Molokini Crater & Turtle Town or Kona snorkel?

[ndamro]

We have decided to take one snorkel trip on our PoAM 12/17 sailing.

 

We had originally booked a Molokini Crater & Turtle town snorkel, but depending on our ability to get off the ship early enough, we may have to cancel or chose a later time.

 

I've been reading some great reviews of the Captain Zodiak snorkel trip and I've heard some not so great things about the Molokini trip.

 

I'm wondering if I should just cancel the Molokini trip and book the Kona one instead.

 

Which one did you take and did you enjoy it? Anyone try both?

 

Thanks!:D

[beachchick]

A few thoughts. If you can't take the morning snorkel for Molokini, I suggest you cancel rather than go in the afternoon. The winds kick up and often the boats can't get out to Molokini then. Instead they go to "alternate" spots--which are often ones you can get to on your own. This was our mistake when we booked our first excursion. (I'm not saying it was a bad afternoon by any means, but it was not what we really wanted. We learned our lesson for future trips.)

 

Molokini can be an excellent snorkel. We've been there twice so far. Once was very good, the second time was excellent. As with all snorkel trips, you are at the whim of the wind, water, and weather. We prefer the smaller boats that go kind of "between time" of many of the larger "party" boats. I didn't think the big party boat was anything special. The smaller boats carry fewer pax (which we like), but OTOH they don't have the big BBQ lunch and alcoholic beverages. It just depends on what you prefer.

 

If I had to choose just one, I'd go for Kealakekua Bay. It's on our "must do this" list for next trip to the BI. It's supposed to be just about the best snorkeling in Hawaii, and we've seen pictures that confirm it.

 

There are choices for that as well. The Captain Zodiak sounds great. There is also Fairwinds, which is a larger boat (a cat) with more amenities. It would be our choice simply because of health issues--the Captain Zodiak trip is not recommended for anyone with back problems, etc. Apparently, it can get pretty rough, but people do seem to love it.

 

The same advice applies to K-Bay as for Molokini--go in the morning if at all possible (this applies throughout the islands). It does seem though that the afternoon trips to K-Bay actually get there because the excursion boats don't have to traverse as much open water away from shore. (This is all just second-hand from people who have done it.)

 

So, if you love to snorkel, do both. If you have to choose one, go for K-Bay. If you can't do a morning trip to Molokini, my advice is to do K-Bay instead (many people do the afternoon trips, so this is JMO).

 

Have a wonderful time.

 

beachchick

[JLC@SD]

We have decided to take one snorkel trip on our PoAM 12/17 sailing.

 

We had originally booked a Molokini Crater & Turtle town snorkel, but depending on our ability to get off the ship early enough, we may have to cancel or chose a later time.

 

I've been reading some great reviews of the Captain Zodiak snorkel trip and I've heard some not so great things about the Molokini trip.

 

I'm wondering if I should just cancel the Molokini trip and book the Kona one instead.

 

Which one did you take and did you enjoy it? Anyone try both?

 

Thanks!:D

 

Beachchick gave you a good review.

 

You should know that Molokini Crater & Turtle Town is a deep water snorkel, there is no shallow water for standing. You need to be a good swimmer as water will be 10 to 15 ft deep. At Molokini, they won't let you get onto the island (there is no beach).

 

The Turtle Town was great. Turtles are on the ocean floor 15 ft down and you watch them come up for air.

 

Molokini is an hour plus boat ride from Lahaina. We went in the morning and hit windy seas also on the return. The winds blow through the two mountains that form Maui, at the cane feilds and make it a rough trip.

 

We went to Kahalu'u Beach, south of Kona where you snorkel in a lagoon and can stand up.

 

Both are beautiful trips and have lots of beautiful fish to see.:)

[beachchick]

Most of the boats to Molokini leave from Ma'alaea harbor, which is a shorter ride than from Lahaina. A few leave from Kihei, which is even shorter than Ma'alaea. Ma'alaea would be the best bet for anyone coming from Kahului.

 

That's a good point about the Molokini snorkel being deeper water. Parts of the Molokini snorkel area are easily 25 feet deep or more. Most boats do have vests and/or floats for the not-so-sure-about-this-snorkeling-thing swimmers.

 

And please, when you are snorkeling in shallow water and want to stand up, make certain that you are standing on sand or rock. Do not stand on the coral because it is a fragile marine organism and you can injure or kill it. (Okay, off my ecological soapbox.)

 

beachchick

[ndamro]

Thanks for the reviews - they were both great :)

 

We currently have Molokini/Turtle town booked for 7AM but if we learn on board that we can't get off the ship that early we could also choose the 10AM one. We wouldn't go in the afternoon. This is a smaller cruise, so no fancy lunch, etc but it's also 1/2 the price of the fancy boats which suits us just fine.

 

If we chose Captain Zodiak we would take their 8:15AM tour, still debating about doing this through NCL or on our own... I've heard that because of the shelter from the volcano, etc that there are exceptionally few times a year when the K Bay snorkel can't go and they do offer a full refund if that's the case.

 

Still have to think about it! Maybe I can talk DH into doing both :D

[sceptic]

Just to let you know, "Turtle Town" is not a specific location, but anywhere the boat captain chooses to go where turtles congregate. For me that's been off of Makena, and also directly under the Scenic View pullout between Maalaea and MacGregor Point. (although it looks pretty bleak from the road, there's very good snorkelling down there. There's also a Turtle Town I went to off of Lanai! Must be a suburb...

 

In all three places I've seen turtles. But if you went on a "turtle town" excursion in the past and go again, don't be surprised if you end up at a different location.

 

BTW, Kealakekua is my choice for snorkelling. But either this or Molokini is far preferable in the morning due to choppiness in the PM.

[beachchick]

ndamro: Happy to help. sceptic is quite correct about Turtle Town--we've been to 2 of who knows how many. It was really cool to watch them. Interestingly, my closest turtle encounter actually happened at Ka'anapali beach while snorkeling at Black Rock. I had gotten myself all set to enter and just did a quick shallow dive to take off. When I looked down, there was a huge sea turtle right below me (about 2 feet or less). He/she was looking up at me as if to say, "Excuse me, lady...I was here first!" I quickly and quietly snorkeled over him, and then just watched him play.

 

10 am is a fine time for a Molokini trip. That's about when we usually leave. Which company are you using? We really like Maui Dive Shop--lower cost, good gear (although we use our own), small boats, nice snorkel spots, good and flexible crew, and certainly enough munchies and beverages for us. They have muffins and pastries with coffee and juice on the way out, and cookies, etc. plus fruit and soft drinks, water, and juice on the way back. Getting in and out of Kihei harbor is a kick. It's tiny and they have to time it with the seas. And the crew is really fun. One time during whale season, a family pod came really close when we were heading back. As per law, the captain stopped the boat. Well, the whales took that as an invitation to give us a 40 minute show. Wow. In fact, the captain called to shore to tell them that we'd be a hour late because we got a "better offer" than just boating back in.

 

Does your DH like to snorkel? If so, tell him that I (a total stranger. lol.) suggest that you go for it and do both. We would absolutely spend the money. And you can point out that you are doing a less expensive snorkel to Molokini and thus have money available for K-Bay, which is not to be missed (we can't wait to do it).

 

Enjoy!

 

beachchick

[ndamro]

10 am is a fine time for a Molokini trip. That's about when we usually leave. Which company are you using? We really like Maui Dive Shop--lower cost, good gear (although we use our own), small boats, nice snorkel spots, good and flexible crew, and certainly enough munchies and beverages for us.

 

Great to hear as we have indeed booked with Maui Dive Shop after hearing someone else's great review. The lower cost was definitely a bonus. I'm still waiting for my email confirmation that was supposed to come right after I talked to her on Saturday though ;)

 

DH is a diver and snorkeling is 2nd. Seeing as how I don't dive snorkeling has been our choice so we can do the outings together. We have booked a SNUBA excursion in Hanauma Bay with Hanauma Bay Dive Tours (good review in Oahu revealed) so thats his Xmas present and why he was a little reluctant to book both excursions.

 

I talked to him last night though and told him about all the wonderful reviews about K-bay and he let me book the Kona snorkel through NCL and we will cancel our rental car and then after the Captain Zodiak trip we will go have some lunch on board and then come back to walk around Kona and explore for the afternoon.:D

 

So thanks to everyone again! Now I have another trip to get excited about!

[beachchick]

ndamro: I think you will be very happy with Maui Dive. We've gone with them twice and plan on using them again next trip. We also bought our new fins at the Lahaina shop this summer and are very pleased with them. The back-side of Molokini is (apparently) a really good dive. I don't dive (just snorkel like you), so I can only go by descriptions from the Maui Dive crew and people who have done it. DH used to dive and said it sounds like a good one.

 

You won't be sorry that you went ahead and booked the excursion to K-Bay. It sounds so fabulous. We are definitely going to fit it in on our next trip to the BI. I had hoped to do it this past summer, but we spent our time at VNP and going to the summit of Mauna Kea--I certainly can't complain about that.

 

beachchick