Five Star Catamarn & Tutle Encounter

[Crystalbast]

I went on the Five Star Catamaran & Turtle Encounter last year and totally loved it. We stopped to swim with the turtles for 40 minutes, went to a second location for great snorkeling, they fed us and we stopped at a beach for an hour. It was a great excursion.

 

Well I loved it so much I did it again today. It was not the same excursion that it was last year. They decided to spend a lot more time sailing further away to see turtles which left us with 40 minues swim with the turtles and one hour of beach time (you could snorkel if you wanted). The snorkeling at the beach was ok but not as good as the site they took us to last year.

 

It seemed to me that there were the same number of turtles at both locations. While there was only one other boat that showed up at today's location, you still got kicked and hit by your fellow snorklers due to the crowd on board of the Tiami boat. I would have been just as happy at the closer turtle location in order to get the extra 40 minutes of snorkeling at a better location.

 

I was mad at myself for booking this tour a second time. To be honest, I could have booked essentially the same tour with Silver Moon and 1) paid less money and 2) been on a catamaran that they only sell a maximum of 24 tickets (which means less liklihood of hitting and kicking each other in the water :D).

 

My recommendation for people wanting to swim with the turtles and snorkel or have beach time would be to go with a private operator like Silver Moon. I would next time around.

[hcat]

Has anyone lse been on this excursion recently.. we thought it would be nice since it includes lunch--any other comments???

[3LittleBirds]

Has anyone lse been on this excursion recently.. we thought it would be nice since it includes lunch--any other comments???

 

We did it last fall. Like the above poster said - way overcrowded. It's a frenzy of fists and fins in the water. My wife and I got out of the water after having our masks kicked off our face a few times. Simply too many people.

[hcat]

That's a shame--not sure what other activity we will select..

 

that happens alot of cruise ship excurisons--we had a really bad experience on one in St Maarten...way too many folks on board..

[printingchick]

You can go to Paynes Bay beach and swim right out to the turtles from the beach. We bought an excursion at the beach (I forget the cost), which took about 10 of us out on a small glass bottom boat to a ship wreck (it was a great place to snorkel) and then over to where the catamarans were feeding the turtles. (Yes, it was very crowded there.)

 

We spent as long as we wanted on the beach, since we'd gotten there by taxi.

[nikimouse]

i wanted to do it, but have decided to do the st kitts catamaran to nevis instead because 1) i dont know how to snorkel 2) im scared to death of anything moving thats in the sea, seriously , if seaweed touched my leg id scream! all i wanted was the food and drink, and a party atmousphere, and to stop at a nice beach. it would be cool to see the turtles as long as im on the boat and not too near them:eek:

[cascargirl]

We had the same experience. We had been on the excursion about a year and a half ago, and it was great...we really enjoyed it. This past April, we went on it again, as we had such a great time the 1st time.

 

The most recent time was nothing like before. The boats were more crowded than the time prior, we sailed for a lot longer, and had little time in the water.

 

After this experience, we've decided to bypass this excursion on our next trip to Barbados.