Stingray City Tour - What Time of Day?

[brego]

I am am trying to decide between a 9:30 and 12:30 trip to Stingray City. I am leaning towards the afternoon as I have concerns about tendering in time to make the morning time and don't want to feel stressed. However, I have heard that the Stingrays are more plentiful in the a.m. as they are hungry then and are overfed by afternoon. Has anyone done an afeternoon trip? Any feedback would be appreciated.

[Sheffie]

Have you thought about the 10:30 tour w/ the Buccaneer? We are doing that one so that we don't have to worry about the early excursion time, nor the afternoon excursion being to "close" for my comfort to get back on board. (I know they are WONDERFUL about not missing the ship, but I am anal!) Just a thought.

 

Michelle

[Babie]

I've done an afternoon tour with Moby Dick tours. I believe ours started at 1 or 2, I can't remember which.

There were plenty of stingrays for each of us to have 2! Of course this wasn't a ship tour, so there were only 12 people on our boat plus the captain and tour oprerator. There were probably 5 or 6 large boat tours in the area, but not so close to distract the stingrays or for you to hear the other people etc... (The Grand Princess, Inspiration and VoyagerOTS were all in port)

One thing we were told about stingray city is this. The stingrays are much more aggresive in the morning and after a storm. Especially for the first boat after a storm. They're not dangerous, just more pushy wanting to be fed. They were really playful in the afternoon. Giving "kisses" and "hugs". And they'd swim with you while laying on your arms. It was a really nice time.

I can't say first hand how aggresive the stingrays are. That's just what the tour operator told us as well as a few reviews I've read about morning tours.

I don't think they'd be so aggresive to annoy anyone otherwise the tour wouldn't be as popular as it is.

LES!