Anyone REGRET going to stingray city?

[barbaraanne]

I've read that stingray city is the thing to do in Grand Cayman and I've seen so much positive about it, and we plan to go there with a ship sponsored tour. However, my husband and I tend to have bad luck. With our luck he will step on a ray and have to go to the hospital. Or the area will be so crowded and our boat have no shade on it and we will get fried to a crisp....Oh, I know such negative thinking is terrible...but...

 

In Belize our boat to Shark Ray Alley ran out of gas on the way back to the ship, with the ship miles away. I do believe we would have been left behind if not for a kind soul with a not very big boat that towed us to our ship, inch by inch. The ship was weighing anchor when we pulled up and we literally had to JUMP aboard. And this was a ship sponsored tour! And my husband accidentally hit his leg against coral at shark ray alley, was bleeding like crazy into the water as sharks circled, and had a terrible mess on his leg for days.

 

That all said, I am sure that nothing terrible will happen to us at stingray city (most likely), but I was just wondering if anyone had a bad experience of any kind there and regrets going? Maybe we would be safer just going to seven mile beach!

 

Thanks!

[capncarp]

Having been there, and DW getting half-drowned:eek: due to a miscalculation about the depth of the water under our boat's (drifted out of place) stern, we still considered the experience worth it.

 

Sounds like you "live in interesting times" as the Chinese curse goes. With the exception of your DH's injury, it would seem you have made it through your difficult situations with colorful stories to relate to your friends.

 

You must do as you feel is best. If the anxiety over the potential for hassle is causing you too much trouble, take a different tour, certainly.

 

Me, I'd risk playin' with the 'rays again any day. It was *that* good. :)

[BrooklinNorth]

I've read that stingray city is the thing to do in Grand Cayman and I've seen so much positive about it, and we plan to go there with a ship sponsored tour. However, my husband and I tend to have bad luck. With our luck he will step on a ray and have to go to the hospital. Or the area will be so crowded and our boat have no shade on it and we will get fried to a crisp....Oh, I know such negative thinking is terrible...but...

 

In Belize our boat to Shark Ray Alley ran out of gas on the way back to the ship, with the ship miles away. I do believe we would have been left behind if not for a kind soul with a not very big boat that towed us to our ship, inch by inch. The ship was weighing anchor when we pulled up and we literally had to JUMP aboard. And this was a ship sponsored tour! And my husband accidentally hit his leg against coral at shark ray alley, was bleeding like crazy into the water as sharks circled, and had a terrible mess on his leg for days.

 

That all said, I am sure that nothing terrible will happen to us at stingray city (most likely), but I was just wondering if anyone had a bad experience of any kind there and regrets going? Maybe we would be safer just going to seven mile beach!

 

Thanks!

 

I love Sting Ray City, I've been there 3 time since 2005, they are amazingly gentle and graceful. Do it.

 

And I know of the curses of which you speak...

In 2006 my DD and I were in Cuba ( We're from Canada, we can go there).

I've snorkelled for years, but it was my DD's first open water snorkel excursion. So we're swimming in about 6 feet of the clearest water, over a lovely reef. I'm treading water, while DD was adjusting her mask, and I backed my ample BEHIND into FIRE CORAL :eek:. So that burned.

Move forward about 2 hours on the same day, our tour boat beaches the boat and we're jumping out into about 6-8 inches of water, well I hit the ridges in the sand .... who knew they could hurt so bad, I severely bruised the whole bottom of my foot. Couldn't walk on flat foot for weeks.

Well that same dreaded day , while I was limping thru our resort on rain soaked sidewalks , my injured foot slipped out from under me, I landed flat on my back, on a sidewalk in the rain, and finally laid there and cried !

 

And more recently in May 2009 while on the Liberty of the Seas, we stopped in Coco Cay, a beautiful place I know.

Well I went out on a JetSki, and some other passenger ran into my JetSki, hitting and badly bruising my calf... but I'm a tough old girl. Anyway I've never driven one of these things before, I rolled it while trying to re-dock it. Then later in the day I decided to snorkel, and was using the same DD's very expensive mask, and snorkel ( because now she's a certified diver )... well didn't I loose her gear in 5 feet of water, I must have looked for it for hours.:( Never did find it.

 

but these are experiences I laugh about often , and they won't stop me from visiting the rays, at least not yet !

[Moeve]

with your luck chances are the weather will be bad and you won't even get to go......

 

sorry couldn't resist grabing your leg there. Seriously if you have planed you excursion well you should be fine. If you are afraid of missing the ship then stay with their excursions but I do warn you you are in better hands with one of the private outfits. They tend to limit their numbers to between 20 and 30 passengers and have 2 or 3 crew along for the trip while the ships excursion pulls in with 200 and the same number of crew.

[barbaraanne]

with your luck chances are the weather will be bad and you won't even get to go......

 

sorry couldn't resist grabing your leg there. Seriously if you have planed you excursion well you should be fine. If you are afraid of missing the ship then stay with their excursions but I do warn you you are in better hands with one of the private outfits. They tend to limit their numbers to between 20 and 30 passengers and have 2 or 3 crew along for the trip while the ships excursion pulls in with 200 and the same number of crew.

 

Boy you are right about the weather! We will probably miss the whole port!

 

Thanks for the insights. I think we will try to go with Stingray Sailings...they seem like a good outfit with a nice catamaran and only up to 29 people. Hopefully we will come back sting-free. But then we will stop at a beach, have a drink, and miss the boat!....Ah, couldn't resist! I always buy the most cruise insurance possible, as you might have guessed! The way I talk, we must be determined to use it one day!!

[serene56]

to alleviate some of your worry-- no way can your husband step on a sting ray- water shoes are not allowed and you are told to shuffle your feet when walking.

 

the water is so clear you can see a sting ray for miles--:D

[DukeFamily]

barbaraanne - it sounds like you've switched from a ship sponsored excursion to an independent. Good thinking! Stingray City is an amazing experience and the only drawback I saw to your plan in the original post was your plan to go with a ship sponsored tour. We saw those while we were there - BIG boats crammed FULL of people. Literally elbow to elbow. It looked miserable to me. The independents only take a few and it's SO much fun. You'll love it.

[CaribQween]

I've read that stingray city is the thing to do in Grand Cayman and I've seen so much positive about it, and we plan to go there with a ship sponsored tour. However, my husband and I tend to have bad luck. With our luck he will step on a ray and have to go to the hospital. Or the area will be so crowded and our boat have no shade on it and we will get fried to a crisp....Oh, I know such negative thinking is terrible...but...

 

In Belize our boat to Shark Ray Alley ran out of gas on the way back to the ship, with the ship miles away. I do believe we would have been left behind if not for a kind soul with a not very big boat that towed us to our ship, inch by inch. The ship was weighing anchor when we pulled up and we literally had to JUMP aboard. And this was a ship sponsored tour! And my husband accidentally hit his leg against coral at shark ray alley, was bleeding like crazy into the water as sharks circled, and had a terrible mess on his leg for days.

 

That all said, I am sure that nothing terrible will happen to us at stingray city (most likely), but I was just wondering if anyone had a bad experience of any kind there and regrets going? Maybe we would be safer just going to seven mile beach!

 

Thanks!

 

I haven't been there yet, but I can't wait to get there on our cruise in February. I'll tell you, I stepped on a stingray some years back out off of Coronada Island near San Diego. I got stung and had to go to the hospital and all of that. It was a really, really, bad experience. However, I'm not one bit afraid of going to Stingray City. Why??? Because I know that when I got stung, it was because I didn't know any better and I must have stepped down right on top of a stingray that was burrowed in the sand in the shallow area. Like a previous poster said, you just have to shuffle your feet in order to make sure you don't do what I did. If I would have known that back then, I would never have been stung. These creatures will not attack anyone. It is just a defense mechanism that caused that one to sting me because I virtually "attacked" him by stepping on him.

 

I know what it feels like to believe that you have really bad luck and everything is going to go bad for you if it possibly can. I've felt that way all of my adult life. But when I seriously think about everything, I realize how much worse things could be and that I'm really not that "unlucky". I look around at what other people have to endure and I realize that I'm not so bad off. Don't let the fear of "bad luck" hold you back from doing really great things like swimming with the stingrays. You'll regret it someday if you do. This past February we did a "swimming with the Dolphins" tour in Tortola and it was one of the very best experiences of my entire life. I just can't wait to interact with the stingrays and feel them and see them in their own natural environment.

 

So, go for it. And GOOD Luck to you ;).

[serene56]

barbaraanne - it sounds like you've switched from a ship sponsored excursion to an independent. Good thinking! Stingray City is an amazing experience and the only drawback I saw to your plan in the original post was your plan to go with a ship sponsored tour. We saw those while we were there - BIG boats crammed FULL of people. Literally elbow to elbow. It looked miserable to me. The independents only take a few and it's SO much fun. You'll love it.

 

 

should we even mention that its like 50% cheaper pp to do this excrusion through a private vendor???

 

Only use the vendors that are posted on these boards--like captain marvins, Nativwayssports people like that.

[barbaraanne]

Thanks for the help everyone! I didn't mention, my husband is a stage three cancer survivor, so we did have one big dose of GOOD luck with that, which has taken years. However, I am very protective of him now!

 

Yes, it looks like we will go with a private tour company to see the rays. Afterwards I think we will stop at Seven Mile for an hour or so. Is Seven Mile beach as nice as Rum Point? So many people say good things about Rum Point, but then I've read some bad too.

 

thanks again for sharing your bad luck stories too and for all your help!

barb

[lablover61]

Should say my wife and daughter did. Was there last year in February. The problem was that day the waves were high. Though you are on a sandbar , the water is still fairly deep. It did not bother me ( I am 6'3" ). My wife stands 5'1" and my daughter even shorter. With the rough seas that day , neither could enjoy it because the water was at their neck or higher a lot of the time.They ended up sitting on the boat the entire time. My son and I did enjoy it . He is 5'8' if that helps. That day you didn't want to be much shorter than my son. From what I understand , high seas is not unusual. I don't know if we had an unusually rough day or not.

[gracie65]

I did not care for it. I think in part it was because we were with a cruise line excursion. The water was choppy there were over 100 people on the boat & I of course got the worst snorkeling equipment of everyone. Not saying I would never try it again but if I did would be with one of the private vendors I've seen on this board.

[cardbucfan]

We did Stingray City with a private vendor several years ago and had a wonderful excursion! We have some of the pictures from that day framed. The worst thing that happened to me was I didn't keep my thumb out of the way while feeding the rays and one tried to suck my thumb off-it hurt!!! so, keep your thumbs down (which they told me-I just forgot) and enjoy the experience.