Stingray City and Toddler?

[JacobsMommy]

Myself, DH, and DS (18 mo) will be cruising the Grand Cayman in April. I am wanting to go to Stingray City. I have been told the water should be shallow enough to hold him. We will have him in a life vest. If he doesn't enjoy the scary things in the water, DH and I will just take turns staying on the boat w/him.

 

Four questions:

 

1. What independent operator do you think would best suit our family? I am hoping to have a boat with some shade.

 

2. What time should I try to book? Carnival says we will arrive at 7 a.m. and depart at 4 p.m. I a worried about tendering and all that jazz.

 

3. Do you think there will be time afterwards to visit the beach? So many of you have posted GORGEOUS pictures!!

 

4. I have read some tours offer lunch and some do not. What should we do about lunch??

 

 

 

Thanks for all the help you are willing to give! I REALLY appreciate it!

 

BTW: We are first time cruisers. We will also be stopping at Montego Bay and Cozumel. If you have any tips about toddler friendly things to do there, I am all ears!!! TIA

[Hate2Pay4Parking]

Myself, DH, and DS (18 mo) will be cruising the Grand Cayman in April. I am wanting to go to Stingray City. I have been told the water should be shallow enough to hold him. We will have him in a life vest. If he doesn't enjoy the scary things in the water, DH and I will just take turns staying on the boat w/him.

 

Four questions:

 

1. What independent operator do you think would best suit our family? I am hoping to have a boat with some shade.

 

2. What time should I try to book? Carnival says we will arrive at 7 a.m. and depart at 4 p.m. I a worried about tendering and all that jazz.

 

3. Do you think there will be time afterwards to visit the beach? So many of you have posted GORGEOUS pictures!!

 

4. I have read some tours offer lunch and some do not. What should we do about lunch??

 

 

 

Thanks for all the help you are willing to give! I REALLY appreciate it!

 

BTW: We are first time cruisers. We will also be stopping at Montego Bay and Cozumel. If you have any tips about toddler friendly things to do there, I am all ears!!! TIA

 

We just returned from taking the Carnival Freedom yesterday. We had our 16, 11 and 8 year old with us. We booked through Caymaninanutshell.com and had a tour of Hell, stopped at the Rum Cake Factory, went to the Turtle Farm, walked across the street and watched people swimming with the dolphins, stopped for lunch (included) and went swimming right behind the restaurant while they cooked our food. We then went snorkeling and then on to stingray city. You can definitely hold your toddler at stingray city, you won't have any problem at all. Cayman in a Nutshell is a partner company of Captain Marvin tours. The boat was immaculate and there was room to sit in the shade on the boat. They provide ice water, grape and orange drink and they have a clean bathroom on the boat. We had a total of 17 people including my family of 5 so there was plenty of room on the boat.

 

We were supposed to meet our guide at 8:15 am. The tenders are quick and we went down and got right on a tender at 7:30 am. We met our tour guide around 7:45 am and it was a block and a half from where the tenders docked so it will be an easy walk. They charged us $79 per person and the lunch was a choice of fish or chicken, grilled or barbecued. It came with rice, a fried plantain, and a piece of rumcake and a soda. The food was delicious and very filling. We had time to go swimming after that but we were all very tired after snorkeling. My sister in law went to the public beach and swam and they had rides from the tender area for $5 each way.

 

We bought a bottle of rum at the Rum Cake Factory and they delivered the bottle to the ship and it was in our stateroom on the final night of the cruise ($9!).

[hawkshoe]

I did the same tour with Cayman in a Nutshell only we did it in a different order, Stingray City, snorkeling, turtle farm, hell, lunch at the beach and the rum cake factory. I highly recommend it. We only had 7 on our boat it was great. My son who was 6 at the time did not like the stingrays and would not get out of the boat but I had my mother-in-law with me who didn't want to get in the water either so it was no problem. They guys on the boat were great. They even dove in and brought up a Conch for my son to check out.

[JacobsMommy]

Thanks for your help! I really appreciate it and will be checking out CIANutshell. I will keep checking back for more posts! Thanks again!

[GinDon]

We used Moby Dick for the Stingray City. There were three or four toddler age children on our boat, and the crew was very good with them.