Samur Sail and Snorkel?

Anybody do this tour? If so what is the boat like, don't want to go on a piece of junk. If this tour is a joke, anything better?

We're considering this tour also and would love to hear from someone with experience.

Anybody do this tour? If so what is the boat like, don't want to go on a piece of junk. If this tour is a joke, anything better?

I don't know about Samur, but if you want puretee snorkeling with first class operators try DiveInn Bonaire or Sea & Discover.

Here are their web sites:

http://www.diveinnbonaire.com/index.htm

http://www.bonairenature.com/seandiscover/#Bonaire%20Marine%20Education%20Center

It's not mentioned on their web site, but Sea & Discover has a special trip for cruise ship pax. This is from their e-mail:

Hi Steve,

We have a special program for cruiseship visitors. It's a 2 site guided

snorkeltrip that starts at 1.30 PM. I pick you up at the boat dock and

take you to two different snorkel sites where we'll go snorkeling. At

around 5 pm I return you to the dock again. The program costs $42.- p.p.

This also includes the marine park fee. I take a minimum of 2 and

maximum of 6 people with me. If you're interested in this program you

can make reservation through e-mail.

Thanks,

Wanda

Sea & Discover

I don't know about Samur, but if you want puretee snorkeling with first class operators try DiveInn Bonaire or Sea & Discover.

Here are their web sites:

 

http://www.diveinnbonaire.com/index.htm

 

http://www.bonairenature.com/seandiscover/#Bonaire%20Marine%20Education%20Center

 

It's not mentioned on their web site, but Sea & Discover has a special trip for cruise ship pax. This is from their e-mail:

 

Hi Steve,

 

We have a special program for cruiseship visitors. It's a 2 site guided

snorkeltrip that starts at 1.30 PM. I pick you up at the boat dock and

take you to two different snorkel sites where we'll go snorkeling. At

around 5 pm I return you to the dock again. The program costs $42.- p.p.

This also includes the marine park fee. I take a minimum of 2 and

maximum of 6 people with me. If you're interested in this program you

can make reservation through e-mail.

Thanks,

Wanda

Sea & Discover

Fuggedabout Sea & Discover. I just received a cancellation notice from them. They are suspending snorkel trips due to personnel relocations.

Ah well, there are lots of other good operators. Woodwind and and Renee, to mention two more.

The problem is we're a group of eight and many of the recommended tour operators have a limit of six.

We booked the Samur through Princess for now unless you experienced cruisers have a better idea.

So did you do the Samur Sail Beach and Snorkel? How was it? We are trying to decide on a ship excursion!

So did you do the Samur Sail Beach and Snorkel? How was it? We are trying to decide on a ship excursion!

We booked for our Feb 24, 2008 cruise. Will be able to give you info after that.

Anybody do this tour? If so what is the boat like, don't want to go on a piece of junk. If this tour is a joke, anything better?

The boat is beautiful. There is quite a history to it that the owner/operator will you about.

We had a really great time. Usually we book independent tours but couldn't do it this time because of our short time on Bonaire. (Emerald Princess was in Bonaire from 7 am until only 2 pm!)

This is one of the few ship sponsored excursions that we truly enjoyed. After everyone is shuttled from the ship to the beach, those who wish to drift are taken by zodiac to the farther end of the island. Once out of the zodiac you drift along with the current back to the beach. This takes about 20 minutes or so. Great way to do some fantastic snorkeling with almost no effort at all.

This was one of our favorite excursions !

Molly

... After everyone is shuttled from the ship to the beach, those who wish to drift are taken by zodiac to the farther end of the island. Once out of the zodiac you drift along with the current back to the beach. This takes about 20 minutes or so. Great way to do some fantastic snorkeling with almost no effort at all...

Curious about the zodiac...can you explain?

Do they provide your snorkel equipment. We will take our own mask and snorkel, but would like to avoid hauling fins. Do they have the floatation vests? Thanks for the input.

We were wondering the same thing.....what are snorkeling vests like that are provided?

Just back from cruise off Emerald and spent on day on Bonaire on the Samur excursion.

Will answer some of my own questions.

The zodiacs are inflatable motor boats that shuttle you on/off the Samur. It's a climb from the dock onto the zodiac and from the zodiac onto the ship. With the crew's help, even myself (3 months out of knee replacement) was able to maneuver these climbs.

The Samur provides snorkeling vests, fins, masks and snorkels. The vests are normal inflatable snorkeling vests.

I agree with huladancer, this was a great tour.

One note: If you want to do the drift snorkel...wait on the beach for the zodiac...don't start snorkeling on your own...you'll miss the ride for the drift.

This sounds like a great tour! We will also have just a short time in Bonaire and by what I can tell, snorkeling is the thing to do there! I was looking at Princess' other snorkel tours. This looks the most fun. How long do you have at the beach after the drift? We will only be in Bonaire from 7 - 1!:eek:

And I only have a little over a year to wait.........:)

I'm thinking if you do the drift as soon as you hit the island...first zodiac to drift sight..you'll easily have 30-45 minutes on beach. The drift takes about 20 minutes.

We did this excursion this past Dec.

We loved the drift snorkel so much that we are taking another cruise that includes bonaire just to do it again.

You take the inflatable boat from the pier to the Samur. I am middle age, fat, and clumsey and had no trouble getting in or out.

From there you have the trip to Klein bonaire. You then take the raft to the beach. Those wanting the drift snorkel are then taken almost to the other end of the island and dropped into the water. This was the best snorkeling we have ever done. The drift took at least 50 minutes. When we got back to the beach we had to load right back on the raft to head back. It is not that we were slow, it took evedryone on the drift at least this long or longer. But a fantastic time!!!

The ship is beatiful and there were drinks, snacks on the way back.

I have looked for a similar trip where you are dropped off to drift but so far have only found the samur.

Thanks ALL for the information you've already given!

HELP! What's the beach like for that part of the excursion? :confused:

Is it a sandy gently sloping beach free of rocks? Are water shoes needed? Are there chairs on the beach? :confused:

HELP! What's the beach like for that part of the excursion? :confused:

Is it a sandy gently sloping beach free of rocks? Are water shoes needed? Are there chairs on the beach? :confused:

There is a nice sandy beach (yes, gently sloping)....no need for water shoes here. No beach chairs where we landed although there was a rustic, covered area with bench seating. If I had to guess I'd say 14 X 14. Plan to get your towels sandy.

There is a nice sandy beach (yes, gently sloping)....no need for water shoes here. No beach chairs where we landed although there was a rustic, covered area with bench seating. If I had to guess I'd say 14 X 14. Plan to get your towels sandy.

THANK YOU! Sounds fine to us! Really do appreciate your reply! :)

I liked this excursion but did not love it. Unlike a previous poster, I did not like the boat. If restored it could be beautiful. A good coat of varnish would help immensely. We were one of the fortunate ones to get a seat with a small cushion. My heart went out to those sitting on wood. I wish that Princess would tell you that the boat will motor and not sail. They put one sail up but that was for looks only. The crew was fantastic. We loved the drift snorkel. Please check your mask to make sure it doesn't leak before you get on the zodiak for the drift snorkel. We met up with friends and got busy talking and I didn't check my mask until I was on the zodiak. Luckily it only leaked a little. Live and learn!!

We did this excursion this past Dec.

We loved the drift snorkel so much that we are taking another cruise that includes bonaire just to do it again.

 

You take the inflatable boat from the pier to the Samur. I am middle age, fat, and clumsey and had no trouble getting in or out.

 

From there you have the trip to Klein bonaire. You then take the raft to the beach. Those wanting the drift snorkel are then taken almost to the other end of the island and dropped into the water. This was the best snorkeling we have ever done. The drift took at least 50 minutes. When we got back to the beach we had to load right back on the raft to head back. It is not that we were slow, it took evedryone on the drift at least this long or longer. But a fantastic time!!!

The ship is beatiful and there were drinks, snacks on the way back.

 

I have looked for a similar trip where you are dropped off to drift but so far have only found the samur.

Hi Jean and Joe!

We had a great time with you on this excursion :D Wish we were sailing with you again!

The drift snorkel was awesome and for those of you wondering what the Samur looks like here are a couple of pictures taken from our aft balcony on the Crown Princess. Enjoy!

Like one of the previous posters, I'm in my 50's and have a bad knee. My husband and I are also divers, and our biggest complaint about the Bonaire stop (by Princess at least) is it's so short we didn't want to schlep our gear on/off the boat for just a few hours, so snorkeling seemed like a good compromise. The original excursion we wanted to sign up for was full, so we ended up with the Samur trip.

We saw the Samur moored just off the side of the ship (and btw, this is the cleanest water port I've ever seen), and were sort of laughing about it, how strange it looked. Then we figured the laugh was on us when we found out that that was our snorkeling transportation.

This ship doesn't dock, hence the zodiac motorized pontoon boats that take you alongside for boarding. You climb on board using a variety of nooks and crannies built into the ship itself, and some very ready helpers (The crew is wonderful, but more about that later).

During the sail to the island the captain (who in our trip was also the owner) gives you the history of the ship and how they came to possess it. As one of the other posters said, it does need some attention; the decks could benefit from a good sanding and laquering, but we were sitting on the deck/side, had no cushions and didn't feel uncomfortable.

Once you pull up to the island they have the standard shore-excursion type gear on board; the inflatable vests, heavily used masks and snorkels and standard full-foot fins. We always bring our own masks & snorkels and use the supplied fins. The crew spent a great deal of time on our tour explaining how to use the equipment (lots of first time snorkelers) and demonstrating and, really, babying the clientele who needed it. We, on the other hand, asked for and were granted permission to just hop off the side of the boat and not wait for the boat transport to shore.

We opted for the drift snorkel option, where they take you, via zodiac, north of the island and then you follow the current back to where everyone else is. It's an easy trip, no huge currents or major worries (and you're never really far from the beach at any time). We saw more sea life on that snorkel trip than we have on some of the dives we've done and (an added benefit) you're sort of by yourself doing the drift snorkel so no clusters of people kicking you in the face or flailing about scaring the fish.

People who chose not to snorkel just took towels and laid on the beach -- nice white sand beach but no facilities (Oh, the ship offers fruit, punch (spiked and non) after the snorkel).

The ship was crewed by two married couples and their children -- very polite, helpful and interesting people. On the way back they do the typical "we sell t-shirts, here they are", but not in a pushy way. One of the women sold a cookbook with original art and recipes with stories for about $15 and we purchased that -- but again, there was no pressure.

I have to say this was one of the most unique excursions we've taken in a number of trips, and we'd repeat this one.

I say do it if you get a chance -- everybody can always load onto a typical boat and snorkel, but you won't have the photo opportunities available with this unique craft as your backdrop. The extremely nice people just round this trip out as one you would probably enjoy as much as we did.

Hope that helps!

missalf .... Thanks so much for your review! It's a BIG help to us and really appreciate your time to do it! :)

Thanks for that detailed review. This sounds perfect for us, especially the drift snorkel.

Do you remember approximately how much it costs per person? The prices for my trip aren't up on the Princess website yet.

Thanks!

Thanks so much for the review as we are also considering this excursion in October.

PaddleAddict - Our excursions just opened up and this tour is priced at $64.00 per person.

So on the drift snorkel you go out in the Zodiac and then drift back to shore or do you have to get back into the Zodiac from the water?