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How scary is the speedboat ride....


KPfromCT
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to Saona Island in the Dominican?:eek:

We booked this excursion after reading AWESOME reviews, but apparently there was an "incident" in April, which has me second guessing our choice.

 

Last year, we did a Non-Carnival excursion, in Tortola, to Jost Van Dyke.

I thought that ride was scary, as the boat was really hitting the waves, and we were airborne:eek::o

 

Anyone know?

 

Makes me nervous to hear that the captains are drinking the free rum punch too:eek:

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to Saona Island in the Dominican?:eek:

We booked this excursion after reading AWESOME reviews, but apparently there was an "incident" in April, which has me second guessing our choice.

 

Last year, we did a Non-Carnival excursion, in Tortola, to Jost Van Dyke.

I thought that ride was scary, as the boat was really hitting the waves, and we were airborne:eek::o

 

Anyone know?

 

Makes me nervous to hear that the captains are drinking the free rum punch too:eek:

 

Hi KPfromCT :)

 

My wife & I have never done Saona Island via the speed boat excursion.

However I did locate a handful of YouTube videos for you.

Have a terrific voyage!

 

 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHuJT4XnM1M

 

 

 

 

:)

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We did the speedboat excursion to Saona Island with Pro Excursions and its was not scary at all. On the way out they go pretty slow because there are things to see.

 

On the way back, they do kick it up a bit and the nose is air and we did go airborne a few times. I get seasick, so I was a little uncomfortable, but we had about 5 little kids with us and they thought it was a blast, they squealed the whole time. Our captain was not drinking. Let me know if u have any more questions.

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We did it last year, it's not scary at all. A little bounce if you sit up front. If you don't want to get wet, ask them where to sit as some seats got pretty wet. We were at the front and stayed dry.

 

It was a fun outing and the scenery is great.

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We took the speed boat ride to Belize from the ship and they flew. The ocean was calm so the boat did not jump around to much. Since I'm not a good swimmer If the water had bigger waves I would have been concerned.

 

Gary

Edited by Shipbound
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To OP, I'm not one to post much on here, but I read a lot. My first and only post on CC was about the ProExcursion tour to Sanoa Island via speed boat. We did it back in October 2013. I really enjoyed this excursion. It was so fun and we had no problems, there was even a 3 year old on our tour who had a blast. They provide life jackets and the ride back is way more fun than the ride over because they go a little quicker.

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Our group of 13 did that excursion and loved it! I am a bit of a chicken and was told to go to the back of the speed boat. In the front (where all our younger people sat) the boat rises out of the water and it is much more thrilling.

 

Sit in the back and ask for an extra life jacket to keep your back from possibly bumping the back of the boat. My husband did that because he has back problems and it really protected him.

 

This excursion is our grou's ALL TIME favorite trip!!! Go for it! You will love it!

Edited by momof4boys
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Thank you all for the replies.:D:D

Did any of you book it through Seavis, or did you book it through Carnival?

We are doing Seavis.

Again, MOSTLY awesome reviews.

Just a few that were not great.

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Thank you all for the replies.:D:D

Did any of you book it through Seavis, or did you book it through Carnival?

We are doing Seavis.

Again, MOSTLY awesome reviews.

Just a few that were not great.

 

 

We booked through Seavis and like I said, it was awesome!! The visit to the Starfish Bed and "nursery" was amazing!!! Worth every penny.

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to Saona Island in the Dominican?:eek:

We booked this excursion after reading AWESOME reviews, but apparently there was an "incident" in April, which has me second guessing our choice.

 

Last year, we did a Non-Carnival excursion, in Tortola, to Jost Van Dyke.

I thought that ride was scary, as the boat was really hitting the waves, and we were airborne:eek::o

 

Anyone know?

 

Makes me nervous to hear that the captains are drinking the free rum punch too:eek:

 

I know there were a lot of talk of this excursion over on the ports of call board. You can look there or on Trip Advisor for reviews if you haven't done so already.

 

Love, love , love Jost Van Dyke. Who did you go with? We used Kuralu they were pretty good.

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  • 3 weeks later...

We had booked the Sonoa island excursion through Pro Excursions. As directed we took a large taxi from the port to Bayahabe where met at the Pro Excursion building. Nadine was at the door to check us in. We waited until all of the passengers arrived for our tour before boarding a speed boat for Sonoa. The office was a shaded building with bathrooms and there was coffee, water and cake available while we waited. They also have a small gift shop with scarves, tshirts, etc.

 

Our guide today was Jessica along with our boat crew. The excursion took us out to Sonoa island. On the way we stopped at a beach area for 20 minutes to snorkel. The snorkel area was an old pier that was destroyed during hurricane David in the early 70's. Lots of small fish and a nice quick stop for a dip.

 

Next they took us through the mangroves as Jessica provided a little information about how mangroves evolve. After we headed to the secluded beach on Sonoa. There were nice cushioned beach chairs along the beach both in the shade and the sun. The water is crystal clear. We had about 40 mins before lunch was ready. The bar had beer, rum, water and soda available included. There are locals there selling massages and coconuts. I did get a fresh coconut to eat for $3. The gentleman chopped it up perfectly to drink some of the milk and then to eat the meat. Delicious!

 

Lunch was provided as a buffet. There were nice tables set up, however I did get a few mosquito bites while sitting under the trees during our lunch. Lunch choices were pork chops, saffron chicken or fish with salad, pasta or potatoes. Some fruit and coffee for dessert. The pork chops were very good.

 

There are facilities available during your stay with a fresh water shower and a small shop to purchase local crafts.

 

In total we had about two hours on the beach before we packed up for our next stop.

 

Last stop was the "Natural pool". A four foot deep sand bar area where you can wade in the water and look for sea stars. Also our crew provided beverages during this stop. Of course rum drinks were flowing freely.

 

The crew was wonderful and took great care of us.

 

We would recommend this trip to anyone. We had our 7 year old son with us and he enjoyed it as well.

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  • 9 months later...

We did the one in samana a few yrs ago and in laws thought we were trying to kill them. You have to go fast to keep up seats have no cushioning and you go airborne off the other boats chop. It's pretty intense and hurts the butt. I wouldn't do it again

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