Blue Room Cave and Beach Hopping Shore Excursioneer

Has anyone booked the Beach Hopping and Blue Room Cave Snorkel through Shore Excursioneer? Any feedback on either the tour or the company? The cave looks really cool but I'm a little concerned about how far away it looks from the port. We are a family of 4- kids 10 and 12 who are excellent swimmers and experiences snorkelers.

I want to do the blue room and may do it own my own by renting a car. Lets go water sports at santa cruz has a water taxi to the blue room as well.

We did the caves through an ATV tour. It was pretty neat. We saw a LOT

We booked this tour with this company for our early December cruise. We are hoping it is as great as it looks!

We booked this tour with this company for our early December cruise. We are hoping it is as great as it looks!

PLease come back and provide a review- we go in March and I'd love to hear some first hand accounts!!

We just went in Oct with Back2Nature Gina and Manielle, this was the best tour we have ever taken while cruising!! They took us to some amazing places!!! The blue room is probably the coolest place I have ever been, very similar to cenotes in Cozumel but on steroids!

We just went in Oct with Back2Nature Gina and Manielle, this was the best tour we have ever taken while cruising!! They took us to some amazing places!!! The blue room is probably the coolest place I have ever been, very similar to cenotes in Cozumel but on steroids!

Awesome! How hard was it to swim into the blue room? Was there enough light inside so that you could still see pretty well?

PLease come back and provide a review- we go in March and I'd love to hear some first hand accounts!!

If you decide to do this tour with Shore Excursioneer you will not be able to do anything else in port. Most places were closed upon our return just before 6pm. We had no issues with this tour company & we just did this excursion last week. Shore Excursioneer isn't the most organized tour company in terms of finding them (blue shirts with a tiny white logo but a pink & white bus). They give you a questionable chicken salad & veggie sandwich (warm but none of us died), chips & drink (water, soda or Polar beer) when you are done. They also keep the boat going at a fairly high rate of speed. The friend of ours who isn't a great swimmer hated this tour and wanted back on the boat as soon as she was in the Blue Room. Our tour group consisted of 19 people aged 25-70ish. Three people didn't get off the boat. I do not recommend this tour for minor children unless they are very experienced ocean swimmers.

You'll drop anchor next to a cliff and the only way you know the Blue Room exists is because there is ocean spray coming out from under it. You have to swim a fair amount to the rock wall where you'll wait your turn for the guide to help you in. You wait for the tide to go out then swim into the Blue Room. To do this, you have to dive down about 2 feet and hold your breath for approximately 6 feet to get inside. The guide will push your head under if you aren't down far enough. It feels a bit like he's trying to drown you but he's just looking out for your safety. The rock is very rough and our guide wound up with a really scraped up right arm. I used my foot to push off the rock above me & scratched it up a bit but nothing to the point of bleeding. It was a lot larger than I thought it would be inside & on the far end there is stadium like seating if you get tired of swimming (this is where our fun hater friend hung out). When above water it is hard to see inside but underwater it is clear, blue, lighted by sunlight from the other side (I assume) and beautiful. We saw schools of fish that looked like we could touch them. I tried with my foot but they were a lot deeper than they appear. We spent approximately 30 minutes swimming around in here then made our way back to the boat. It is much easier to get out than in because you can see the outside when the tide rolls out.

I recommend visiting the Blue Room to every adult who is comfortable swimming. Take the life jacket they offer you.

wow thank you so much for the review!! Our ship is only in port until 5:00- is this an issue?? Did they make other stops as well? Was this run through Adrenaline Tours (contracted through Shore Excursioneer)? How was the boat?

Awesome! How hard was it to swim into the blue room? Was there enough light inside so that you could still see pretty well?

The Blue Room was awesome, easy to swim in an out but may be difficult for some. The current is strong in the back of the room when standing on the rocks. Here is a video I made from our time there.

The Blue Room was awesome, easy to swim in an out but may be difficult for some. The current is strong in the back of the room when standing on the rocks. Here is a video I made from our time there.

 

Thanks for sharing! Looks really cool.

Tigers2425

Lori

I tried to book Shore Excursioneer and unfortunately they are closed for most days of the week. They are closed Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Sunday.

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I tried to book Shore Excursioneer and unfortunately they are closed for most days of the week. They are closed Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Sunday.

 

 

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Does that mean the don't do the excursions on that day? Or their office is closed those days?

Does that mean the don't do the excursions on that day? Or their office is closed those days?

They don’t do tours that day ☹️ I’m not sure if the office is open or not, but they don’t take tours on those days. Seems odd to be closed half the week, but maybe the company is owned by someone who does this as a hobby in retirement and only wants to work part time.

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They don’t do tours that day [emoji852]️ I’m not sure if the office is open or not, but they don’t take tours on those days. Seems odd to be closed half the week, but maybe the company is owned by someone who does this as a hobby in retirement and only wants to work part time.

 

 

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I'd love this; i KNOW The Husband will NOT.....

Thanks for sharing! Looks really cool.

 

Tigers2425

Lori

I'd love this; i KNOW The Husband will NOT.....

It really does look neat. Have not looked at the cost; have you?

Tigers2425

Lori

I'd love this; i KNOW The Husband will NOT.....

It really does look neat. Have not looked at the cost; have you?

Tigers2425

Lori

Through Shore Excursioneer (where we booked) it is $115 per person. High for an "independent" excursion, but similar to other things offered by the cruise lines (NCL doesn't offer this trip direct). We have it booked for the end of March. I'll report back. Hoping others will try it before then and also report!

Through Shore Excursioneer (where we booked) it is $115 per person. High for an "independent" excursion, but similar to other things offered by the cruise lines (NCL doesn't offer this trip direct). We have it booked for the end of March. I'll report back. Hoping others will try it before then and also report!

Have fun! Look forward to hearing about your experience.

Tigers2425

Lori

I keep hoping to be able to do this too, but unless they start operating all days of the week, we’re outta luck.

rjm11, please report back and let us know if you find out they are open all week. I saw this post that they are closed most days and looked at their website myself to confirm, and they wouldn’t take my reservation for the date we’ll be there, so I’m hoping something will change.

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you could try looking at Adrenaline Tours Curacao directly- that's who Shore Excursioneer is contracting through. I'll be there next week and I'll let you know how it goes.

you could try looking at Adrenaline Tours Curacao directly- that's who Shore Excursioneer is contracting through. I'll be there next week and I'll let you know how it goes.

Thank you!!! I’ll look into that.

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OK- I"m back. We did this tour last week. The water was too rough to go into the cave which was a bummer, but he took us to the "plan B" which was an area known for sea turtles and it didn't disappoint- we snorkeled within and easy area around the boat and probably saw 7 or 8 different turtles. They gather there as it's near where fishermen clean their catches. Overall here are my thoughts- they were late meeting us and there was confusion about where we were supposed to be. The meeting directions are vague (we booked through Shore Excursioneer) but when we asked people at the port they all pointed to one meeting spot. Unfortunately the rep was somewhere else, but eventually found us. She was very disorganized though and kept saying we were missing 2 people, but finally (after at least a half hour of waiting) she figured out that everyone was there (???). It is about a 25 minute drive south from the port to the Adrenaline Tours dock. Then you get on the boat, and it heads back north, past the cruise ship, and continues north to the blue room opening. This part was longer than I thought it would be- over an hour on the boat. The boat is nice, and the guides were great- very safety conscious. They sent one of their guys over to the blue room, but the waves were so high even he couldn't get in, so we decided on Plan B. We then headed further north to the turtle area. Then we headed back south and stopped at a beach, but the time there was quite short, possibly because the waves had REALLY kicked up by that time. The drive back south after the beach stop was in 4-6 foot waves, and really slow going. The captain did a good job, but couldn't plane of course and it was really really slow. He ended up dropping us off at a dock near the cruise ship because it would have taken too long to drive (at that slow pace) all the way back to Adrenaline Tours and THEN take the bus back. All in all an enjoyable day, but not particularly well organized with the transfer, and of course I can't comment on the cave. My kids loved the turtles, but kind of a high price tag for a snorkeling stop, quick beach stop, and mediocre lunch (chicken salad sandwich, chips, and fruit).

Thank you so much for coming back with the update. That’s a bummer it didn’t turn out as planned, but so cool that you got to swim with turtles. If they can take you so quickly back to the ship by boat, I wonder why they force you to do a 1hr drive?

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