Just back from Ruby - GT snorkel

I just wanted to share our experience with a Princess excursion at Grand Turk. We did the GDT810A/Scenic Catamaran Sail, Snorkel & Beach.

Maybe, if you have never snorkeled before, you may like this. However, for $89 each, on a FULL cat (group of 70), it was very disappointing. We did this same cruise in 2009, and have also stayed a week at Provo in 2010, just stayed a week at Belize last Oct., so we are experienced snorkelers.

Good points: the crew was excellent, very nice, and very safety oriented. Although no one said it was their first time snorkeling, we all got the safety speech which is totally fine. I would question any outfit that didn't do this. Drinks flowed freely, they were as strong as you wanted. Ship was in "good" shape.

Not so good: At the wall for our snorkel. We saw maybe 3 species of fish. We were in very deep water, excellent for scuba, not so good for snorkel. When ever you get such a huge group (another full cat of 70 also pulled up next to us from the Ruby) all you do is bump into people. The crew had their hands full, so we could only snorkel in a very, very small spot. This was disappointing as I know how good the snorkeling is in this area of the Caribbean.

I think that the folks snorkeling at the outer edges of the Margaretaville area probably had just as good snorkeling. It's too bad that this was so expensive for lousy snorkeling.

I heard some folks say this was an excellent excursion, so this is just my opinion. Snorkeling is probably my family's most favorite thing to do and we go all over the Caribbean, Kauai, and the Big Island.

Be warned. Perhaps you can find an independent, smaller company that can spend the time and provide a quality snorkel experience instead of a boat ride with booze.

Thanks for posting this. We'll be on Ruby in October and are just starting to poke around online for what to do in Grand Turk. The cruise ship excursions haven't been released yet, but I just prefer to use those as a guide anyhow, and would like to book direct with a company to either snuba or snorkel. I keep reading about people saying that visiting the wall is a must! I'm torn as I don't want to spend an arm and a leg and just see blah. If I can see a bunch of fish by snorkeling off the shore, then we can bring our own equipment, but if the wall is truly something to be experienced, then I'm wondering if we should be doing a snuba excursion there instead of snorkeling there. I'm stuck...but have some time to figure it out.

Your feedback on that particular excursion is helpful. Thanks for posting it!

I booked a private tour company to snorkel two stops, one of which was the wall. I was not impressed at all. I don't know about snuba; it could be better. The wall is just blue. I didn't see too many fish. I think that the only must about the wall is that you must scuba to truly enjoy it.

We particularly love to snorkel so that we can take pictures of the fish and coral. I was so looking forward to Grand Turk for this. I am beginning to think that those who snorkeled from the shore had a better experience than we did.

The best snorkeling that we have done so far has been in Roatan and Cozumel.

Have fun!

I booked a private tour company to snorkel two stops, one of which was the wall. I was not impressed at all. I don't know about snuba; it could be better. The wall is just blue. I didn't see too many fish. I think that the only must about the wall is that you must scuba to truly enjoy it.

 

We particularly love to snorkel so that we can take pictures of the fish and coral. I was so looking forward to Grand Turk for this. I am beginning to think that those who snorkeled from the shore had a better experience than we did.

 

The best snorkeling that we have done so far has been in Roatan and Cozumel.

 

Have fun!

Thanks so much for weighing in on this! We're not quite ready to leap to scuba, and like snorkeling. We've also snorkeled the Caribbean, Mexico, and Hawaii, so perhaps the wall would be pretty boring to us as snorkelers. Hmm...I really want to try snuba at some point, but it sounds like GT might not be the best spot for that. Perhaps we choose a nonchalant day and just snorkel from shore as you mentioned. Dunno yet.

The only highlight of the snorkeling trip is seeing the wall, there really is no coral and a small amount of fish. Like the other posters we are experienced snorkelers and have been all over the Caribbean snorkeling. The snorkeling was not very good. But, we loved seeing the wall and drop off....

I booked a private tour company to snorkel two stops, one of which was the wall. I was not impressed at all. I don't know about snuba; it could be better. The wall is just blue. I didn't see too many fish. I think that the only must about the wall is that you must scuba to truly enjoy it.

 

We particularly love to snorkel so that we can take pictures of the fish and coral. I was so looking forward to Grand Turk for this. I am beginning to think that those who snorkeled from the shore had a better experience than we did.

 

The best snorkeling that we have done so far has been in Roatan and Cozumel.

 

Have fun!

The one thing about the spot we were at on the Wall was the sheer QUANTITY of fish. I can snorkel 8-10 hours a day and have snorkeled all over the Caribbean and in Hawaii and have never been swarmed been so many fish. Our boat operator had bread we could crumble up to feed the fish and it became a frenzy! When we ran out, I was having so much fun I used Chex Mix I had in my tote bag to keep them coming but there were only a few varieties. However, where I went with the food, they were sure to follow. A taxi driver just took us from the pier to the beach and there was a guy with a boat there.