Little French Key?

For those that have been to LFK...where did you keep your valuables when you were on the snorkeling trip? Because I've never booked outside of the cruise ship, I would think we should bring our passports with instead of leaving them in the safe aboard the ship, in the event we miss the boat and need to get out...suggestions?

 

I emailed them and they said they do not have lockers but you can "leave your valuables at the bar"...not so sure I'm hip on that idea.

We used a thing called a Vacation Vault. It has a cord you wrap around a chair or a post. It has a 3 digit combination. Very sturdy. We use it to keep our small cameras, Sea Pass card, money, credit cards, etc. in. Comes in many colors.

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For those that have been to LFK...where did you keep your valuables when you were on the snorkeling trip? Because I've never booked outside of the cruise ship, I would think we should bring our passports with instead of leaving them in the safe aboard the ship, in the event we miss the boat and need to get out...suggestions?

 

I emailed them and they said they do not have lockers but you can "leave your valuables at the bar"...not so sure I'm hip on that idea.

NO!!! Never bring your passports onto the land with you. If you read up on it, you'll find it's never a good idea to have them on you. Passports are a "high end" item worth a lot of money in a third world country and if you was to lose it or be robbed....just not a good idea.

When you get off the ship, they will tell you to bring your ID and ship card to get back on the ship. However, I have been to Roatan many times and they have never ask for anything other than our ship card when getting back on the ship. As a matter of fact, the only place in the Caribbean that I have ever been ask for an ID has been in Nassau.

Hi everyone I am cruising on the conquest in the first week of November and had a few questions. When looking at the packages online the $10 difference between the two packages is the snorkeling tour, but from the most recent posts it seems like the snorkeling tours haven't gone well or been worth it? But then again I guess it is only $10. Also how far in advance did you e-mail to reserve your spot at LFK? I checked and we will be the only boat in port that day which should be nice. And final question (Sorry for so many) I know the packages come with 2 drinks included, but how were the prices for drinks after that? My boyfriend aren't alcoholics or anything but we are on vacation and with the amount of time we will be there I'm sure we will want more than 2 drinks.

Thanks everyone!!

Hi everyone I am cruising on the conquest in the first week of November and had a few questions. When looking at the packages online the $10 difference between the two packages is the snorkeling tour, but from the most recent posts it seems like the snorkeling tours haven't gone well or been worth it? But then again I guess it is only $10. Also how far in advance did you e-mail to reserve your spot at LFK? I checked and we will be the only boat in port that day which should be nice. And final question (Sorry for so many) I know the packages come with 2 drinks included, but how were the prices for drinks after that? My boyfriend aren't alcoholics or anything but we are on vacation and with the amount of time we will be there I'm sure we will want more than 2 drinks.

 

Thanks everyone!!

Can you tell me where these "most recent post" about the snorkeling not being good or worth it are at? I would like to read them.

After mitsugirly's awesome reviews, we have decided to book this for our upcoming cruise. Does anyone know if I can kayak to the snorkeling site and then hop in? I'm just not sure it is worth the extra $10 for the snorkeling tour.

Thanks for the advise.

After mitsugirly's awesome reviews, we have decided to book this for our upcoming cruise. Does anyone know if I can kayak to the snorkeling site and then hop in? I'm just not sure it is worth the extra $10 for the snorkeling tour.

Thanks for the advise.

I REALLY wish someone would clear things up about this snorkeling area/reef.

Yes, you can take the kayaks out to it. But, you have to kayak around the island and over. You can go straight from the lagoon because it is too shallow and I believe protected right there. When we were there, we couldn't exactly figure out how you would get out there by kayak, but seen kayak's out there. It wasn't until later when I watched a father and son go out of the lagoon area and head to the right (this is the area that you come in by the boat/barge that brings you over). A little while later I seen them come around the corner on the opposite side of the island and was headed out to the snorkeling area where another boat was at (I assume the boat from LFK with passengers). AH HA~!!! So I finally figured it out, but it was too late for us to try it since at that time we were wrapping up and getting ready to leave.

Before I went there, people did report that they would kayak out there and there was a floating deck out there. I assumed that they tied their kayaks to it and that was how they got back in the kayak. However, I have never seen anyone mention it after that. I have tried in the past to find photos...ANY photos that someone might have taken while out there that shows some type of floating deck to confirm that it's actually out there still.

I look at a few aerial pictures and I "think" I might see it, but I don't know how old they are and if it still exist.

Looking in this picture I took, you can see a kayak out there at the snorkeling site right in front of us. (In the picture, it's right under the yellow awning).

In this picture you can see the boat there

Boat and kayak out there

Here's an aerial picture of the place and you can see something square out there...which is the spot that I'm thinking there might be a floating deck.

Hi, I think we have pretty much decided to book LFK for our November cruise. We are going to book the basic $55 package without food. Can anyone tell me if you know the cost to rent the canoes and paddleboards with this package? Also are chips and salsa available alone for purchase?

Thanks!

Hoping to book a trip here during our cruise in November. We will be the only ship there so from what I'm reading it shouldn't be too busy?

Excited to see this beautiful place!

For anyone who has not booked through Carnival: What time frames were you looking at? We are there from 8-3pm and I'm wondering if there's going to be a sufficient amount of time to visit LFK or if I should just wait until we visit another time?

Thanks!!

I hate to be a debbie downer here, but my wife and I just returned from our 7 day cruise on the Dream. We stopped on Roatan and booked this excursion for a fun beach day. This was my 11th cruise, probably my 25th Carnival booked excursion, and it's the only one i've ever asked for my money back on.

I'll give you an abbreviated list of what I encountered. Please keep in mind that i'm a glass half full kind of guy. When I heard the descriptions below I had to go to the website to make sure we were talking about the same place.

We came off the ship and were boarded on a makeshift school bus. No air conditioner so it was absolutely sweltering.

We got to the pier/restaurant and boarded a makeshift pontoon boat with lawn chairs. The drive out to the Cay was enjoyable. It was awesome seeing the mangroves and the clear water.

Once there, we were shown to our beach chairs. They were covered in bird droppings.

After getting settled we waded into the ocean. Tons of marine life around the mangroves. We didn't snorkel, it was clear that there was a lot of biodiversity in the water. Very neat stuff.

I was very unimpressed with the zoo. They had a lion with 1 eye that could hardly move. There were some seriously orthopedic issues going on. A number of the monkeys were losing their hair, and there were a number of birds that didn't have their feathers or looked sickly. The Puma was off display because it was sick. I never got a look at it, but they had a tarp wrapped around its case so you couldn't see it. I questioned the care these animals were getting.

We were loaded back onto a boat when it was time to go. The makeshift pontoon boat was extremely overcrowded. One good wave and the boat would've bottomed out easily.

The cherry on top was that while we were on our way back, we witnessed two grown men, get into an altercation with another boat of 2 teenagers. I'm unsure what this was over, but midway through the men rouging the kids up, one of them pulled a gun on the kids. Our boat driver slowed down to watch......the tour guide on the front of the boat told him to keep moving. We were probably 15ft away from this action and someone could've easily been shot as gun safety seemed to be the last thing on the older guys mind.

Later that day, we discovered that we were all covered in sand flea bites.

All in all, not an enjoyable day at all. This is literally the only Carnival excursion i've ever been unhappy with in 11 cruises. We won't be going back, but just thought I would weigh in to let everyone know my experience.

Wow Adamt, sorry about your experience and glad we were not on the pontoon same time as you guys. Glad you are all OK.

We booked independently, we were a group of 22 adults and 8 kids. We had an awesome day!

Guess we were on a different beach section, our chairs were clean. We took the $88 package with lunch and two drinks. Loved the beach and water and the kids absolutely loved the kayaks!!

I had read reviews on Roatan beaches in general,and we came prepared with Ultrathon insect repellent. No bites for us.

The lion, I have read, was rescued from some type of traveling circus. His condition was far worse prior to rescue and surgery. He had been kept in a cage so small he was unable to get up. We were told Simba, the jaguar was not feeling well, and so not out for visitors to see. I believe all of the animals are rescues but most unable to be returned to the wild. My kids loved holding the monkey and the kinkajou.

Everyone was super friendly and after a few hours our group had the entire section of the beach we "parked on" to ourselves.

I do not know about individual pricing for kayaks, but I can tell you the yucca chips and salsa were $6 for an order a la carte.....yum!

Hoping to book a trip here during our cruise in November. We will be the only ship there so from what I'm reading it shouldn't be too busy?

 

Excited to see this beautiful place!

 

For anyone who has not booked through Carnival: What time frames were you looking at? We are there from 8-3pm and I'm wondering if there's going to be a sufficient amount of time to visit LFK or if I should just wait until we visit another time?

 

Thanks!!

Hi, first sorry to hear about adamt's experience. Mine was WONDERFUL!

Anyway, I was on a 8 to 3 stop as well and booked on our own and we had plenty of time. This was right around when carnival started offering the tour I believe and we were the first ones there :D Also, it was around 1:30ish when we saw people heading back so that is when we left. All groups whether booked with the ship or not left at the same time so it was pretty obvious. The ride back was quick and we even could take our time looking around the shops on the walking part back to the ship.

Oh and we felt like there was plenty of time there! Yes, of course most that love it would want to stay longer, but we never felt in a rush or like we didn't do enough.

I hate to be a debbie downer here, but my wife and I just returned from our 7 day cruise on the Dream. We stopped on Roatan and booked this excursion for a fun beach day. This was my 11th cruise, probably my 25th Carnival booked excursion, and it's the only one i've ever asked for my money back on.

 

I'll give you an abbreviated list of what I encountered. Please keep in mind that i'm a glass half full kind of guy. When I heard the descriptions below I had to go to the website to make sure we were talking about the same place.

 

We came off the ship and were boarded on a makeshift school bus. No air conditioner so it was absolutely sweltering.

 

We got to the pier/restaurant and boarded a makeshift pontoon boat with lawn chairs. The drive out to the Cay was enjoyable. It was awesome seeing the mangroves and the clear water.

 

Once there, we were shown to our beach chairs. They were covered in bird droppings.

 

After getting settled we waded into the ocean. Tons of marine life around the mangroves. We didn't snorkel, it was clear that there was a lot of biodiversity in the water. Very neat stuff.

 

I was very unimpressed with the zoo. They had a lion with 1 eye that could hardly move. There were some seriously orthopedic issues going on. A number of the monkeys were losing their hair, and there were a number of birds that didn't have their feathers or looked sickly. The Puma was off display because it was sick. I never got a look at it, but they had a tarp wrapped around its case so you couldn't see it. I questioned the care these animals were getting.

 

We were loaded back onto a boat when it was time to go. The makeshift pontoon boat was extremely overcrowded. One good wave and the boat would've bottomed out easily.

 

The cherry on top was that while we were on our way back, we witnessed two grown men, get into an altercation with another boat of 2 teenagers. I'm unsure what this was over, but midway through the men rouging the kids up, one of them pulled a gun on the kids. Our boat driver slowed down to watch......the tour guide on the front of the boat told him to keep moving. We were probably 15ft away from this action and someone could've easily been shot as gun safety seemed to be the last thing on the older guys mind.

 

Later that day, we discovered that we were all covered in sand flea bites.

 

All in all, not an enjoyable day at all. This is literally the only Carnival excursion i've ever been unhappy with in 11 cruises. We won't be going back, but just thought I would weigh in to let everyone know my experience.

So sorry to hear you did not enjoy yourself and wanted to offer a little "insight" about this place.

First of all, all of the animals on the island are rescue animals. They receive these animals in very bad shape due to neglect, abandonment and so on. They "rescue" them, nurse them back to heath and do everything they can for them. Most animals can never be returned back to the wild because most of them have been in captivity all of their life and have no hunting skills.

The lion they just obtained back in June. He was a part of a traveling circus and was badly mistreated. He had a cleft lip, arthritis in his front feet and deformities because he was de-clawed as a cub in the circus, underfed (reported that he was only fed 2 chickens every other day), and an arched back. He had been kept in a small cage his entire life by this circus. Here is the cage he spent his entire life in:

For those that haven't been here yet, this is his new home.

When LFK took him in, they bathed him, gave him the nourishment he desperately needed. He currently eats 30 pounds of food a day. Lawrence has gained over 100 pounds in the time that he has been at Little French Key so far. Lawrence had surgery (I believe) to repair his cleft lip and problems with his paws. Then he was released into his new enclosure. These people truly care about the animals and do everything they possibly can to bring them back to health.

I just wanted to elaborate on their "zoo" to those of you that do not know much about it or might be caught off guard when you go there (like this poster was).

One thing that I have to comment on is...the experience you receive when booking an excursion WITH the cruiseline versus on your own will almost be two different things. Yes, the cruiselines will heard the crowd and as many as they can and it's all about the money and less time and not about the experience. While I always "try" to book with an actual tour operator from an island or even the actual place, it's not always possible to do. However, with this place, I highly recommend booking with them and not a cruiseline. You won't be herded like cattle, you won't be on a crammed bus with tons of other people, you won't be on a strict, so many hours, schedule and so on. It really takes away from the experience.

As for the contract with Carnival and LFK...if you follow them on their fb, you can get up to date information about things going on there. Also, they have reported that they plan to cease the contract with Carnival, as of October 24th this year. It was originally scheduled to end on August 24th, but they cruiseline and tour operator pleaded with LFK to extend the contract until October. Hopefully this will hold true as of October 24th and they will no longer be offering this place with ANY cruise line and making it the place it once was. (Although they do claim that they do limit the number of people there, but have never said what that limit is).

As for bird droppings on the chairs...well lol it's nature. That can happen anywhere you go.

Bites by sand fleas (or no-see-ums) happens ANYWHERE in the Caribbean. You can never tell when or where you'll get them. I was ate alive in Costa Maya once. If you read up, you'll find others that have had the same experience on every island in the Caribbean, while others won't. So it all depends on the weather, the time of year, the air...who knows. It's different all the time and can not be limited to saying it's always there or not.

As for the barge that they take back and forth from Frenchy's to LFK, yep, it's just that. A barge with wood seating around the edges and a bunch of plastic chairs in the middle. The owner drives it back and forth and has a stereo system on it and blares the music while people enjoy the ride...which is only about 5 minutes away.

Just so everyone will know what to expect...

As for what happened with the other 2 boats and the men fighting, that's scary and unacceptable. Roatan in general seems to be having a lot of issues these days.

Also, people are always asking about the reef out in front of LFK, although I haven't been there (and if/when I do return, I will make SURE that I go next time just to see for myself)...

People have been posting pictures of the reef and videos on their fb page.

The pictures and videos I have been seeing are just like any other reef you would see when out on a boat snorkeling. :)

And thanks for the pic of the island from August 29th mitsugirly that looks like you were up on a higher deck sailing away! I never thought about one like that when we left and I love it!

And thanks for the pic of the island from August 29th mitsugirly that looks like you were up on a higher deck sailing away! I never thought about one like that when we left and I love it!

Which pictures are you referring to? (It can't be the aerial picture lol, that was taken off of the internet. We obviously did not hop in a plane from here. hehe :D)

All of the others (the 3 that I posted in that thread) were taken from the ground floor of the deck facing the ocean (instead of the lagoon area). :p

The very first picture shows the deck I was standing on. You can see the pole to the hut/palapa, then if you look at the 3rd picture, on the very right (almost cut off of the picture) you'll see that pole still. It's all a matter of perspective.

Which pictures are you referring to? (It can't be the aerial picture lol, that was taken off of the internet. We obviously did not hop in a plane from here. hehe :D)

 

All of the others (the 3 that I posted in that thread) were taken from the ground floor of the deck facing the ocean (instead of the lagoon area). :p

 

 

The very first picture shows the deck I was standing on. You can see the pole to the hut/palapa, then if you look at the 3rd picture, on the very right (almost cut off of the picture) you'll see that pole still. It's all a matter of perspective.

LOL, my bad! I should have read the caption! Yes, it is the aerial pic, but either way it is wonderful and brings back memories! I guess I feel slightly better knowing I did not miss the chance at this shot while sailing away ;)

LOL, my bad! I should have read the caption! Yes, it is the aerial pic, but either way it is wonderful and brings back memories! I guess I feel slightly better knowing I did not miss the chance at this shot while sailing away ;)

LOL. You made me giggle. :p

I can't see the timeline on their fb page, so I sent a friend request. I'm assuming that's the reason why?

I will be there October 29th so am especially hoping that they are ceasing their contract with Carnival on the 24th. I have two Carnival ships in port with us that day so that was one reason I've been on the fence about going:)

we also just got back from the NOS at LFK Private booking.

had an awesome time, the best being the trip out to the reef. BOOK IT.

Saw tons of fish, a lobster cruising around, was taken out to the drop off. really amazing seeing the lite blue water turn to dark blue at the drop off. Our guide took a free dive and dissapeared down the abyss for a few seconds and came back up while we were watching. cool.

Food was good, drinks were good, no fleas etc.

would do it again in a heartbeat. again book the snorkle trip.

also did not see any platform out there, only saw a buoy.

michael

I can't see the timeline on their fb page, so I sent a friend request. I'm assuming that's the reason why?

 

I will be there October 29th so am especially hoping that they are ceasing their contract with Carnival on the 24th. I have two Carnival ships in port with us that day so that was one reason I've been on the fence about going:)

If you can't see their timeline, that would be the reason why. :) Hopefully they'll accept you soon and you can view it. They have 2 awesome webcams too at their place.

I can't thank you all enough for your insight about this island! We are going in November and we are the only ship in that day, so hopefully it will be as amazing as I want it to be! ;) LOL!

Mitsugirly..... I got accepted as a friend but for the life of me I don't see anything about their contract with carnival. It's probably me lol... But them I thought maybe it's been removed!

Mitsugirly I am hoping as well the Little French Key contract will be up October 24th because I am sailing November 2nd. But I just looked at the excursions listed for my cruise and the excursion to Little French Key is listed still, so I guess we will see what happens.

My bf and I are considering spending the day at LFK while we're in Roatan in February via NoS. Was just wondering -- with the basic $55 fee, would we actually get to go and hold the monkeys/toucans/etc., or just stand there and watch all the happy people getting to do that? :) I can't really tell from the different package descriptions.

Thanks!

We just got back from LFK last week on when we were cruising on Navigator ots. It was fabulous.

Yes, some of the animals look a little "beaten up" because they have been. I commend them for taking these animals in a helping them to recover and give them a good home. I visited every single cage and they we're feed fresh, fruit, nuts, and veggies.

It was beautiful and will for sure go again.