Snorkeling in Alaska

[mistybaby]

Has anyone participated in NCL's snorkeling excursion in Alaska? I'm an avid diver and this would certainly be a very different experience. Just wondering if its worth the time (away from excursions with the rest of the family, as I would be the only participant from our group).

Thanks.

[truthandkeidy]

I'm apprehensive about flying in small aircraft (heli and floatplanes) and am curious about the snorkeling as well. Does anyone know how it compares to the Carribean?

Thanks

[milolii]

We did this on our cruise NCL Star 07/07/07. I posted this in my review. Here it is:

[FONT=Times New Roman][SIZE=3]We then met up for our snorkeling adventure. Boy was it ever adventurous! The wind and rain made for rough seas. This adventure, on this day, involved strenuous swimming. The starfish were large and colorful, as well as, the sea urchins. The staff also brought up sea cucumbers. The dry suites were warm, but took some time and effort to put on. Overall a great time, but if you have rain or wind, you may want to think twice. I do not think it sells out, so you can wait to book. We were so exhausted; we did not attend the Captain’s cocktail party. We had Andrew deliver dinner to the room. [/SIZE][/FONT]

[SubH2O]

We went in July 2006. I initially was going to snokle at Mountain Point while in Ketchikan, but chose to set up a guided dive instead. It was my favourite excursion of the cruise.
I ended up with two private guided dives 75ft and 50ft below the snorkellers (actually, the snorkellers stayed in shallower water). I was picked up and dropped off right at the ship, and got to have up-close encounters with more seastars and sea cucumbers than you can imagine, huge sea urchins, beautiful but tiny nudibranchs, colourful rockfish, even a wolfeel, an octopus and a curious little spiny dogfish shark that came to check us out (not dangerous). The kelp is also interesting to see. You will also see some corals, tunicates and other "critters".
A lot of that you will see on the snorkelling excursion. Things like the wolfeel and octopus would be tough to see and experience from the surface.
It was a major pain to bring dive gear on a cruise (I brought everything but weights and tanks). You can also rent gear there. Not sure who is currently doing dive charters, but last year there were a couple in Ketchikan, at least one in Juneau, and some in Seward.
Ketchikan was the oonly place I did any diving, but I [I]highly[/I] recommend it for other divers. I ended up doing a presentation on diving in Alaska to our local dive club, and it kind of blew them away with all of the colours and sea life that Alaskan diving has to offer. If diving is not possible, then snorkelling is a must.
Water temps in early July last year were in the mid 50s (F) with no significant thermoclines. It's actually a fair bit warmer than most of the diving I do in Lake Huron.
Good Luck!

[susan8231]

We took the Mountain Point snorkeling excursion in Ketchikan during our HAL cruise early last month. Having snorkeled in the Caribbean and Hawaii, we were very disappointed with this excursion. There were some starfish and sea urchins, but not a lot of variety of fish. Also, the water is not very clear. I would not recommend this excursion.