Rumors of Carnival Excursions to Little French Key put to rest

OK...HERE IS THE FULL STORY, IT COMES STRAIGHT FROM THE OWNERS MOUTH. I sat down with the owner of LFK and spoke extensively about his home, island, family and especially this debate over the ship excursion to Little French Key that Carnival offers.

I'm here to set the story straight about this issue. There have been so many conflicting reports about the Carnival excursions being offered here, the owner saying the excursion is officially canceled and cruisers continuing to say 1) they are still going there and have been there and 2) they are still offering this excursion on Carnival...as far as into next years bookings.

NO, YOU DID NOT GO THERE AND NO, THEY ARE NOT STILL OFFERING IT...and I'll tell you why. (Well this is if it's been here recently after October)

The owners tried for 2 years to get a contract with Carnival to offer their place as an excursion for the cruisers to generate some income to help with the expenses to take care of the island and the animals. Carnival always denied. Then like I said, LFK opened up for day passes back around 2011 and obviously Carnival seen what a beautiful retreat it could be=$$ generated by Carnival if they accepted. By then, they were no longer interested in doing a contract with them because they were doing just fine on their own. Their beautiful island was starting to get publicity (and we all know the publicity I have given it on here with the pictures). However, they thought about it and decided to give it a try on a temporary basis. They signed an 8 month contract with Carnival to accept the cruisers as a day pass excursion. After the contract was up, they decided to cancel.

When it came time for the cancellation of their contract, Carnival approached them to extend it. They declined, but at the begging of Carnival, they agreed to extend it for another 2 months and that was it. I believe it ended in October.

I had contacted Kevah on his fb page inquiring about this and was told the same thing (because people on here were asking about it and others were saying that they would not go if they were to be bombarded with a bunch of cruisers on an excursion). There were bad reports now flowing in saying that the place was too crowded, there was no place to sit, there were areas that were roped off and the cruisers on the excursion took up the entire area and it no longer made for a relaxing day. He assured me that the contract was canceled.

Of course reports kept flowing in that they were still booking with Carnival to LFK and there are reports that it's still being offered into next year.

HERE'S WHERE THE CARNIVAL CRUISERS ARE GOING....IT'S NOT LITTLE FRENCH KEY!!!

This is your beach Carnival cruisers...

Carnival obviously put plans into motion when they knew that LFK was no longer interested in giving them a slice of $$ for the day passes and was able to get the island across from LFK, in the lagoon area, to create a place for the cruisers to go. The reason that you are seeing the NAME on Carnival is they ever so slyly named this place FRENCH KEY! By dropping the "Little", they still have the same name and still have cruisers thinking they are going to Little French Key. How clever Carnival. However, IMO, you have turned a beautiful little secluded area on LFK into a place that now shares part of it's lagoon with the hoards of cruisers visiting in any given day. It is ashamed that LFK had to put up the big red buoys you see in the pictures and plat forms to "mark their territory" instead of having the beautiful, untouched, natural look it had before this happened. Now this particular area looks like your typical "resort" destination for the cruisers.

He stated that yes, some times the cruisers adventure over and he is polite about it, but that's why his day pass people have the wrist bands and he knows who belongs to his place. He can't do much about them wondering over, but if it gets crowded, it's because they are now trying to invade his space and are not supposed to be there to begin with.

If you look at LFK on Carnivals site, you will find that the $$ for this listing is now N/A and it has been discontinued.

So if you are seeing a beach getaway that goes there now...just know you are going to the island across from LFK that has been name "French Key" to throw you off.

I remember doing some research on this island awhile back and I believe from what I remembered, it is a privately owned island that they made several weekly rental homes on. You can rent one of these villas for $35,000 for the week. Yikes! This island is actually named "Big French Key". The size of it is a lot bigger than LFK as seen in an aerial below.

Some history about Big French Cay:

BIG FRENCH CAY

Big French Cay is approximately 11 1/2 acres in size, located about a quarter of a mile off the main island of Roatan. The island is believed to be originally settled by a Frenchman in the 1760s. By the early part of the last century there were over 20 families, a school and a church on the island. When the present owners purchased the Cay in 1974, there was only one family left -- the Thompsons, Horace and Mary, ages 87 and 86 respectively. Both had been born and raised on Big French Cay. Mr. Thompson was third-generation, and Mrs. Thompson was fourth-generation of original English settlers.

The Big French Cay was utilized for a program for children with learning disorders during the mid-seventies until early eighties. Today, the island has gone through an extensive renovation to cater to a discerning clientèle that require the privacy of their own facilities.

So there you have it. The scoop that everyone has been looking for. :)

Thanks for the update. That makes sense now why some are reporting they can still book "french key". How sneaky!

It's great news for those that want the seclusion of Little French Key. They should not have to deal with the "overcrowding" that was previously reported.

Just checked excursion options for my upcoming Carnival cruise. Carnival is offering a "Big" French Key excursion! Thanks for the information Mitsugirly. So glad that I know the difference. We will be booking with the beautiful LITTLE French Key;)

Just checked excursion options for my upcoming Carnival cruise. Carnival is offering a "Big" French Key excursion! Thanks for the information Mitsugirly. So glad that I know the difference. We will be booking with the beautiful LITTLE French Key;)

I'm surprised they actually decided to change the name. Last I heard it just said "French Key" to add to the confusion. :(

Thanks for posting this info. We'll be going back to this beautiful island this Feb. and was thinking about booking LFK through their web page. Now I definitely know what i need to do. :D

You're welcome. I hope you have a wonderful day at LFK. :)