Private operators?

[Indytraveler83]

Anyone have advice on a good private operator? Cruising on Carnival and a bit underwhelmed by the selections, as they are all short excursions in large groups.

 

I found some very appealing tours on grandcaymanexcursions.com that offered a private charter boat for up to 6 people for 4 or 6 hours that visits the stingrays, a beach and takes you around the island for 400 or 600 dollars for the group.

 

Any experience with them, or anyone you'd recommend? Thanks in advance!

[mrsfuzzmo]

What are you looking to do??

 

Stingraysailing dot com is a great one for a semi-private Stingray trip. There are alot of tour companies (non ship sponsored) in Grand Cayman that do Stingrays if that's what you want to do.

 

Do you want a driver to take you around the island? Do you want to see the beach/snorkle? Kayak? Waverunners? Turtle farm.....lots of choices.

[NightOne]

Anyone have advice on a good private operator? Cruising on Carnival and a bit underwhelmed by the selections, as they are all short excursions in large groups.

 

I found some very appealing tours on grandcaymanexcursions.com that offered a private charter boat for up to 6 people for 4 or 6 hours that visits the stingrays, a beach and takes you around the island for 400 or 600 dollars for the group.

 

Any experience with them, or anyone you'd recommend? Thanks in advance!

 

Here are 4:

 

1. Native Way http://www.nativewaywatersports.com/home

 

I have personally used them and they are awesome

 

2. Stingray Sailing http://www.stingraysailing.com/

 

I am currently booked with them as Native Way has a large private charter next time I am in Grand Cayman - Recommended by Native Way as well

 

3. Moby Dick https://www.mobydicktours.com/

 

Recommended by Native Way and many good reviews here on Cruise Critic

 

4. Aquarius http://acquarius.ky/

 

Many recommendations here on Cruise Critic

 

Someone will come along and recommend Captain Marvins but I personally will not use them because they also do Swim with the Dolphin stuff which I am opposed to and thus vote against it with my wallet.

 

Hope this helps

[Indytraveler83]

Thanks for the links, sorry I didn't really explain very well in the original post.

 

There are 6 of us, and none of us are particularly interested in fighting crowds or a huge excursion group. So some sort of private or small group tour sounds really good. Stingrays would be awesome, but I'm looking for something that's maybe stingrays plus something else (still exploring what else, so very open to suggestions). I really like the idea of the small boat tours, and trying to keep it at or below $100/pp.

[NightOne]

Thanks for the links, sorry I didn't really explain very well in the original post.

 

There are 6 of us, and none of us are particularly interested in fighting crowds or a huge excursion group. So some sort of private or small group tour sounds really good. Stingrays would be awesome, but I'm looking for something that's maybe stingrays plus something else (still exploring what else, so very open to suggestions). I really like the idea of the small boat tours, and trying to keep it at or below $100/pp.

 

All of the ones I posted have small group sizes. Also, you can charter a Native Way boat all day for $650 which is $108.33 per person. Other operators I posted may let you charter too.

[Giantfan13]

We used Captain Marvin's for the Sting Ray City tour which also had a short snorkel stop. We then transferred to another tour by them to tour the Turtle farm and Hell and several other spots. The price was good and the tours went well. We did have a minor glitch but the professionalisms of the Captain Marvin group help resolve it and we were thoroughly pleased.

 

Cheers

 

Len

[flyer92]

We just returned from a cruise and had a wonderful excursion on Grand Cayman. We booked through grandcaymenexcursions.com. The reservation was with Island Marketing and the operator was CAYMAN PRIVATE NAUTIGAL SAILING CHARTERS. O'Neil was our captain of a 46ft sailboat. We had a wonderful cruise to the first site. He was very helpful and gave lots of local info. He let us feed some stingrays and "pet" them and was very knowledgable about the local sea life. We did not go to the overcrowded sting ray city that he refered to as a petting zoo. We were anchored by ourselves. Then we went to a reef where we could snorkel and see more fish and coral. After that, he prepared a large fresh fruit tray for all of us. There were sodas and water available, we had picked up some local rum and enjoyed our own mixed drinks on the way back to the Island. We had some time left, so he took us on a cruise to see some of the local homes. We were a group of 13, the total cost was $750 plus a tip. Less than any similar cruise line excursion and much better imo. If you do this, don't take any spray suncreen, it is bad for the boats. Also, you can have the booking company arrange for travel through Stingray Cab an' Tours. Carol Schrock met us before and after the excursion, gave us local info, took us to the Cayman Rum distillery, and dropped us at Rackums for lunch. She was wonderful! I think the transportation was $12 pp. So the entire excursion ended up under $80 pp, a bargain for that experience!

[flyer92]

I just posted about our experience above. I believe they have smaller boat options if you have a smaller group. grandcaymanexcursions.com

Have fun!