Reef and Rays excursion-Carnival

[Sunshineaddict]

Has anyone done this excursion through Carnival? Is there any information on it anywhere from people who have experienced this?

Any feedback would be appreciated! Thank you!

[SurprisingWoman]

I couldn't get my response to post so I made a new thread.

 

It was great. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Brenda

[Nightwind]

I couldn't get my response to post so I made a new thread.

 

It was great. Let me know if you have any questions.

 

Brenda

 

I have one! How deep was the water for the "reef" part? We have a kid with a fear of water. We'd like to do this excursion, but if the water is deeper than about 5.5 feet, he'll freak because he won't be able to touch bottom. So, if you could let me know about that, I would REALLY appreciate it! :D

[SurprisingWoman]

Your son will NOT be able to touch the bottom. This is around a coral reef and it is float time.

 

My husband and BIL are NOT comfortable in water over their heads but they managed to have fun. They give you a snorkel vest. They are yellow and strap around your chest and have a strap between your legs to hold it in place. I had NO air in mine, my husband and BIL had them blown quite full of air. If I had known how uncomfortable my they were in the water I might not have booked this excursion, but they are both glad they went on it. They saw the barracudda, I didn't. They stayed close to the boat (and got in before the excursion was over) I didn't.

 

If your son only wants to be able to touch the bottom, the Gibbs Cay might be a better choice, but you will not see the brightly colored fish we did.

[Nightwind]

Thanks for the quick reply. Well, I guess we'll have to think about that excursion. We really would like him to get over this fear (He's 13 and, for safety reasons, we want the kids to swim well. 11-year-old needs gills, he likes to be in the water so much, but his brother? *sigh) and part of the reason that we chose the Caribbean for this family cruise was because you don't get big waves. But on the other hand, we don't want to stress him out too much and make him more afraid. I tend to think that once he gets in the water and starts having fun, he'll be OK. That's how he is in pools in general. It's just getting him in there. If I have to give him a kick in the butt...well, I'm not above doing that. ;) I guess if worse came to worst, we and his brother can snorkel and he can sit on the boat and just do the ray part...

[SurprisingWoman]

I think one thing that helped my husband and BIL is that we didn't go on the excursion until 1:00 so. We had time to play in the water and on the beach before being kicked into deep water. He will be able to "gently" lower himself into the water off the boat if he waits until he is one of the last people to get in the water. My husband freaked over the "waves" at first, but he learned to relax and got some fun time in. I think not having the excursion be their first "hello" with the ocean was helpful. They only stayed in the water for 20 ish (?) minutes and they got back in the boat.

 

If you were all 'fishes' I would recommend the first excursion time so the rays would still be hungry, but if you have some beach time first, it should relax him.

 

They both agreed it was worth the $75 even though they didn't snorkel much. The operators of the boat have a fish card they can let you look at showing you the fish you may see/might have seen. That may get his groove on enough that he is stoked.

 

Enjoy. It was great and we loved it.

 

Brenda

[SurprisingWoman]

I think one thing that helped my husband and BIL is that we didn't go on the excursion until 1:00 so. We had time to play in the water and on the beach before being kicked into deep water. He will be able to "gently" lower himself into the water off the boat if he waits until he is one of the last people to get in the water. My husband freaked over the "waves" at first, but he learned to relax and got some fun time in. I think not having the excursion be their first "hello" with the ocean was helpful. They only stayed in the water for 20 ish (?) minutes and they got back in the boat.

 

If you were all 'fishes' I would recommend the first excursion time so the rays would still be hungry, but if you have some beach time first, it should relax him.

 

They both agreed it was worth the $75 even though they didn't snorkel much. The operators of the boat have a fish card they can let you look at showing you the fish you may see/might have seen. That may get his groove on enough that he is stoked.

 

Enjoy. It was great and we loved it.

 

Brenda

[Nightwind]

Unfortunately, we're only in GT from 7:30 until 2:30, so the excursion only runs once and, I think, starts at 8:30. But I think if he takes things slowly, like you said, he'll be OK. And I think he'd really enjoy seeing the fish, once he gets in there. And like I said, if necessary, he can just sit on the boat and be a fuddy-duddy. :) Younger kid is already totally stoked about seeing fish, as he's never seen them other than in an aquarium. I told him about the barracuda, and he literally squealed with excitement. :)

 

Tell me about this BNL cruise, though! I love the BNL!! :D "If I had a million dollars..."

[ShipsandDipper]

I was on the same cruise as SurprisingWoman (hence my name...). It was awesome! BNL chartered the Carnival Legend and invited various musical friends to join them. We saw BNL play four times, plus BNL members' side projects (Vanity Project, Brothers Creggan, Thinbuckle), plus concerts by other bands. BNL decided to skip Ships and Dip II and go right to III (because II could never live up to expectations, as S&D I was so great :) ). January 6-10 out of Miami on the Carnival Victory.

 

Anyway, about the Reef and Ray tour -- we were disappointed. They had a lot of people on the excursion and it felt like more of an exercise in avoiding people who had little experience swimming or snorkeling than a chance to see the fish. The reef was very pretty, but it was not particularly extensive. There were fairly strong waves/current that pushed us around and that we had to keep swimming against to not get too far from the boat. I doubt that someone who isn't comfortable swimming would enjoy the excursion. The water is about 15 feet deep, though the reef rises closer to the surface (but you can't touch it, because it'll kill the coral).

 

As for the rays, we went to a beach already occupied by the Rum Beach party excursion, who apparently had attracted all the rays. Our guides brought a couple of rays over and let people cradle them, but honestly I was much happier when they let them go and the rays swam around us freely, looking for fish. But we only saw the two rays, and I was really expecting/hoping for a lot more. Maybe there were a lot more, just busy with the beach party folks.

 

The guides who led the excursion were great. I was just not happy with the whole experience, especially for $75.

[tessky]

I was on this excursion on Tues, yes the water is very deep, one of the girls in our group (in her 20's) fell getting off the boat and went under swallowed alot of water and scrapped her legs. So my suggestion if you have nervous people help them off the boat.

 

The current was definitely there but not too strong and there were only about 30 people on our excursuion so we didn't bump into anyone.

 

We all loved the sting ray part, cool to both have them swim around you so closely and also hold & feed them.

[SurprisingWoman]

I am sorry your friend (or whomever) scraped their leg. You can ease in or you can just jump in holding your breathe and then clear your snorkel by blowing in it.

 

We had a good time. The rays were starting to get full when we were there, but it was so awesome. Even my non-swimming partners loved it and thought it was totally worth $75. I guess to each their own.

 

I have heard that on GT there is so little to do that you are better off doing a ship excursion rather than your own thing. This being my first cruise I can't add a lot to that since I have no idea.

 

My husband bought me a waterproof camera for the cruise and it has a video function. I was having trouble seeing through the mask, then the water to see the screen to see what I was taking a photo of so I changed to video thinking I would at least get something. Mistake. Things move a lot faster than you think underwater and my video looks like a bad version of the Blair Witch Project (based on what others said, I have never seen it)

 

I finally downloaded my photos a short while ago and was really bummed, hence the FYI. ;)