Crystal River chance to see manatees in pm Dec. 21-22?

[Torontonian]

Hi.

My wife and I are taking our kids to Orlando/Disney on Dec. 18-24. My wife and I had been to Crystal River, and snorkeled with manatees before. I also dived at King's Bay.

We are thinking to drive from Orlando to Crystal River one day, either Mon. Dec. 21 or Tue. Dec. 22.

I see most of the manatee tours are held in the morning. With 5 of us, it's more economical if we rent a pontoon boat ourselves (we have all our own snorkeling gears too, including wetsuits).

It's a 2hr drive, and my wife thinks it'll be more challenging to try to leave early, but no problem to get there in the afternoon. Is the chance of seeing manatees greatly reduced in the afternoon? Do the manatees go into hiding, or sleeping? Or would we still have a good chance?

Thanks.

 

[Goindrinkn]

Mornings are best, as they come in to sleep in the warmer waters overnight. You can find the masses if you are first out there. But there should always be a few up around the 3 sisters. The fact that it is a weekday helps a bit as there will be less folks out there to scare them away. The tides are also a minor factor, As if you catch it at the right time, when the tides are high just before dawn, sometimes you'll find the manatees back in the 3 sisters. (this means pool clear water and great pictures.) And then the parade as they exit before the tide gets too low. It looks like the highs are 4:30ish and lows are at 11:30ish. So those morning first light would in fact give you a better opportunity for an amazing encounter. But that being said. They will still be there, and they are still amazing. As it gets on in the morning / early afternoon more of them are going to leave the shallows in search of food. But you'll still be able to spot some.

A side note, and I'm not sure how it would work with your group of 5, but I always recommend that you consider renting some kayaks. (there are plenty of places around) You are low to the water, they will come up and check you out, and you won't scare them off. And if you bump one, it's not going to leave an ugly scar. (in fact it's more likely that they will bump you.. they seem to like to rub on the bottom of the kayaks.)


Good luck and have fun!

 

[Torontonian]

That's great, thanks. So we don't have to get up at 4-5am to drive over.

Kayaks sounds good too. But pontoon boat would allow all of us to get in water and back on boat. My wife is a non-swimmer and may not enjoy as much if we are on kayaks and she doesnt' get in the water. I'm actually not a good swimmer either, my 3 kids (2 boys 17, 14, and girl 12) are all good swimmers.

I'll find out if the pontoon renter also rents kayak and would allow a pontoon boat to carry a kayak. If allowed, then we can do both. I probably will end up to be the one on the boat most of the time though, someone has to stay on the boat.

It's also warmer in the afternoon. I don't like cold/cool weather (no I'm not used to
Canada).

This sounds exciting. Hope we do find a few playful juvenial manatees and my kids will enjoy playing with them.

 

[Torontonian]

The tides are also a minor factor, As if you catch it at the right time, when the tides are high just before dawn, sometimes you'll find the manatees back in the 3 sisters. (this means pool clear water and great pictures.) And then the parade as they exit before the tide gets too low. It looks like the highs are 4:30ish and lows are at 11:30ish. So those morning first light would in fact give you a better opportunity for an amazing encounter.

Hi. How did you find the tide info? I looked in this, and it shows the high tides for Crystal River King's Bay at 6-7am, and 7-8pm. Low tides at 1:40-2:50pm around Dec. 21-23. So if we are there in the early afternoon it'll be low tide which is not as good?!


Found another site for tide info. Well, I don't have enough at my disposal to change the tide schedule, so I guess we'll have to rely on the manatees wanting to be there to play.