Coco Cay - swimming with the pigs

[sallybrown2012]

Has anyone done the Coco Cay excursion where you swim with the pigs?  Is this actually enjoyable, or is it kind of scary (I'm not sure that the pigs would be interested in swimming with us - are they friendly?) 

[awestover89]

I'm scheduled to go this Saturday, I'll make a note to come back here and post my thoughts

[cb at sea]

I have NO desire to "swim with pigs"...whether they're friendly or not, they are not "potty trained".

[awestover89]

[xpcdoojk]

But they will defecate in the ocean not with you, the fish defecate in the ocean all day 24/7.  Good lord

 

jc

[Aquahound]

Swimming with the pigs?  Forgive my ignorance as I haven't been keeping up.  Is RCI trying to copy the natural attraction on Big Major Cay? 

 

[xpcdoojk]

Well if they have pigs on the island, they are like dogs and they love to swim, why not charge tourists to hang with them????

 

jc

[Midwestgal]

We stopped at pig beach in May , we were sailing from Nassau to Great Exuma on a 60ft cameraman.  What I will say is it was pretty cool feeding the pigs and see them swimming up to your boat looking for food. Now  as far as swimming with them .......you don’t. It smells bad as they crap wherever and whenever. You can get off you dingy and go onto the beach ...wear swim shoes. 

This being said I wonder if they actually take you to the real pig island as it’s a cruise from Nassau......maybe they made a place for people to visit as an excursion.

Edited September 17, 2019 by Midwestgal

[awestover89]

1 hour ago, Aquahound said:

Swimming with the pigs?  Forgive my ignorance as I haven't been keeping up.  Is RCI trying to copy the natural attraction on Big Major Cay? 

 

 

Sort of. After Big Major Cay became such a major tourist attraction many of the pigs ended up dying from being fed inappropriate food and by people dropping the food in the sand. The Bahama's government then setup a similar attraction on another island that is monitored and controlled to ensure the pigs aren't mistreated by tourists. Royal Caribbean and the other cruise lines have contracts to send passengers to this new setup.

[awestover89]

14 minutes ago, Midwestgal said:

We stopped at pig beach in May , we were sailing from Nassau to Great Exuma on a 60ft cameraman.  What I will say is it was pretty cool feeding the pigs and see them swimming up to your boat looking for food. Now  as far as swimming with them .......you don’t. It smells bad as they crap wherever and whenever. You can get off you dingy and go onto the beach ...wear swim shoes. 

This being said I wonder if they actually take you to the real pig island as it’s a cruise from Nassau......maybe they made a place for people to visit as an excursion.

 

It's about 15 minutes by boat I think. It's not the original pig island (Big Major Cay in Exuma) but is rather on Treasure Island in the Berry Islands. 

[Midwestgal]

Ahhh okay. 

So a something that was created for people to go see pigs swim🐽🐽

[time4u2go]

14 hours ago, cb at sea said:

I have NO desire to "swim with pigs"...whether they're friendly or not, they are not "potty trained".

And fish are?

[ticketsunlimited]

I always thought that excursion was "free" on every ship.

 

You just have to wait until noon on debarkation on any ship and go into the windjammer.  You can "swim" with pigs for as long as the crowd holds up.

 

Unfortunately I'm one of the participants a lot of the time.

[Midwestgal]

There are trips  to Pig Island, Big Major Cay from Nassau what I’ve read. It’s on a speed boat and the tour is 8 hours. They also stop at the iguana island and the turtle farm .

[Midwestgal]

On 9/16/2019 at 7:24 PM, cb at sea said:

I have NO desire to "swim with pigs"...whether they're friendly or not, they are not "potty trained".

It’s really cool to just be on your tender and feed them and see them swim around the boat

[Coralc]

I think the Coco Cay pig excursion is more of like an underfed/hungry pig excursion. From other reviews it does not sound that great. Not like Exuma or even Big Major Cay. It is a couple of hour tourist thing to pigs with a boat ride. I haven't done it, but I have not read any glowing reports about it yet. 

awestover89 was going to come back and let us know, but his excursion was cancelled because of weather. 

[awestover89]

On 9/16/2019 at 8:00 PM, awestover89 said:

I'm scheduled to go this Saturday, I'll make a note to come back here and post my thoughts

 

Unfortunately, my excursion was cancelled due to weather, so I have not thoughts to post

[BNBR]

On 9/16/2019 at 11:50 PM, awestover89 said:

 

Sort of. After Big Major Cay became such a major tourist attraction many of the pigs ended up dying from being fed inappropriate food and by people dropping the food in the sand. The Bahama's government then setup a similar attraction on another island that is monitored and controlled to ensure the pigs aren't mistreated by tourists. Royal Caribbean and the other cruise lines have contracts to send passengers to this new setup.

 

Ummm. No. Lol.  This didn't actually happen. The original pig beach very much exists and is as popular as ever. There is probably a dozen or so fake pg beaches that serve no purpose other than ripping off unsuspecting tourists.  It has nothing to do with the Bahamian government. And no, Royal doesn't take you to an authentic experience. 

[BNBR]

On 9/26/2019 at 5:49 PM, Midwestgal said:

There are trips  to Pig Island, Big Major Cay from Nassau what I’ve read. It’s on a speed boat and the tour is 8 hours. They also stop at the iguana island and the turtle farm .

 

We did the trip from Exuma and it has been, by far, the best single day excursion we have ever done, anywhere.  It's worth the trip to Exuma. It's way, way more than the pigs. A full day. Thunderball grotto, conch dive and fresh conch salad, lunch on Guana Cay, swimming with turtles at Farmers Cay (lemon shark there too!), swimming with a dozen or so nurse sharks at Compass Cay, a remote sand bar, calming cave, celebrity islands, iguana Island (really cool), etc.  We would go back in a heart beat.  Nassau has a similar trip, and Big Major Cay is actually right about in the middle of Exuma and Nassau, but it's better to do the trip from Exuma if you can as other attractions are much closer to Exuma, plus no open water from Exuma which means smooth ride.  It's over and hour at high speed so that matters.  I can't imagine the Nassau trip giving you as much time at each stop as we had as well. 

 

But anyways, yeah, skip any pig excursions that aren't the REAL one to Big Major.  They are just fake tourist traps. There is nothing similar to the original. The pigs actually swim out a hundred yards off shore to great your boat! 

[awestover89]

3 minutes ago, BNBR said:

 

Ummm. No. Lol.  This didn't actually happen. The original pig beach very much exists and is as popular as ever. There is probably a dozen or so fake pg beaches that serve no purpose other than ripping off unsuspecting tourists.  It has nothing to do with the Bahamian government. And no, Royal doesn't take you to an authentic experience. 

 

I never said the original beach no longer existed. 10 of the 18 pigs were found dead 3 years ago before the Bahamian government stepped in. After the deaths the government implemented new rules under Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources, V. Alfred Gray. The original beach was temporarily closed while they investigated, and ensured that new rules were in place and followed by the caretakers and tourists.

 

All of the newly created pig beaches have to follow these same rules and are under the purview of the Bahamian government.

[BNBR]

5 minutes ago, awestover89 said:

 

I never said the original beach no longer existed. 10 of the 18 pigs were found dead 3 years ago before the Bahamian government stepped in. After the deaths the government implemented new rules under Minister of Agriculture and Marine Resources, V. Alfred Gray. The original beach was temporarily closed while they investigated, and ensured that new rules were in place and followed by the caretakers and tourists.

 

All of the newly created pig beaches have to follow these same rules and are under the purview of the Bahamian government.

 

You said the pigs were dying and the government setup a similar attraction on another island for the tourists that is monitored and controlled. This is not what happened, at all.  I'm not sure there is even another similar setup anywhere near big major. The original pig beach is as popular as ever.  There is 30+ pigs there.  Just admit you were wrong. 

 

Yes, the government set some rules, but it's pretty much a no man's land at the beach and managed by the tour companies.  They just ask that you don't feed the pigs on the sand, though people still do. 

Edited October 5, 2019 by BNBR

[Free Water]

We did the Coco Cay pig excursion this past summer.  It is about a 10 minute boat ride from Coco Cay.  This is not the original pig beach deal.  This  "feels like" it's run by a family, and they were still building it out.  There's a section of the water fenced off and you get into the water with the pigs.  They swim; you stand.  The workers give you apple pieces on sticks and you feed the pigs.  You can also pet them, and they'll let you hold one of the baby pigs for a picture.

 

The pigs do poop in the water, and that is less-than-desirable.  However, the workers are pretty quick to scoop it out.  The entire excursion, including the boat ride there and back, is probably and hour and I think we paid $90 pp.  It was fun and my kids really enjoyed it.  The pigs were funny.  But I'm not sure if we "need" to do it again; unlike say the dolphin swim on Blue Lagoon.  We'd do that again in a heartbeat.

[Midwestgal]

I was lucky enough to be on a private catamaran for a week and were able to visit all the great little cay’s from Nassau to Great Exuma so we stopped and seen all kinds of  stuff from the pigs to the turtles. 

Pig island was not busy when we were there and the people there were from private boats like we were on.  Didn’t see any excursion while we were there.

 

as stated above some of the original pig had died and were replaced . There was nobody there managing them or people and I didn’t see restrictions on where you could feed, that’s said I could of missed it. We were there in May and like I said we didn’t see any excursion boats , just private dingy’s for private yachts .

Edited October 5, 2019 by Midwestgal

[Midwestgal]

[BNBR]

27 minutes ago, Midwestgal said:

I was lucky enough to be on a private catamaran for a week and were able to visit all the great little cay’s from Nassau to Great Exuma so we stopped and seen all kinds of  stuff from the pigs to the turtles. 

Pig island was not busy when we were there and the people there were from private boats like we were on.  Didn’t see any excursion while we were there.

 

as stated above some of the original pig had died and were replaced . There was nobody there managing them or people and I didn’t see restrictions on where you could feed, that’s said I could of missed it. We were there in May and like I said we didn’t see any excursion boats , just private dingy’s for private yachts .

 

When we were there, a few excursion boats but nothing outrageous.  Maybe 4 - 5 boats.  Each with 10 - 20 people.  Sounds like a lot, but it really wasn't at all.  There are so many pigs running around that even with so many people, you had several pigs swimming at you at almost any given time.  In fact, when we arrived, a pig was way out in the water just swimming around and following us around.

 

I've been to stingray city in Grand Cayman recently and it was a tourism disaster.  I was there 20 years ago and totally different.  So I can see what happens when it gets over burdened, but yeah, even with a few boats it was still super fun and pleasant at pig beach.  I'm surprised it wasn't busy in May.  Probably the time of day you visited if I have to guess.  But really, as you can see in my pics below, even with the tour boats there is a ton of pigs and no real crowd.