Category Archives: Nature

This morning we ate breakfast at Johnny Rockets! Normally it has an extra fee—but not for breakfast! I kind of missed all the choices available in the Windjammer buffet, but it’s also nice to have limited choices.

Don’t ask why I didn’t take many pics—I have no idea. None of the ship, none of the wildlife, none of the excursion line or the catamaran we were on. Maybe because it was HOT and I hate hot. 🙂

We got on the boat and everyone had a seat with snorkeling gear on it. We traveled about 20 minutes to the bay where we were going to be swimming with the sea turtles. We got our instructions, safety briefs, and enjoyed the breezes. Then it was time to get in the water. And it was…not what we expected. The short version is that it was too exhausting and too short.

The longer version? It was described as

Cruise in comfort aboard a power catamaran to the waters off Buck Island, where you’ll snorkel amidst colorful fish, vibrant coral and maybe some sea turtles!” with the typical warning “Guests must consider their physical fitness level and medical history when determining whether this tour is appropriate.”

Which kind of sounds like you’ll hop off the boat and leisurely swim around looking at turtles and sea life, right? Well I am a healthy 46yo woman who is not a peak swimmer but I know how to swim and I’m not going to drown…and this was EXHAUSTING. We had to swim A LONG WAYS to see the turtles. They are protected, so the boat has to drop anchor way away from where the turtles are so you have to swim over to them. They did warn us that there was a long trip and a short trip…but if you wanted to see the turtles you had to do the long trip. They also offered the use of fins, but strongly warned against using them if you were not used to them (citing the possibility of leg cramps). But if you don’t use them, you are likely going to struggle in the water since you have SUCH a long distance to swim (but they don’t tell you that). And you are swimming with snorkel gear (that you are likely mostly unfamiliar with) and maybe a waterproof camera…and there are like 50 other people swimming along with you and you are dodging 3-4 other boats and excursion groups. Egads.

So some people are faster and get there right away (with the guide) and you’re left dragging behind, struggling to catch up. My dad had to turn around and go back (and Tom had to help him, so he had to double back) and thankfully Katie opted to stay behind—she never would have made it and there is no way I could have helped her as I was barely making it. Tom and Linda had fins and didn’t have as many issues (but they were familiar with fins) but Tom was still tired. So by the time we all made it to the sea turtle area…we had about 3 minutes before they were moving on to the reef…which, you guessed it…was another longish swim away. And I was already exhausted. So my plan of a leisurely snorkel off the boat to check out some sea life and take some pics was not happening and I was frustrated and exhausted—not exactly best case scenario for a Caribbean vacation excursion.

Oh, and did I mention that Katie had refused to get off the boat? Yes it ended up okay because the swim would have been too hard, but still. That’s not what you expect after you’ve paid a bunch of money for a snorkeling excursion. She said she didn’t like saltwater and didn’t want any fish to touch her. I kinda wanted to strangle her to be honest. She wouldn’t even hop off the boat and swim for a few minutes.

And then we were back on the boat. And it was time for unlimited rum punch. I don’t generally like rum but this stuff was delicious.

Then it was off to “enjoy an hour of swimming, sunning, and relaxing at this idyllic spot.” If by idyllic you mean having to jump off a boat into neck-deep water to get to shore and then share the beach with a ton of other people from other boats…and that hour was over WAY too quickly. We barely had time to grab a quick lunch and some more rum drinks… And I practically had to BEG Katie to get in the water and Papa totally refused saying he didn’t like getting wet (or didn’t want to get wet?) which was silly because he was already wet from getting off the boat! But we had fun just relaxing in the water!

All that said, the excursion staff was amazing. They were all witty, helpful, and nice. I felt safe the entire time, they were good with our kids, and you could tell they knew what they were doing. I just wish Royal Caribbean would have more than a boilerplate description on their site because this was NOT the relaxing experience I wanted.

Once back on shore, we split up. I took Katie and Papa back to the ship and Tom, Owen, and Linda walked around St. Thomas. Katie and I dug into the frosting dog. The other group shopped and ate lunch.

Then Katie and I headed to the pool—I stayed in the hot (warm) tub and chatted with a bunch of people. Katie was running around in the pools and eating ice cream and visiting me in the hot tub. I don’t remember what all we did the rest of the night…but I know we called it an earlyish night again since we had another early morning planned for San Juan.

One funny story: the kids came home and said they had photobombed a video. So we had to watch it on the room TV…and sure enough… wait until the end. 🙂