Tried the seaview raft for snorkling with toddler

[williamsk]

Hi-

I recently saw a thread where people were requesting info on how the seaview raft worked. After reading the thread, I bought a raft in the hope of once again being able to snorkel on a cruise post baby.

 

Just back from a Celebrity cruise where we booked the Bucaneer snorkling excursion with an independent tour operator. We have a 22 month old who loves the water and we bought a seaview raft with window to pull her along with us. Inflation was a bit hard, but not horrible (inflate prior to boarding the ship). Emily loved her "ship" or the "I Ship" as she called it. She stared at the little porthole almost the entire time, and when asked what she saw, she said "fish". Filling up the window with water was a bit hard, but well worth the effort. On our third snorkling stop she fell asleep on her raft. (We did have her life vest on- she did jump off once but quickly settled into her spot once she figured out the window).

 

Background- Dd goes to the YMCA pool about 3X a month and has taken a Mommy and me class. She knows how to hold her breath under water, loves her life vest, but can not swim a lick without one. She loves the water. I would not recommend this for a younger toddler who is terrified of water and would suggest teaching the toddler how to hold his/her breath under water for the first inevitable jump or roll off the raft. My husband and I each had one hand on both sides of the raft (plenty of places to hold)and felt fairly secure towing our cargo as we could feel any shift in weight as we snorkled along. I wouldn't tow it with a rope for smaller toddlers and highly recommend a second adult for loading/unloading and teaming up on pulling it. It pulled very easily, but we felt better knowing there was an adult on either side of her. I also HIGHLY recommend bringing your own life vest for your little one... especially since the tour ones are sometimes too small and are not the type of PFD that will automatically roll your child over and support the head out of water. Even if you are a great swimmer, you too should wear a life vest that is at least partially inflated. This allows you to easily scoop your child out of the water with little worry should they decide to cannonball on you.

 

My DH thought this was a total hairbrained idea with little chance of working, but grudgingly blew it up. He was surprised and totally pleased when she responded so well. Almost immediately she lay on the raft and stared in rapture at the sting rays.

 

In summary, the raft was one of those few ideas that actually worked out like I had pictured it in my mind. May or may not work for your child, but waterbabies will probably love it :) I can see how the window may get scratched easily, but feel the price was worth it just for this one trip.

[Grannycb]

Thanks for the review. I'm considering getting one of the rafts for a 6 year old who is a good swimmer but may not feel entirely comfortable snorkeling.

[6rugrats]

Thanks for a reviews; these get discussed on this board, but I don't remember anyone coming back and posting how it worked. Do you have a link to the one you purchased? My kids are all too old, but it may be helpful for someone else.

[Jajone]

Thank you for your review. We purchased 2 of these for our cruise last Jan and the water ended up being too rough for snorkeling, so we still haven't tried them. Thankfully, my oldest is a great swimmer and can probably snorkel on her own. That leaves the boys (9 & 4) to use them. We are looking at going again in October, so hopefully they get a lot of use.

[StaceyCT]

Thanks so much for the review! My 2.5 year old is a little strange around water - didn't even take his shoes off on the beach, much less go in the water, so the SeaView raft that I brought went unused. Next year, however, he'll be in a different stage...

 

So glad it worked out well for your daughter!

[CruizinMom2c]

Thanks for the info, I have never heard of this...but will now look into it :)

[notentirelynormal]

Can you give a little more info on this. Like a link where we can see exactly what it is, where to buy it and/or price? Thanks.

[lucigo]

I have purchased 3 of these for our autism group cruise as we have kids who I think will have a great time with them at Half Moon. We have practiced with them in the backyard pool and they love them. I have 2 of the rafts and one little window pillow, they all came from ebay.

 

http://www.isnorkel.com/product-exec/product_id/4036

 

http://www.isnorkel.com/product-exec/product_id/4035/nm/Sea-Window-Explorer-snorkeling-raft

 

I will be sure to take pictures and post when we get back. I do suggest tying a bright colored rope/string from the raft, my son loves it when I drag him around on it. We are planning to bring dog food "bait" for the fish. :)

 

[notentirelynormal]

Cool, thanks. I had already bought the small ones but just bought the raft too. I'm gonna have 3 little ones so anything to make the trip easier will be great.

[lucigo]

The kids we have had over in the pool haven't had much success with the small one, they want to use it as a float and get up on top of it, then they can't see through it. Maybe if they had a big life jacket on they would do better with it, but all in all I think the big rafts work better.