We are going on the Eastern Carribean with Disney next Spring. I have seen a copy of their current excursions for their stops to St Thomas, St. Johns, and St Maarten.
My husband & I both love snorkling and want to introduce it to our kids, ages 12 & 9. This will be their first experience to the Carribean, and snorkling.
My question is, where should we go snorkling? I want their first experience to be a good one. My youngest can be a bit fearful, when it comes to swimming with fish. I would think swimming off a beach would be less intimidating that dropping us off in deep water from a boat.
Any recommendations?
Best snorkling excursion on Disney Eastern
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by
Amy_D
|
49 responses; most recent on May 4, 13 at 05:46 PM
Does your ship stop at both St. Thomas and St. John? The best snorkeling for kids would be Trunk Bay on St. John. Very calm and clear water, excellent beach, fish even in the shallows. This spot would be a very good place for a first snorkeling experience without being scary. You are correct in your reservations to a boat snorkel since your child would not be able to touch bottom and you could have waves from boat wakes.
I would not snorkel off St. Martin unless the weather conditions permitted it. Often very choppy waves.
As far as St. Thomas, Coki beach is supposed to be good. I have never snorkeled there so I don't know about water conditions but you could do a search for dive operators on Coki Beach and they could advise you. There is an aquarium out there that may be of interest to the kids called Coral World - it had to be rebuilt after a hurricane hit it a couple of years ago, but I think it has reopened.
Feel free to post any other questions
Faye: Take a snorkeling tour to Buck Island from the harbor in St.Thomas. The water is awesome. Enjoy
Get ahold of these people and they will pick you up at the pier. They handle snorkeling but also provide a "resort course" scuba alternative for about $65 that my daughter and I did a year ago. My daughter was 12 at the time. The water is shallow and the fish are plentiful for snorkeling. Coral World is right there at Coki as well. Very inexpensive excursion and easy to get to and back as opposed to Trunk Bay or Buck Island.
Get ahold of these people and they will pick you up at the pier. They handle snorkeling but also provide a "resort course" scuba alternative for about $65 that my daughter and I did a year ago. My daughter was 12 at the time. The water is shallow and the fish are plentiful for snorkeling. Coral World is right there at Coki as well. Very inexpensive excursion and easy to get to and back as opposed to Trunk Bay or Buck Island.
http://www.cokidive.com/
Correct me if I am wrong, Sandra, but isn't the Buck island trip a boat snorkel trip? Didn't Faye say that she wanted to avoid that? If her youngest is afraid, a boat snorkel will terrify the kid.
Poptart: Yes, you are correct. Sorry. But it still is a great snorkeling trip. Maybe someone else will give it a try.
My family and I did the Eastern Caribbean in January on Disney. My boys are 8 & 10. We did Pinel Island in St. Martin and it was a terrible excursion. Way to overbooked by the excursion folks. I would look into going over the Anguilla at St. Martin. I'm going to try that on our next trip. They have ferries that depart Marigot every 20 minutes.
We did the 5-Star Snorkel Tour on the Leylon Sneed to St. John's Trunk Bay at St. Thomas and it was incredible. You do have to enter the water off the boat but everyone has to wear a life preserver which keep you very bouyant. It was unbelievably clear - you could see oodles of fish. My kids and my husband and I loved it. I would highly recommend it. HIGHLY!!
They also run another tour to Trunk Bay but I saw most of the people from that tour just lying on the beach - it seemed to me they missed the best part of being there. Just my opinion.