Zoey00123 Posted June 15, 2017 Report Share Posted June 15, 2017 Can someone PLEASE give me some opinions/their experiences regarding the St. Maarten excursions - the Sea Trek St Maarten - is this worth the money? My husband and I are really into the natural reefs (we have three live reef tanks, which include many corals and some saltwater fish at home). We're wondering if we will be able to see many live corals and saltwater fish or, since we are avid hobbyists, will this be a "flop" for us. Opinions? OR the other excursion we are considering is the 4x4 St. Maarten & Beach Escape - what is this like? My (20-something-aged) kids think they get to drive the jeeps themselves and follow a map and they are on their own for 6+ hours touring the island taking as much or as little time as they want at each place on the map. My husband believes there is a tour guide driving each of the jeeps and taking you on the tour. I think everyone drives themselves and follows a leader, caravan-style. Can anyone give us their experience of what this excursion is all about? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WAAAYTOOO Posted June 15, 2017 Report Share Posted June 15, 2017 It has been my experience (not that vast, BTW) that the waters around St. Maarten can be extremely murky and the visibility can be poor. Dan and booked a SCUBA diving trip there a number of years ago and it was a complete bust. That was during the winter so maybe it's better in the summertime. I don't know. If it were me, I would save my snorkeling and diving excursions for Cozumel, Bonaire or Grand Cayman. I have never done a jeep excursion. We did an ATV excursion a couple of years ago and it was, as you suggest....a trail leader, a staff in the rear and everyone driving their own ATV in a long line in between. We had a blast. I would do it again. Not sure how the 4 X 4 vehicle ones work but I would imagine that someone with a valid driver's license would be able to drive their own vehicle. It wouldn't be much fun if a staff member drove. I don't think they would get much business for that.... I think you win the bet. I think your scenario is the correct one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigHouseFootball Posted June 15, 2017 Report Share Posted June 15, 2017 We did the SeaTrek in St. Maarten last year and it was our favorite excursion of our cruise. Now, I will saw that my wife and I are not scuba divers so the ability to go down 20 feet and be down there for a good 20-25 minutes was an amazing experience for us. You are separated in 2 groups. While one group is down doing the walk the other is able to snorkel in the area. We saw a handful of fish but most of them were down by the walking path. You climb down a ladder from the platform and there is a path laid out with PVC Pipes as the guard rails. You walk a little distance then they stop you and they do a little activity like put a sea urchin on your hand, then you walk down a little further, stop, and something new is waiting for you there-like a sea spider (I declined to hold that haha). They also are spraying food out of a bottle to keep the fish all around you-you will see a TON of fish. At several points they spray the food right in front of your helmet and the fish swim right in front of your face and are bumping into the helmet, it was so cool. We really, really enjoyed the excursion and the staff was amazing the whole time. I felt completely safe and confident that in the unlikely event that I didn't to be brought up to the surface that the divers down there would of taken care of me. There are several divers down with the group the whole time. You are also given a cup of Rum Punch and it packed a punch! The other nice thing about it is that the whole experience lasts maybe 2 hours so if you get the first excursion of the day then you still have plenty of time to do other things in town. We were on the 2nd or 3rd of the day (we even had people in our group that had done the earlier excursion and came back tot he ship and signed up for another go!) so we had maybe 3 hours left in St. Maarten so we just strolled the shopping area a bit. I hope that helps, let me know if you have any specific questions that I can answer for you! eviet2001 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjac Posted June 15, 2017 Report Share Posted June 15, 2017 2 hours ago, Zoey00123 said: Can someone PLEASE give me some opinions/their experiences regarding the St. Maarten excursions - the Sea Trek St Maarten - is this worth the money? My husband and I are really into the natural reefs (we have three live reef tanks, which include many corals and some saltwater fish at home). We're wondering if we will be able to see many live corals and saltwater fish or, since we are avid hobbyists, will this be a "flop" for us. Opinions? OR the other excursion we are considering is the 4x4 St. Maarten & Beach Escape - what is this like? My (20-something-aged) kids think they get to drive the jeeps themselves and follow a map and they are on their own for 6+ hours touring the island taking as much or as little time as they want at each place on the map. My husband believes there is a tour guide driving each of the jeeps and taking you on the tour. I think everyone drives themselves and follows a leader, caravan-style. Can anyone give us their experience of what this excursion is all about? We did the 4x4 many years ago. The guide drives, follows a lead vehicle and they stop at interesting places for photo ops. It was an interesting excursion. Here's an excursion offered by an independent operator: https://www.randomwind.com/. Has excellent reviews here on this board as well as trip advisor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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