Sea Trek 2022
We had booked Sea Trek with Coral World prior to coming to St Thomas. So today was the day!
We left the house and arrived at Coral World around 8:45am. Our "walk" wasn't until 3pm, but I knew that I wanted to get here early to get a parking spot. They only have a limited amount of parking spots available at this place (or Coki as well) and when I say limited I mean like maybe 10 spaces...if that. Now I was told that where we stayed, it's an easy walk to Coral World and plenty of people do it, but if I could drive, I was driving there.
Everything these days seem to be done by QR codes you have to scan and this place would be no different. Scan the code for everyone to fill out a waiver. What happened to the easy days you could just fill out a piece of paper and be done with it? I miss those days. I hate typing on a small phone. My eyesight is not what it used to be when trying to read things up close like that in small print.
We had talked to some of the employees when we first got there. Two of the guys looked familiar. I ask if they worked at the SeaTrek and they said yes. I ask for how long and one was there last time we did the SeaTrek and I believe he might have taken us on our walk.
This time around, they would not allow me to take my camera. I told them they let me take it last time with no problem but obviously it was going to be a problem this time. I told them I would definitely buy theirs as well, but it just wasn't happening. I should have probably just hid it and pulled it out under water. But at least they would be taking pictures of us and I'd have that. Of course they could NEVER do the job that I do...I'm totally convinced of this and have been proven many times before.
We put all of our things in a box to get locked up and another family was with us as well. They had us trying on crocs to wear on the walk and we were really making him work for his money. The hubby and I changed sizes 3 times each before we got it right and then went back to the original size. LOL
Ok, we are ready....let the show begin.
Here are the pictures they took of us
I could tell that Kiera was having a great time and doing a good job walking on the floor and all the fishies were paying us a visit...some were even photo bombing us. LOL
When we first started the walk, I seen an eel. I tried hard to point it out to the diver and our lead, but they were too late. Like I said, they would not be able to catch the things that I did had if I had a camera. As we moved along, they found a brittle starfish and passed around for everyone to hold. The family of 3 before us obviously do not know anything about sea life nor how to handle them. When we were handed the starfish, it was missing a leg. I would later find out that the other family, the father, handled him incorrectly and his leg came off. Now starfish will tear off their own leg to get away from a predator if they feel threatened. No worries, it will rejuvenate the leg but still, I had a problem with this. How did I find out about it? I seen it happen when we were reviewing the video they took of us during the walk and we gasped when we seen how it lost its leg. The staff immediately erased it before sending us the copy...of course.
I think if they are going to take various animals and hand them to people, they need to incorporate this in their "class" presentation before the walk. They explain to us how the walk is going to go and what/how it will happen. They obviously should be telling them to be gentle and how to handle them.
Next up they handed us a sea cucumber to hold and then next an arrow crab was handed to us. They are all animals that seem to be in every SeaTrek excursion we have been on no matter where we are at. At the very end, they allowed us to JUMP as high as we could. They did this the last time we were here and they do not take pictures or a video of this. Probably something else they are not allowed to do.
Here is the video they took during our walk, edited to cut out the other family.
Coral World was closed by the time we were done with our walk so we immediately headed to the gift shop to check out our photos. They cost $65 for all photo's (they said they base the price off of how many are in the family). In all honestly, it's not "worth" the price but if you want pictures of the event (as I do) then you are pretty much forced to purchase them. They took 44 pictures of us and 10 videos. However, out of those 44 pictures there were mostly snapshots that were taken of the same thing and snapped 1 second apart from each other. For instance and picture of Sakari when she was along, they took 4 of the same thing. The pictures of Sakari and Kiera together, they took 8 of them. So, this continued during the walk for the most part. So really, you only get a few pictures. The sad part is, they BOTH had cameras! I really wish someone would employ me to do pictures on excursions. I would know how to do it right and what people are looking for!
After I purchased the photos, they said they would email them to me within a couple of hours.