How is this suppose to work??

[account4fun]

Okay need some advice about a tour I booked...we will be in St. Croix on Saturday 5/30/09 and we booked a 2 hour snorkleing tour to Sandy Point refuge. The place sounds amazing but I noticed every site I have been on says the beach is completely closed from April to August... how does this tour work then? Do we still go to Sandy Point and just can't get on the beach? And if so is it still worth going??:confused:

[Nanatravel]

Can you inquire of your tour provider? or is this through the ship?

[CrucianGal]

Sandy Point is an amazing beach. It is home to endangered turtles and it does close for for periods of time to allow for turtle nesting and hatching. One possibility is that the tour operator is calling one of the adjacent beaches by the same name. There are beaches that stretch all along the west/southwest coast of Fredriksted. Maybe you can contact the organizer to inquire. Even if the excursion is to one of the other beaches it should still be a a very nice excursion.

 

Regards from sunny St. Croix,

Ellen

[The Islander]

The Sandy Point Refuge Manager might have some information as well, try their website - contact information at the bottom. http://www.fws.gov/caribbean-ecoteam/sandy_point_index.htm. Post what you find out, others might also want to know how it works.

 

--Islander

[account4fun]

Since these boards were so helpful for me I wanted to return the favor. Our last island was St. Croix and here are my thoughts..for what it's worth :p

 

We booked a 2 hour snorkeling trip with "SCUBA" via shoretrips.com. We met at Sand Castle on the Beach hotel which is about a 5 minute ($4pp) cab ride from the pier. It was an interesting hotel but they did have a cool restaurant right next to the beach with good views of the ship. All in all it was a nice place to wait. The snorkeling trip was pretty good once it got going. It was only two hours so the snorkeling is near sandy point - about a 5 min boat ride from the hotel. When you first get in the water there is really NOTHING around....the key is you have to go really shallow into the coral to see the fish. Therefore our first 1/2 hour we were bummed until we figured it out. Once in the coral we saw the typical fish (and a few unusual ones), eels and different types of coral. It is not vibrant color coral but it is interesting. We brought bread with us but the fish were NOT interested at all. First time I have ever seen that happen! The best thing about the trip was when we were headed back to the boat a spotted eagle ray swam by us. They are so much nicer looking then traditional rays!

 

After our excursion we caught a cab to Carambola beach. Be warned "catching a cab" is about a 30 minute process in some places so plan you time accordingly. Our cab ride to Carambola was also about 40 minutes because there is no real direct route to get there...you go through the rain forest etc. We dropped passengers off at Cane Beach on our way and it didn't look that great and afterwards the people said they didn't like it. The beach is small and not that great looking. I asked them about the snorkeling and they said it was hard to get over the rocks. Not going there myself it's hard to say but that was what we were told.

 

Carambola on the other hand is BEAUTIFUL! The resort is nice and the beach has great island views. We arranged to have a couples massage on the beach with Terry and Michael of Ambrosia Body Care and they met us there. They set up the tables underneath a palm tree next to the water and we got a massage listening to real ocean waves...not a CD of the ocean! :D:D The massage and scenery were awesome and it was one of the best things we did all cruise. I would highly recommend them!! FYI - you are in your bathing suit in case that is anyone's concern.

 

On our way back to the pier we ran into a "festival" in the street with the Mock Jumbies and women dancers. It was really neat to see and listen to the music.

 

We did not make it to Christiansted because of our time constraints but there is a decent souvenir shop in Frederiksted near the pier.

 

All in all we liked the Island.

 

Hope this was helpful!

[martinchem]

Nice post.

[The Islander]

Great feedback account4fun, thanks for sharing. Your day sounded great and relaxing!

 

PS: Glad to hear the fish wouldn't eat the bread. It's not part of their natural diet. They are doing their thing, have what they need to eat right there in their marine environment. It's not a good idea to feed marine life human food, it can mess up their digestive system, make them less 'wild', create an unbalance in the reef food chain and even the type of fish that come around.

 

--Islander