Need help choosing between Ultimate and Power Snorkeling

We are treating our parents to this cruise and my father-in-law wants to go snorkeling.

I had HAL send him a paper excursions brochure and he picked out Snuba. But reading the reviews I see they are mixed. People who wanted a SCUBA-like experience liked it, but people who just wanted to see a lot of colorful fish were disappointed. My FIL said he is in the second category so we are looking for a different option.

I'm trying to choose between the Ultimate Snorkeling and Power Snorkeling.

I'm leaning towards Power Snorkeling because it gets nothing but Very Good and Excellent reviews. I can't find a single person saying anything negative about it. Seems too good to be true.

I'm leaning away from Ultimate Snorkeling because some of the reviews say the water was too crowded with people. I don't want to be bumping into other people.

Still our number one priority is beautiful, colorful fish etc. Not sure how to compare the two excursions on this issue. I think I need someone who has tried both to advise me.

Thanks

I wouldn't recommend the Power Snorkel to anyone who is not a great snorkeler, lots of experience, as you are using a machine that will drag you underwater and you need to hold your breathe while underwater. It is a whole different experience from laying on the surface snorkeling, occasionally diving down underwater. I am guessing they have the machines set to go slow, but I don't have experience with this excursion.

Is there anyone who has done Power Snorkeling that can share their experience?

Ok, here's just my personal thought...my daughter bought my grandson one of those power snorkel machine that guides him threw the water. They are not as easy as it appears and the fan rotates, which is what pushes you in the water, but it's blowing out the back of it, which is where you are located at. ;)

Now, let's say that controlling it isn't an issue. So think about this. You are trying to "snorkel", in the ocean, where you are a "foreign" creature in the habitat of the sea animals. For the most part, unless you are feeding the fish, the fish and creatures are going to run from you. So, the best snorkeling you can possibly do, and see more things come out from hiding, is being as still as possible and just watching. There's a lot of things that come out from hiding if you are not moving or making a commotion. Zooming through the water quickly with something that is pulling you does not fit that description. More than likely, it will scare off a majority of the animals.

Second, these things make noises. So, no sneaking up on any animals either. They will hear you coming a mile away. ;)

However, they are a lot of fun to use, just not "meant" for actual "snorkeling" in my opinion. Too loud, too fast. It's more or less for the experience of doing it IMO. :)

We did the power snorkel through HAL in Grand Turk.

The equipment did not work well. It seemed like the batteries ran out less than halfway through. We kicked to get in more than being propelled.

You take a short bus ride from the cruise center. Then you get snorkel gear and board a motor boat that takes you out to the wall dropoff. Here you jump in the water and get your power snorkel. We all motored around there for about 5 minutes. It is like a mile drop so there are fish but not a lot.

Then you all snorkel back to the beach. It takes about 15 minutes. There are no reefs but a sandy bottom. You will see a few fish--VERY few.

It was a fun thing to try but we love snorkeling and that was a dud. You can see a hundred times more fish at the beach where the boat docks.

If snorkeling is the goal, definitely do the Ultimate snorkel.

If your cruise stops at St. Thomas, there are many beaches to snorkel from that will have a lot of different, colorful fish.

Grand Turk is pretty, but not the best snorkeling stop.

We are treating our parents to this cruise and my father-in-law wants to go snorkeling.

 

I had HAL send him a paper excursions brochure and he picked out Snuba. But reading the reviews I see they are mixed. People who wanted a SCUBA-like experience liked it, but people who just wanted to see a lot of colorful fish were disappointed. My FIL said he is in the second category so we are looking for a different option.

 

I'm trying to choose between the Ultimate Snorkeling and Power Snorkeling.

 

I'm leaning towards Power Snorkeling because it gets nothing but Very Good and Excellent reviews. I can't find a single person saying anything negative about it. Seems too good to be true.

 

I'm leaning away from Ultimate Snorkeling because some of the reviews say the water was too crowded with people. I don't want to be bumping into other people.

 

Still our number one priority is beautiful, colorful fish etc. Not sure how to compare the two excursions on this issue. I think I need someone who has tried both to advise me.

 

Thanks

We did the Ultimate snorkeling and we were the only cruise ship in port so it was not crowed at all. We seen lots of fish up close and that was great because I had my GOPRO camera with me to video tape it. The only bad thing about the trip was when we went back they did not drop us off where we got on. They dropped us off way down the beach and we had to carry all our gear back to the pier. We complained to Carnival about it and they called them about the issue. We will never again use them because of that. Good luck in your choice.