In March we were on the Carnivaal Glory - Western Caribbean and had a wonderful time (regardless of the jumper delay). Thanks to those who reccomended the Cave Tubing - awesome. We have booked Carnival Triumph for next March - Eastern Caribbean. Our ports are Half Moon Cay, St. Thomas, San Juan, and Grand Turk. I wear contacts/glasses so snorkling...concerns me. I'd like to try the helmet diving and my husband has an obsessive dream of going to a nudest beach. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
St. Thomas:
Go to Coki Beach (by Coral World MArine PArk) take a box of dog buiscuits and you can hand feed the fish right in the water...it's a beautiful beach. Rent a cheap car/check out taxi prices- Skyline Drive to Mountain top to view Magen Bay, there are helicopter rides, check out on line Skyride to Paridise Point, ferry to St John Island to swim in the caves, St Thomas has a huge local KMart if you've forgotten anything.
San Juan: beautiful to rent car and drive if you like that sort of thing. Otherwise the only thing we found was Bacardi Rum Distillery-tour/free drinks. When you get off the ship, go to Pier 2 pay 50 cents per person (each way)take ferry to Cantano. Ferry leaves every 15 min. Its a 10 min ride. Get off hop on "shuttle" pay $3 pp each way 10 min drive to distillery. Tour/drinks are free.
I've never been to these places but this is what my research has turned up so far...for a future trip.
I would recommend going to St.John on St.Thomas or a nice beach. San Juan the Bacardi tour is nice and just tour Old San Juan. On the snorkeling, unless you are badly visually impaired should be ok.. the masks make it blury for everyone. Snorkeling is so much fun you have to try it.
Have not been to Turks or Half Moon. I don't know about the nudist possibilities, they seem a little uptight in that area of the caribbean. I do know on Martinique going topless is common even on public beaches.
Skyride to Paradise Point is a tram suspended 700 feet that takes in beautiful sights. It holds 24 people and leaves every 7 min. website: paradisepointtramway.com
We just got back from the Eastern Caribbean on the Glory. In St. Thomas, Paradise Point was beautiful - and the bushwhacker was delicious! :-)
Also in St. Thomas, DH and I went snorkeling for the first time in our lives - we both wear glasses/contacts and we wore our contacts that day. I was VERY worried as I have never worn my contacts in the ocean. BUT - I had no problems and neither did DH! The mask forms a seal and suctions onto your face. If by chance the seal comes loose, water seeps in slowly right around your nose and you can feel it and just lift your head, open the mask, and let the water out, then re-seal the mask to your face. Water never just POURED in like I had expected. Snorkeling was amazing. It's our new favorite thing to do! We're going to buy our own snorkel gear and snorkel in every place we can find! :-)
We took the Barefoot Castaway Sail & Snorkel around Buck Island - it was awesome! The catamaran experience was SO cool and fun, the crew was great and funny, they played the BEST Caribbean music on the boat - the snorkeling was just amazing. We are hooked.
I have been snorkeling/diving for over 30 years and have worn contacts the entire time. You can get vision adjusted masks, but my contacts have never given me any problems. In St. Thomas, take the ferry to St. John and a cab to Trunk Bay. There is a self-guided snorkeling tour about 50 yards from shore. It is one of the top 10 beaches in the world. We've also done some great catamaran sail/snorkel trips, but Trunk Bay is my favorite and you will be amazed by the beauty there. In San Juan, not sure how long you will be there, but a tour of Old San Juan or the Bacardi factory tour are great. If you have time, most of the locals go to Ponce, which is on the other side of the island. Half Moon Cay is a private island, and absolutely wonderful. We did a great sail/snorkel through Costa at Christmas in Grand Turk. They stopped in two places for about an hour each. The first was a beautiful coral garden spot and the second had great reef fish. The only nude beach I know of is in St. Maarten/Martin, which is Orient Beach. On the islands you're going to, I think your hubby is out of luck. However, to make your hubby feel better, most of the people we've seen on Orient Beach should NOT have been naked. Best wishes and welcome to cruise-chat!
The glasses and contact folks.. dont worry. You can actually see better underwater as it magnifies up to 3x. I have been scuba diving with folks that wear glasses full time and when underwater they actually see extremly close to 20/20 without aid.
If you still need to wear contacts no worries. As stated before the masks seal very well and if there is a drop or two of water inside it is very easy to clear. Unless you remove the mask entirely underwater they mask wont fill up completly. As for glasses, you have to take them off. The stems will leave a gap on the side of the mask which will let water in. But as I said, underwater the water itself will be your glasses and you can and will enjoy seeing without aid.
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