Snorkel tour and 7 Mile Beach advice

[JillB]

I would appreciate any advice you could give me for our Dec. cruise.

 

We would like to do a snorkel tour and go to 7 Mile Beach.

 

Is it preferable to do the beach after the tour, before the tour, or doesn't it matter? If we do Capt. Bryan's catamaran trip, we would have to go to the beach beforehand and meet at 12:15 p.m. Our preference would be to go to the beach afterward, and so we would do Nativeway or Capt. Marvin's.

 

How long should one allow to get onto a tender from the ship and tender to the dock? We would be doing a private excursion, not the ship's excursion, so from what I have read here we would not have priority in boarding the tenders. I would like to allow my kids the maximum sleep-in time so they are (somewhat) pleasant and not too cranky.

 

Also, if the snorkel excursion ends at 2:30 p.m. and we have to be back on the ship by 5:00 p.m. because the ship departs at 6:00 p.m., does this give us enough time to go to 7 Mile Beach and make it back to the tender to be on the ship by 5:00 p.m. without a lot of rushing?

 

I apologize for this post being so long.

Thank you for any suggestions/advice.

Sincerely,

Jillb

[39august]

Tender ride is very brief, but you will have to wait for tender to fill up before they go. Even if you're first on, it shouldn't be more than 10 minutes or so wait. When the announcement is first made (or even before) that the tenders are ready, there will be a long line. Waiting a bit would give you less of a wait in line. If it were I, I would go to the beach first, as later in the day, it will be more crowded. Also, if you return from your snorkel excursion as late as 2:30, you don't have very long to enjoy the beach. Taxi back to the tender terminal is a very short ride, maybe 6-8 minutes. But again, you may have to wait a bit for the tender back. I'm confused about this 2:30 return time. We have done Nativeway and Soto's morning excursion and were back by noonish. If that were the case, then going to the beach after your excursion would be a good option.

[JillB]

Thank you for your very helpful response.

 

We were considering taking the 12:00 p.m.-2:30 p.m. Nativeways snorkel trip and then going to the beach, but from your post it sounds like it would be a bit of a rush at the beach to get the tender back and be on the ship by 5 p.m. because of the ship's 6 p.m. departure.

 

I am trying to balance not having to get the kids up too early with being able to go to 7 Mile Beach and do the snorkel trip.

 

Do you think a better itinerary might be beach first (approx. 11-1) then a later snorkel trip (about 1:45 p.m. or 2:00 p.m.)?

 

Our first choice would be snorkel trip first, beach second (I dont' know why, just instinctively this seems that it might work better) but this may be impractical based on what you are saying about rushing and beach crowding, and if it would be much better the other way around, we are definitely willing to switch the order.

 

Does the beach get that crowded that it would be not great to be there from 3:oo p.m.-4:30 p.m. or so?

 

One last question-what time should one be at the tender in order to get back on the ship by about 5:00 p.m.-we don't want to cut it too close.

 

Thank you very much,

Jillb

[39august]

You will be advised what time the last tender will leave the tender dock in order to be back to the ship on time. I can't answer how crowded the beach would be late afternoon, as we left the beach about 2:30 last time we were there in Sept. It was pretty crowded at that time, but certainly not so that it is not worth going! I'm not familiar with later afternoon snorkel tours. But I'm sure the various websites give you all their options.