Rum Point-Don't Miss it!

[BMW325]

This thread has me so excited about Rum Point. I booked the Ray's, Reef, and Rum Point excursion with Nativeway for September 6. Has anyone done this through Nativeway, and if so, how much time is spent at each stop? I just want to make sure, after reading all of this, that we have ample time at Rum Point.

I just hope the weather cooperates for us..........keeping my fingers and just about everything else crossed :p

[boatbunny]

This thread has me so excited about Rum Point. I booked the Ray's, Reef, and Rum Point excursion with Nativeway for September 6. Has anyone done this through Nativeway, and if so, how much time is spent at each stop? I just want to make sure, after reading all of this, that we have ample time at Rum Point.

I just hope the weather cooperates for us..........keeping my fingers and just about everything else crossed :p

 

Hi BMW,

 

Another poster on this thread (I think it is on Page 1) mentioned they did the Nativeway tour and were at Rum Point for 2 hours. I've heard good things about Nativeway although I have not personally used them.

 

2 Hours at Rum Point will give you a good introduction, but I bet on a future cruise you'll be back for a full day!! LOL

 

We'll keep our fingers crossed for you that the weather is great!

Have a wonderful trip and be sure to post back here how you liked Rum Point.

 

Michelle

 

 

PS- Love the crab!

[BMW325]

I'm almost tempted to cancel the Nativeway tour and just rent the jeep and drive to Rum Point for the whole day. But, I did want to get some snorkeling in and the Nativeway excursion seems like a great way to get a taste of different aspects of Grand Cayman. Anybody want to sway me either way :confused:

[SomewhereBeyondTheSea]

I think Red Sail operates from Rum Point. You may want to look into that. It may give you more time on the island but I'm not 100% sure.

[boatbunny]

I'm almost tempted to cancel the Nativeway tour and just rent the jeep and drive to Rum Point for the whole day. But, I did want to get some snorkeling in and the Nativeway excursion seems like a great way to get a taste of different aspects of Grand Cayman. Anybody want to sway me either way :confused:

 

Oh BMW, wrong person to ask, of course I am going to sway you to just spend the day at Rum Point (honestly, I am NOT getting any commission!)

Have I sent you pictures yet? If not, email me with your personal address and I will be happy to forward them to you, one look and you're hooked.

smdbelskis@prodigy.net

 

Red Sail does have a location at Rum Point, there were waverunners, all kinds of water toys. You might want to call them and see how close some snorkeling is. Rum Point is on it's own little peninsula, so I am sure there is snorkeling in the area. Right off the beach there wasn't much, although we did see quite a few fish right under the pier (including my up close and personal with a good size barracuda). I've put their website address in this thread somewhere near the beginning.

 

There is also a beach just up the road from Rum Point proper, deserted beach, but the cool thing was tons of starfish just a few steps into the water. It was pretty amazing. I can give you directions if you'd like.

 

Snorkeling with the rays was pretty neat, so I can see your dilemma, but hands down, I'd do Rum Point all over again.

 

Sorry, only trying to help!

Michelle

[kenandlaura06]

Hi All,

 

Sorry I haven't been online for a day or 2, so just saw your posts.

 

I do have some great pictures of Rum Point, haven't been able to figure out how to post them online yet. But if you would like to email me, I would be happy to forward them to you immediately.

 

smdbelskis@prodigy.net

 

Hi Where's Next! Nice to see another NH resident cruising along. On our April vacation (week of 4/24) there were lots of us NH school vacationers, as well as NJ who apparently has the same week. You should have plenty of time to get to Rum Point if you are there 7 to 3. I am going to give a bunch of info below about Rum Point and getting there, etc as so many people have emailed me, I love sharing the info. When you check out the Cico Avis website for the car rental, they mention early cruise ship arrivals and making accomodations for making pickups before 8 am. It is about a 40 min ride to Rum Point, but hardly any traffic (I think we passed a couple dozen cars, that's it). Really, we spent 4 hours out there and got to do quite a bit. Now, I could have spent the rest of the week there!

 

Here is the website for Cico Avis:

 

http://aviscayman.com/cruise.htm#Pickup_Information

 

Please note that this is an Avis like we have here in the States, but it is independent. They very much have the "no problem mon" attitude, so don't worry if you don't get an official looking web confirm like we are used to. It is a real agency like you would see if you went to Disney World. When I emailed them right before the trip to reconfirm, my responding email was "you are all set". Cars were new, good condition, low mileage, etc.

 

You can rent water toys when you get to Rum Point through Red Sail Sports. Here is their website:

 

http://www.redsailcayman.com/gc_index.html

 

You may be able to contact them to see if you can reserve something ahead of time, especially if you are going to be short on time. The water is amazingly clear, shallow, and calm, great place for waverunners especially if you want to take kids out. They also have kayaks, water bikes, and lots more.

 

There is not much snorkeling, but if you do want to try, go under the pier. There were quite a few fish (including my brief up close and personal with a barracuda) and if you swim out just beyond the pier, there was some coral as well.

 

Also here is a website that has some good info about snorkeling around the island:

 

http://caymanislandsdiscounts.com/OffshoreSnorkeling.htm#RumPoint

 

Click on the map next to the Rum Point paragraph, it gives directions to a beach that has an abundance of starfish. This was amazing to see, hundreds of them in the water. The road to get to this beach is right across the street from the entrance to Rum Point bar. Follow the road for maybe a mile to Finger Cay Road, and then follow that out to the beach area. You will drive through a concrete archway that makes you think you are entering a hotel or something, but there is nothing there. Walk into the water a few feet and start looking down. They are fairly large so you will see them. You do have to walk around a bit, in one area there were like 6 of them, then we walked further down the beach and came across tons of them.

 

The Wreck Bar is awesome for lunch. Lunch for 4 of us (2 kids eating hot dogs, cheeseburger, grilled chix sandwich) including a couple of beers and a tropical drink was $55 US.

 

Give yourself an hour to get back to Avis and another half hour to get back to the pier and tender back to the boat. Also, ask Avis to give you driving directions back to their office when you are heading back from Rum Point. This was a little confusing for us just because there was more traffic near the airport. But basically you are on 2 roads the whole way out to Rum Point.

 

Also, 2 ways to get there, long way via the coastal road, or short cut through the middle of the island on Frank Sound Road. Take the short cut, it is still scenic but gets you to Rum Point a lot faster and you'll have more time there.

 

Okay, hope this helps anyone out who is interested. But, please feel free to email me with any other questions or if you would like to see pics. When I get some time I'll try to figure out how to post them!

 

PS- Where's Next, have you cruised Princess before? Do you like them? How are they with kids?

 

Thanks for all of the info--we are definitely considering this trip!

[edjag4]

Hi enjoyed reading your thread. We are taking our first cruise 12/22/05-1/2/06 out of New York on the NCL-Dawn. One of our stops is GC (7:30-4:00) We are a family of 2 adults and a 14 & 11 year old. Would this be ok for us to do? Did you just contact Avis in the GC to make your reservations or did you do it with the cruise ship? Do you have to book all your excursion with the cruise? Thanks for any info. We keep coming up with so many questions on what to do and should we book everything with NCL-Dawn? (Our stops are Ocho Rios, Georgetown-Grand Cayman, Belize, Roatan Bay Island-Honduras & Cozumel-Mexico and then NCL private island Great Stirrup Cay-Bahamas have you every been to any of these. Thanks for any help.

[wwicklund]

We will be there on Aug 18th. I cant get the Cico site either. I founf that Budget has a shop right at the pier now, and the economy car for off season os only 35.00 plus the 7.50 Int'l permit.

 

My question is: Does Red sail offer trips to Stingray city from Rum Point? It looks so close, Maybe an hour or two with the rays would be cool, then get back to my hammock!

[Laurie715]

We booked directly thru the Avis site in Gr Cayman http://www.aviscayman.com ~ They are so easy to deal with. You make your reservation, and then call them when you are off the ship and they come get you. You aren't charged until you get there so if something happens and your shhip doesnt make that stop your not out anything. They also have bigger vehicles for groups.

 

happy cruising !!!!!!!

[boatbunny]

Hi enjoyed reading your thread. We are taking our first cruise 12/22/05-1/2/06 out of New York on the NCL-Dawn. One of our stops is GC (7:30-4:00) We are a family of 2 adults and a 14 & 11 year old. Would this be ok for us to do? Did you just contact Avis in the GC to make your reservations or did you do it with the cruise ship? Do you have to book all your excursion with the cruise? Thanks for any info. We keep coming up with so many questions on what to do and should we book everything with NCL-Dawn? (Our stops are Ocho Rios, Georgetown-Grand Cayman, Belize, Roatan Bay Island-Honduras & Cozumel-Mexico and then NCL private island Great Stirrup Cay-Bahamas have you every been to any of these. Thanks for any help.

 

I think it would be a great place for your family. Red Sail Sports has an outlet right at Rum Point, so you can rent water sport items like waverunners, paddleboats, etc.

 

I did book the car through Grand Cayman Excursions

http://grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com/Excursions.htm

 

However, I think you could go to the Cico site directly and book it. I've noticed that people seem to be having trouble getting to the site in the last week or two, so you may want to contact Grand Cayman Excursions. Someone also mentioned that Budget is now right at the pier as well.

 

As for the rest of it, there is really nothing to plan. You drive up to Rum Point, pull in the parking lot, grab a chair, grab a drink, sit back and relax. There is no reservation requirement at Rum Point.

 

As for booking other excursions through your cruise line, on my first 2 cruises, we booked everything through the cruise line. Then I started researching these boards more, and looking at all the other excursion companies out there. I found that by booking directly through an outside vendor we always got much better prices, had more variety of things to choose from, and quite frankly, received much better service on the excursion. The companies that the cruise lines use sometimes forget that cruise line passengers do have a choice, in other words, they think their business is guaranteed. So, I suggest that you look at the various threads for the ports you are visiting to check out the different vendors. You will see the same excursion company names over and over and that will give you a sense of the type of service they offer and the confidence other cruisers have in them.

 

In Belize, I used Coral Breeze for our excursion to snorkel, swim with stingrays and sharks, and the afternoon at Caulker Caye.

Their website is:

http://www.coralbreezelimited.com/

They were excellent and I highly recommend them.

 

I also used the same company I mentioned above for Grand Cayman to book a beach day in Costa Maya. They also have other ports they serve. If you go to the GC website, you will see links for other ports.

 

In Cozumel we booked Xcaret through the cruise line, simply because it was so far from the ship (we took a ferry over to Playa del Carmen). This might be something interesting for your family to do too. The website for it is:

http://www.xcaret.com

There is swimming through an underground cave system, snorkeling, swimming with dolphins, a mini zoo with very cool animals, tons of stuff. It was a great day and we plan on going back in the future.

Also in Cozumel on a previous cruise, we did the 4x4 jeep safari which was also a blast, definitely something kids of that age would love!

 

In Ochos Rios (years ago) my husband did the Dunns River Falls hike, I stayed behind with our 18 month old daughter at the time. He enjoyed it, and if you haven't been to Jamaica before, it is kind of "THE" thing to do. Your kids would probably enjoy it.

 

As for the other ports, haven't been there yet. But check out the threads for these ports, you'll have tons of ideas to choose from.

 

Have a great trip and if you go to Rum Point, please post back and let us know how you enjoyed it!

 

Michelle

[boatbunny]

We will be there on Aug 18th. I cant get the Cico site either. I founf that Budget has a shop right at the pier now, and the economy car for off season os only 35.00 plus the 7.50 Int'l permit.

 

My question is: Does Red sail offer trips to Stingray city from Rum Point? It looks so close, Maybe an hour or two with the rays would be cool, then get back to my hammock!

 

 

Not sure what is going on with the Cico site, I can't access it either. But I am sure Budget will be great too.

 

Also not sure if Red Sail does excursion type things. You can check out their website though

http://www.redsailcayman.com/gc_index.html

 

And if they do, make reservations ahead of time.

 

Got your email for the pictures, will be sending them right along!

Thanks

Michelle

[wwicklund]

Here is an email that I just recieved from RedSail Sports, Very nice people.

 

"Directions are pretty straight forward and are as follows:-

 

From your car rental company, head up South Sound towards the Eastern Districts. At the top of South Sound you will come to a large roundabout. You need to go straight across this roundabout. This area is called Grand Harbour and you should see some shops and stores including Hurleys. Continue straight towards Spotts, Pedro St. James, and Bodden Town. Once you have driven through Bodden Town you will go past Breakers and the Lighthouse Restaurant. A little way further up the road there is a t-junction with a road on your left hand side. This is called Frank Sound. Follow this road to the very top (you will go past the Botanical Gardens). At the top turn to the left. Now you will see signs to Rum Point. From the top of Frank Sound to Rum Point is approximately 6 miles with the journey in all around 27 miles.

 

Rum Point is on the right hand side just prior to the Kaibo turn off. There is a large car park, the dive shop (us), gift shop (Treasure Chest), restrooms and showers and The Wreck Bar which serves food and drink between 10am and 5pm (Cayman Time).

 

 

Here at Red Sail Sports we offer trips on the Glass Bottom Boat to the Stingray Sandbar and the Coral Gardens. These trips are at 11:15am and 1:30pm daily. In addition, we have kayaks, trikes, Sunfish sail boats and waverunners available between 9am and 4pm daily. In addition, there is excellent snorkeling under and around the dock area."

[wwicklund]

Hope that had some useful information for you all!

[boatbunny]

Hope that had some useful information for you all!

 

Excellent directions from Red Sail, I was reliving that drive as I was reading it!!

 

It is also great to know that they do offer the stingray tour from Rum Point. Makes my next trip to Rum Point even better now!

[kenandlaura06]

Stingrays and Rum Point!!! Excellent.

[vacationgal]

Is there anyother way to get to Rum Point other than renting a car? My husband says he doesn't want to rent and drive "in another country" :confused: Give me some advice and maybe some encouragement to pass on to him. Thanks!

[wwicklund]

You can rent a cab, we looked into this but it was twice as much as renting a car would be. There is also the ferry, email Redsail and see if it will be up and running again soon. The problem with the ferry is it leaves late in the day, also not sure on fares. We look forward to the freedom of having a car.

[sealegs9]

Hi-

I posted a while back thanking you for all the info. Our Voyager cruise is now 3+ weeks away. I follow this thread- my has it grown!

I read that the Cico website was down and I tried and can't get through. I'm going to try to send them an e-amil message to re-confirm our jeep. I'm also going to check out the Budget website to see what's available. I'd rather rent a car close to the tender pier, especially if I don't hear bck from Cico. Don't want to mis the jeep ride to Rum Point and the paradise of a day.

Any thoughts on what may be going on with Cico- possibly their server is down due to rough weather over the weekend??? Thanks.

[boatbunny]

Hi-

I posted a while back thanking you for all the info. Our Voyager cruise is now 3+ weeks away. I follow this thread- my has it grown!

I read that the Cico website was down and I tried and can't get through. I'm going to try to send them an e-amil message to re-confirm our jeep. I'm also going to check out the Budget website to see what's available. I'd rather rent a car close to the tender pier, especially if I don't hear bck from Cico. Don't want to mis the jeep ride to Rum Point and the paradise of a day.

Any thoughts on what may be going on with Cico- possibly their server is down due to rough weather over the weekend??? Thanks.

 

Hi,

 

I don't know what is up with their website, I don't think it is just from the weekend because it has been a couple of weeks. I actually just sent them an email to see what they say. I'm sure your reservation is fine, if they had closed, I am sure you would have heard since they are an international chain.

If I hear back from them, I'll let you know.

 

Have an awesome trip!! I envy you. We will be keeping our fingers crossed for everyone traveling this summer that the storms stay away!

 

Please be sure to post back and let us know how you enjoyed it.

 

Take care and have a safe trip.

 

Michelle

[fatmancruisin]

Rum Point sounds awesome but we need a volunteer designated driver for November 23rd at Grand Cayman? Any takers????? I promise to buy you a few drinks when we get back on the Liberty!!!! :)

 

Otherwise, we will have to go somehwere closer and let the island cabbies be the DD's

 

Cheers All!

[starznmoon]

If you can't get through on the Avis site you can reach them through Grand Cayman Cruise Excursions & Cico Avis that is how we booked them.

[immacruiser]

I did get thru the Cico Avis site and sort of made the reservation for availability, but I did NOT get a confirmation back from them... Did you get a confirmatiion? I'm starting to worry whether I'm considered reserve or NOT.

Thanks

[boatbunny]

I did get thru the Cico Avis site and sort of made the reservation for availability, but I did NOT get a confirmation back from them... Did you get a confirmatiion? I'm starting to worry whether I'm considered reserve or NOT.

Thanks

 

How long ago did you make your reservation? I'd give it a few days. As I mentioned in previous posts in this thread, although this is part of the Avis chain we have here in the US, it is a separate franchise and definitely communication is in "island mode" if you get my drift. You will not see a confirmation like we have here in the US, rather a quick email saying something like "you are all set".

 

Give it a couple of days ,unless you are traveling next week (then I'd probably call them to confirm) and if you don't hear back, send them an email.

They are very efficient and professional, so don't let their lack of immediate response unnerve you.

[immacruiser]

Thanks so much for your response. I guess I'll just sit and wait awhile. I made the reservation less than a week ago. Thanks again.

[sealegs9]

Boatbunny and all:

I accessed the Cico Avis site at work today (Internet Explorer) and just now on Firefox. All seems well. Now- if we ever get to Grand Cayman.... If not we'll pack sweaters for our northern cruise.(Would prefer Alaska over Canada)- I'm referring to the 7/25 RCCL Voyager to Bermuda that went north to Canada instead this week.

We were in Frances last summer, so we're bringing tour books for the Caribbean and Atlantic Canada! (were there on the Serenade 2 years ago).