Any recommendations for a good snorkel operator on island (not through ship)?

[Ocruise]

Hi all. We usually save a lot of money by booking snorkel excursions at the island, not doing the ship excursions.

 

We are sailing on the Golden Princess Sunday & will be in Barbados.

 

Any recommendations for a good, reliable snorkel operator in Barbados?

 

Thanks,

 

Marina

[vibrantrick]

check out thriller ocean tours as their tours seem to be good and they do not work through the ships. What a pity in some cases as my experiences have been great so far and i enjoyed my trips with them. i have now been with them a few times after staying in barbados myself. What a great country. look for thier thread here and get prices or email thriller_ocean_tours@sunbeach.net or call (246)230-8300.

[vibrantrick]

I am sorry but snow bird you are right i did make a mistake the email you mentioned is correct and the correct telephone number for contacting them is actually ( 246) 231-8300.

Snowbird thank you for the correction as i hate to place bad info on the boards. well i hope everyone enjoys Thriller Ocean Tours when in barbados on thier cruise. its really worth it. these guys are alwoys looking for ways to improve the tour and are working to achieve absolute perfection. When ever i go i hope i havent upset any of the crews, but i always tip when i enjoy and i do know of some non tipping companies out there ( i tip according to my enjoyment and satisfaction level and that in this case was a lot ). I hope this is not one of those as enjoyed myself twice so far i have travelled with them, and to say the least it gets better everytime i go. i am planning to go stay on the island next month and i am sure i will use both of thier boats and do all i can do tour wise and maybe spend time with the captain i like the most and maybe hang out with him , his name is Richard.

anyways i gotta go now.

[missmissypie068]

Does anyone have a website for Thriller Ocean tours?? I've emailed them, but am looking for a website for info. Thanks!

[Snow Bird]

Melissa found a website for Thriller Turtle & Shipwreck Snorkeling Tour.

If you make a search for the following you will find it.

 

thriller adventures barbados

 

Hope this is of help to you.

[vibrantrick]

I now know that Thriller does have a website and it is located here http://caribzones.com/thrilleradventures

I hope you enjoy whatever you decide to do.

Remember there is soo much to do on the island that it is just near impossible to decide.

I leave the choices to you but the website is somewhat recent i have been told.

Enjoy your cruise.

Rick

[kitty1]

We went to the Boatyard. A party beach that costs $12 and you get a beach chair, and $5 back in tokens to buy a drink. On the beach we found someone to take us snorkeling to a shipwreck nearby for $10 each. It was definitely worth $10, and after we were there for a while one of the catamaran tours from the ship arrived at the shipwreck. That cost about $50 pp through the ship. We paid $10.

[Snow Bird]

Hi Kitty I'm very sorry but I can't let this pass.

How can you compare going to the shipwrecks in barbados snorkeling for $10 bucks on what I'm sure was a glass bottom boat to a catamaran for $50.

That catamaran you saw would have sailed the entire scenic west coast of Barbados & their guest would have snorkeled with the turtles. They also would have been served free drinks the entire time 4 hours. Did you get free drinks on the boat you went over to the shipwrecks on? Did they provide you with safety equipment eg. snorkeling life vest? You should not mislead the folks on the boards. You know what you can snorkel the shipwrecks for less than $10 you can swim out from the beach. But remember when I was there i didn't see a lifeguard on that beach.

[lbchew]

We are just back from our cruise and arranged our own excursion with Why Not catamaran. We snorkled with Sea turtles, at a shipwreck and then anchored off of a beach with the clearest water we saw out of the 6 islands we went to. We were given lunch of fried chicken and flying fish, salads, corn, garlic bread, fried bananas, and had rum punch, beer and soda.(They also offered several other liquor options). The best part was that we were a group of 13 and booked the catamaran all to ourselves for 5 hours. We were met at the dock and transferred to a marina a few minutes away with no problems. The catamaran was very clean and even the 5 kids in our party loved the trip! We paid $60 US per adult and $30 for kids under 12. A bargain!I don't have their e-mail address handy but if you do a goole search for Why Not catamaran Barbados, you'll find it. Good luck!

[yzu]

I was on Barbados on 11/22 and was told that water is too murky to see turtles !!! I did not go myself and now regret it.

Have anybody been there lately and actually saw the turtles?

[inahaze]

Last March, we booked our own excursion on the Silver Moon catamaran! It was wonderful! The staff and catamaran are top notch! We swam and snorkled with huge sea turtles (6 of them at once). Not to mention the huge tarpin that swam below us eating all the extra chum. The turtles came up so close that that one kept bumping our legs. I was nervous that it might get annoyed, but he was too interested in eating I guess.

 

After the turtles, we sailed over to the shipwreck area, but the water was not very clear due to the large ship of swimmers that had just left. We had a wonderful lunch on the catamaran and finished our sail back to the pier. I think the entire trip was about 4-5 hours.

 

Silver Moon cost a little more than the others, but what we heard back on the ship, it was well worth it! The other excursions were not as relaxing as you were crammed on a smaller catamaran with twice as many people!

[lbchew]

We were in Barbados on 11/25 and saw turtles. The water was a little cloudy but we still saw them and took some pics of them. It was worth it!

[kitty1]

Hi Kitty I'm very sorry but I can't let this pass.

How can you compare going to the shipwrecks in barbados snorkeling for $10 bucks on what I'm sure was a glass bottom boat to a catamaran for $50.

That catamaran you saw would have sailed the entire scenic west coast of Barbados & their guest would have snorkeled with the turtles. They also would have been served free drinks the entire time 4 hours. Did you get free drinks on the boat you went over to the shipwrecks on? Did they provide you with safety equipment eg. snorkeling life vest? You should not mislead the folks on the boards. You know what you can snorkel the shipwrecks for less than $10 you can swim out from the beach. But remember when I was there i didn't see a lifeguard on that beach.

 

The water was all stirred up the day we were in Barbados. Friends of our did the snorkel with the turtles for more than $50 pp and they only saw one turtle and couldn't see very good under the water because of the water conditions. All I'm saying is that our $10 trip was much better than theirs due to the conditions that day. Yes they provided safety equipment (snorkeling life vest). The ship tours cost way too much. There are cheaper alternatives. We went to Folkstone first, but the conditions were not good for snorkleing. We asked about a catamaran snorkel with the turtles trip for $40 ,but they told us you wouldn't be able to see anything because of the water conditions, and they would not be going out that day because of the conditions. The ship tours went anyways, and they couldn't see very good. Is that fair to the folks who booked the tours? No. All I'm saying is that on the day we were there the $10 snorkeling trip was worth more than the amount and the others were not.

[coppertops]

We travel to Barbaods on a regular basis.The water is usualy crystal clear.What sometimes happens is that if there is a lot of rain the dirty rain water flows into the see and makes it murky.Also if the water is rough it can churn up the sand on the bottom.We saw lots of turtles and the water was very clear.Its ashame that you had a bad time its usually great..............

[gizmo]

I agree with Snow Bird. There is no way you can compare.

 

It is nice to know that you can get someone to take you snorkeling from the Boatyard but booking a catamaran from either the ship or private excursion is so much different. It is comparing apples to oranges.

[BBMom]

Has anyone been on any of the following 3 hour snorkeling tours recently?

Thriller Ocean Adventures

Why Not Catamaran

Small Cats

Stiletto

El Tigre

Any suggestions or comments would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Susan

[Totally Addicted]

Does anyone know approximately the percentage you save booking private excursions over the ship's excursions? :confused: Just curious if it is really worth it. In the afternoons I do love the knowledge that the ship will not leave without us so I tend to always book any excursions with the cruiseline for afternoons.

[jmo1]

Does anyone know approximately the percentage you save booking private excursions over the ship's excursions? :confused: Just curious if it is really worth it. In the afternoons I do love the knowledge that the ship will not leave without us so I tend to always book any excursions with the cruiseline for afternoons.

 

I have found that the same excursions booked privately are about 60% of the cost of ship excursions. Any reputable tour operator that is recommended on this forum is going to get you back to the ship before it leaves port. Just inform them of your ship before you depart on the tour. Ships use the scare tactic of missing the ship to pad their coffers with more money for their expensive excursions. Private excursions usually have much less people on them, so they are less of a cattle corral.