Excursion BOSS in St. Thomas

Hi,

had anybody done this BOSS underwater Adventure in St. Thomas ?

We think about it to do this excursion next year in St.Thomas - but my DH is not a so good swimmer.. Is this Adventure possible for him? :o

will we get agoraphobia under the helmet ? is it worth the money we spend?

thanks for answers

We did this a few months ago. It was one of the worst excursions we have ever done. You don't really see much and drive the thing single file about 100 feet take pictures and get back on the boat. You spend about a half hour in the water but only 15 minutes driving the thing. The crew was nasty to the passengers and made the whole thing very uncomfortable. I would definitely not recommend this.

We enjoyed this excursion very much. They will help you in and out of the craft so being a week swimmer isn't a deal breaker, but let the operators know so they can assist you. The domes you sick your head in our huge and made for a great panoramic view, so we didn't feel confined.

After reading Jackson's message, I will say our experience was 2006.

We enjoyed this excursion very much. They will help you in and out of the craft so being a week swimmer isn't a deal breaker, but let the operators know so they can assist you. The domes you sick your head in our huge and made for a great panoramic view, so we didn't feel confined.

 

After reading Jackson's message, I will say our experience was 2006.

Hmm, what shall Iwe do, I 'm not willing to waste money :(

Hmm, what shall Iwe do, I 'm not willing to waste money :(

I am assuming both reports listed are accurate and that with something like this they have a turn over of employees. Maybe they have good days and bad? Have you tried looking at other sites like tripadvisor to see what recent reviews are like? It might be worth asking in the ST THOMAS section of the PORTS OF CALL forum as you might get other more recent opinions. I would offer to check on this next April for you when we return there, but this excursion actually inspired me to get my scuba certification and I'm already booked on a scuba excursion for my trip there.

It might be worth asking in the ST THOMAS section of the PORTS OF CALL forum as you might get other more recent opinions.

I think, that will be a good idea, thkx

and have fun on the scuba trip

We've done it and had a great time. You do only get about a half hour on the scooter, but it is fun, and a great way for non swimmers to get an awesome underwater view. I would recommend trying it.

Eric

I can't speak to that specific location but we did the same thing in cozumel along with the sea trek helmet dive. My wife isn't much of a swimmer and won't snorkel, but she enjoyed both. She enjoyed the sea trek a little more as far as how the equipment worked.

I don't know about st thomas but in cozumel they put the thing in the water, you walk up behind it and have to dip under water and put your head in it, I only mention it because you said your husband doesn't swim.

I can't speak to that specific location but we did the same thing in cozumel along with the sea trek helmet dive. My wife isn't much of a swimmer and won't snorkel, but she enjoyed both. She enjoyed the sea trek a little more as far as how the equipment worked.

 

I don't know about st thomas but in cozumel they put the thing in the water, you walk up behind it and have to dip under water and put your head in it, I only mention it because you said your husband doesn't swim.

Good to know as I'm considering what to do on our next Cozumel trip. In St Thomas they take you out on a boat to a nearby area. On our trip I think they had 8 units and took out 24 people. They divided us into 3 groups. One group went out at a time and I think we had 20 minutes each and while the other two groups were out, we could snorkle. The area was called Buck Island and it had some decent snorkeling.

I just did a search and there are 53 reviews for this on tripadvisor. I just searched on BOSS ST THOMAS. I'm off to read them.

Quick oberservation, A lot of good reviews, one bad one from recent people. The bad one specifically mentioned it was a Royal Caribbean offering.

Good to know as I'm considering what to do on our next Cozumel trip. In St Thomas they take you out on a boat to a nearby area. On our trip I think they had 8 units and took out 24 people. They divided us into 3 groups. One group went out at a time and I think we had 20 minutes each and while the other two groups were out, we could snorkle. The area was called Buck Island and it had some decent snorkeling.

there were 5 of us in cozumel (I booked off ship..) we went in individually then the diver navigated us through the rocks and tied us down to a cable underwater while we waited for the others, then we cruised around for 20 minutes then got tied up again while they went and looked for critters to bring back.

the propulsion didn't work very good on theirs, mostly the divers pushed you along.

We have done this in both Cozumel and St. Thomas. We really preferred the one in St. Thomas, as it was much more scenic with more fish.

Eric

We did this earlier this year and had a great time. I thought that the crew were fantastic. I'm in my late 70's and a poor swimmer, but I had no problem with the excursion. Make sure you have an underwater camera. The crew that guides you underwater were great, they used our camera to take some photos of us and I they worked really hard to ensure we had a very memorable trip.

Make sure you have an underwater camera. The crew that guides you underwater were great, they used our camera to take some photos of us and I they worked really hard to ensure we had a very memorable trip.

Same for us, good point. The photo I posted above was of us by one of the divers.

We did this excursion a few years ago when we were on the Celebrity Equinox in St. Thomas also. I would tell you that it was neither great nor horrible. If you're going to see the fish, our experience was not great, very few fish to see. If you're going for the experience on the BOSS, it is ok. I am a little claustrophobic and initially had a hard time going in the bubble, after I finally calmed myself a little, it was ok. The scooter is very bulky and very hard to steer. I tried hard not to hit the reef at one point but did hit it a little, felt bad about that but honestly the device is difficult to steer. The snorkeling wasn't great unless they moved to a different reef. The crew worked with our underwater camera to get it to work and thankfully we have some fun photos to remind us of this excursion but I would not do it again. The captain was a bit irreverent to the passengers, I thought bordering on rude. I think some of the passengers were intimidated by the captain barking orders and instructions, think he was trying to be funny but not so much. It is expensive and I am sure there are other excursions that would be better for snorkeling and an overall experience. Just relaying our experience.

We did this excursion a few years ago when we were on the Celebrity Equinox in St. Thomas also. I would tell you that it was neither great nor horrible. If you're going to see the fish, our experience was not great, very few fish to see. If you're going for the experience on the BOSS, it is ok. I am a little claustrophobic and initially had a hard time going in the bubble, after I finally calmed myself a little, it was ok. The scooter is very bulky and very hard to steer. I tried hard not to hit the reef at one point but did hit it a little, felt bad about that but honestly the device is difficult to steer. The snorkeling wasn't great unless they moved to a different reef. The crew worked with our underwater camera to get it to work and thankfully we have some fun photos to remind us of this excursion but I would not do it again. The captain was a bit irreverent to the passengers, I thought bordering on rude. I think some of the passengers were intimidated by the captain barking orders and instructions, think he was trying to be funny but not so much. It is expensive and I am sure there are other excursions that would be better for snorkeling and an overall experience. Just relaying our experience.

That seems like a fair statement based on my recollection. About all the fish we saw were yellow snappers common to the area. The vehicles were sluggish, slow to respond so its not a fun as it may appear, I mainly enjoyed the experience and being 25 feet underwater for the first time ever. I did enjoy it once, but wouldn't go back, but as mentioned it did inspire to get my scuba certification.

We did the dive in Turtle Cove. We saw lots of parrot fish, the yellow angel fish and yellow jacks. Lots of turtles, especially young ones. The scooters were a little hard to steer and response wasn't the quickest. We got along really well with the captain. I was very impressed with the way he assigned the scooters. As you can tell by my CC name, I'm a Bond fan. My SIL, who did the excursion with me, is a former police officer. We had never met the captain before, but he assigned me scooter #007 and my SIL #911. The young lady with the big bosom was assigned #44D.:D We found him very talkative and very pleasant, he even shared his private stash of rum with us to liven up the fruit juices that were there.