Tiki Hut Snorkel Adventure - St Maarten - Review

this is posted in the RCCL boards and Carnival boards but i decited to post it here too.

tiki hut snorkel park is an excursion that is brand new, the company just got contracts with carnival and royal caribbean. carnival jacks up their price by 200%, RC about 150%. The company, i'm pretty sure, is called snorkel safari or somthing like that.

http://www.snorkelstmaarten.com

you can totally do this excursion on your own. just book them in advance and then find a representative at the dock and join the rest of the suckers who paid 2x thru the line (like me :) )

ok lets get started.

first you get off the boat and meet the rep. the rep takes you to an awaiting boat. the boat is docked at the city water taxi dock. for thoes of you who havent been to st maarten and or taken the water taxi, it's the city dock thats at the end of the cruise ship peir where you get the city water taxi (3$ one way, 5$ all day pass) to and from downtown dock and the cruise peir.

see pic

from there you board their boat that takes you to the tiki thing. the boat is an old cruise ship lifeboat that's been altered. there you meet some of the crew and they boat you around the point on the pier just to the other side of the sound.

here's a pic of us going around the point where the old fort is

while on the boat they tell you about your excursion

the tiki hut is a floating barge anchored to rocks on one side, and a sunken tour submarine on the other. it is floating and moving the entire day so take your motion meds. you have the entire day to use the tiki hut, snorkel, swim and here's a bonus... they will ferry you back to the cruise ship dock or downtown if you like. you can even return to snorkel again but if you do let them know in advance. whats cool is that on your ride back either to downtown or cruise ship dock, they will GIVE you an all day city water taxi bracelet that will let you ride back to the cruise ship pier if they dropped you off downtown but the bracelet works all day. a nice 5$ perk! anyways back to the tiki.

the crew was really nice. there's no bathrooms (#1 in the ocean i guess, #2 they need to ferry you back to shore). there's no electric so everything they have is in coolers. they also have a gas grill they heat up if you want to buy a burger or hotdog. prices were fair, sorry i dont remember what they were.

they have two groups, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. the tiki barge is small so they like to keep clutter to a minimum so they have you put all your belongings (camera, clothes, lotion, anything you dont need to snorkel) in a basket that the bar dude keeps behind the bar in racks. this keeps the deck clear. they were really nice about telling you everthing thats going on and for first timers its a great lesson and good snorkel. for experienced snorkels you will be dissapointed. there wasn't too much coral. more like rocks with spots of coral growing on it. lots of fish and squid-type fish, i don't know what they're called.

one neat thing is that there were tons of artifacts to see in the water. like sunken ship hulls and cannons from the fort! they even sunk a submarine right off their barge which was cool to look at.

all and all it was a good excursion. if you're a newb it'll be nice. they have a pool section on the barge to learn how to snorkel. i wish the snorkeling and visability was better. if you hate sand and snorkeling off the beach because of it you'll like this. contrary if you hate moving a lot you wont like it.

here are some pics.

Excellent report and photos.

Thank you so much!

gary

What a great detailed report. Thanks so much for sharing. A picture is worth a thousand words!

I absolutely loved this excursion. I have to say that the ride TO the tiki hut was a bit rough.

The ride back to town wasn't. The shops were so cute and they sat right on the beach. The girls at the Tiki Hut was fabulous. Our boat driver was new but he was good. They had mats to lay on which I loved since I'm really not a snorkeler. We ate burgers and drank soda. The people couldn't have been more accommodating.

GREAT EXCURSION!

We did another excusion on a boat that led to the same general snorkel area-- lots of sea urchins & not so much fish--the tiki hut looked like alot of fun--but with bathrooms--that's just gross!

I absolutely loved this excursion. I have to say that the ride TO the tiki hut was a bit rough.

The ride back to town wasn't. The shops were so cute and they sat right on the beach. The girls at the Tiki Hut was fabulous. Our boat driver was new but he was good. They had mats to lay on which I loved since I'm really not a snorkeler. We ate burgers and drank soda. The people couldn't have been more accommodating.

Hi Deanva, thanks for posting your experience. Did you do this in December? Was looking for recent info on them. Also, did they have bathrooms?

Thanks

This is great. We've been looking at this as an option for St. Martin.

Couple questions if there's anyone out there who can help ...

1. The original poster said he or she booked independant of the ship. Has onyone done this recently? I just e-mailed the company and was told you have to go through the cruise line. I'd love to know how to get around that and save a few bucks.

2. My kids love snorkeling but are much more comfortable doing it with an inflatable life jacket (like we had in Grand Cayman on the stingray tour) or some other flotation device. Does Tiki Hut have any available?

Thanks.

Yes - they provide all sorts of flotation devices - noodles, life jackets, etc. They also have an 'emergency' bathroom - it is on the dive boat a short swim away. I am an avid snorkeler so I just used this outing to let my friend's kids have fun. We brought our own masks/snorkels, but used their fins. They had really good equipment and I would not bother to bring my own mask again. The food was really good and cheap. The rum punch was $3 for a big plastic cupful. It was really good - not overly strong, but not sissy stuff and not too sweet. If you want to learn how to snorkel in a safe and fun environment, or if you have a large enough group to take up the whole place - it is FABULOUS. Ingrid and the rest of the staff are funny and very informative. The water was pretty cloudy the day we were there, so they gave us the option of cancelling at the dock, with a full refund. That is classy! No one did and no one regretted it. The workers fed the fish now and then to get them to come to the surface, so the people still got to see lots of fish! Even though I had to book thru RCI (I tried booking direct too), I think it was worth it. Especially if you have been to St Martin before. And they will take you back to town or the cruise ship dock whenever you want, so I didn't feel trapped like some excursions!

This sounds great! we are considering this! Thanks everyone for all the great info and pictures!

Sherri

Thank you so much for this review! We were considering it and now won't go. We are advanced snorkelers and my husband prefers a beach where he can get his bearings (AKA stop moving for a few minutes). It was very helpful to hear this information!

Im restarting this thread to get more info.. Anyone do this lately? I would like to know if its possible to book directly with the Tiki Hut and not the cruise line

I know this is an old thread but I was looking at it to ask the same question - based on their website, if you're on certain lines (the ones that have it as an excursion) they won't let them book it direct with them.

Due to info on this board the cruiselines are aware of trying to book around them so..... they have a contract with the operator that states they can't accept booking from cruise passengers. Sometimes the info on this board is used against us.

We just got off the Explorer of the Seas (RCI) this morning, and we did the Tiki Hut Snorkel Adventure in St. Maarten. We are a family of 6, with kids 11, 15, 17 and 19 yo. We all LOVED this excursion. It was expensive, but we had a great time. As described above, there is a small boat that takes you to the floating tiki hut thing, maybe a 15 minute ride. Once there, you place all your stuff into a basket (or several baskets) and they stow them away for you. You can get your stuff anytime you want, but it keeps the raft clear. You can stay on the raft anywhere from 2 hours to 6 hours - the boat makes the trip back to the ship once an hour. We stayed for about 3 hours. The snorkelling would probably be boring for the more experienced snorkellers but for us it was great. I personally just enjoy swimming in the warm, calm water.

There is a bathroom on a nearby boat that is a 60 foot swim from the main tiki raft. It was clean and easy to get to, but you do have to swim to it.

They provide floats, noodles, and floating louge chairs. On the raft they have some lounge chairs and you can take a break and just lie in the sun, or read in the shade under an umbrella. The tiki bar sells beer and rum punch for a reasonable price (I forget how much), hot dots for $5, hamburgers for $7, and delicious grilled fish sandwiches for $8.

This was a wonderful and relaxing way to spend an afternoon. I highly recommend it.