luxury catamaran snorkel boat
The Luxury Catamaran Snorkel excursion from Carnival Radiance in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico met out on the dock between where people disembark the tenders and the shore. There are several stations along the dock with signs for whatever excursions meet in that spot, though if you are too early the sign for your excursion may not be up yet. Instructions said to take the tender an hour prior to the excursion, most likely to insure people actually got on a tender that would get them there on time since they really didn’t want people to line up until just before the excursion. There is a roofed waiting area with benches and a view of the marina on one side of the dock just before the exit to shore where people can wait if they are too early for an excursion. It’s not reserved for excursions only so other people can sit there too if they want. There are a lot of shops, bars, and restaurants all around the shore in the dock area so there’s stuff to do if people want to walk around the port rather than sitting and waiting for their excursions.
whale spouting
When boarding the catamaran they pretty much directed people out to the open stadium style seating on the bow, but it also had a stairway going up to a nicer covered seating area up above. They said it had room for 6 people but only 3 found it. One didn’t stay so it was just me and a guy who was also on that excursion alone. He was on the cruise alone, but I was on the excursion alone because John went fishing on a panga with a friend who happened to be vacationing in Cabo at the same time as our port stop there and I like to look at fish, not catch them. I would not have considered the stadium seating on the bow as a luxury cruise, but the upper area was quite nice.
whale fluke
There was also some seating under shelter at the back of the boat so if more than 6 people wanted the upstairs spot there would be somewhere else to go for anyone wanting some shade. The back area was also the staging area where people put on fins and left the boat at the snorkel stops. It had stairways down to the water and a ladder into the sea on each side of the stern.
people on the bow seating and Land’s End
After leaving the dock the boat first went out to Land’s End to see the famous Cabo arch and other rock formations there. Then we headed toward San Jose del Cabo, but did not go that far. We saw some whales on the way to the first snorkel stop, some more whales from the second stop, and one on the way back that was a real show-off with its fluke (tail) popping up many times with some spouting in between. It would have seemed like more than one whale except that it had a very distinctive tail with a couple of large white spots on it.
fruit snack
On the way to the first snorkel stop they brought everyone a tray with a variety of different fruit on it for a snack. They also had a variety of things to drink. This was the first snorkel excursion I have done that offered alcoholic beverages before the snorkel stops. The others always kept the drinks non-alcoholic until after. They did say 3 drink limit prior to snorkeling, but I waited until after for anything with alcohol in it and just had one then.
coral and sea urchins
The first snorkel stop had a lot of rock formations with several varieties of coral on them. Some had some big sea urchins as well. There were a lot of fish, some big and some small. I was happily snorkeling around by myself looking at all sorts of stuff in very clear water when one of the people running the excursion said I had to go out to where the rest of the group was. The closer I got to the group the harder it was to see anything as the water became less and less clear. In that area the water was clear when staying away from the crowd, but murky when close to everyone else so there must have been some debri that got stirred up if there were too many people disturbing the water.
fish (blue tangs)
Since the people running the excursion didn’t like it when someone got too far away from the guide the key was to stay as far away from the rest of the group as possible while still within the range where they wouldn’t round you up to go back to the group from. There was a lot to see right close to where the boat was, but the guide led people a distance away where there was nothing to see at all with that many people churning the water up into murky clouds. Maybe there was stuff there and maybe there wasn’t.
fish in semi-murky water
It was too murky to see much of anything staying with the group where they had gone and I noticed there were a few people who had stayed a bit closer to the boat then I had been that they didn’t round up and make go with the crowd so I went back toward the boat figuring if they could be there so could I. It wasn’t long before everyone else headed back that way too.
fish and coral
For the most part I did manage to stay far enough away from the rest of them to have clear to fairly clear water, but I would have seen a lot more had they allowed me to stay where I originally was. It was not that much farther from the boat than where the people were that they let stay. It was in the opposite direction of where the crowd went while the other few were more next to the boat, but still easily within sight of it so it really shouldn’t have been a problem to let me stay. The water was probably only as clear as it was because nobody else was there. I mostly just float over stuff without disturbing the water whereas some people kick up a storm the whole time.
fish up very close
The second snorkel stop was near a beach with several other boats already there. The water there was very murky. Fish were visible near the surface when looking down into the water from the back of the boat, but when in the water to snorkel they could only be seen if they were right next to your face so nobody did much snorkeling there. Some did jump off the side of the boat just to swim.
lunch
They served lunch at that stop so most people just stayed on the boat. I tried snorkeling, but didn’t stay out long once I saw how little could be seen. If there was any coral there the water was too murky to see it. I have no idea how deep it was since I could only see what was right next to me which was just water except when some fish came very close.
whale with white spots on its tail
After awhile at that stop the boat headed back, with a bit of a delay to watch the whale with the white spots on its tail until it stopped showing off and disappeared from sight.
not quite sunset
As we approached the ship we were just a bit too early to see the sun set over the arch. There was a bit of color starting to show in the sky, but the sun was still too high to actually set before we were past that area. We had to pass by the ship to get to the tender dock. Cruise ships anchor out in the bay near the arch in Cabo. We had a good view of it from the ship itself on the way in and out, but not from where it anchored.
Carnival Radiance in Cabo
Overall it was a nice excursion. Definitely a nicer boat than the average snorkel boat, though maybe not so much for the majority of the people who sat out in the open in the stadium style seating on the bow where they had no shade. Someone said there were somewhere around 16 people on that excursion. That’s about half what that boat could hold, but it was a pretty good number for it. Enough to keep the excursion from getting cancelled, but not so many as to make the boat feel crowded. The sheltered area up top where I sat was definitely more luxurious seating than the part out on the bow where most of the people were. I would definitely not have felt like the excursion lived up to its name of luxury catamaran if I had sat out there, but the little place up top I shared with that one other guy was definitely more luxurious than the average snorkel boat. Especially with just two people in that space. This was the most expensive of 3 snorkel excursions offered through the ship for this port, but I chose it because one of the other two was in an open boat with no shelter and the reviews on the other all said that the water where it went was very cold. Booking in advance or through the ship is not necessary in Cabo since there are all sorts of people offering pretty much everything on shore, but sometimes it’s nice to plan in advance so you know what you will get, especially when going alone.
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