Power Snorkeling / Beach Excursion

[alleghator]

Has anyone done a power snorkeling and beach excursion on Grand Turk? Any tips, ideas, reviews?

[Sabalon]

On 6/13/2019 at 12:59 PM, alleghator said:

Has anyone done a power snorkeling and beach excursion on Grand Turk? Any tips, ideas, reviews?

 

We will be doing one with Carnival in 6 days.   (Underwater Power Scooter, Beach Break & Lunch)

Wife and I are both looking forward to the 7000 foot drop-off!  

Not sure when your trip is, but will be posting about it once I get back.   

[alleghator]

3 hours ago, Sabalon said:

 

Not sure when your trip is, but will be posting about it once I get back.   

 

We sail August 11, so I really look forward to your review of this!

[SRQbeachgirl]

12 hours ago, Sabalon said:

 

We will be doing one with Carnival in 6 days.   (Underwater Power Scooter, Beach Break & Lunch)

Wife and I are both looking forward to the 7000 foot drop-off!  

Not sure when your trip is, but will be posting about it once I get back.   

 

I'll be watching for your report back, as well. We will be sailing July 27 and are considering this excursion. Hope you have a great time and can't wait to hear about it!

[KD Travel Adventures]

We did the power snorkel excursion in 2013 in Grand Turk. I really enjoyed it, but it didn't seem like everyone did.  I think some had difficulty getting used to the machine.  The only issue I had was not being able to take pictures because both hands had to be on the machine. While I'm happy any time I'm snorkeling, I will admit that while the fish were big and there were a lot of them, it was basically the same white and yellow fish (either Bar Jack or Yellow Tail Snapper).  I would have liked to have seen a variety of fish.

 

Power Snorkeling Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyIWEuiro00&feature=youtu.be

 

There wasn't a lot of coral, but I thought the snorkeling was good right at the cruise terminal beach (based off 2013 and 2014).  Here's some videos of what I saw snorkeling at the cruise terminal beach:

 

Snorkeling with a barracuda

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siGqNnjrDd0

 

Snorkeling with a parrot fish

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y0QOaMk5Sw

 

Snorkeling with flounder (there were a lot of them if you looked and watched close)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnWr1BVtc0U

 

[Sabalon]

On 6/18/2019 at 10:24 PM, SRQbeachgirl said:

I'll be watching for your report back, as well. We will be sailing July 27 and are considering this excursion. Hope you have a great time and can't wait to hear about it!

 

Still too tired to think straight - been home less about 12 hours - but wan'ted to give you feedback so I can remove my reminder 🙂

 

We enjoyed it.  It was about a 15 minute trip from the port - you may be on an enclosed (with AC) shuttle, or an open-air (with "natural" AC) bus/truck to get there.  Just depends on what one is there and good to go.  Shuttles went back to the port every 20-30 minutes, so you can leave when you are ready.  They had a few excursion times.  We were the 8:30 one.  There was also a 10:30 one at least.

 

Was impressed by how they operated the tour.  When you get there, they have a large area with cubbies for you to stow all of your stuff you brought with you.  They take you out on a boat and you scooter back in, so you don't take your towels etc.  They then lock the whole cubbie area up so your stuff is secure.    

 

They give you an overview of how the scooter works, how the inflatable vest works and general snorkeling tips.  They put you on the boat and take you on a two minute ride out by the 7000 ft drop-off.    While in the boat, they pass around some defogger for the mask, have you adjust the mask and put your flippers on.  Once you get out there, you are good to go.  You can either fall back into the water or hop in.    They then start dropping the scooters in.  They float, so you grab one and while everyone is getting ready you play around a bit.

 

It is then a game of follow the leader.  Follow the guide as he takes you to a few spots, points things out, etc.  The boat hangs out in the area, and there were two guides in the water.  Basically - no one gets left behind and if anything happens, they seemed prepared.

 

We saw a sea turtle, lots of fish, got to spend about 10 minutes or so around the drop off.  They then guide you in towards the shore a bit, looking for other things to show off - some reefs, some more fish, a nurse shark or two.  It's maybe 30 minutes of this - look, head inward, look, etc.   It may have been a little more, but by the time you do get to the shore, you're probably good. 

 

The guide would dive down towards the floor to find things, etc.  You are more than welcome to do so, but with the life-vest on, even uninflated it was difficult.  I didn't make it that deep despite trying...just too much buoyancy.  But it was neat to see, especially the drop off...you go from seeing the ocean floor to just nothing but a darker blue.  Some of the light streaming down was beautiful to look at.  (Still need to get my pics of the underwater camera)

 

The scooters are not going to make you speed through the water.  My wife called it snorkeling for lazy people.  🙂  They do have some pull to them on the high speed, but basically they turn a lazy kick into more momentum that kicking alone would provide.   They have three speeds, and are super easy to operate.  I was able to use mine one handed and have the camera in the other with no issue.   Just make sure your bathing suit doesn't have anything super-dangly on it which could get sucked into the propeller.  Don't think this was an issue for anyone, but just mentioning it.

 

Once you get back to the shore, you turn in your gear and they unlock the cabinet with your stuff.  They provided free bottled water as well to keep you hydrated.   

 

At that point, this small beach is yours until you head back to port.   They do have multiple excursions to this "resort", so you're not alone, but it was not crowded.    Some of the excursions are all-inclusive.  But for this one, you are given a meal ticket and a drink ticket you can redeem for lunch.  It was jerk pork or chicken, potato salad, pasta salad, rice, beans, corn and some hot sauce which was great over top of the rice, and some veggies.  It was tasty.   They have a bar for the all-inclusive, and a regular cash bar - sodas, water, beer, and a few mixed drinks.  The local Turks Head beer was pretty good.

 

The beach area has chairs and umbrellas - first come first serve, but never seemed crowded, but of course the earlier tour got first pickings.   They had a couple water inflatables you could play/climb/lay on.  The ocean area wasn't that big, but big enough.  Some rocks, but nothing to worry about - I didn't have surf shoes and didn't have any trouble.   We found a sea urchin and sand dollar as well while hanging out in the water.  Some areas did have some sea grass growing, as it does. 

 

A couple pictures showing the resort area (and there was more on the other side) and the view from my chair - no idea where the guy with the horse came from, but he rode out to the float and picked up a passenger who was on our ship.  

 

Hopefully I remembered everything worth saying - feel free to ask any questions.  Overall it was a very relaxing excursion, friendly people, and a good first day.

 

 

[SRQbeachgirl]

Wow, @Sabalon - that is a great review! Thank you so much for coming back to post, especially since you haven't had any time to rest since getting back!

[alleghator]

Thank you SOOO MUCH for the detailed report! I think we're going to love this excursion. Our itinerary has a relaxing beach day at Half Moon Cay and maybe just some shopping in Freeport ... so it will be nice to be in the water and see some fish at Grand Turk. We're pretty low key people, but lying in the sun for hours is not our thing.

[basketballdad]

Love the detail.  I hate reviews that say "we had a lovely time" and love reviews that have details, what happened, what to expect, etc.  I appreciate you addressing the security of your times, locking them up, they unlocking them, etc.  Very rare and great review.  Thank you!