Casa de Campo Snorkeling Excursions

[Dolphins]

Has anybody taken the following RCI snorkeling excursions in Casa de Campo?

 

Catamaran Sail and Snorkel

 

Catalina Island Snorkeling and Beach (Trimaran)

 

If so, could you tell us your impressions?

[glendon3281]

We did this in Jan. '08 while sailing on the Explorer. Two words....IT SUCKED.

 

If you are a first time snorkeler and never done this before, you may like it. They did NOT have proper snorkeling vests, they had us use the orange life-saving type you'd buy at Kmart for $5. It was VERY hard to snorkel and keep your face in the water when it was trying to flip you over on your back to 'save your life'.

 

Watch the video on RC's excursion website, you can see the crappy vests. Also, that's NOT the catamaran we had....the one in the video is MUCH nicer.

 

The beach on the deserted side of Catalina island was filthy. My kids saw syringes washed up on the beach, along with garbage strewn all over.. There was also garbage IN the water but they said it was from a hurricane that blew thru 5 years ago. It was fresh garbage, though. The reef was all but dead, saw very few fish.

 

Once we were done snorkeling the rum was really flowing...I think to make everyone forget what a lousy excursion it was. The excursion description says we'd get fresh fruit punch and delicious fruit skewers. They only had Coke & Coke Light and NO fruit skewers or food of any kind. The drinking water was their tap water in some old Gatorade cooler and I wasn't touching that with a 10-foot pole.

 

I asked the 'boss lady" on the Catamaran where the real snorkeling vests, fruit punch and fruit skewers were. She said RC didn't give her anything and basically blamed things on RC.

 

Needless to say, we complained to RC upon boarding the ship and was satisfied with the results.

 

Unless someone else can say they've improved this excursion in the past 2 months since we were there, sorry to say, I wouldn't waste my time or money on it.

 

Linda

[Dolphins]

Really appreciate your honest report on that snorkeling excursion. Looks like it needs a lot of improvement before we book it. Thanks again.

[glendon3281]

Really appreciate your honest report on that snorkeling excursion. Looks like it needs a lot of improvement before we book it. Thanks again.

 

Dolphin...I'm sure there will be people reading this saying "It couldn't be THAT bad"....BUT trust me on this one, people.

 

We've snorkeled with Capt. Marvin's 5x times at Stingray City in Grand Cayman and it was awesome every time!. We love snorkeling at Coco Cay. Also, we've snorkeled in Cozumel, the snorkeling wasn't too good but the catamaran excursion as a whole was nice as far as the boat, drinks, snacks, etc. was concerned.

 

The Dominican Republic catamaran excursion was just plain BAD. When we spoke to the excursions manager/officer, he admitted that no one from his Dept. had "checked-out' that excursion since the Explorer just started going there a few months ago. I took pix to document my claims to show him. He was NOT too happy to hear that the 'boss lady' (I got her name & pix, too) was blaming RC for everything.

 

Luckily, that same manager/officer was also the host in the annex. Concierge's Lounge that we had been frequenting each night. He knew we were somewhat of RC "cheerleaders" prior to speaking to him about our displeasure with this excursion.

[Dolphins]

glendon3281- I doubt RCI will allow the conditions you describe to continue. I expect there will be big improvements made before we visit Casa de Campo in January. RCI cannot afford to allow the current status quo to continue. And if Casa de Campo wants to keep hosting cruise ships, they had better clean up their act. Attractive excursions benefit both RCI and the port.

[beachbuddy]

glendon3281- I doubt RCI will allow the conditions you describe to continue. I expect there will be big improvements made before we visit Casa de Campo in January. RCI cannot afford to allow the current status quo to continue. And if Casa de Campo wants to keep hosting cruise ships, they had better clean up their act. Attractive excursions benefit both RCI and the port.[/quote

 

Did anyone do any of these snorkeling excursions lately? Just wondering if they got any better. I just can't seem to find anything that is interesting me to do at this port. Thinking about the Iberostar, but reallly hate spending around $140 to spend the day on a beach. We're not real big drinkers so won't really get our money's worth but right now, that's looking like the only option. Would be interested in hearing more about their publlic beach. We did stay at an all inclusive in Punta Cana one time and the resort was lovely, but the water was so choppy that we didn't enjoy it. We spent $75 each to do a snorkeling tour and we thought the tour stunk!!! I don't think you can compare snorkeling in this area with snorkeling in Mexico or Grand Cayman anyway.