Tiki beach??

[ourtimenow]

Interested in learning about Tiki Beach. Location? Cost? Anyone been lately?All opinions welcome!

Thanks.

Lisa

 

[drew sailbum]

I can help with location.

 

Tiki Beach is a section of Seven Mile Beach located a couple hundred yards north of the area known as Sea Grape. This is about 4 to 5 miles from the tender docks.

[Cruzinbabe06]

I am also interested in some feed back, but no one seems to take this excursion or they're just not reporting back with reviews.

 

When we went on the Glory last year, I wanted to book this excursion. I went down to the Pursers desk in the morning and asked questions. The price was I think roughly 70.00 pp, if my memory serves me correctly. Extremely high for just a beach and chairs.

 

I wanted to know for $70.00 was it worth it or should I just go to the public beach on my own. This was our first time to the Caymans. Cruise Critic helped a lot with questions. But, I thought the pursers desk would offer information being they sail here frequently. The excursion included

rt transportation to Tiki Beach, lounge chair and a welcome drink.

 

I asked the lady what's so special about Tiki Beach for this price? is it private for Carnival guests only? How big is the beach? Are their water activities? My husband wanted to jetski. She had no answers. I think it was relatively new, just opening. So thats maybe why.

 

We didn't book it. We took the shuttle to Calico Jacks and had a good time. Wherever you decide to go, get there early, beach can really get crowded. Caymans is very expensive if you like to drink.

 

I want to try the Tiki Beach Excursion. The pictures really look nice. I will pay a premium dollar for nicer accomodations. Just wish there were more reviews on the place.

[ourtimenow]

Thanks for the info! I didn't know that it was a "Carnival excursion" May post this on regular boards and see what kind of response we get??? Would be nice to know. Pics look beautiful on Carnival website!!

Lisa

[Cruzinbabe06]

Exactly Lisa. And also, when we were about to board the shuttle buses, I asked the man if he can take us to Tiki Beach. He said no, we had to go thru Carnival. I wonder if that's true. Or if he didn't want to drive that far. It is the farthest from the pier.

 

Mostly everyone got off at Calico Jacks.

[Live4Vacay]

Exactly Lisa. And also, when we were about to board the shuttle buses, I asked the man if he can take us to Tiki Beach. He said no, we had to go thru Carnival. I wonder if that's true. Or if he didn't want to drive that far. It is the farthest from the pier.

 

Mostly everyone got off at Calico Jacks.

 

Sounds like he didn't want to be bothered. Tiki is as much a public place as Calico Jack's. I always take a cab to Calico Jack's on my own. No need to book an excursion unless you can't keep time.

[pjinaz]

I just posted on the Carnival board, but thought I would repeat here. Haven't been toTiki but contacted them and was told its 25 dollars per person includes chair, entrance and welcome drink (rum punch or juice) umbrellas are 10 more. They said they have nice bathrooms. I think the cab is about 5 dollars per person each way

 

I have encountered cab drivers in Grand Cayman who don't want to take you where you want to go almost everytime we have been there, I always tell them I have to go there because I am meeting friends/family there and refuse to get out of the cab until they take you there. Be nice and courteous but firm.

[bookbabe]

I have encountered cab drivers in Grand Cayman who don't want to take you where you want to go almost everytime we have been there, I always tell them I have to go there because I am meeting friends/family there and refuse to get out of the cab until they take you there. Be nice and courteous but firm.

 

Because it's usually shared-ride vans rather than US-style private taxis, sometimes the reason the drivers want to go to another location is because that's where everyone else in the van is going, and they'd prefer not to make a second stop. :D Other times, it's likely because Tiki Beach is the furthest beach stop, and since it's not as popular with DIY excursion folks yet (mostly just a cruise excursion as far as I can tell) there's a good chance the driver won't be able to fill his/her van with people wanting to go there.

 

BTW, the $25 fee seems high. Everywhere else, chair rentals are about $7-10 generally, and rum punch isn't a high end drink that would account for the other $15 (closer to $5-8, I'd guess). If they charge extra for the privilege of using their facilities, I'd stick with Royal Palms or Sea Grape, where it's free to enter and you just pay for a chair if you want one.

[TurtleTagger]

...They said they have nice bathrooms....

 

I can confirm the this and that drinks are expensive, even by island standards. The High Speed Wind Tunnel hand dryer more than makes up for the cost of the drinks though. ;)

[lpizzuro123]

We are cruising on RC and one of our excursions is also to Tiki Beach. Not sure if there is a different section of Tiki Beach for each different cruise line. We are thinking of going there after we do Stingray City. It is an excursion that includes both. We plan on going with the ship just because there are 10 of us and no one has been to this island and we are more comfortable going with the cruise ship. Also not all of us are going to Stingray City so we will meet the others on the beach when we finish with the stingrays.

 

Would love to hear more reviews of Tiki Beach.

 

Thanks,

Linda

[Live4Vacay]

Because it's usually shared-ride vans rather than US-style private taxis, sometimes the reason the drivers want to go to another location is because that's where everyone else in the van is going, and they'd prefer not to make a second stop. :D Other times, it's likely because Tiki Beach is the furthest beach stop, and since it's not as popular with DIY excursion folks yet (mostly just a cruise excursion as far as I can tell) there's a good chance the driver won't be able to fill his/her van with people wanting to go there.

 

BTW, the $25 fee seems high. Everywhere else, chair rentals are about $7-10 generally, and rum punch isn't a high end drink that would account for the other $15 (closer to $5-8, I'd guess). If they charge extra for the privilege of using their facilities, I'd stick with Royal Palms or Sea Grape, where it's free to enter and you just pay for a chair if you want one.

 

Couldn't agree more - $25 is steep. In Cozumel we are doing one of the better all-inclusives for $49, just to put things in perspective. Yes, I understand they are two different islands/countries.

[patrickxrx]

We are cruising on RC and one of our excursions is also to Tiki Beach. Not sure if there is a different section of Tiki Beach for each different cruise line. We are thinking of going there after we do Stingray City. It is an excursion that includes both. We plan on going with the ship just because there are 10 of us and no one has been to this island and we are more comfortable going with the cruise ship. Also not all of us are going to Stingray City so we will meet the others on the beach when we finish with the stingrays.

 

Would love to hear more reviews of Tiki Beach.

 

Thanks,

Linda

 

Hi Linda,

I hope you enjoy your cruise in 2 weeks. We have been to Stingray city and had a blast. You will enjoy it and dont miss feeding them. If you could please get back to me about the stringray city and tiki beach break is. We are thinking about booking gc59, if this is same as you can you please post me how it was?? We are headed out May 15th on FOS. Thanks Patrick. And look for Quest game show it is a blast!!!:D

[lpizzuro123]

We just returned from our RC Cruise. We booked the Stingray City and Tiki Beach trip. When we arrived on land the Stingray City portion of our excursion was cancelled. It was a very windy day and the water was rough and Stingray City was closed. We were so disapointed. It was not only our excurision but all of Stingray City was closed.

 

We decided to just do the Tiki Beach portion of our excursion. We were kind of disapointed in Tiki Beach. Granted it was a cool and windy day. The trip there was fine. Nice mini bus. The beach looked ok. There were bathrooms and outside showers. We had an included drink (very strong) and our lounge chair. I just was not that impressed with the beach. When we entered the beach area we went to the right and it just seemed like alot of chairs on a small beach. Nothing that pretty. The sand was kind of rocky so not that great to walk on, the water was cold and you had to pass through a small reef to get to open water.

 

Not sure if we would go back to Grand Cayman but if we did we would probably just book a beach break by ourselves. This is something we did not want to do at first because we had never been there and I am sure if the Stingray portion had not be cancelled we would have been alot happier.

 

Just to let you know also, our excursion was completely refuned and then we were recharged for our Tiki Beach Break. RC handled this just fine.

 

Linda