New to cruising and snorkeling

[lorriv20]

My husband and I will be taking our first cruise in October. Neither of us has ever snorkeled before. We are considering the Sting Ray excursion in Grand Cayman and the Dolphin excursion in Cozumel. I am wondering how much "actual" snorkeling is involved and how much we will need to know for these. Are they normally for people who have done it in the past? I am not afraid of the water and do know how to swim, but I am a little freaked out about the whole breathing thing. I am also wondering about equipment, because I wear glasses. I don't know if I want to buy my own equipment with the possibility of not liking or never doing it again.

 

These boards have been a great help!! I look forward to your advice.

[KP&BP]

My wife and I have been on 3 cruises and we snorkel evereytime. The CAYMAN's are by FAR the BEST you will ever see (my opinion) they take you out (we went by BOAT not Catamaran) to a sand bar that is anywhere from knee deep to chest high and they even had a person get in the water with food to feed them. You have the option to feed them. They teach you to do the Stingray shuffle, so you don't step on them. If you feed them they teach you to arch your hand because they feed from the bootom side with a sucking motion and you have to arch your hand other wise you get what is called a "STINGRAY SUCKER MARK" it's all fun, kids get in and have a ball. We even took one of those Walmart one time underwater camera's and had some cool pic's of the rays and us. Then they took us about 300 yards away to deep water and WOW, the fish, reef and colors are unbelievable. I was lucky and saw "MORRAY the EEL" my wife back peddled as I was intrigued with the little guy. A person was taking underwater Movie pic's like a professional. We watched for a little while then I left. OK now to the equipment. They always provide you with equipment and show you how to use them. As far as glasses, I canNOT see far away but do Good underwater to see all the beauty. My wife needs glasses to read and she does great. We enjoy it so much we are thinking of getting just the GOGGLEs for the cruises as I had a bad experience on one where after I was out awhile my goggle would leak water in just a bit. They are really good about helping you and will even exchange a goggle that does not fit JUST RIGHT for you, but I was stubborn and out a ways that I just kept going. It was like having a SLOW leak on a tire, just frustrating, but enjoyable to see all the stuff. I say go for it and you will love the Cayman's (Don't miss that one) my opinion, I've been just a tiny bit disappointed in other places after having been to Swim with the stingrays and see that coral reef (even Morray) I say go for it and the BOAT ride is an added bonus every time. We did one on a sail boat and sailed back after we snorkeled. We will be on Princess this Sept and snorkeling for our 4th (I'm Hooked) Hope this helps! Have a great time.Kp

[LCW]

Don't know about the dolphin thing. I highly recommend the Sting rays in Grand Cayman. Sting Rays remind me of a herd of cats - big, soft, friendly. They are gentle, although somewhat intimidating to some because of their size. Their underside is incredibly soft, and they will rub up against you just like cats do. My whimpy friend even fed one. I just loved the sting rays! We were in the water maybe 30 min in Caymans. You can do dolphin encounters lots of places - do the sting rays if you can only do 1 of these!

 

The dolphin encounter we did was in Puerto Vvallarta, with dolphins that are in an enclosure, not wild, though. But, like I said, you can do this type of thing lots of places.

[sea-jay]

I assume you know what snorkling is all about. You will be laying face down in the water with a mask, snorkle (breathing tube) and fin on. A lot of excursion operations (especially those the cruise ship sponsors) require you to wear a snorkle vest also which is a blow up type of preserver that will help keep you floating. This is NOTa life vest so don't treat is as one. You also asked how much is involved. Only as much as you can do. You can quit and get back into the boat any time you want.

 

First - Equipment. If you ever plan on doing this again, buy your own equipment. Check with a local dive shop (almost every large city has one) and find the equipment that fits. There is nothing more irritating than having a mask that doesn't fit and continues to leak water, or fins that don't fit and you end up with blisters on your feet or, horrors!! a snorkle that someone else just used and it wasn't washed. (Would you let some stranger use your toothbrush???):eek: You can never be sure with rental equipment that the excursion operators rent. One additional benefit of getting your own equipment is you can try it out before and practice before you leave on your cruise. Just check out any friendly pool (Hotel, YMCA, neighbor, Dive operation, etc.)

 

If you wear glasses you cannot keep them on with a mask. However, water tends to magnify about 20% or so which will help a little. Depend on what your eyesight problem is. If you wear contacts, you can continue to wear them, but have a spare set with you on your cruise in case you lose one.

 

If you buy your own equipment, you can always have the lenses fixed to your eyeglass prescription. I have my own because everthing is blurry underwater even with the water's magnification. However, I am also a scuba diver and the expense for me (about $250 with a top-of-the line mask - $70 and prescription grinding - $180) was well worth it.

 

Take a good 30-45 SPF water proof sunscreen with you. a T-shirt will not stop the burning ultra violet rays that cause a sunburn. There is nothing worse than getting so burned the rest of your vacation is ruined. Take it from an old life guard in Florida. Be sure to coat your ears with the sunscreen. Ever seen anyone with sunburned ears?:( It is not a pleasant sight.

 

Next - Excursion. You do not need the snorkel to enjoy the Sting Ray City trip. Although you will be making two stops, you can enjoy just the sting rays. KP&BP were pretty thorough in his/her explanation of the trip. You can check out my photos and see some of what we did. See my album for Explorer #2 8/31/02. You can also see that the water is shallow enough to stand in.

 

Lastly - Cruising. Welcome to the addictive world of cruising. That trip we took in 2002 was our first ever and we have since gone on 5 more with another one planned for New Years this year and we also are looking to schedule two more for next year. One leaving from San Juan to the Southern Caribbean and one maybe in the Med.

 

Keep searching these boards for tips and help on what, where to go. Have you found your roll call yet?

[LHARTWICK]

What company(ies) have you used for your Stingray excursions? Last time we booked ours through the ship. It was okay, but not great.

[sea-jay]

We booked with Capt Marvin, web page http://www.captainmarvins.com/ for the snorkel/sting ray swim. We walked to his office from the ship, about 5 minutes, checked in, and had a little time to kill so we left our gear there and wandered the shops for a while until the tour left.

He has a number of boats and will send out a boat large enough for your group, in our case it was about 12 people, which was small enough to get personal attention from the 3 man crew. We had a videographer along that took videos of everything and everyone that we got to watch on TV on the way back to port and then we could order a copy to be mailed to our home.

We took a chance and ordered one ($45) and received it within two weeks of arriving back home. Best souvenier our our trip. Everyone still talks about seeing us swimming with the sting rays. After the swim, we changed clothes and again left our gear at the office while we had lunch and shopped. Then picked up our stuff and went back to the ship.