Does anyone have an opinion on where the best place to play with the stingrays would be? We are going to Montego Bay, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. I know for sure that we want to see the stingrays, I just wanted some info on which stop would be the best. Open for any other excursion suggestions Thanks, Kim.
the definite answer is going to be Sting Ray City on Grand Cayman. Use Moby Dicks or Captain Marvin. The tour the ship offers will be 100-250 people and these other guides are less people, less money, and they make their living getting people back to the ship on time.
Laurie RCCL Nordic Empress 1993 RCCL Nordic Prince 1994 RCCL Explorer 2003, 2005 RCCL Navigator, 2004, 2007 RCCL Mariner 2006 RCCL Liberty 2008
I would also highly recommend Grand Cayman. We booked our tour thru the ship (RCL)and it was great. We were on a decent size boat with about 20-25 people. There were lots of stingrays. You have to go barefoot - it's not really "swimming" in that the water is fairly shallow (up to my neck & I'm 5'4")(We went mid January last year). You have to do "the stingray shuffle" so you don't step on one but they are gentle - although if you have food they'll nudge you!! I'm not real comfortable in the water (I tend to freak out when snorkling) but I LOVED this experience.
Laurie is right. We use Captain Marvins, and always have a great time. When you book excursions with the ship you will be with a lot more people, and pay more than if you book on line. HERE is a link to Captain Marvin's web site if you want to check it out.
Definetly do it at Grand Caymen!! We booked it with "Moby Dick" on our own (look on their web site) It is a wonderful tour and not very many people because they use smaller boats. We all got a chance to hold and "kiss" the stingrays. I would highly recommend this company.
We did the same thing in Grand Cayman, and used Captain Bryan's. The trip offers a combination Stingray and snorkeling catamaran outing. The only downside was that I had to remind the catamaran driver that our last tender left at 1:00!! We were still sailing around in the water at noon! They hustled back and we made it back to the ship with time to spare!
We have used both Captain Marvin's and Moby Dicks. We made it in the water with Captn Marvin and had a blast. I was impressed with Moby Dick when we tried in Dec to go to the sandbar. They advised us that the water on the sandbar was extremely rough. We went anyway as we wanted to do the tour again. We were not able to get off the boat as it was too dangerous - one of the passengers was on the steps going into the water and she was "thrown" into the stairs and hand rails by the waves. The captain took us back to port and we received a full refund. We gave them a nice tip as I was impressed that they were more concerned for the passengers safety than making a profit for the day ... we are planning a cruise in late September or early October and will definitely give them another chance.
One more thing about Stingray City. If for some reason you are a scuba diver, I highly recommend you do this excursion as a dive. The whole thing is at a depth of only 15-25 feet, which means that you get an amazing amount of bottom time, and no real danger associated with off-gassing. Also, if you do it as a dive, there is a huge tame moray eel which is a resident of that area, and I am sure you can get your guide to show it to you. Have fun!
I hope it is not too late for this to be an option for you. Last year while in Grand Cayman we went to Sting Ray City. Everyone on our ship thaat planned this excursion missed out because the water excursions were cancelled due to poor water conditions. We had booked our excursion on our own at www.grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com the water was choppy but not too bad. This requires no more than 5 people in the group. You go out on a sail boat (due to the conditions we did use a different boat, but I think it was probably better) with the captain (John Michael) who was a sail boat racer. This was the most AWSOME thing of our entire trip. It felt as if we were out for the day on the boat with our buddy. All of the other tours at Sting Ray City were packed full of people and here we were just the 5 people in our group and the Captain. LOVED IT!!!! The web site provides all the info that you need.
Past Cruises: Carnival Fascination - July 2008 Carnival Liberty - May 2008 Carnival Imagination - February 2008 Carnival Freedom - December 2007 Imagination - September 2007 Fascination - July 2007 Carnival Triumph - May 2007 Fascination - March 2007 Fascination - January 2007 Carnival Legend - November 2006 Carnival Elation - May 2006 Carnival Valor - November 2005 Carnival Victory - May 2005 Paradise - June 2003
I am going to book the Buccaneer catamaran excursion for Sting Ray City. Is this the boat you went on and if not would you recommend this?
Pam
quote:
Originally posted by justcruisin: I hope it is not too late for this to be an option for you. Last year while in Grand Cayman we went to Sting Ray City. Everyone on our ship thaat planned this excursion missed out because the water excursions were cancelled due to poor water conditions. We had booked our excursion on our own at www.grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com the water was choppy but not too bad. This requires no more than 5 people in the group. You go out on a sail boat (due to the conditions we did use a different boat, but I think it was probably better) with the captain (John Michael) who was a sail boat racer. This was the most AWSOME thing of our entire trip. It felt as if we were out for the day on the boat with our buddy. All of the other tours at Sting Ray City were packed full of people and here we were just the 5 people in our group and the Captain. LOVED IT!!!! The web site provides all the info that you need.
Thanks, Kim.
HAPPY CRUISIN'!!!!
