S4371ZWbenjaming
Aug 2021
Crew was very friendly and accommodating. However, it was very difficult to hear them give instructions on using the gear and etiquette in the water due to the large volume of people on board. I highly recommend that (if they are reading this) they use a bull-horn or microphone or something so that everyone can hear clearly over the wind and noise (for those of us in the back). They were able to explain again in a 1 on 1 before we dropped anchor so that was helpful.
They had one cooler each of very fresh lemonade and water (complimentary) and a decent but small choice of beer and wine.
I rate the ship and crew with 5 stars. Since the TripAdvisor only gives an option to rate the overall "experience" I give it a 4 out of 5. I will explain why it is not a 5. The actual snorkeling experience when we got in the water was a bit disappointing, especially from what you imagine with the beautiful blue/green water.
Visibility was not the best, probably 50-75 feet max. Water (or the goggles) was fairly cloudy. Either it was just my imagination or the area we were in seemed starved of color. There were some beautiful colored fish but not many. I had to get fairly close to really enjoy the colors. As for the corals and vegetation, it was very dreary with the only identifiable colors (for myself at least) were faint oranges and purples. Perhaps it was due to it being a very sunny day but the guide said that we could expect very clear visibility.
Perhaps I am biased as I once dove in Mexico and was stunned at how far you could see and how absolutely clear the water was... but Key West was NOTHING compared to the Yucatan.
But again, it was an overall very good and enjoyable experience. The crew and the refreshments they provided made up for the gray snorkeling experience.