joannanewlands2017, Sep 2025
Great family experience
We booked this tour through Nexus tours within our holiday resort.
Our sailing was booked for 12 in the afternoon, We were picked up around 10am and arrived at the marina around 45/50 mins later. There was a long wait for other passengers to come and for us to set sail in the hot weather.
There was no update that we were waiting on further passengers, When it got to 11:45am I had to ask a member of staff what was going on and then we were advised we were waiting for further passengers. Better communication to the guests would have been good here.The arrival into the Marina was quite intimidating, It was only myself my husband and my 13yo son who had arrived first, straight away there are a lot of staff around you, it felt a bit much. Once you pay your water tax and get your boarding pass for the boat, The guys are on you straight away to check your sun cream and ensure it's safe for marine life... I think this is a con to get you to buy sun cream from them at whatever price they want to charge you... No prices on the sun cream. We did check our sun cream as requested and it didn't have the chemicals in the cream that weren't allowed so we managed to swerve this robbing, We did purchase a waterproof phone case as I forgot to bring ours, this again had no price and cost roughly £22 in English money. Then they move on to sell you hats if you don't have them and motion sickness bands. this was all within stepping foot into the marina. Its very intense.There was then an hours wait in the waiting area for the next guests to arrive, We luckily had water with us however there is a shop set up that has chargeable drinks and snacks if required.Once on the catamaran the staff were very attentive and welcoming, We were welcomed on with a welcome drink which was nice and advised to sit at the front of the boat for the best view, We were lucky the sailing we picked only had 3 other families and ours, there was plenty of space to move around the boat and enjoy the views. Drinks were topped up often and a selection of drinks and cocktails which was great.
The snorkelling could be explained better, I did feel it was here is your life jacket and snorkel and jump in! We as a family have never snorkelled before and would have appreciated a brief demonstration how to use the snorkel properly, My son was a bit panicked at the beginning as it was literally "jump in" but once we worked out how to use the snorkel while in the sea it was fine. We did see some fish and the underground water museum which was fantastic, I would have liked the snorkelling to last a bit longer as we felt we had just got used to the equipment and it was time to come back on the boat.The sea is beautiful and so clear, my son saw a sea turtle while on the boat he was delighted! We then got to the beach club which on arrival walking down is beautiful. Once we arrived at the beach club we were shown to a table and a drinks order taken straight away, We were also shown around the buffet and each dish explained to us which was great service! The food was average buffet style but decent enough, The drinks were good and strong. The bathrooms weren't the best.We were asked on the boat by the staff prior to arriving at the beach club if we wanted to hire the golf carts through them which was a cost of $55 dollars this included a member of staff taking you round the island and showing you tourist points of the island, we opted for this as we wanted the guided tour and to know where to go and to get good stop points for photographs, we had been advised independently that you can get a buggy off the boat by yourself which is around $35 but would not include the guided tour.We paid the $ on the boat by card and it wasn't until we were back at our resort we realised we were actually charged $65, $10 extra which is not great service overcharging tourists... Please ensure you check the amount on the card reader if you choose to book the golf buggy from the staff on the boat, We were very disappointed by this.You are then back on the catamaran and taken north of the island where you have two hours free time to explore, The beach is lined with beach bars which to sit at you need to buy drinks which we felt were expensive... The shops are all selling expensive junk, no prices and ludicrous even when you start to haggle, I didn't have the energy for the rudeness of the prices they were trying to charge... My son wanted a fake football top and it started off at £120 English money down to £55 safe to say we didn't buy as you can get the real strips for this price.
Tequila prices were also ludicrous, no prices and verbally went from £80 upwards which again stopped us buying.. its cheaper in duty free.I personally would have enjoyed more time snorkelling and at the beach club rather than at the north of the island where I felt it was like walking into a pack of wolves trying to get what they could from the tourists... Also watch out for the men on the street who see your All Inclusive wrist band and say they are the waiter from your hotel and its their day off and working at the family business again trying to get you into their shop to rip you off which really got my back up.There is a 7 Eleven shop there which has Mexico shot glasses and some tourist bits in it you could purchase which is price marked and reasonable.We did enjoy the experience even with the couple of downsides it wouldn't put us off doing this again, it was a good experience but just be vigilant of the prices you are being told and what you are being charged.