Sea Trek in St. Maarten

[Dana916]

Hello All!

 

In case you were looking for something "under the sea" this will be a perfect fit for you. Now this excursion was a little pricey but for once in a life time, I thought it was worth it. If you book through Royal Caribbean you meet them right outside of the ship and they walk you down to the water taxi that takes you to a little tiki hut floating on the water. The water is so clear you can see all the way down to the sea ground (20feet). You have a quick safety talk and than split into two groups. The first group goes under water and the other group snorkels while they are waiting. The helmet they put on your head weights 75lbs out side of water and 15lbs in the water. So if you don't think you can handle 15lbs on your shoulder for 20-25 minutes I don't recommend this for you. Now something they don't tell you when you book this is if you can't equalize your ears yourself, you can not go on with the excursion and they won't refund you. Meaning if you can't get both your ears to pop while going underwater you have to comeback up until you can get them to pop. Now they will work with you bringing you back up and down it happened to a couple people when I went, but everyone in the end was able to go under. So you can try to yawn, move your jaw or the easiest is stick your hand up your helmet plug your nose and blow out. You have to walk down a 20 foot latter while a scrub instructor helps guide you. On the way down this is when you will have to equalize your ears. I had to stop about 4 times to equalize them. ( no water gets in your helmet if you have to use your hand to plug your nose).You cant verbally communicate with the scuba divers that are down there guiding you, so they teach you a couple hand gestures. It was actually slightly cold under water I was shivering lol. It was about a 20-25 minute walk, but it goes by so fast so don't blink to much lol. You are allowed to bring a underwater camera, I recommended it! You will get awesome pictures. They do take pictures of you and the group and you can buy them on a flash drive with stock photos for $35.00. They put fish food in your hand so the fish sworm you like crazy, great photo opportunity. After we came out of the water you get to snorkel, it wasn't very long only about 20 minutes the next group was coming in. They do have tee shirts for sale and serve a complimentary rum punch. I wish we had more time to snorkel and be under water, it felt a little rushed. But it was fun and worth the experience.

[Matt]

Great photos!