Snorkeling Tour

[ravenmaniac]

Hi all, I am looking for recommendations for a snorkeling tour to do in Cozumel this December while cruising on Allure. It seems most of the tours I am seeing listed have very similar descriptions, almost verbatim. Are they all booking agents for the same subcontractor or something? What differences should I expect booking through a third party vs. the one RC is selling? It seems that the listing for RC is also very similar to a lot of the third parties.

[JohninDC]

Most will go to the same reef spots. ABQ Robin has lots of posts about snorkeling and diving from Coz.

 

We were happy with Eagle Ray a few years ago, and several recent suggestions on this board for Cozumel H2O.

 

Or save a few $$ and snorkel from the shore at the Money Bar - great facilities, rental gear if needed, plus good food, drinks and service. :cool:

[eagletwo]

My wife and I have booked with Cozumel H2O for our August cruise, Discover SCUBA. With three of our prior cruises, we went with the cruise ship snorkeling tours. Some were really great, others just ok. Our biggest issue with the cruise ship tours is they have a lot of people on the tour, 75-100 people on the large catamaran's. It takes a long time to get everyone into and out of the water and the tour guides seem to herd you around the sites. We wanted a smaller group tour. One plus to a ship tour is the guarantee of getting back to the ship.

 

Since we will be in Cozumel for a long port day and get back from our trip three hours before the ship leaves port, not too worried about getting back in time. Loes, the owner of Cozumel H2O, has been great answering my emails within 24 hours. Small deposit sent by Pay Pal and the balance to be paid in cash (USD) after the tour. We will have to take a taxi each way from the port, but the cost is only $8.00 each way, cash.

[eagletwo]

My wife and I have booked with Cozumel H2O for our August cruise, Discover SCUBA. With three of our prior cruises, we went with the cruise ship snorkeling tours. Some were really great, others just ok. Our biggest issue with the cruise ship tours is they have a lot of people on the tour, 75-100 people on the large catamaran's. It takes a long time to get everyone into and out of the water and the tour guides seem to herd you around the sites. We wanted a smaller group tour. One plus to a ship tour is the guarantee of getting back to the ship.

 

Since we will be in Cozumel for a long port day and get back from our trip three hours before the ship leaves port, not too worried about getting back in time. Loes, the owner of Cozumel H2O, has been great answering my emails within 24 hours. Small deposit sent by Pay Pal and the balance to be paid in cash (USD) after the tour. We will have to take a taxi each way from the port, but the cost is only $8.00 each way, cash.

[mieows]

My Husband and I booked a snorkelling excursion via Royal Caribbean, Clear Kayak and Beach Snorkel Combo which was located at Playa Uvas Beach Club. During a sale on cruise planner, we picked up the tickets for about 45 euro per person. Which I felt was pretty good value.

 

The company meet you at the peer and bring your group to a taxi rank and you all get in taxis and drive for 10/15 minutes. I think there was maybe 20 in our group so not too large. The resort itself is a small beach with a number of small shops selling "local" goods. There were plenty of sun loungers and a bar.

 

The clear kayak portion of the excursion was really cool! We visited on an overcast day but it didn't take away from it. I think we were in the kayaks for 45 minutes. Your group are taken up the beach and you can see the coral below in areas. The guide will find a good spot and call each kayak over one by one to get a better look.

 

After the Kayak, you are given a few minutes to get yourself together and then you go snorkelling! You re-track the same root you took in the kayaks but can now dive down and get a much better view. The beach at Playa Uvas is very rocky at the sea edge, but they have built a small wooden ramp over the rocks which is great, however, I was surprised that as soon as we entered the sea there was a lot of fish around us. I'm not sure if they were just super curious or if maybe food was placed in the water to encourage them? Throughout the snorkelling portion, we did see a lot of fish, but just not as many as if we had just stayed right at the sea edge near the wooden ramp.

 

Something you should know about the snorkelling is you are required to wear a life jacket. It is a special type of life jacket that stays deflated and you use a mouthpiece to inflate the jacket if feel you need it. Looks just like the life jackets you see on aeroplanes! I honestly didn't feel the jacket got in the way much. I'd have rathered not wear it, but I understand why they have people use them as the group goes out to a pretty deep area and if anyone panicked etc the shore seems pretty far away. There are two guides, one in the water diving and pointing out interesting corals, he has a life boy with him. The second guide is in a kayak ready I think to fish anyone out if they need it. We put a GoPro video on youtube, in it you can see the life jackets I'm talking about and depth of the water etc, might be useful

 

While I did enjoy this excursion my only complaint is Royal Caribbean doesn't inform you that suncream is not permitted on the beach. You can top up before you get there but it's not allowed on the beach to protect the marine life. We found this out at the peer and I almost didn't go on the excursion ( I'm extremely pale and burn very easily ).

[SquishTheWhale]

We have done the Palancar reef/El Cielo combination tour- we booked via NCL but the tour is available independently too. Judging by the livery on the boat I think the tour was run by Playa Mia.

 

I loved this tour- the boat was a bit rustic- champagne catamaran sail this aint. But the snorkelling was great- Palancar reef was pretty deep and lots of fish. We saw a turtle there too. It was a 'drift snorkel', so you don't have to do a lot of swimming and the boat follows along- meaning you can get out whenever you want. The reef snorkel was around 45 minutes.

 

El Cielo was a bit deeper than I expected from the pictures, but it was fun too. Lots of starfish to see, and I also saw a stingray and a 'bat fish'. I think we had around 20 minutes there.

 

The water at both was very clear and not too cold. The guides were good and all equipment was provided, although we took our own full face snorkel masks. On the way back they served rum punch and played music.

[JohninDC]

Thanks for the detailed review. ;)