Snorkeling the Eastern Caribbean

[lawtyger]

My wife and I will be on the April 7th Navigator of the Seas traveling to the Eastern Caribbean for the first time.

 

When we cruise, our main port activity usually includes snorkeling. For example, we've been on several Western Caribbean cruises and always snorkle at Grand Caymon (Cheeseburger Reef, Cemetary Reef, Eden Rock) and Cozumel (Dzul Ha), Belize, and Rotan (the best snorkeling we've experiended as in Rotan).

 

What we were wondering was based on the following Easter Caribbean ports we will be visiting, which port provides the best snorkeling?

- San Juan

- St. Thomas

- St. Maarten

- Nassau

 

Just for clarification, our idea of snorkeling isn't walking off the sandy beach and swimming around in the clear water over the sandy bottom. . . we mean snorkeling/diving type conditions with rocks, coral, wrecks, etc.

 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. We don't need to snorkel at every port. Rather, if two of the ports for example are "great snorkeling" ports we'd like to make sure we snorkel there and then enjoy the other ports doing another type of excursion or activity. From what we've research so far, San Juan appears to be the least attractive snorkeling port and we've got several other exciting options in mind for San Juan regardless.

 

Thanks for your help!

 

Chris & Jessie

[ugacruisers]

My husband and I prefer snorkeling in the Western Caribbean than in the Eastern. We went to St. Thomas and St. Maarten in 2005, had a blast, but wished the snorkeling was better. However, with that being said, there was a storm the night before and later that afternoon...the water seemed a bit cloudy, and I think that the storms may have been the reason. We still had fun...in St. Thomas, I don't remember the name of the excursion, but we went out on the 'Dabloon' sailboat (sailed maybe 30 minutes out) and they stopped and we snorkeled with the sea turtles and were out in waters about 20-25 feet. In St. Maarten, we did not snorkel so I don't have any info on that. I am not sure about Nassau either, we have not snorkeled there either. We too went in April, the weather and water was wonderful!!! I hope this helps and happy sailing!!!!

[Sheffie]

The best snorkeling that we have found on the Eastern route is at St. Thomas. We did the Buck Island excursion through the cruise ship twice. You go over to Turtle Cove where you may see a turtle or two, and there is nice snorkeling around the edge of the cove by the coral formations/ rocks. We really like snoreling over on St. John, especially at Cinnamon Bay where you can swim out to the island and see many formations and different fish. The last time we saw a cuddle fish!

 

We have snorkeled at St. Maarten and it was okay at Dawn Beach. I am sure there are even better beaches there.

 

The place we snorkeled in Nassau wasn't very interesting.

 

I have never heard of anyone doing much snorkeling at San Juan. Maybe there are some excursions that will take you out to somewhere interesting.

 

I would also check out the Ports of Call boards for these islands. You may get some different answers there.

[LilPony]

Hi - need some help from your experience - we are thinking of going on a RCCL excursion in Cozumel and they label it as drift snorkeling - we are average family of 4 DD(18) DS (14) we can all swim -

but What is a drift snorkel????

 

THanks!

Lil

[Inshape]

We love snorkeling on the Western itin but eastern is much different. St Maarten is much to breezy to snorkel off the beaches. Not much to see either cause of storm damage as I was told. But I am sure taking excursions to dive sights would provice much better spots. I would look on the st maarten boards and read about the diving spots.

[heydn62]

Hi - need some help from your experience - we are thinking of going on a RCCL excursion in Cozumel and they label it as drift snorkeling - we are average family of 4 DD(18) DS (14) we can all swim -

but What is a drift snorkel????

 

THanks!

Lil

 

We snorkled Cozumel last year on an excursion from Paradise Beach. We exited the boat at one end of the reef and the current allowed us to drift down to the other end. I'm guessing that's what a drift snorkel is.

[lawtyger]

The best snorkeling that we have found on the Eastern route is at St. Thomas. We did the Buck Island excursion through the cruise ship twice. You go over to Turtle Cove where you may see a turtle or two, and there is nice snorkeling around the edge of the cove by the coral formations/ rocks. We really like snoreling over on St. John, especially at Cinnamon Bay where you can swim out to the island and see many formations and different fish. The last time we saw a cuddle fish!

 

We have snorkeled at St. Maarten and it was okay at Dawn Beach. I am sure there are even better beaches there.

 

The place we snorkeled in Nassau wasn't very interesting.

 

I have never heard of anyone doing much snorkeling at San Juan. Maybe there are some excursions that will take you out to somewhere interesting.

 

I would also check out the Ports of Call boards for these islands. You may get some different answers there.

 

We will have to look into Buck Island as we haven't heard that name come up. What we determined so far is that Saphire Beach and Coki Beach have decent snorkeling areas. Then, over at St. John's the Cinamon Bay you mention and Trunk Bay/Beach sound like good snorkeling choices. We will be researching each of these areas more.

 

If anyone has any other suggestions, and or comments about the above areas, please continue to let us know.

[lawtyger]

Hi - need some help from your experience - we are thinking of going on a RCCL excursion in Cozumel and they label it as drift snorkeling - we are average family of 4 DD(18) DS (14) we can all swim -

but What is a drift snorkel????

 

THanks!

Lil

 

The "drift snorkeling" we've done basically involves traveling to a snorkeling location on boat and being dropped off in the water with a guide. You then snorkel the area with the guide and essentially go with current as the boat hangs out nearby and then eventually comes back and picks you up. Think of it this way. . . instead of leaving from shore, swimming out 100 yards, looking around, then realizing the current has pulled you 500 feet farther down the beach and then having to swim back to shore nowhere near where you walked in. . . you just have a good time and get picked up after looking around.

 

We drift snorkeled with Eagle Ray Divers (a private excursion) the first time we went to Cozumel and had a great time. We made three different stops and really enjoyed it. The difference with them, versus the ship excursions that were offered was that it was cheaper, made an extra stop, and instead of being with 50 of our ship mates, we were in a group of 8 people (the others were from the ship also and realized the benefit of private excursions). This was several years ago so I don't know if Eagle Ray Divers are in existence and/or still provide the great experience we received.

 

One thing we have learned is that private excursions are not only cheaper than the ship excursions but you definitely have less people in your group and often see additional things or make additional stops. Some people are uncomfortable with booking an excursion not through the ship, but if you do your research on cruise critic it is easy to know what private excursions constantly get recommended and provide the best experiences. Once you book a private excursion (of course one with plenty of recommended feed from cruise critic members) and realize that you just paid less yet got more, on future cruises, you'll be inclined to think private excursion first unless there simply is something that you must book through the book for. There have been so many times that we've arrived at a certain snorkel spots on our private excursion with 5 to 10 people and saw the ship excursion folks (all 50 to 100 of them) there. Then, while we are off to another snorkeling spot, the ship folks excursion is about to end. Same thing with Sting Ray City in Grand Cayman. . . here we are with 15 people in our group and up floats the ship excursion with their double decker boat of 100 people. The Belize cave tubing excursion may be the best example of the benefit of going with an outfit like XStreme Cave Tubing instead of the ship, but that's another story.

 

Anyway, drift snorkeling has its benefits and whether you go ship or private excursion, you'll have a blast.

 

For anyone not looking to save some money and not do an official excursion but still snorkel, I'd recommend taking a 5 minute taxi ride from the port to do some snorkeling at Dzul Ha. Here is a link to some pics from our last stop there in October 2005 - http://www.imagestation.com/7924597/3933447009

[LilPony]

All - thanks so much for your feedback!

 

Lil

[LilPony]

lawtyger - your pictures were excellent - I wanted to reach out and touch!! Thanks for sharing!

[Sheffie]

We will have to look into Buck Island as we haven't heard that name come up. What we determined so far is that Saphire Beach and Coki Beach have decent snorkeling areas. Then, over at St. John's the Cinamon Bay you mention and Trunk Bay/Beach sound like good snorkeling choices. We will be researching each of these areas more.

 

If anyone has any other suggestions, and or comments about the above areas, please continue to let us know.

 

Here is a link to that excursion. It is called Turtle Cove on the excursion page. I looked at another site, and Turtle Cove is at Buck Island.

 

This one says it goes to Shipwreck Cove on Buck Island.

 

Over on the St. Thomas boards there are a lot of recommendations for private operators that go out of Red Hook and over to St. John. On our last cruise another CC couple went on Rumbaba and had a fabulous time.

[lawtyger]

Thanks Sheffie, I'm off to check out those links!

[lawtyger]

lawtyger - your pictures were excellent - I wanted to reach out and touch!! Thanks for sharing!

 

Thanks, Dzul Ha is a nice place to snorkel for free and afterwards get a bite to eat and head back to port and do some shopping.

[Clamett]

Lawtyger those pictures were amazing. Thanks for sharing. What kind of camera did you use?

[minnie00]

Lawtyger.....I notice those pics were in Sept 05...PRE Wilma.

Is Dzul Ha still up and going??

 

When I went on my Sept 06 cruise I am pretty sure it wasn't open:confused: :)

 

just curious.

[Sheffie]

Lawtygr - GREAT photos! Can you tell me what kind of fish were in pictures 24 and 35?

[lawtyger]

Lawtyger those pictures were amazing. Thanks for sharing. What kind of camera did you use?

 

We have a Sony W7 digital camera and the underwater case for the W7 model. The underwater camera case makes all the difference. We take pictures, videos and you can still often hear the sound (ie. fish cruching on coral).

 

Looking back on those pics has gotten my Wife and I excited again about our upcoming cruise and any snorkeling.

 

If you liked those, take a look at these from the same cruise:

 

http://www.imagestation.com/7924597/3933422346

 

They are from Rotan and as you can see from the beach picture, it wasn't even a very sunny day. It was truely wonderful. You would be swimming over coral 1 foot from your chest and then all of a sudden it would drop of 15 feet. There were fish everywhere. I even swam with a spotted ray but only got a video of it swiming (no photos).

[lawtyger]

Lawtygr - GREAT photos! Can you tell me what kind of fish were in pictures 24 and 35?

 

24 is what I call a parot fish, but I'm not sure which type (but there could be a more accurate name). I'm not sure what the name of the yellow fish are but they are always in large groups hanging out swaying with the waves.

[lawtyger]

Lawtyger.....I notice those pics were in Sept 05...PRE Wilma.

Is Dzul Ha still up and going??

 

When I went on my Sept 06 cruise I am pretty sure it wasn't open:confused: :)

 

just curious.

 

Great point. I don't know if the actual structure was rebuilt yet. Hopefully so because the people there were very nice and we liked eating lunch there after a hard day of snorkeling. Nevertheless, the locals (and taxi cab drivers) know where Dzul Ha is so I'm sure people are still snorkeling along the rocky beach area there.

[Sheffie]

24 is what I call a parot fish, but I'm not sure which type (but there could be a more accurate name). I'm not sure what the name of the yellow fish are but they are always in large groups hanging out swaying with the waves.

 

I didn't realize there is more than one color of parrot fish. I learn something new every day.

 

I didn't catch it the first time, but there are two 35s. Here is the link to the one I meant: http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?id=2094904080

[lawtyger]

The link sent me to the main album but I think you are refering to the pic name Set 3 035 with the orange, green, etc. parot fish. Those are pretty. There are actually jumbo parot fish there about 3 feet long. They look a little more beat up for some reason but are really large. During our first trip to Dzul Ha we saw a bunch with our guide, but during the October 2005 trip we didn't see any jumbo size.

[Sheffie]

Geeze, ANOTHER kind of parrot fish! Who would have thought they came in so many glorious colors?!!

 

Thanks!

[lawtyger]

All - thanks so much for your feedback!

 

Lil

 

By the way, I put on YouTube one of the videos from Dzul Ha. It shows how many fish are often around and interested in the snorkelers :) I was sitting in the middle of them and tried to swim away. I got out for a second, but then at the end of the video you'll see them swimming right back over.

 

 

Probably better to let it completely load first so it plays smoother (and it is real time speed by the way).

[doxiegal]

Snorkeling is very good in Nassau. There are areas right off shore near The Atlantis, but depending on the tide & waves can be difficult. You have to go East from the Atlantis down the public beach about 1/2 mile or so, and you will come to a small cove area. There is some decent snorkeling here, if it is not so windy out. We were there last month on the VOS. But was way too windy to snorkel. YOu should take a private Excursion thru "Stuarts Cove" I think it is about 55 US a person. This is a really nice tour, it takes you to approx 3 reef areas. Also stops in the ocean and you can swim with--- Caribbean Reef Tip Sharks---This part of the tour was AWESOME!!! We have done this tour 3 times with Stuarts Cove. Well worth the money, and really decent snorkeling. Almost comparable to snorkeling in Cozumel before Hurricane Wilma hit there.

[brn2crz]

Your photos are just what I needed.We will be stopping in Roatan in Jan 08,and up until now was now really excited..Well I was wanting to zipline,or do the day spa...But those pics have me rethinking.I have not seen color like that since 83 in the Bahamas somewhere...Is Tabyana the name of the snorkle tour? Was that through the ship or privately.

 

We were in the Eastern Caribbean the same time you were there.We did the turtle cove tour,but had to move due to rough water...

We snorkled in St Thomas and St Martin,but neither were spectacular...(Lots of rough water though).

The actual highlight was diving off the second story of the boat in St Martin...That was fun!!