  wait to hearing about  your trip..  You will love the SS suite - it really spoiled us.  I’d also love to hear about your experience with Ponant should you give them a try.  

[highplanesdrifters]

14 hours ago, kej1 said:

I’d also love to hear about your experience with Ponant should you give them a try.  

 

We sail on her in April, Japan- Inland sea and sub-tropical islands. 

 

For those that care, Ponant has an established Scuba program.

[kej1]

That sounds like an interesting trip!  Can’t wait to hear about it.