Can you use your own snorkel gear on CoCo Cay?

[gatur123fl]

I did a chat message with Royal Caribbean and they said to use our own snorkeling equipment and snorkel on CoCo cay it would be the same cost as if we did the excursion. Has that been your experience? Maybe the person who looked it up was mistaken?

[reallyitsmema]

Originally Posted by gatur123fl

I did a chat message with Royal Caribbean and they said to use our own snorkeling equipment and snorkel on CoCo cay it would be the same cost as if we did the excursion. Has that been your experience? Maybe the person who looked it up was mistaken?

Yes, you can use your own equipment to snorkel on your own. If you are going on the excursion, then you have to pay the price of the snorkel excursion whether you use your equipment or theirs.

We use our own equipment and snorkel on our own. There are a couple of buoys that mark a sunken plane and a boat. We just went out to those.

If you don't own a snorkel vest, you will be required to rent one since those are required. They rent for less than $10 as far as I can remember.

[Scotty G]

Originally Posted by gatur123fl

I did a chat message with Royal Caribbean and they said to use our own snorkeling equipment and snorkel on CoCo cay it would be the same cost as if we did the excursion. Has that been your experience? Maybe the person who looked it up was mistaken?

DW uses her own equipment including snorkel vest and there is no charge to go in the water at Coco Cay.

[Loucat]

We always bring our own snorkel equipment, vests included. I do not want to relay on anyone's disinfecting equipment and some of the quality of constantly used equipment is not that great. We had fun snorkeling in CoCo Key. We live in Florida and drive to the port so we also brought an umbrella with a high sun screen level. It folds right up!

[orville99]

We always use our own gear, even when we book an excursion, but there 's no need to book anything at coco cay if you want to snorkle anywhere on the island.

[Hal from Ohio]

My sister works in the health care field, and without sharing graphic details, has told me of unpleasant health issues as a direct result of unsanitary snorkel equipment rentals. Go to your nearest Sam's Club or Costco and purchase a decent quality mask/snorkel for around $50.

[WhiteRabbit]

Originally Posted by reallyitsmema

We use our own equipment and snorkel on our own. There are a couple of buoys that mark a sunken plane and a boat. We just went out to those.

If you don't own a snorkel vest, you will be required to rent one since those are required. They rent for less than $10 as far as I can remember.

So if we want to snorkel around the sunken plane and boat, we need to rent the vests, but if we snorkel just off the beach, do we still need the vests? Can you put the cost of the vest on your sea card, or do we need cash? Is the rental for all day, or by the hour? Thanks : )

[clarea]

Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

So if we want to snorkel around the sunken plane and boat, we need to rent the vests, but if we snorkel just off the beach, do we still need the vests? Can you put the cost of the vest on your sea card, or do we need cash? Is the rental for all day, or by the hour? Thanks : )

The cost of the vest can be put on your Seapass and is for all day. I don't know exactly where the lifeguards will start yelling at you if you don't have a vest, but at some point they will. By the way, snorkeling just off the beach would be pointless because the water is all stirred up and you can't see much of anything until you get away from the beach.

[WhiteRabbit]

Originally Posted by clarea

The cost of the vest can be put on your Seapass and is for all day. I don't know exactly where the lifeguards will start yelling at you if you don't have a vest, but at some point they will. By the way, snorkeling just off the beach would be pointless because the water is all stirred up and you can't see much of anything until you get away from the beach.

Thanks so much! So are there other places besides the sunken boat and plane that are worth checking out? We leave tomorrow for our July 15th cruise on the Freedom and I'm trying to figure out how much cash to bring with us. We're also going parasailing on Coco Cay and trying to figure the tip. Fun days ahead!

[clarea]

Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

Thanks so much! So are there other places besides the sunken boat and plane that are worth checking out? We leave tomorrow for our July 15th cruise on the Freedom and I'm trying to figure out how much cash to bring with us. We're also going parasailing on Coco Cay and trying to figure the tip. Fun days ahead!

Yes, if you are on the beach looking at the lifeguard stations, to the left is a large area between rocks that you can swim thru to get to a more interesting reef area. You can't go too far because there are buoys out there to delimit the safe swimming area. Currents can be stronger in this area.

[reallyitsmema]

Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

Thanks so much! So are there other places besides the sunken boat and plane that are worth checking out? We leave tomorrow for our July 15th cruise on the Freedom and I'm trying to figure out how much cash to bring with us. We're also going parasailing on Coco Cay and trying to figure the tip. Fun days ahead!

We primarily stayed in the area where the plane is and the rocky area off to the left of the plane. Closer to shore is really stirred up as clarea said and not worth it. My son actually dropped his mask somewhere in that area and we never found it because the water was all stirred up and you couldn't see the bottom.

You can charge to your seapass everywhere except the little straw market so bring cash if you are planning to buy anything.

[WhiteRabbit]

Originally Posted by clarea

Yes, if you are on the beach looking at the lifeguard stations, to the left is a large area between rocks that you can swim thru to get to a more interesting reef area. You can't go too far because there are buoys out there to delimit the safe swimming area. Currents can be stronger in this area.

Thank you! We're really looking forward to some beach time : )

[WhiteRabbit]

Originally Posted by reallyitsmema

We primarily stayed in the area where the plane is and the rocky area off to the left of the plane. Closer to shore is really stirred up as clarea said and not worth it. My son actually dropped his mask somewhere in that area and we never found it because the water was all stirred up and you couldn't see the bottom.

You can charge to your seapass everywhere except the little straw market so bring cash if you are planning to buy anything.

I thought I remembered reading that, but wasn't sure since I've read soooo much stuff lately! This makes it easier to plan. Thanks!

[we're sailing away....]

You have to wear a vest ...

[orville99]

We always use our own gear. There's a spit of land that juts out and separates the snorlke beach from the next section of the beach, and we've had good luck seeing fish, rays, etc. without having to go out to the plane area.

[BecciBoo]

Originally Posted by clarea

The cost of the vest can be put on your Seapass and is for all day. I don't know exactly where the lifeguards will start yelling at you if you don't have a vest, but at some point they will. By the way, snorkeling just off the beach would be pointless because the water is all stirred up and you can't see much of anything until you get away from the beach.

We have never been yelled at or forced to wear anything on all 3 trips to CoCoCay. And visability depends on the beach, we had terrific viz at the sports beach where I saw my first ever octopus:
View My Video Keep looking he's there, clutching a white shell! Heres a still, he is in the upper right corner, pretty in pink:
Try to continue on around the back to the way back beaches, real shallow water and tones of critters and no people. We love it back there.

[orville99]

Originally Posted by BecciBoo

We have never been yelled at or forced to wear anything on all 3 trips to CoCoCay. And visability depends on the beach, we had terrific viz at the sports beach where I saw my first ever octopus:
View My Video Keep looking he's there, clutching a white shell! Heres a still, he is in the upper right corner, pretty in pink:
Try to continue on around the back to the way back beaches, real shallow water and tones of critters and no people. We love it back there.

Apparently, he's a permanent resident. I just looked at my UW pix from our May FOS cruise, and there he was. Also saw a baby ray.

[BecciBoo]

Oh could you share, was he still at the same location in front of the sports beach amongst the rocks and coral?

[orville99]

Originally Posted by BecciBoo

Oh could you share, was he still at the same location in front of the sports beach amongst the rocks and coral?

I found him in the rocky area between the snorkle beach and where they have the floats and the jet ski's

[kingsgirl]

Just wanted to add some photos of the fish/sea life we saw the last time we were at Coco Cay.

We went off the same beach everyone is talking about. We also went out and to the left and it gets about 6-8 feet deep and very clear. The current is stronger out here and honestly, I was a little scared a shark would come up as it seemed to drop off so we went back to the other area. It's something different to see though and it's initially where we ran into the stingray.

First picture is of sea urchin. They are under the rock but a bit hard to see. I have no idea what all the fish are but we saw a cool variety.

And, I don't care if I get flamed for this, but another cruiser showed us how much the fish like to eat cereal (Rice Krispies/ Special K) so we usually take some from the ship and feed them. We literally had a hundred or more fish around us when this guy fed them. So much that you were being hit by their fins....kinda gross but a fun experience.

Just REMEMBER to bring the plastic bag back with you to the beach so it doesn't harm any other ocean life. It's super fun, trust me! I usually put the plastic in my bathing suit so I don't have to hold on to it.