My husband and I will be first time cruisers Sept of 2007 on the carnival ship Imagination out of Miami to Grand Cayman onto Ocho Rios any info you can give us would be interesting to read about what to expect of the ship or shore excursions to purchase and where the best place to buy them at would be.

My vote would be Stingray City on Grand Cayman. I have not done the falls in Ocho Rios yet but it is supposed to be great.

It's always safest to book the tours with the ship because they will not leave without you if the tour is late returning. If you go on a private tour you are on your own.

In Grand Cayman there are plenty of tour operators on the pier and I would think they would all be pretty safe.

In Jamaica be careful...

Thanks Larry the info will help. We have been told that Ocho Rios you should take a cruise or it might not be safe.

Our last stop in Jamaica we took a tour to Negril beach. My daughter got waaaay too much sun, peeled, then browned and tan before the next day. My wife is envious...

In Grand Cayman you can't go wrong at Stingray City, probably one of the top 5 coolest things I've ever done (legally anyway).

Good advice.

Grand Cayman is safe. You can go anywhere on your own by just grabbing a taxi. You can do independent tours there to the Sting Rays and save yourself some money.

Just make sure you keep your watch on SHIP time. There will be a clock at the gangway as you leave that you can double check with.

However, Ochos is a whole different ball game.
I don't want to sound like an alarmist, however, we have walked the 5 miles from Tel Aviv to Jaffa on our own in Israel and felt safer than we did in Jamaica. We are known for grabbing a taxi in any foreign port (even when we don't speak the lanuage)...however, I would not do that in Jamaica. It is one of the very few ports that I would never do without a ship's tour (preferably) or at least an organized tour through a guide recommended on these boards.

Have a great cruise.