snorkel / beach excusion

[disneygirl8]

Does anyone have any recommendations for a combination snorkel/beach excursion?

[CaliforniaRedHead]

We went on Bannister Island with the Grand Princess in March 2006. You have to pay for the snorkeling separately once you get there, but the beach was very nice. They have blue rafts for the water, chairs, tables, kids play area, bar, gift shop, clean restrooms. They had a photographer there and the picture I bought was wonderful and worth the price(I did talk him down). They also had kayaks and paddle boats for rent. The snorkeling was fabulous, they took you out to the reef for about one hour, well worth the cost, if I remember was very little.

 

Good luck.

 

Alycia

[disneygirl8]

Thanks for the info. Was the beach crowded?

[CaliforniaRedHead]

The only people that were there were the people from my same excursion. We did the early one and a later group arrived, but the beach was still basically empty. I did not see any snorkeling directly from the beach, but it was beautiful to just hang.

 

Good luck.

 

Alycia

[doctrd]

I did the snorkel/beach excursion and it was great.

 

Some advantages are: they pick you up at the boat, no long ride into Belize, then back to the boat.

The beach is a private beach, not crowded.

The snorkeling was great..lots of large coral heads.

It leaves at after 12 PM, so can sleep in a little that day.

 

We are going to try the Sunba/beach combo this time, go on the same boat with the snorkeling people. Just to try something different.

[DRMizzou]

We went on the Barrier Reef Snorkel and Beach excursion from the NCL Pearl on Feb. 14th. It was very nice. We took a tender in to the Belize City Pier and then took a catamaran to Barrier Reef for a one hour snorkel stop. Very good visibility, lots of fish, great coral formations. We then stopped for an hour at Bannister Caye which is small island with chairs, floats, kayaks, etc. Very relaxing. It has a small place to eat, an outdoor bar, etc. The catamaran then took as directly back to the Pearl.

 

Don't know what cruise ship you are going to be on. I did notice that there were private companies offering similar excursion packages (Barrier Reef snorkel and a beach break) at the Belize City pier but I don't know the price. NCL charges $79 per person.