New Excursion at Harvest Caye

[Finnrox]

Has anyone done the Barrier Reef Snorkel excursion that leaves directly from Harvest Caye? It's now one of the approved HC excursions on the NCL website, and I was curious as to where exactly it goes, and how the snorkeling is on the trip. Thanks for any help or advice!

[shmooo]

Just got back from the Getaway 4/29-5/6 and did this excursion so I'll give you a summary.

 

You leave from the Marina, where you sign a waiver and hand in your ticket. Afterwards, you get on a boat with about 50 other people (I guess it depends if its sold out or not but our boat was full at 50) and its about a 45 minute ride. They take you out a tiny private island near the barrier reef. You dont actually get on the island as the tour guides told us it's private property. Instead you climb off the boat after the give you a demonstration on the gear (snorkel, life vest and flippers) into shallow water. They ask the experienced people to get off first and the less experienced/newbies to get off last. They break up the group into groups of 7/8 people, each with their own guide. You slowly head out with your group to deeper waters and snorkel for about an hour. Afterwards, you get back on the boat and head back to the Marina, sipping on complementary rum punch.

 

Boat ride: long and bumpy

Location: AMAZING...makes the boat ride worth it

Staff: Great! They are funny and very involved. We had 2 kids on our group that were very uneasy but they took care of them without neglecting the rest of the group.

 

Price is a little steep but since harvest caye is a man made wasteland, it was a well worth excursion

 

tl;dr - Get on 45 min boat ride. Go to Beautiful island. Snorkel. Rum punch.

 

p.s. The one downside is that this is a 3 hours trip with ZERO bathroom access..if you dont count mother nature. So be warned.

[leaclingman]

We decided to skip

Excursions here and just RELAX. Yes it’s a man made beach but it was relaxing and you didn’t have to do any of the zip lining, pool party etc. just nice and relaxing. Pics in the link https://gotravellife.com/2018/01/03/about-us/

 

 

 

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[Finnrox]

Just got back from the Getaway 4/29-5/6 and did this excursion so I'll give you a summary.

 

You leave from the Marina, where you sign a waiver and hand in your ticket. Afterwards, you get on a boat with about 50 other people (I guess it depends if its sold out or not but our boat was full at 50) and its about a 45 minute ride. They take you out a tiny private island near the barrier reef. You dont actually get on the island as the tour guides told us it's private property. Instead you climb off the boat after the give you a demonstration on the gear (snorkel, life vest and flippers) into shallow water. They ask the experienced people to get off first and the less experienced/newbies to get off last. They break up the group into groups of 7/8 people, each with their own guide. You slowly head out with your group to deeper waters and snorkel for about an hour. Afterwards, you get back on the boat and head back to the Marina, sipping on complementary rum punch.

 

Boat ride: long and bumpy

Location: AMAZING...makes the boat ride worth it

Staff: Great! They are funny and very involved. We had 2 kids on our group that were very uneasy but they took care of them without neglecting the rest of the group.

 

Price is a little steep but since harvest caye is a man made wasteland, it was a well worth excursion

 

tl;dr - Get on 45 min boat ride. Go to Beautiful island. Snorkel. Rum punch.

 

p.s. The one downside is that this is a 3 hours trip with ZERO bathroom access..if you dont count mother nature. So be warned.

 

 

Thanks for the review--was hoping that it was going to be good. It would be a shame to go to Belize and not snorkel, and from everything I've read, you need to get out to the Meso-American reef to really enjoy it.

[BostonGal35]

Just got back from the Getaway 4/29-5/6 and did this excursion so I'll give you a summary.

 

You leave from the Marina, where you sign a waiver and hand in your ticket. Afterwards, you get on a boat with about 50 other people (I guess it depends if its sold out or not but our boat was full at 50) and its about a 45 minute ride. They take you out a tiny private island near the barrier reef. You dont actually get on the island as the tour guides told us it's private property. Instead you climb off the boat after the give you a demonstration on the gear (snorkel, life vest and flippers) into shallow water. They ask the experienced people to get off first and the less experienced/newbies to get off last. They break up the group into groups of 7/8 people, each with their own guide. You slowly head out with your group to deeper waters and snorkel for about an hour. Afterwards, you get back on the boat and head back to the Marina, sipping on complementary rum punch.

 

Boat ride: long and bumpy

Location: AMAZING...makes the boat ride worth it

Staff: Great! They are funny and very involved. We had 2 kids on our group that were very uneasy but they took care of them without neglecting the rest of the group.

 

Price is a little steep but since harvest caye is a man made wasteland, it was a well worth excursion

 

tl;dr - Get on 45 min boat ride. Go to Beautiful island. Snorkel. Rum punch.

 

p.s. The one downside is that this is a 3 hours trip with ZERO bathroom access..if you dont count mother nature. So be warned.

 

so glad this got posted! i booked this for my fiance (he loves snorkeling, i get freaked out by the mask lol) and i cringed at the $99 but we have Platinum discount and the $50 shorex credit so it was tolerable. cant wait to get his feedback!