Half Moon Cay/Stingray Adventure

[ColSavLan]

Thinking about booking the Stingray Adventure excursion at Half Moon Cay. For those of you who have done this what did you think? The available times are 11, 12:30, 1:30 and 2:30. Does anyone know if there is any advantage to booking one time over another?

[salty dingo]

Did stingray city in Grand Cayman, where the stingrays are wild. The HMC excursion makes me wonder if the ones there are being held captive.

[maryred]

The only advantage I can think of is the island cookout buffet is open from 11am till 1pm, but towards the end of it the hot foods taste overcooked. The one disadvantage I can think of for the 2:30pm time slot is if your ship's last tender is at 4pm they might rush the experience a bit to get everyone back to the dock area.

The first time I went I have the 9:30 time slot for the stingrays. It gave me priority tender boarding by reporting to a specific lounge about 45 minutes prior, but by 10/10:30 I would think the tender line would be pretty minimal.

[maryred]

Did stingray city in Grand Cayman, where the stingrays are wild. The HMC excursion makes me wonder if the ones there are being held captive.

 

Yes and no. The stingrays on HMC are being rehabbed after they are rescued. Some stay just a short time then are released back to the lagoon while others with more serious injuries that prevent them from hunting well on their own are kept for the rest of their lives.

[cuppettmd]

My Wife and I did it last year. The rays were in a pen so it was nothing like Grand Cayman, where they are wild. It was still OK but on a much minor scale. I think we only had one squid apiece. My Wife liked it, but I had been to "Sting Ray City" just two cruises before so I was "meh".:D

[salty dingo]

I think we only had one squid apiece.:D

Feeding them made me remember a good tip: If you want to keep your thumb attached to your hand, keep it tucked into your fist when feeding the rays. They really suck!

[klfrodo]

After 2 visits to GC and 1 to Nassau, I have come to the conclusion that me and sea life will get along much better if we keep our distance.

I won’t touch you if you don’t touch me and make me scream like a little girl in front of my wife and children.

[RRFPresident]

Thinking about booking the Stingray Adventure excursion at Half Moon Cay. For those of you who have done this what did you think? The available times are 11, 12:30, 1:30 and 2:30. Does anyone know if there is any advantage to booking one time over another?

 

We won this excursion during our cruise last week by attending the port talk and having my name drawn in the raffle. We were automatically assigned the 12:30 time slot. We'd also booked a cabana so we went over on the 1st tender for that and enjoyed our time floating on the mats until it was time to head over. As another poster already stated, the provided lunch is only until 1:30 so we literally wolfed down hot dogs on the run since we had to pass by the buffet on our way to the meeting point. We were glad to have snacks in our cabana to come back to as we were ravenous by the time it was over since the choppy water (from the recent and approaching storms) made me feel like I'd run a marathon trying to keep my balance. I've heard on a previous trip that the stingrays weren't interested in being fed by cruisers during the later times because they were already full. During our time I noticed that the guide would routinely grab the same 1 or 2 stingrays as he moved around the circle to each of us to try feeding them.

 

If for nothing else, I'd say choosing an earlier time would be better simply because afterward you can relax on the beach with nothing to worry about rushing to or checking the time except for getting too close to last tender time.

[MommyAJ6]

After 2 visits to GC and 1 to Nassau, I have come to the conclusion that me and sea life will get along much better if we keep our distance.

I won’t touch you if you don’t touch me and make me scream like a little girl in front of my wife and children.

Hahahahaha I LOVE this!!! Lol

Boy do I have some stories lol

[ColSavLan]

We won this excursion during our cruise last week by attending the port talk and having my name drawn in the raffle. We were automatically assigned the 12:30 time slot. We'd also booked a cabana so we went over on the 1st tender for that and enjoyed our time floating on the mats until it was time to head over. As another poster already stated, the provided lunch is only until 1:30 so we literally wolfed down hot dogs on the run since we had to pass by the buffet on our way to the meeting point. We were glad to have snacks in our cabana to come back to as we were ravenous by the time it was over since the choppy water (from the recent and approaching storms) made me feel like I'd run a marathon trying to keep my balance. I've heard on a previous trip that the stingrays weren't interested in being fed by cruisers during the later times because they were already full. During our time I noticed that the guide would routinely grab the same 1 or 2 stingrays as he moved around the circle to each of us to try feeding them.

 

If for nothing else, I'd say choosing an earlier time would be better simply because afterward you can relax on the beach with nothing to worry about rushing to or checking the time except for getting too close to last tender time.

 

This is what I was thinking too and would be my preference to do the first one, then relax the rest of the day. The problem I think is lots of other people think that way too so now I have heard the first one of the day is much more crowded. Then the other 2 I think interfere with lunch, and the last one might be good as you might not be as rushed, but the stingrays may not be hungry. Did you like the excursion? Would you recommend doing it?

[RRFPresident]

This is what I was thinking too and would be my preference to do the first one, then relax the rest of the day. The problem I think is lots of other people think that way too so now I have heard the first one of the day is much more crowded. Then the other 2 I think interfere with lunch, and the last one might be good as you might not be as rushed, but the stingrays may not be hungry. Did you like the excursion? Would you recommend doing it?

 

I would honestly have never picked this excursion on my own regardless of the cost as stingrays weren't on the top of my to do list. If the water hadn't been so choppy making it hard to stand still and avoid the swimming stingrays I think I would have been a bit more comfortable. It's a good introduction for the hour though. They offer the chance to pet, hold, and pose for pictures with the stingrays to everyone but it can be a bit chaotic with a large group (about 15) in the pen. They make you wear water shoes and the blow up life vest that goes around your neck but you have the option of using the provided snorkel and mask. I got bumped a couple times by people trying to float on their stomachs at the top of the water while snorkeling as it was crowded. When we were done I told my friend that it was a once in a lifetime experience so now I can say I did it and never have to do it again.

 

This was a nice introduction to stingrays if you're looking for something simple and easy for the experience. Despite the crowd, everyone got the option to feed the stingrays and hold the other sea life that the guide brought up from the bottom. You'd just have to be a little proactive if you really want your picture taken holding a stingray as that's the one time the photographer doesn't come around to each person. When we found our pictures back on the ship (you do have to pay for them extra), I was actually surprised at how many candid shots he'd gotten of us while we were participating in everything else.

[GradUT]

My grown daughter did this excursion (first one of the day) and loved it. I watched some of it and it looked really fun. She said that most of the people during her time didn’t want to snorkel, so she had the stingrays almost all to herself.

[LongHill44]

Be careful, look what happened to the bloke from down under

[canadianbear]

We did this in December-like others have said it's a good introduction and the price very reasonable. We were assigned 11am slot and it worked out well.

 

Was a little freaky at first having them swim around your legs. We used our underwater camera for a couple of photos. We quite enjoyed it.