good snorkeling at HMC?

[carly chloe]

The excursion for snorkeling on the ship at HMC- has anyone done it? Is it worth $60

[slabeaume]

I took that snorkel tour during our first trip to HMC. I thought it was really good---very clear water, lots of coral, and lots of fish. We've been back to HMC 3 times since then and I'd love to do the snorkel excursion again, but with all the other places we've snorkeled for free, I haven't been able to justify it again. But if you'd like to see what I saw, you can check it out here:

 

http://travelingwithsue.blogspot.com/2010/11/another-dam-vacation.html

 

HMC is near the bottom of this blog. If you want to see snorkeling from their free area, click on Half Moon Cay on the list of places on the right, then scan down to the last port and you can see how it differs depending on the surf. The first time we were there, the water was really rough and visibility at the beach was almost nil. I was really surprised when I went on the snorkel excursion and saw how clear it was there.

[ibcnusoon]

We are bringing our own snorkel gear, where is a good place on HMC to snorkel for "free"?

[slabeaume]

The far left of the beach (facing the water from the shore)---between the big "cabana" rental thing they have there and the rope. If it's pretty calm and clear, there's interesting things to see along the rock wall. There is also a small rocky area about 20' out from the wall and about 20' in from the rope that has some fish. They have also put some artificial "reefs" not too far from there that fish like to hang around. Unfortunately the surf along that side of the island was a lot rougher then where they took me to on the excursion. 1 of our trips to HMC the water was really calm and sand wasn't being mixed up too much and we saw a lot more fish in the "free" area. In our 4 trips there we've seen a very large barracuda there hanging out in a school of smaller fish, a school of smaller barracuda, surgeonfish, small Caribbean groupers, squirrel fish, damselfish, even a rather large octopus and a large gray triggerfish once and some others I'm forgetting right now. Along the wall are schools of small fish and feather duster worms and such. Not the most exciting snorkeling, but for me any snorkeling is exciting.

[V'sGirl]

Thank you for the fantastic posts! We are traveling on Maasdam a year from now - Boston to Montreal. Even though we won't be in the Caribbean, I loved reading your comments about the ship and looking at your pictures. We have been to some of the islands you visited, and we have wonderful memories of them. We can't wait to experience Maasdam for ourselves. We have sailed on the Veedam and Ryndam and loved them both.

Beth and Victor