Vendors on Grand Cayman

[aghajanian2000]

Traveling through Carnival to Grand Cayman. Don't want to get overcharged on excursions by buying from ship. Activities we want to do are: 

visit George Town, Crystal Caves and Stingray City (have read about Captain Marvins). Which vendors have good deals and are professional? Which should be avoided?

[crewsweeper]

Captain Marvin or Ambassador Divers (snorkel only excursion top sandbar) are good bets. Been around for long time and offer competitive pricing.

[aghajanian2000]

Does Ambassador not go to stingrays? Been to crystal caves?

[crewsweeper]

Ambassador does stingray city's sandbar and other spots.  They focus on diving but do offer snorkeling. 

I've never been to crystal caves.

[aghajanian2000]

I'm also confused because if I were to look up all the different tour companies for all the activities in each of the 4 islands we're visiting it will be very time-consuming and stressful. Is there really no way to just walk up and book them?

[bookbabe]

56 minutes ago, aghajanian2000 said:

I'm also confused because if I were to look up all the different tour companies for all the activities in each of the 4 islands we're visiting it will be very time-consuming and stressful. Is there really no way to just walk up and book them?

 

You’re going to have a hard time finding a company that will do both the stingrays and the Crystal Caves.  The stingrays are out in the ocean about a 15-30 minute trip from the dock, which is usually about 15 minutes from the port.  The caves are on the north side of the island, about 40 minutes from the port in the opposite direction as the docks the stingray tours leave from.

 

And if you want a really good tour for the stingrays, your best bet is to read the various reviews online and in this forum, and then book something in advance.  If you just want to see the stingrays and really don’t care about quality of the experience or crowds, just book at the pier or through the ship, which is much easier.

 

George Town is where the tenders from the ship dock.   Just get off and walk around to your heart’s content.  It’s mostly high-end and/or tourist-focused shopping and restaurants, and it’s all very easily walkable and very safe to DIY.  Other than one museum, all of the tourist ‘sights’ will be outside of the downtown area.

 

What you might find easiest is to book a combo tour via the ship, if one is available, that combines a brief island tour with a brief trip out to see the stingrays.  That won’t take any research at all, and it will let you see the highlights with the least amount of advance planning.

 

Edited June 11, 2019 by bookbabe

[aghajanian2000]

4 minutes ago, bookbabe said:

 

You’re going to have a hard time finding a company that will do both the stingrays and the Crystal Caves.  The stingrays are out in the ocean about a 15-30 minute trip from the dock, which is usually about 15 minutes from the port.  The caves are on the north side of the island, about 40 minutes from the port in the opposite direction as the docks the stingray tours leave from.

 

And if you want a really good tour for the stingrays, your best bet is to read the various reviews online and in this forum, and then book something in advance.  If you just want to see the stingrays and really don’t care about quality of the experience or crowds, just book at the pier or through the ship, which is much easier.

 

George Town is where the tenders from the ship dock.   Just get off and walk around to your heart’s content.  It’s mostly high-end and/or tourist-focused shopping and restaurants, and it’s all very easily walkable and very safe to DIY.  Other than one museum, all of the tourist ‘sights’ will be outside of the downtown area.

 

What you might find easiest is to book a combo tour via the ship, if one is available, that combines a brief island tour with a brief trip out to see the stingrays.  That won’t take any research at all, and it will let you see the highlights with the least amount of advance planning.

 

Thanks for the advice. Any idea what percentage of markup Carnival might be doing on their excursions?

[bookbabe]

1 hour ago, aghajanian2000 said:

Thanks for the advice. Any idea what percentage of markup Carnival might be doing on their excursions?

 

No idea, sorry.  When we visit Cayman it’s for land vacations (we own a home there) and have a car and a boat so we don’t do excursions.

 

In general, especially in Cayman, if you want easy it’s either going to be more expensive (like ship’s tours) or it’s going to have to be booked at the port day-of where it’s chancier and possibly lesser quality.

 

[crewsweeper]

13 hours ago, aghajanian2000 said:

Thanks for the advice. Any idea what percentage of markup Carnival might be doing on their excursions?

Best way to see difference is go to vendor's website and then Carnival's excursion page and compare. IF and a big IF the two excursions compare pretty darn close to what's included and the vendor price is lower, Carnival does have a price match guarantee.  Can be a bit tricky to get, as I understand it.  Never used it.

 

The biggest hangup with ship excursions is the crowding.  Too many people, versus smaller groups for individual vendors.  With any snorkeling excursion from the ship, you get herded about and are often forced to hang back with novice/slower snorkelers and stay within a designated area.  With stingrays it's just a bunch of people on the sandbar scrambling to pet one of the creatures for a few seconds. 

[shipgeeks]

On ‎6‎/‎11‎/‎2019 at 6:34 PM, aghajanian2000 said:

Thanks for the advice. Any idea what percentage of markup Carnival might be doing on their excursions?

We've noticed very little price difference between ship excursions and the same ones on the tour websites.  For example, in Alaska, a train tour was $100 through the ship, and $99 through the company.  Similar on some of the Carib excursions.  

[aghajanian2000]

On 6/12/2019 at 7:25 PM, shipgeeks said:

We've noticed very little price difference between ship excursions and the same ones on the tour websites.  For example, in Alaska, a train tour was $100 through the ship, and $99 through the company.  Similar on some of the Carib excursions.  

I went on to read some articles and it seems there is as much as a 50% markup sometimes, so I'm not sure what you have been experiencing. 

[aghajanian2000]

On 6/12/2019 at 7:45 AM, crewsweeper said:

Best way to see difference is go to vendor's website and then Carnival's excursion page and compare. IF and a big IF the two excursions compare pretty darn close to what's included and the vendor price is lower, Carnival does have a price match guarantee.  Can be a bit tricky to get, as I understand it.  Never used it.

 

The biggest hangup with ship excursions is the crowding.  Too many people, versus smaller groups for individual vendors.  With any snorkeling excursion from the ship, you get herded about and are often forced to hang back with novice/slower snorkelers and stay within a designated area.  With stingrays it's just a bunch of people on the sandbar scrambling to pet one of the creatures for a few seconds. 

Isn't the stingray business cool?

[scpirate]

On 6/11/2019 at 5:33 PM, aghajanian2000 said:

I'm also confused because if I were to look up all the different tour companies for all the activities in each of the 4 islands we're visiting it will be very time-consuming and stressful. Is there really no way to just walk up and book them?

Yep plenty of people selling excursions at the pier.thats who I buy from.i get off the ship and question the drivers and look to see what they are driving.i got put in a 1990 dodge van I didn't think was going to make the trip one time.

[aghajanian2000]

19 minutes ago, scpirate said:

Yep plenty of people selling excursions at the pier.thats who I buy from.i get off the ship and question the drivers and look to see what they are driving.i got put in a 1990 dodge van I didn't think was going to make the trip one time.

But you still think it's worth it?