Questions about shore snorkeling

Hello everyone, we're going to our first cruise trip. We want to try some shore snorkeling. Does anybody know if there are good shore snorkeling sites within the walking distance from the cruise terminal? Do we have to take some shore excursion tours to another island or a distant beach? We cannot take the deep sea snorkeling excursions because we're not swimmers. Thanks!

Last time I went to this place I was on Carnival Cruise and we stopped at Mahogany Bay. We just snorkeled right off the beach there. If you want the reef you need to be adventurous and wander outside the roped area. Go to the end of the pier and enter the water there. The water when we were there was pretty clear. I saw a barracuda sunning himself on a rock, was only about 4 - 5 feet long. We also bought our own snorkel gear but the beach area does rent them.

You didn't say where you will be docking.

An excellent place to go snorkeling from shore would be to head over to West Bay and you can enter the water and snorkel right from there.

Or, you can book Maya Key with your cruise ship and it has some amazing snorkeling from their pier at the beach. You get in and right away you are there at a reef. It's beautiful.

I have reviews with tons of pictures of both of these place listed in my signature line if you are interested. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. :)