I agree that when your expectations aren't met, you do get disappointed! 🙁 I also agree that everyone's opinion counts! I personally think they (New Horizons) try to do TOO much in a day. I prefer the Stormy Petrel/Pirate's Penny trip. I hope *I* don't get flamed now! 😉

NHII only has about an hour of snorkeling, so you may want to look elsewhere. That was plenty for us & we wanted to see the baths & jost. I would do a private to both of those & snorkel & call it a day myself. Didn't need the lunch at Marina Cay, even though it was good. I would go to baths & than to Jost to eat & drink.

Oow, East Ender who would flame you....not me 🙂

Pia

Pia,
In response to your question on May 10 - it was new Horizons II. I agree with most of the comments made about the trip (I liked Marina Cay.). The focus of the trip was not snorkeling. It's a great trip to see many places, especially if you have a short attention span like my sons.

I concur - but I don't think you have anything to worry about. We were never hurried in our snorkeling and the reef there had quite a variety of fish - very little current, crystal clear water and not too deep. I wish I could name all the fish we saw, but right off the boat - as soon as my mask was clear - I was about five feet from a barracuda - timid guy - didn't like all the activity once eveyone else got in the water - but a neat moment. I love to snorkel, I was in the water about an hour - that was plenty. Then a bit of a cruise and we were at the beautiful Beach at Soggy Dollar Bar. Not for snorkeling , but a fabulous beach for swimming, sunning, etc. I might have snorkeled again if I had booked an all day snorkeling trip, but I enjoyed seeing the rest of the sights too. The bottom line is - even if you are avid snorkelers, how much time will you spend snorkeling in one day? I used to go on dive trips - all day trips solely for the purpose of diving - even then, we didn't dive more than twice in a day for about 45 minutes or so each dive.

did you know...

that you can rent a boat - and then hire a captain to take you where you want to go. We also did NHII - and while we had fun - we would have preferred more snorkling.

My new bride & I took the NH sailboat cruise last week. It's basically a sailing tour to snorkeling sites at SJ's Caneel Bay and St James island. The water at Caneel Bay was too murky, and there weren't many fish to be seen - but I wouldn't hold that against NH. We may have just gone there on a bad day. The water at St James was much clearer, and there were plenty of fish to be seen. The lunch was good, and they start pumping you full of rum as soon as you climb aboard the boat. The crew couldn't have been more friendly or helpful. A couple of days later, we took the trip on the BreakAway powerboat. It's a very similar tour to the NH II, because the boat showed up at some of the sites as BreakAway (The Baths and Jost Van Dykes beach where the Soggy Dollar Bar is). There was also only about 1 hour of snorkeling on this trip. It was at Marina Cay, and the waters could not have been more perfect. Even though there wasn't much snorkeling, this turned out to be our favorite tour by far. By this time, we had already spent most of our week snorkeling at Trunk Bay, Coki Beach, and Sapphire Beach, so we didn't feel like we missed out on much. One thing you can be sure of when booking these tours is that the alcohol starts flowing early and often. Have fun!

I was told that Breakaway and NH are owned by the same people. Breakaway is a bigger boat, holds more people. There were only 6 guests on our NHII tour.

Just did New Horizons II excursion last Thursday to The Baths. We had fun & count it as one of our best days of our vacation on St. John. We went to Baths (swam in) 1st & went on an informative tour, then had lunch at Pusser's on Marina Cay (burger was good), then to Grand Camanoe for snorkeling (tons of different fish everywhere)-plenty of enough time to snorkel, then of to Jost to have painkillers at the Soggy Dollar Bar. I didn't find the day too speedy & actually enjoyed the time we had, especially at Jost--spent about an 1 1/2 hr, then off to USVI. Left St. John at 7:30 am & got back around 4pm.

Kevin & Daniella were also very good hosts aboard New Horizons, they offered plenty of free drinks (good variety), muffins, fruit, & shrimp to snack on. They also play a good variety of music aboard & they give you a tour while on the water of the various islands & pirate stories. Will do again when we go back to St John, but will probably skip The Baths b/c we've been there twice.

We did NH II with our 3 kids (5, 8, 10) in April and had a great time. We're not the type that likes boats full of people -- but he boat was very comfortable and smooth. The captain (Chad) and first mate (Keely) were great -- Keely was awesome with the kids and the dads didnt mind her so much either. 😉

Baths was a short-ish stop but it was enough for the kids to hike around and get the idea. Snorkel stops werent that long but fine for us. The drinks and snacks on the boat were fine, and we had an all around great time. We were a bit nervous at first that it would feel like we were trapped all day, but it turned out to be fun.

If you are looking for hours of snorkelling, I would charter a boat. But for a fun day seeing the islands, snorkelling, checking out the baths, grabbing lunch etc -- I'd recommend it and we'd do it again!