Warning about Coral World

[Homosassa]

For anyone considering a visit to Coral World in St Thomas, I want to warn you that many of the advertised attractions were not available when we visited two weeks ago:

 

The Underwater Observation Town: The shark tank (second level) is completelu closed for renovation (and obviously will not be finished for a long time). Also the reef surrounding the bottom level is dead - no coral, no fish.

 

Marine gardens: about half the tanks were emptty or being renovated.

 

Nature Walk: Exhibit cages were empty.

 

Children's Gift Shop: completrely empty so don't plan or finding something special for the little ones.

 

With the exception of the entry plaza, the overall condition of the facility was dingy.

 

Save your money and snorkel at Coki Beach next to Coral World.

 

And yes, we had our excursion money refunded when we bought the conditions of the facilty to the attention iof the on board excursion desk. Hopefully, the cruise lines will drop this tour from their lists.

[texancruzer]

I can remember reading posts here on Cruisecritic when researching for our 2005 cruise (with a stop in St. Thomas) that Coral World was not worth the entry fee.

 

Don't know - didnt go. But I remember while researching what to do while we would be there for the day and reading many posts of this nature.

 

Doesnt sound like they have done anything in the last 4 years to turn that around. Sad that the cruiselines don't research things as well as we do here on Cruisecritic :D

[The Islander]

Perhaps they were doing rennovation work while you were there? I was there in late July of this year and the shark tank on the 2nd level was closed however there was another shark tank you walk passed to get to the underwater observatory, the reef at the bottom of the observatory had various fish visiable from the different windows - it did smell damp in that room like they needed to work on the air circulation. All the other exhibits were fine. The marine gardens were open as were other attractions, they had added a new meet the sea lion show which was neat and informative, the lorikeet area was open, nature trail had iguanas, tortoises, birds, the stingray tank and turtles area were open, you could feed the stringrays at certain times, and the gift shop was stocked with tshirts, stuffed animals, ornaments, magnets, puzzles, postcards and other souvenir type things. Sorry to hear your experience wasn't up to par. Perhaps you might write to Coral World; if they are doing rennovations it might be helpful for them to offer a discount or something to make up for the things that are closed or being worked on.

 

--Islander

[Homosassa]

I was there less than 3 weeks ago. My report is up to date.

[Islandbear]

I think it is time to take a break from Coki Beach & Coral World. :(

 

The natural coral is almost gone and most of the fish species have been driven off do to the practice of fish feeding.

 

Maybe if fewer people go the locals will get the message and straighten up their act. Stop promoting feeding the fish and clean up Coral World and the beach.