castaway girl barefoot sail & snorkel

[island guy]

Here is the link to the Carnival Website.

 

http://www.carnival.com/ShoreExcursionDetails.aspx?region=CE&portcode=STT&excursionname=Castaway+Barefoot+Sail+%26+Snorkel+to+Shipwreck+Cove&excursioncode=434037

 

It is $50 for adults and $36 for children.

[hcliffe]

Can you book an excursion directly thru the castaway crew and save some money over what the cruise lines charge?

[Candycruiser3]

Can you book an excursion directly thru the castaway crew and save some money over what the cruise lines charge?

 

I love the Castaway Girl excursion and have been on it several times now. I too was wondering if I could book this trip directly with the Castaway Girl Crew. I did some research and this is what I found out. Answer No. if you are on the ship then you must book directly with the Cruise line due to contractual obligations. :(

 

However I then decided to have my husband contact them and say that we were staying on island at the Marriott and interested in doing this excursion on the same day that we would be in port. The lady on the other end of the line said that this would not be a problem:D. We ended up booking directly through Cruise Ship Excursions which is the company that owns Castaway Girl and we saved quite a bit of money.:cool:

 

I found all my contact info on their Website @ http://www.CruiseShipExcursions.com

 

PS- They offer a quite a few tours and I don't see why this strategy wouldn't work for those tours either.

[tomacruiser]

How did you arrange for the smaller snorkeling trip to St. John? That sounds like so much fun!

[Asil65]

Hi tomacruiser,

Check out the Best Day Sail thread under St Thomas. We just booked a 6 person sailboat for the day. Lots of great choices to choose from. We took a 50 person catamaran through the cruiseship for the full day snorkel to St johns on one of our last trips. It was great and we had a blast. Wanted to do something a bit smaller and less crowded this time. There are a bunch of links to different websites on that thread

[MamaParrotHead]

Hi tomacruiser,

Check out the Best Day Sail thread under St Thomas. We just booked a 6 person sailboat for the day. Lots of great choices to choose from. We took a 50 person catamaran through the cruiseship for the full day snorkel to St johns on one of our last trips. It was great and we had a blast. Wanted to do something a bit smaller and less crowded this time. There are a bunch of links to different websites on that thread

 

Can you tell me how long you spent on St. John with the ship's excursion? Thanks.

[Asil65]

It was through Princess. I think it was a 6 1/2-7 hour trip. We were late getting back to the ship and the ship had to wait an extra 1/2 hour. Thankfully it was a Princess excursion so they waited for all 50 of us. The nice thing about this trip was that the catamaran picked us up right at the new dock. We just had to walk over to it. I think because of where we left from we had a longer sail to St. Johns. I believe that it took us about 2 hours to get to the island.

[JustCallMeAmber]

How far out do they anchor for snorkeling? I'm a strong swimmer but a little squeamish in deep water (Jaws traumatized me as a pre-teen!). I know, an odd choice for an excursion for me but I've always wanted to do a catamaran excursion. This one gets better reviews than the 1/2 Champagne sail to St. John.

 

Is there any beach time or just snorkeling?

 

 

 

Did you end up going on the Castaway Girl Sail & Snorkel? We are also wondering how far out they anchor and any other details that anyone can share! Thanks!

[MelJJJ]

We will have our two boys 4 & 8 with us, is it worth taking the little guy on a catamaran? He can't snorkel ;) but he does love the water & I would be there with him of course!

[MamaParrotHead]

We will have our two boys 4 & 8 with us, is it worth taking the little guy on a catamaran? He can't snorkel ;) but he does love the water & I would be there with him of course!

 

Have you tried snorkeling with your 4 YO? I taught our kids how to snorkel in the kiddie pool in less than 10 minutes, LOL. Otherwise they have those "snorkel window" floats you can buy as well. Google them. I have two that I bought before trying to teach my kids to snorkel (never used) that I'd gladly sell you if you're interested. ;) Most excursions allow for younger kids to come along, with the word of caution to not let them splash around and scare the fish away that everyone else is trying to spot, LOL.

[MelJJJ]

if it's that easy to teach, I'll give it a shot - we've got a few months to get it right!

[MamaParrotHead]

if it's that easy to teach, I'll give it a shot - we've got a few months to get it right!

 

The only instruction I had to give to my kids were these three things...

 

1.) breath only through your mouth, and make it slow and sound like Darth Vader.

2.) If you breathe fast and/or through your nose you'll feel funny and fog up your mask

3.) just RELAX.

 

Honestly...my kids aren't super duper swimmers, but with life jackets, we had hours of fun snorkeling as a family.

[MelJJJ]

thanks for the advice, he's just getting used to the water - and trying to keep up with his big brother! We already use goggles so just need to get the breathing down pat :)

[johneeo]

We will have our two boys 4 & 8 with us, is it worth taking the little guy on a catamaran? He can't snorkel ;) but he does love the water & I would be there with him of course!

 

You will be surprised.

 

First, we did the Champagne catamarran trip, and it was great. Highly recommend it.

 

I went snorkeling, and my son at the time was 11. He just decided to go with the mask and flippers. Then he saw the others, and snorkeling was much easier than trying to swim around without the snorkel, which it is.

 

As soon as he did the snorkel, no problem, took like a fish to water.

[JGfirsttimer2012]

I realize these posts are old, but in case anyone wants some current info on the Castaway Girl Barefoot Sail and Snorkel.... We went just last week, and it was amazing!! We booked only the day before after a recommendation from our cruise excursion desk, and they were spot on! The crew was great, so fun and helpful. The boat is massive, very cool. They provide all your snorkel gear, and show you how to use everything. We had the option to go and snorkel on our own, or to follow one of the crew who gave us a guided snorkel tour. We opted for the tour. The snorkeling at Buck Island was so pretty. We saw all kinds of amazing tropical fish and creatures, and the old shipwreck that is there was also very cool to see. On the return journey, the rum punch was flowing freely, and we had a great time! Big shout out to the crew for showing us such a good time!!