St. Thomas or St. Maartin - snorkeling
 

Taking eastern Caribbean cruise (Carnival) the first part of Jan '08. I want to do a snorkel excursion at one or the other, and I know you'll let me know which one is better. Maybe even a suggestion of which outfit or location? I've used this board for years and have ALWAYS gotten the best advice from you.
Thanks!
d
I know this has probably been covered, but I've looked through many posts and haven't found what I'm looking for...

... I mean St. Maarten!

i enjoyed this trip on the castaway girl from st. thomas very much. it leaves from the havensight area where your ship will dock, so easy to get to: http://cruiseshipexcursions.net/cast.html

In St Thomas if you can get a snorkel trip to Honeymoon or I think it it Christmas Cove off of St John - that is a good choice- Both St Thomas and St Martin lack live coral - more fish. On St Martin you will tend to go to Creole Rock which is interesting or to one of the little out islands. I am finding that the cost of the snorkel trips listed by the cruise ships are fairly reasonable. They are about the same as they are when we stay on island and in most cases the operators set themselves up witht the ships when they are in and take the on islanders when there are fewer ships.

i must disagree somewhat about st. thomas and live coral. in my 3 trips we have snorkleled several spots on st. t and found the coral to actually be in ok shape. even some regrowth showing...
snorkeling on st. john is renowned and would definitely be wonderful if you can find a tour over.
i totally disagree about tours pricing, from my research they seem to be significantly higher priced through the ships. not to mention that your dollars could all be going to local merchants instead of shared with the cruise line. it is a bit of extra work to find these tours sometimes but i much prefer the idea of supporting the local community as much as possible.

bcirish - you mention that you have been on st. t often. where do you stay? we go to secret harbour and love it but actually prefer villas. any suggestions? i've looked at the one to the left of sh beach but can never find it on line...

We actually stayed on St Thomas, so I can tell you that the snorkeling on Sapphire Beach is wonderful! You will not be disappointed if you choose to snorkel there.

I have snorkeled both, but it's been awhile. I would take a snorkel trip from St. Thomas to St. Johns and snorkel there. In St. Maartin I believe we fook a snorkel trip to Pinal (sp?) Island and had good snorkeling there too.