Turtle Encounter Express

My husband and I chose this excursion for our January 2015 cruise. We were greatly impressed! Our guide, Trista, was from Oregon, USA and was amazing! She was honest, friendly, informative, and very personable. Not only did we discuss the turtle, Duncan, but we felt that we got to know her as a person as well. We were the only two people in our group so it was as if it was our own personal excursion. We were told to book an afternoon excursion as these are less crowded with people. They were right! When we arrived at Coral World, we were given a short briefing of the park and were given approximately an hour to walk around on our own. We saw ducks, fish, turtles, crabs, sharks, birds, lizards, starfish, sting rays and other animals as well. This is a great excursion for the more laid-back kind of person. On the excitement level, we would give this a 3 out of 10. If you chose a zip line excursion for example, we would rate this a 10 out of 10 for excitement. However, for an educational aspect, this excursion is a 10 out of 10. The picture package for the turtle excursion was $34 for the memory card. The family behind us participated in the shark excursion and paid $24 for their picture package.

We were on the Oasis of the Seas, so our travel time from the pier was about 30 minutes in an air conditioned 14 passenger van. We arrived about one and a half hours before the excursion so we took a tour of the facility. Do not miss feeding the birds the nectar. You hold a cup in your hand and they fly to your arm and sip the nectar. We then walked down the boardwalk to the beach. We only had a half an hour to swim. They charge $5 each for lounge chairs so we only took one. Do not forget to bring your snorkel equipment. We then headed off to our Turtle encounter. There was a short presentation about sea turtles followed by some safety information. Our tour guide's name was Jan. He was wonderful! We put on our crocs and went to the turtle pool. Be very careful getting in and out. My husband slipped and hurt his knee. We had about 30 minutes with the turtles and it was only my family of four so we had a lot of one on one time with the turtles. Our favorite turtle was Duncan. He will actually allow you to hold him up like a baby under his front legs, and he then puts his sweet little head on your chest and looks at you with his huge eyes! I must have given him ten hugs while I was in the pool with him. The turtles are so friendly and really seem to enjoy being pet since they just keep swimming back to us. This was one of the most AMAZING experiences we have ever had. I will definitely be going back to visit Duncan and Tortuga on my next trip to St. Thomas. I never thought I could bond with a sea turtle, but trust me; you will too once you meet Duncan and Tortuga!

Truely a one of a kind expierence. You get picked up in a air conditioned bus which takes you on the 15 minute (max) ride to Coral World. When you get there you go through their easy check in and see where you go for your excursion. My excursion didn't start till after 2:00. Since I had arrived a little after 12:40 I had time to walk around the park and see the other attractions as well. They had a litttle food service area as well. Just the basics cheese burgers, hot dogs, grilled cheese and french fries, as well as ice cream. Some of the other attractions included nurse sharks, sea anemones,sting rays, red footed tortoises, bahama ducks and lots of iguanas. When it was time for my excursion my little group, there was only three of us, met together and went over the safety for us and for the two sea turtles. We got to learn the basics about sea turtles and how the Coral World is also a rescue and rehabilitaion center for them as well. They give you crocs to wear if you don't have water shoes. They show you the best way to go into the pool as it can be slippery because of the algae and the rocks. I definately recomend to take a waterproof camera since the water level is about chest high(I'm 5'4"") and so you can touch the turtles more easily. the turtles like to swim on the out side wall of the pool so our tour guide had us against the wall so the turtles came right up to us. Even bumping into me a couple times, it was really cool though seeing them up that close. There was two in the pool a boy who weighed about 150 lbs and a girl who weighed about 200 lbs. We were able to have our pictures taken with them as well. we were only in the water for about 30 minutes but it was definately a once in a life time expierence.

a wonderful experience

The turtle encounter was a great experience. It was early in the day and the park was very quiet, a good time to have the turtle encounter. The guide was very knowledgeable and very patient. The parameters were very clear. I really appreciated the fact that the Turtle encounter was also good for the turtles. A once in a lifetime experience that was well worth it.