Boomerang SXM Three Island Tour - Review

[bigrednole]

Let me first start out that I had been waiting for this excursion ever since we had to cancel on Thanksgiving 2020. Then, the lead up to last week Tuesday to finally go was exciting. Then BAM!!! Reality hit on Monday when another cruiser said we had a timing problem Ship and US Eastern Time had a time change on Nov 6. This took the cruise ship and St Maarten on different clocks. Our port time was 9AM, but that was 10AM (excursion time). I had to purchase the daily internet package to communicate with the company on Monday. After back and forths, they were so extremely accommodating and refunded our deposit. I was upset we had to cancel and to absolutely no fault to them. Wake up Tuesday morning and we are pulling into port at 8AM ship time (9:00AM island time). I started messaging the owner on FB. Because we didn't have an exact time, we were told if we can be in a cab by 8:45AM ship time (9:45AM local time), we could make it. We clear port at 8:30, hustle off the ship, and get towards the cabs by 8:35. They said to hop in the cab and get there. We arrived 10 minutes late, but the owner was there and very friendly. The captain, crew and other passengers were perfectly fine with it. We were able to pay the full fare and be on our way!!!

 

First stop was Creole Rock for reef snorkeling. Great place but my waterproof camera died immediately hitting water. Calling that company for a refund. Got the GoPro out and used that one instead. It was great seeing the fans, soft and hard corals, and all the fish. Awesome stop for about 40 minutes. The next stop was Tintemare (sp?). This is where they anchor and take all the toys off the boat. You can paddleboard, float on the mat, snorkel with turtles, and just head to the beach. They cook lunch here that is insanely delicious. A mix of island and other spices with the potato salad were incredible. We saw one large turtle from the boat, but couldn't find it when snorkeling. We did find one while snorkeling and everyone was able to swim and take pictures. We got to jump and do flips off the top of the boat, get drinks thrown to you in cannonballs while not having to come back to the boat. After maybe an hour or so here, we were off to Pinel Island (sp?). This is a beach stop with shallow water. You can chill out on the boat, go up on the beach to the bar, shop the little market, and feed iguanas. Minor word of warning is this is a European style beach. Very nice end to the day with about a 45 minute run to drop my family off at the dock for cruise passengers. Those staying in St Maarten got about another hour of drinks and boat ride!!!

 

The crew was simply awesome. The captain was a great cook. His assistant did a ton of work helping him and the lovely lady serving drinks all day. Drinks flowed almost non-stop and all were superb. This was the highlight of our cruise and highly recommend this to anyone and everyone cruising.