Snuba in Grand Turk info needed

[navywife06]

Hello,

 

Has anyone done or known anyone that did the snuba excursion in Grand Turk? I'm very close to booking it, but wanted any info/advice that anyone had to offer.

 

Thanks in advance!!

 

-M

[cantw82sail]

I am also booked on this excursion, but I can't find any info either. This sounds like so much fun!!!!We will be in Grand Turk Sept 4th. I'll let you know when we return. When are you cruising???

[navywife06]

I'll be on the August 6th cruise that stops there on the 11th. I'll let you know when I get back how it was!

[cantw82sail]

navywife06,

 

how was the snuba excursion in grand turk?

 

We leave in 2 weeks! still haven't been able to find anyone who has done this excursion.

[CandyApples]

I was on the Crown Princess on Aug. 16th which stopped at Grand Turk. We booked snuba without any info on it and had a GREAT time. Four of us went (myself 22, my boyfriend 25, my brother 20 and his friend also 20). The only other scuba/snorkling we did before was the stingray excursion in Grand Caymen on another cruise.

 

You meet right off the ship after walking thru their store. You walk towards the beach and board a boat that takes you and another group (the helmet tour people) to another waiting boat farther out in the ocean. You can see other boats around which have other groups on them doing snorkling or scuba diving. We actually only had 12 people on our tour. 6 went first with the instructor and the other six waited. We were the second group so we got to take snorkles and swim around while waiting.

 

Everyone is fitted with their regulator and flippers before anyone goes into the water. Both helmet dive groups and obviously the first group were all finished before our group went. We got a lot of snorkling in while also being able to sun ourselves and watch the other groups.

 

The tank is floating on top of the water on a raft and the air hoses have enough to let you swim all the way to the bottom of the ocean. There is a raft that allows two people to swim together and the other had four people that swim together. There are two guides that go with you (one with the group of four and one with the group of two) It was a bit of a shock to go into the water and breath with the regulator (like I said none of us had any other previous experience) but we got over that very quickly.

 

Before you dive they do go over all the instructions...telling you not to hold your breath, you have to pop your ears often underwater because you do go about 20ft down, try not to move your arms and legs around like a crazy person and don't swim up to the top too quickly because your lungs can't handle it. They also teach you certain hand signals to use underwater. The "ok" hand sign to let them know your fine etc. Plus they explain how to get water out of your goggles or water out of your regulator ( problems which I didn't have thankfully).

 

Once underwater there aren't many coral reefs like they say there are. Its not one big coral reef and you swim around that. There are several that you visit and the guide points out certain fish or other aquatic life. My guide actually pulled out a book that he had underwater to show me what fish I was looking at. They ask you not to touch the reefs and many of them aren't that big but you still get to see everything growing on it and swimming around it.

 

We knew when it was time to stop because we could feel the air was running out. I know that sounds scary but you can feel yourself breathing harder and you just float to the surface. We did have to wait a while for the boat to come back to bring us to the shore. The boat actually picked up everyone else while we were underwater so it was just our group left with the guides who had a good time telling us stories and talking to us the whole time.

 

The only problem was sometimes the regulator would get tugged almost out of my mouth because the group wasn't moving as fast as I was. I found myself pulling on the hose to keep it in my mouth and just waited for the rest of the group. But all in all it was a great trip and I would love to do it again around bigger reefs. We went to Margaritaville afterwards and had a couple WAY overpriced drinks which we expected anyway. We got 2 yard drinks and two beers and the bill was $48. Just a shock when we only had $5o. =) We didn't plan very well.

 

Hope this gave you guys a lot of information It was long enough to!!

 

Christine