Snorkeling

Taking a 7 day cruise on the Glory. Trying to decide which ports are best for snorkeling. If you have any other excursions you'd like to recommend, please speak up! Thanks for your advice in advance!

Ports:

Grand Cayman

Mahogany Bay

Belize

Cozumel

Sent from my iPad using Forums mobile app

Get off the tender and walk off the dock, turn right and walk 10 minutes to the Eden Roc dive center. They have rental gear if you don't have your own. Great snorkeling 100 yds off shore at Devils Grotto and Eden Roc Reef and it's free !

Have snorkeled all over Cozumel. Always disappointed unless someone was feeding fish, lotsa reefs but deep.

As for the other two, the snorkeling can be great. Go on one of the ship excursions. Reed the reviews. DO NOT go on your own.

You will enjoy Eden Roc in Grand Cayman - Just do not stop at the place before you get there with a dive flag. Go on down to the gray building with the Eden Roc sign. They have lockers and all you need.

We went snorkeling in Belize and Cozumel last year. Belize was our favorite.

In Grand Cayman we always do Stingray City and I've booked both private and Carnival..I think I love Carnival's DELUXE Stingray excursion best. Dh has a bad back and I've had 3 hernia surgeries so climbing tiny ladders is not happening..with the deluxe it's almost like bleachers as you exit the ship..much better and we have NEVER been disappointed with this..you can snorkel off to the side ..it's nice.

Belize I've never left the port, I didn't feel safe. Some folks do and do fine so I can't help you here.

In Mahogany Bay we hired a private driver just to see the local area..

In Cozumel we always book something with CozumelCruiseExcursionsdotnet , last time we did the private jeep tour...PHENOMENAL and this time we are doing El Ceilo snorkeling tour. So we'll see how that goes!

Get off the tender and walk off the dock, turn right and walk 10 minutes to the Eden Roc dive center. They have rental gear if you don't have your own. Great snorkeling 100 yds off shore at Devils Grotto and Eden Roc Reef and it's free !

Have snorkeled all over Cozumel. Always disappointed unless someone was feeding fish, lotsa reefs but deep.

As for the other two, the snorkeling can be great. Go on one of the ship excursions. Reed the reviews. DO NOT go on your own.

You will enjoy Eden Roc in Grand Cayman - Just do not stop at the place before you get there with a dive flag. Go on down to the gray building with the Eden Roc sign. They have lockers and all you need.

In Roatan, book the Tabyana Beach Break if you love snorkeling. Tabyana Beach is located at West Bay on the other side of the island from Mahogany Bay. Crystal clear water, and the coral reef is located just 25-30 yards from shore. Here are a couple photos from our February cruise :

The beach even has "guides" that will tow you out to the far side of the reef and back (for a tip). Highly recommended. If you don't want to purchase the Carnival excursion, several resorts on West Bay, for instance Bananrama, have day passes you may purchase.

We are doing a private tour in Cozumel later this month. I will review it when we return. We are going out with CozumelH2O.

In Roatan, book the Tabyana Beach Break if you love snorkeling. Tabyana Beach is located at West Bay on the other side of the island from Mahogany Bay. Crystal clear water, and the coral reef is located just 25-30 yards from shore. Here are a couple photos from our February cruise :

 

 

The beach even has "guides" that will tow you out to the far side of the reef and back (for a tip). Highly recommended. If you don't want to purchase the Carnival excursion, several resorts on West Bay, for instance Bananrama, have day passes you may purchase.

We've been to West Bay beach for snorkeling many times and it is awesome. However, the last couple times we were there, they had guys out on kayaks telling people that couldn't go out past a certain spot. We ignored them once and did get out to the wall and the great snorkeling. However, I'd prefer not to be yelled at constantly and would love to be able to hire a boat driver to just take us out past the kayak guys so we could snorkel the wall. Where can we hire someone to do that? If we just go to the little dock on West Bay beach, could we give somebody some $$ to do that?

Belize is a tender port, and the tender port is a ways .... a boat ride much longer than in Cayman

Snorkeling here is off shore AWAY from "town" so ship excursions will load directly from the ship to the tour boat and then take you some place to snorkel. I mention this as a long way of saying DIY snorkeling in Belize is not an easy thing .. you would tender in, then boat back out, and agoing on the return . . .

There are MANY good shore snorkeling spots in Cayman and Eden is just about the nearest one to the tender landing area so it can also be the most crowded. I prefer to go about 1/4 mile down the road past EDEN to Sunset House. Similar snorkeling profile, dive shop to rent gear AND the added attraction of My Bar ... one of the best waterside bars on the island.

http://www.compasscayman.com/whatshot/2014/09/02/Sunset-House--My-Bar-A-legendary-local-favorite/

We've been to West Bay beach for snorkeling many times and it is awesome. However, the last couple times we were there, they had guys out on kayaks telling people that couldn't go out past a certain spot. We ignored them once and did get out to the wall and the great snorkeling. However, I'd prefer not to be yelled at constantly and would love to be able to hire a boat driver to just take us out past the kayak guys so we could snorkel the wall. Where can we hire someone to do that? If we just go to the little dock on West Bay beach, could we give somebody some $$ to do that?

That was the only disappointing thing. I thought Tabyana Beach extended all the way down to the Iguana Wall. But, from the end of the beach we were at to the wall looked to be about 300-400 yards. Guess there are closed resorts there.

And I also had read that according to Honduran law, property lines end at the shore, and not out into the water. Which means no one should be able to stop you from swimming down to the wall. Maybe the guides in the kayaks didn't want you going that far without them towing you and earning a fee. Another thing to consider is the water is very shallow at spots, less that 3 feet below the surface. Maybe there was a safety issue in spots.

While we were there, a catamaran sailed up to the outer edge of the reef and let alot of snorkelers off to view the reef. Guess there are private excursions that go there....

Belize take the private excursion out to Cay Caulker, they will take you out to the outer reef where you snorkel out to the edge of the reef and then come back in, beautiful coral and lots of fish. Second stop is where they feed the rays and the little sharks, that a lunch stop on the island and back to town. You do have to tender into the pier to catch the boat and tender back to the ship. not a very expensive excursion.

Cozumel you can try the Money Bar, $12 taxi ride and no charge to use the facilities. You have to go about a 100 yards out to get to the reef, it's still coming back from the hurricane about 10 years ago, just watch which way the current is running.

In Roatan, book the Tabyana Beach Break if you love snorkeling. Tabyana Beach is located at West Bay on the other side of the island from Mahogany Bay. Crystal clear water, and the coral reef is located just 25-30 yards from shore. Here are a couple photos from our February cruise :

 

 

 

 

The beach even has "guides" that will tow you out to the far side of the reef and back (for a tip). Highly recommended. If you don't want to purchase the Carnival excursion, several resorts on West Bay, for instance Bananrama, have day passes you may purchase.

I enthusistically second the Tabyana suggestion for Roatan (Mahogany Bay port). I saw so many beautiful fish snorkeling there, including giant parrot fish. That was all right offshore. If you swim well, there are guys on kayaks that will tow you out further. You don't have to swim, but in the event somrthing happened to the kayak tow I knew I could just swim back. Snorkeling there was the final push i needed to get SCUBA certified, which i did last year.

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

You could also book snorkeling with Anthony's Key resort on Roatan.

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

I second the Sunset House on Grand Cayman -- it's just a little farther from Eden Rock (15 - 20 minute walk from the port). You enter the water from a ladder, can't wade in. The snorkeling was good, and they had tables with umbrellas to sit at so we were out of the sun -- or rain, as it happened!

In Roatan, you want to go to West Bay Beach for good snorkeling. You can walk all along the beach & go in wherever you want, then swim out. The reef is quite close to the surface at the one end, but there is also a lot of fish in the middle part of the beach. You can rent loungers at Bananarama, or other resorts. Grand Roatan does not charge for sitting on their deck (as long as you buy food/drink) but you can't use their loungers. Check the ports board for other recommendations there!