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Cool Runnings Catamaran Cruises

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Carmen
Carmen
First Reviewer
5 out of 5
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1
Review
3
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Editor Pick

Cool Runnings Is a Cool Experience

  • October 1, 2008
  • Rated 5 of 5 by Carmen from Fairfax, Virginia
Cool Runnings Is a Cool Experience

The snorkel tour we booked through Cool Runnings was by far my favorite excursion of our Barbados trip. There were about 20-30 people on board the catamaran, which included 5 staff members – and they really made the trip special. The staff was part sailors, part servers, part tour guides, part instructors and part friends. Everyone left there feeling like they were a part of the Cool Runnings family, and I think that was a really special bonus.

The tour cost us about $80 U.S. each, and included transportation from our hotel and lunch, along with an open bar (and rum punch. No Barbados excursion is complete without it.) The transport took us to the Cool Runnings offices in Bridgetown, where we paid in full and got our instructions. (Make a note, if you even think you want a t-shirt or hat or souvenir, get them when you pay. The office closes after they get everyone on board, and the staff has limited sizes/selection on board.)

As soon as we stepped foot on the catamaran, the staff set out to make everything special. Even though at the start of the trip there was a bit of "liquid sunshine," as they call it, it didn’t dampen the spirit of the crew, which was contagious for the rest of us.

The first stop was an opportunity to swim with some turtles and snorkel at a shipwreck. Even though they had to feed the turtles to get them to come over, which is probably a bad idea from an ecosystem standpoint but a good idea from a tourism angle, it was awesome. I even got to reach down and touch a turtle’s shell, and he was about the size of a large 8-year-old child. The staff snorkeled with us, and kept us all in a little "school" of our own, keeping an eye on us to make sure we were all together and all okay. Then, they fed the fish, making them swarm around us like a fish tornado. It was fabulous!

The next stop was on a reef, and while the snorkeling wasn’t the best I’ve ever seen, there were a lot of colorful fish, and the water was warm and calm.

The third stop was in front of Sandy Lane resort, where Tiger Woods dropped millions of dollars into the Barbados economy for his wedding. Here we enjoyed the buffet lunch, with the Bajan standards: chicken, flying fish, potatoes, etc. The food was pretty good, but it was the company and the scenery that made it. If you chose to ignore the "don’t swim after eating" rule, there was more snorkeling if you wanted. I chose to just marvel at the colorful water and snuggle with my hunny.

The ride back was a bit choppier, as we ditched the engine and went solely on sails. However, the wind was blowing in my hair (try to detangle THAT mess) and the air tasted salty and I was free to be, well, free. We even saw some flying fish actually fly – something I’d never seen before. I thought they were birds until I pondered the fact that they’d flown into a wave and not emerged again. There was also a good view of the Bridgetown pier and Careenage as we docked at the end of the day.

It was an 8 a.m.-3 p.m. adventure that I will remember fondly. Perhaps I’ll quit my job and become a part of their crew.

From journal Barbados: Living on Island Time

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