Nassau and Coco Cay Snorkeling

[jean87510]

I visited both spots this past weekend on a 3 day cruise on Independence of the Seas this past weekend.  I had a difficult time finding snorkeling ideas on both shore and boat for both.  So I decided to jot down what we did for possible help for future snorkelers.

 

Both my husband and I have our own masks, fins, socks, wet bags, camera, weight belt and for him free diving fins.  We like to go off by ourselves shore snorkeling.

 

Our first stop was Coco Cay.  This is Royal caribbeans private island.  You can rent snorkeling equipment here, take a kayak excursion to snorkel for 1.5 hrs at $69 pp or you can do reef snorkeling for 3 hrs at $119pp.  Or you can use your own equipment and go on your own.  There are 2 areas recommended on your own that I read about.  The first is at Chill Beach area or Snorkel Beach.  This has a shipwreck.  Snorkelers have the option of wearing a vest.  It is highly recommended to go in the am.  The 2nd is off of South Beach to the right.  

 

When we arrived at 8am at Chill Beach, we tried snorkeling to shipwreck.  The area is grassy, sandy, no reef.  2 rays, 2 starfish, some fish.  The shipwreck is a concrete portion of a boat with a few fish.  

 

We then went on our reef snorkeling trip.  This was a crowded 35 person excursion.  We did have guides.  We were given snorkeling vests.  We snorkeled around a giant rock then went to another area then swam in water.  Honestly the worst reef I have ever seen.  I cannot recommend this unless it's your first time and you want to break up the day.

 

Next we decided to try south beach.  Sand, a ray, a conch and that was it.

 

If you are new to snorkeling, try cococay.  If you go on every cruise or land vacation, just skip it.  It was probably the worst place to snorkel at.

 

I had watched a lot of different videos and read about where to snorkel in Nassau from shore and sea.  We opted to use NAS 3 stop snorkeling excursion using Chase points.  Operator was Shore2shore.  9a to 115pm.  They also have an afternoon trip.  You can take a cab or walk.  We walked 2 miles there and cabbed back.

 

The stops were Pearl Island, Rose Island, Green bay for turtles, then Rose island for lunch, drinks and pigs.  I don't like the pigs but know others do.  We saw them during covid on a land trip and had our own excursion to see them so a crowd of 20 people is not fun.

 

Our first stop was Pearl island.  Unfortunately, the lifejackets came out.  This is not for safety as I tied mine on my foot.  This is to keep track as there are different groups.  The reef was beautiful.  I was so happy I could finally see healthy coral and fish.  

 

Next we went to Rose island and were luckily at the area with scuba divers and the drop off.  Even more beautiful.  Resembled Roatan snorkeling.  

 

We went to green cay and observed turtles from the boat.  Not sure why we didn't go in but we did see others doing so.

 

Last was the pigs and the beach bar.  We had a couple of sodas and floated in the water.  Pigs came out later at a spot on the beach.  We did the selfies, fed them and headed back to the boat.

 

I will be visiting Freeport and Bimini next weekend after my husband's conference in Savannah so part 2 will be next week.  

[jean87510]

Some pictures of CocoCay snorkeling.  The giant rock was what we swam around for the reef snorkeling.  Also the little guy under a rock.

[jean87510]

Pictures of Rose island snorkeling

[jean87510]

Pearl Island.  You can see my lifejacket on my foot.

[jean87510]

Green cay

[jean87510]

Pig Island and back to Nassau.

[jean87510]

One note about the Nassau excursion.  Cab is $15 pp.  Sodas were $4 pp at Rose island.  Everything is cash.  

[H20life]

Thanks so much for this info, and especially for the photos! After the shark-related deaths of cruise passengers at Green Cay and Rose Island in the last 4 years, my family is very leery about snorkeling when we stop in Nassau. Did you feel safe? Do you remember if there were places at Rose Island or Pearl Island where you could stay very shallow (if you were nervous about sharks) and still see a good amount? 

[jean87510]

3 hours ago, H20life said:

Thanks so much for this info, and especially for the photos! After the shark-related deaths of cruise passengers at Green Cay and Rose Island in the last 4 years, my family is very leery about snorkeling when we stop in Nassau. Did you feel safe? Do you remember if there were places at Rose Island or Pearl Island where you could stay very shallow (if you were nervous about sharks) and still see a good amount? 

No shallow spots.  I felt really safe and I'm a nervous type when snorkeling.