Review of snorkel excursion - white sands

[mikeyd]

We like to snorkel and also like smaller groups for ourexcursions. Especially with snorkeling,small groups are a must – I don’t like paying $100 per day to get kicked in thehead by someone’s flipper the entire time.

We searched around a bit and found good reviews on WhiteSands snorkeling.

 

 

They had fair pricesand had many great reviews. We did the Majesticpackage and loved it. The boats onlyhandle about 15 people or so and do have shade under a canopy. They are just big fiberglass skiffs and havea boarding ladder on the rear of the boat.

 

The 2 guides (McKenzie and Key) were really good and patientwith our group. The gear offered on theboat is fantastic. I love how theyoffered anti-fog spray and good equipment. I normally bring my own gear buttheir stuff worked perfectly.

 

Our first stop was a 5 min boat ride to a reef which was inabout 15 feet of water. GREAT visibilityand a wonderful variety of fish.

 

Second stop was the wall – this was also very cool and aguide came out with us. Incredibleexperience! I was so glad we only hadabout 12 people on our boat when I saw the catamaran roll in with nearly one hundredpeople onboard.

 

Third stop was to dive for conch shells – this was a nicearea and some people preferred to stay on the boat. We collected about 5 shells and headed out toGibbs Caye – a short hop away.

 

Gibbs Caye was FANTASTIC! Really pretty desert island with a beautiful beach……and stingrays. Our guide explained the stingrays and thenlet us hold one too. Really awesomeexperience. Then we could hang out for20 mins while the crew prepared the conch salad and rum punch. It was honestly the highlight of our entirecruise – both the entire trip and more specifically the stop at Gibbs Caye.

 

We then headed back with plenty of time to go to Jacks forJerk Chicken and drinks. I would not hesitateto do this tour again. Great staff andvery good equipment made for a great trip!

 

If you’re looking for a smaller group snorkeling experiencethat is reasonably priced, check-out White Sands!

[girlsbgoing]

Thanks for the review. I think I saw this on TripAdvisor today. It advertised the excursion time of 3.5 to 4 hrs, beginning 1-2 hrs after ship docking. That was a little odd and will NOT give me enough time. I’ll look further as I want to do exactly what you’ve described.

 

 

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[mikeyd]

Thanks! Our excursion started around 9:30am and we got back around 2:00 / 2:30.

 

Most companies offer various stops to suit your time frame. The Gibbs Caye was REALLY cool but when combined with snorkeling some good reefs does add a bit of time overall since it's a 15-20 minute boat ride to Gibbs.

 

Good luck with whatever you decide!

[KarimaJ]

The 15 ft snorkeling sounds great. How deep was it near the wall? We have squirrelly snorkelers here. Gibbs sounds great too.

 

 

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[JT1962]

Another vote for White Sands. We did the same tour mentioned above and loved it. There were only 5 on our tour.

 

To answer the question about the wall, we anchored in maybe 20 feet at the edge. The wall drops to 7,000 feet according to Google. Obviously you can’t see the bottom of the drop off, lol. It is really unique to go from seeing the bottom to just deep blue then black as far as you can see. Those that don’t care for it don’t have to swim over the top of the drop off (or even get in the water there).

 

 

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[KarimaJ]

Thanks. So if we stayed in that 20 feet are there still lots of fish to see there?

 

 

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[JT1962]

Thanks. So if we stayed in that 20 feet are there still lots of fish to see there?

 

 

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From what I remember, there were a lot more fish at the first stop. The wall stop was more about seeing the drop off. There may have been fish near where we anchored, but we were more interested in seeing the drop off.

 

 

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