Best snorkeling in Cozumel?

[erinshehane]

We will be in Cozumel in August on NCL Spirit. We are trying to find a good snorkeling excursion. Does anyone have experience with snorkeling with Nachi Cocom, Fury Catamaran and Beach Party? Or any suggestions? We have three children (7/7/9) so we are ruling out snuba and scuba.

[Colorado Kat]

The Money Bar is supposed to be good snorkling. When a beach is sandy, the snorkling is not good. Best snorkling is at rocky areas.

[MJL]

The Money Bar is supposed to be good snorkling. When a beach is sandy, the snorkling is not good. Best snorkling is at rocky areas.

 

Agreed, the Money Bar is fairly good. Snorkel excursions will often stop 50-100 yards off shore. You can sometimes tag along with the group for a few minutes and see the excursion leader feeding swarming fish. There is equipment rental and a nice area to relax and have lunch.

 

Mike

[mitsugirly]

http://cozumelmexico.net/The_Money_Bar.html

[mitsugirly]

There is also suppose to be good snorkeling (from what I've heard and not experienced yet because we don't sail for another 3 months) at Chankanaab. That is a park that you have to pay an admission price to get in but there are tons of things to do there as well. If you do a search, you will find a lot of people talking about it. It also has an area like Money Bar that you walk down into the steps to the ironshore to snorkel.

[thescot123]

Below are some pictures of the snorkeling at "The Money Bar" and "Chankanaab". My preference is for "The Money Bar" as it has no entrance fee, great snorkeling, not crowded and great food & staff.

 

Chankanaab

 

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb355/thescot1234/IMG_2077.jpg

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb355/thescot1234/IMG_2075.jpg

 

The Money Bar

 

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb355/thescot1234/IMG_2387.jpg

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb355/thescot1234/IMG_2336.jpg

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb355/thescot1234/IMG_2335.jpg

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb355/thescot1234/IMG_2363.jpg

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb355/thescot1234/IMG_2359.jpg

[lovetexas]

We love the Chankanaab Park. We have been twice, and my daughter wants to go again this June. We are staying in Playa and doing the taxi over to Coz just to go to this park for my daughter...

 

She loves this place. You can get the life jackets, and snorkel really far out and they have these really cool statues in the water. Awesome!!

 

The food, and drinks are great!

 

We walk to the very end, older lady running the very last booth. Super nice.. got lockers there, and she told us the best place to start. Ended up walking all the way back down, then drift snorkeling back to our seats! Really cool...

 

There are 2$ coupons online...

[mitsugirly]

Below are some pictures of the snorkeling at "The Money Bar" and "Chankanaab". My preference is for "The Money Bar" as it has no entrance fee, great snorkeling, not crowded and great food & staff.

 

Chankanaab

 

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb355/thescot1234/IMG_2077.jpg

http://i1201.photobucket.com/albums/bb355/thescot1234/IMG_2075.jpg

 

 

Are the waves calm there or pretty rapid?

 

We love the Chankanaab Park. We have been twice, and my daughter wants to go again this June. We are staying in Playa and doing the taxi over to Coz just to go to this park for my daughter...

 

She loves this place. You can get the life jackets, and snorkel really far out and they have these really cool statues in the water. Awesome!!

 

The food, and drinks are great!

 

We walk to the very end, older lady running the very last booth. Super nice.. got lockers there, and she told us the best place to start. Ended up walking all the way back down, then drift snorkeling back to our seats! Really cool...

 

There are 2$ coupons online...

 

Where can you find the coupon? How much are the lockers and snorkeling equipment to rent? Did you have to pay for the life jacket?

[thescot123]

Are the waves calm there or pretty rapid?

 

 

 

Where can you find the coupon? How much are the lockers and snorkeling equipment to rent? Did you have to pay for the life jacket?

 

The waves were choppy when I was a Chankanaab. Went there last year, the week after Thanksgiving, and it was windy. On the NCL Spirit, they were cancelling the ship excursions that involved the water. When we arrived at the park, they said that the warning flags would change from red to yellow in about 1 hour. They were correct and the flags did change allowing us to enter the water. On this trip, I had rented the snorkeling gear and kept getting water down the snorklel tube due to the waves. You never know what the whether is going to be like in Cozumel, could be windy one day and fine the next. It is better to take your own snorkel gear and have a tube that has a one way valve which prevents water down the tube. With regards to the $2 coupon. You can download and print it from the website listed below. http://www.cozumelinsider.com/ Sounds like you will be traveling on the Spirit before me. I am going on Oct 23rd. enjoy

[mitsugirly]

The waves were choppy when I was a Chankanaab. Went there last year, the week after Thanksgiving, and it was windy. On the NCL Spirit, they were cancelling the ship excursions that involved the water. When we arrived at the park, they said that the warning flags would change from red to yellow in about 1 hour. They were correct and the flags did change allowing us to enter the water. On this trip, I had rented the snorkeling gear and kept getting water down the snorklel tube due to the waves. You never know what the whether is going to be like in Cozumel, could be windy one day and fine the next. It is better to take your own snorkel gear and have a tube that has a one way valve which prevents water down the tube. With regards to the $2 coupon. You can download and print it from the website listed below. http://www.cozumelinsider.com/ Sounds like you will be traveling on the Spirit before me. I am going on Oct 23rd. enjoy

 

Thanks for the info! :D Yes, we will be on the Spirit Sept 11th.

[GinDon]

We were at Chankanaab three weeks ago. My husband spent a LOT of time snorkeling.............he just couldn't get enough, because there were so many fish. He had a cereal box from the ship, and a few grains in the water starts a feeding frenzy. Water wasn't choppy the day we were there, but, again, that depends on the wind conditions. The park is gorgeous, we would go back.

[mitsugirly]

We were at Chankanaab three weeks ago. My husband spent a LOT of time snorkeling.............he just couldn't get enough, because there were so many fish. He had a cereal box from the ship, and a few grains in the water starts a feeding frenzy. Water wasn't choppy the day we were there, but, again, that depends on the wind conditions. The park is gorgeous, we would go back.

 

Glad to hear you enjoyed yourself. We can not wait to go.

[pediatric-rnp]

We were there last week, on the Oasis. I highly recommend Eagle Ray Divers, especially if you are going with young children. My thoughts on our experience with them is on this thread:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1413310