S. Carib. - come talk to me!

[feistytigger]

Here's our itin:

 

SunSan Juan, PR10:00 PMMonCharlotte Amalie, St. Thomas7:00 AM5:00 PMTuesDominica10:00 AM6:00 PMWedBridgetown, Barbados8:00 AM5:00 PMThursCastries, St. Lucia8:00 AM5:00 PMFriSt. John's, Antigua10:00 AM7:00 PMSatAt SeaSunSan Juan, PR7:00 AM

 

I've been to St. Thomas before - opted for snorkeling at Trunk Bay, St. John. Planning to head back to St. John for Cinnamon Bay and perhaps somewhere else if time allows. Please feel free to chuck all kinds of snorkeling options at me about our other ports with massive amounts of info. :D I'll be eternally grateful. Keep in mind that I'm not a strong swimmer and get a panicked about waves/currents.

[Amanda & Roger]

feistytigger - love your screen name!

 

In St. Thomas my wife and I loved Coki Beach. Easy to get to, good reef, lots of fish, and a nice beach. Here is a website for Coki Beach and Coral World: http://www.coralworldvi.com/coki-beach.shtml

 

Carlisle Bay in Barbados is really great. No reefs but several wrecks! Depends are your tastes. My wife does not like wrecks, shes a reef top of girl!

 

In Dominica their is a shore excursion called "Champagne Snorkel Excursion" althought we have not this one yet, everyone raves about it. It is nicknamed "Champagne" because of the tiny crystal bubbles that continuously rise from small volcanic geothermal fissures in the sea floor. Swimming in these bubbles is like swimming in a glass of champagne!

 

Hope you have a wonderful trip,

Roger

[CVL105]

As I went to each port I asked our different guides (who were divers) what their thoughts were as to the best place to go scuba diving...and it was unanimous: DOMINICA. Now, I would assume snorkeling will be just as good at the right places. I don't have any suggestions for a place to do it, but just to try and do it there. They say it's so untouched that it's just fabulous.

 

Just my two cents!

[feistytigger]

thanks for the info! i'll definitely need to do some more research. luckily i have lots of time! :D i am curious about the "champagne" snorkeling - if the big attraction is only the bubbles, that seems kinda lame. i want to see sea life! fish and turtles and stuff.

 

as for the st. thomas stop, i'm fairly certain we'll head for st. john. we visited trunk bay last year and had a good time. maybe i can find someone who's snorkeled in both st. john and st. thomas to say which is better... i had gotten the impression last time that st. john was much better, which is why we went there. it certainly was beautiful! i'd like a less people-crowded place though. the people at trunk bay were scaring off a lot of the fish. (i know because we were there for a while and saw a lot more when there were less people in the water.)

[feistytigger]

hmm - wondering if it might be fun to do a charter sail from st thomas over to st john (but not trunk) for snorkeling... anyone know about that?

[rockwood84]

Last summer, my husband and I did a snorkeling excursion at St. Thomas with Captain Nautica. I prefer snorkeling from a boat, so we usually go the excursion route, rather than looking for a beach. Although this excursion was more expensive than most, it was DEFINITELY worth it for us. One reason was that the boat only held 16 passengers, so there was no dodging swim fins in your face. We made two stops - Turtle cove and Wreck cove. Wreck cove was spectacular - beautiful, colorful, and huge coral reefs at the perimeter of the cove, and a shipwreck in the middle. The coves are pretty big, so there's some swimming involved, but there was very little current in either cove. The turtles would swim right up to you at the first cove, which was also pretty cool.

 

We've snorkeled in Nassau, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel, and this was definitely our favorite - by a long shot.

 

Have a great time on your cruise!

[feistytigger]

thanks rockwood! still hoping for info re barbados, antigua, dominica, st. lucia!

[Stevesan]

thanks rockwood! still hoping for info re barbados, antigua, dominica, st. lucia!

 

 

I've got two no brainers for ya:

 

Barbados: Silver Moon, a first rate operator. Excellent snorkel guides, a nice lunch on board the cat, and two snorkel stops - one of them a swim with sea turtles:

 

http://oceanadventures.bb/sailing.htm

 

Antigua: By far the best snorkel operation in the Caribbean is Adventure Antigua with Eli's Eco Tour.

 

http://www.adventureantigua.com/

 

http://www.adventureantigua.com/tour.html#EcoTour

[drdaddy]

There are few independent choices for Dominica. I went with Dive Dominica. They will take a snorkeler if they have a non-full scuba trip. There was me and 6 divers! It did not seem to be a problem when I went (early November). They were terrific. I would only do this if you are an experienced snorkeler because the drivers will be off on their own. The Captain did say he would keep an eye on me but when he realized I did not have any difficulty, it was just go on your own. Excellent trip and very reasonable.

 

If you dock at the main dock, you walk to their office about 100 feet! If you end up on the secondary dock, it is a $5 cab ride each way. But in the AM, plan a few extra minutes because the traffic was a bit slow.

 

There is another independent, Nature Island Dives. They generally will NOT take cruisers because they tend to have the contracts for most of the cruise lines.

[feistytigger]

thanks! i'm fairly certain now that i'll do silver moon/el tigre/similar for barbados. i'm sooo excited about the turtles!

 

i'm trying to decide which islands to snorkel on and which islands to NOT snorkel on. it's tough - seems like there's cool snorkeling everywhere and i don't want to miss it. but i think i'd miss a lot if i spent 5 ports face down in water. plus i know the rest of our group won't tolerate that much snorkeling!

[Stevesan]

thanks! i'm fairly certain now that i'll do silver moon/el tigre/similar for barbados. i'm sooo excited about the turtles!

 

i'm trying to decide which islands to snorkel on and which islands to NOT snorkel on. it's tough - seems like there's cool snorkeling everywhere and i don't want to miss it. but i think i'd miss a lot if i spent 5 ports face down in water. plus i know the rest of our group won't tolerate that much snorkeling!

 

There's a lot more to see below the water line than above. After a while all the beaches, towns and shops begin to look alike, but there's a surprise waiting behind every coral head! It's a whole different world down there.:)

[Host Star]

try dive st. lucia or dive anse chastenet in st. lucia... they will pick you up right at the pier

[feistytigger]

thanks thanks for the info! i'm uber excited about dominica now. i've read online that people regularly see SEAHORSES!!!!!! that's my dream. seahorses and turtles.

[CVL105]

thanks thanks for the info! i'm uber excited about dominica now. i've read online that people regularly see SEAHORSES!!!!!! that's my dream. seahorses and turtles.

 

We saw seahorsed on our dive in Barbados. Coolest thing ever! I always thought of them as an animal out of a fantasy/cartoon/etc. But no, there really are such things! haha

 

Dominica is the place to go. Every port on our cruise I asked one of the local guides we were doing a tour with which island is best for diving...and they all said Dominica because it's so untouched. I'm looking to book another cruise there in the near future so I can go diving this time.

[Stevesan]

thanks thanks for the info! i'm uber excited about dominica now. i've read online that people regularly see SEAHORSES!!!!!! that's my dream. seahorses and turtles.

 

My goodness, you don't have to travel all the way to Dominica for a sea horse. Here's one just for you:

 

http://members15.clubphoto.com/perl/app.pl/albums/slide_show?album_item_id=154413590

 

:p

[feistytigger]

lol thanks stevesan! i saw this incredible seahorse exhibit at the baltimore aquarium a few years back. ever since i realized i could probably snorkel without drowning, i've been dying to see them in the wild.