Carnival Stingray City Excursion OPTIONS???

[MikeA0589]

We just booked our first cruise together on Carnival's Liberty 6-day cruise leaving on May 20th 2007. The stops are Freeport, Bahamas.... Grand Cayman... and Costa Maya Mexico. Not sure what we'll do in Freeport yet, but in Costa Maya we'll check out one of the ruin tours. My question is about which Stingray tour to go on in Grand Cayman. There are many different options and I'm confused on which one is better and why. Here are the options.

 

1. Allure Catamaran Sail to Stingray City Sandbar (3.5 hrs $70)

• Take a short transfer to the Cayman Island Yacht Club.
  
• Board the amazing spacious and comfortable Allura catamaran.
  
• Sail the beautiful waters of the North Sound to the stingray sandbar.
  
• Snorkel, feed and interact with dozens of Southern stingrays. The stingrays literally eat out of your hand!
  
• Have plenty of photo opportunities before hoisting the sails and returning to the yacht club.

2. Ray Runner Stingray City Snorkel Tour (3 hrs $99)

• Take command of your own inflatable boat and speed out to world famous Stingray City.
  
• Swim with these wondrous creatures of the sea.
  
• Reboard your boat for the short trip to Coral Gardens for snorkeling.
  
• See Grand Cayman’s underwater world as you explore this colorful coral reef.
  
• Possibly catch sight of a green sea turtle.
  
• Pilot your boat back from Coral Gardens to the dock.
  
• Board a bus for the return trip to Georgetown for shopping or your ship.

3. Stingray City & Island Tour (4.5 hrs $59)

• Travel the length of 7-Mile Beach and view the miles of white sandy beach and crystal clear blue waters.
  
• Experience a guided tour of the Turtle Farm; one of only a few turtle conservation centers in the world, home for the smallest hatchling to some of the largest sea turtles in the world.
  
• Be taken to what is known as Hell; an area of exposed rocks, locally termed the Town of Hell because of the lack of life truly portrays what most of us would perceive Hell to look like.
  
• Relax on the boat ride out to Stingray City Sandbar where you can stand in the shallow waters, as you swim or snorkel, feed, pet and hold the friendly stingrays.
  
• Be provided snorkel equipment and food for the stingrays at no extra cost.
  
• Enjoy our complimentary drinks including rum punch and listen to great Caribbean music on your return.

4. Stingray City Snuba (2 hrs $99)

• Experience the thrill of swimming deeper than you could snorkeling, without the burden of scuba gear.
  
• Take a boat ride to the Deep Stingray City situated inside the barrier reef that protects the North Sound.
  
• Have a short briefing and instructions on the easy use of your Snuba gear.
  
• Enter the clear Caribbean Sea and venture beneath the waves as the graceful rays swim around you.
  
• Be led through the reef and rocks until you are comfortable with the gear.
  
• Watch as the guides feed the rays and be on the lookout for the resident morays that inhabit the reef.

5. Stingray City Tour (2.5 hrs $45)

• Take a short ride through Grand Cayman to Stingray City.
  
• Cruise on a yacht out to the sandbar.
  
• Stand in 3 – 5 feet of water to feed and touch these magnificent creatures.
  
• Snorkel with them and share their environment.

6. Stingray Sandbar, Hell, & Turtle Farm Experience (4.5 hrs $74)

• Visit world famous 7-mile beach and the old Homestead for a photo stop.
  
• Tour the Turtle Farm, a one of a kind facility that is home to thousands of turtles.
  
• Arrive at the town called Hell, featuring a pre-historical rock formation that some think hell must surely look like.
  
• Stop at Stingray City for a boat ride out to the Sand Bar.
  
• Hold, pet and feed the stingrays in shallow waters (3 – 4 feet).

Obviously some tours have more involved than others but has anyone taken any of these SPECIFIC tours through Carnival Cruise Lines?

 

Which tour has the most involvement with the stingrays for the buck?

 

Thanks in advance.

 

-Mike

[suseg]

Mike: I'm on the 2/25/07 Conquest cruise out of Galveston. I have just booked with Captain Marvin's. It's only a 2 block walk from the pier and the cost is considerably less; his tours also get rave reviews in all of the tour guides. They don't charge you until the time of the trip and if your ship doesn't dock then you are not held responsible! My husband and I have often taken advantage of tour operators (reputable ones) who are not contracted with Carnival and have never had a bad experience. I do a lot of research whenver trying a new one however.

 

This particular tour is from 10:00 A.M. until 2 P.M. which should give us time to take a stroll back to the ship without having to rush.

 

Have a great time!

[abolanowski]

I also tend to book my excursions with local operators rather than the ship. I am going with Native Way on their Rays, Reef and Rumpoint Tour which is 60pp and goes about 5 hrs. You can google them and take a look at their website, which is pretty thorough. They pick you up at the dock and bring you back. Of course, the only downside to doing this is that the ship won't wait for you if you're late on an independant tour, although I have never had this problem myself. Anyway, they've gotten great reviews on this site. Have fun!:)

[CaribbeanBound]

Agreed. Book it yourself. You'll save a good bit of money and your tour will not be ANYWHERE near as crowded.

 

Georgetown, Grand Cayman

If you arrive by ship, you will likely anchor offshore and tender in to this port. We walked around the pier shops awaiting our privately arranged Sting Ray City / Coral Gardens tour with Native Way at noon. There were 13 folks on our tour. We boarded a small van which took us to a boat awaiting us at the Yacht Club. Our boat could comfortably hold 50 people. It took about 20 minutes to motor out to the Coral Gardens reef where we donned mask, snorkel, fins and optional snorkel vests (which made my wife very happy). The snorkel vests provide buoyancy and can be inflated to a level that is comfortable for you. There were no lack of pretty fish here. We then motored 5 minutes out to Sting Ray City, a sandbar in the ocean where the water is only 4-feet deep. Even though the place was crowded, we had a great time. Stingrays with 2-to-4 foot wingspans were in abundance and very tame. Boat captains were catching them and passing them around for everyone to view and hold. Plenty of squid was available for feeding. We were happy to have been on a private tour ($35 each, plus tip). Some double-decker boats were absolutely jam-packed with passengers. Squeals pierced the air every time a stingray glided a wing against someone's leg. We spent about 1.5 hours between the two locations. Plenty of time. It was a very memorable and fun experience. Highly recommended! Upon our return we were driven back into town where we spent some more time shopping. We were hungry so we checked out the new Margaritaville Cafe. A raspberry margarita and a basket of fries set us back $18 including tip. Won’t do that again. The menu prices were displayed in Cayman dollars which are worth 20% more than US dollars, and we didn’t realize it until the adjusted bill with itemized tip arrived. We bought gifts at the conveniently located Tortuga Rum Company. They have a very nicely bottled Tortuga Citrus Honey for $8. They will also arrange to get any liquor you purchase delivered to the ship for free. We bought a couple bottles of Margaritaville Island Lime/Tequila Liqueur for $11 each as gifts and then got in line to board the tenders and headed back to the ship. Bottom line: Grand Cayman is gorgeous! Stingray City will be the highlight of your visit.

 

http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/caribbean-secrets.html

[CaribbeanBound]

Agreed. Book it yourself. You'll save a good bit of money and your tour will not be ANYWHERE near as crowded.

 

Georgetown, Grand Cayman

If you arrive by ship, you will likely anchor offshore and tender in to this port. We walked around the pier shops awaiting our privately arranged Sting Ray City / Coral Gardens tour with Native Way at noon. There were 13 folks on our tour. We boarded a small van which took us to a boat awaiting us at the Yacht Club. Our boat could comfortably hold 50 people. It took about 20 minutes to motor out to the Coral Gardens reef where we donned mask, snorkel, fins and optional snorkel vests (which made my wife very happy). The snorkel vests provide buoyancy and can be inflated to a level that is comfortable for you. There were no lack of pretty fish here. We then motored 5 minutes out to Sting Ray City, a sandbar in the ocean where the water is only 4-feet deep. Even though the place was crowded, we had a great time. Stingrays with 2-to-4 foot wingspans were in abundance and very tame. Boat captains were catching them and passing them around for everyone to view and hold. Plenty of squid was available for feeding. We were happy to have been on a private tour ($35 each, plus tip). Some double-decker boats were absolutely jam-packed with passengers. Squeals pierced the air every time a stingray glided a wing against someone's leg. We spent about 1.5 hours between the two locations. Plenty of time. It was a very memorable and fun experience. Highly recommended! Upon our return we were driven back into town where we spent some more time shopping. We were hungry so we checked out the new Margaritaville Cafe. A raspberry margarita and a basket of fries set us back $18 including tip. Won’t do that again. The menu prices were displayed in Cayman dollars which are worth 20% more than US dollars, and we didn’t realize it until the adjusted bill with itemized tip arrived. We bought gifts at the conveniently located Tortuga Rum Company. They have a very nicely bottled Tortuga Citrus Honey for $8. They will also arrange to get any liquor you purchase delivered to the ship for free. We bought a couple bottles of Margaritaville Island Lime/Tequila Liqueur for $11 each as gifts and then got in line to board the tenders and headed back to the ship. Bottom line: Grand Cayman is gorgeous! Stingray City will be the highlight of your visit.

 

http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/caribbean-secrets.html

[yalesmom]

When we went 3 years ago (and are returning February 14th), we booked a local tour company. It was awesome. The cruise ship tours had about 150-200 people on these large boats. We were with a group of 25, and could get in better with the smaller boat. You can book with them and don't have to leave a deposit. Here's the website:

 

http://www.mobydicktours.com/html/tour.html.

LORI

[yalesmom]

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[yalesmom]

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[cruiserssandr]

Put in my vote for Captain Marvin. There were only 8 of us on our boat.

[srobins]

On my first trip to Cayman we took the tour with Native Way and it was fine, but our last two trips have been a disaster. In December of 05, my sister and I had booked with NativeWay. I can tell you more details, if you like, but basically, we waited for over an hour to get on a van full of people to go to a boat where we waited for another period until another bus comes and unloads a large group onto our boat. Our tour was to begin at 12:00, and we waited from 11:15 until almost 1:00 for the boat to leave the dock. The tour should have had 15 or 20 maximum and we had at least 60 on board.

 

The tour was stressful, frustrating, rushed and less than expected. The short time we actually got to spend with the stingrays was the only remarkable part of the trip. I did send an email to Sharon when we returned from that trip and she promised us a free trip the next time we returned to Caymans.

 

So, last month we booked with them again. This time I had my sister and two others with me. Again, we waited for a long time at the Gazebo for them to figure out who was supposed to be going on the tour. We walked to a parking lot, boarded a crowded van and sat for awhile in the hot van while the guide went and talked to some other people. We had 18 in the van with kids sitting on laps. I thought we would have a nice size group. After switching us to another van, we left for the dock. When we got there, we unloaded and by the time we got to the boat, there was no place for anyone to sit - it was already full of people. We said, "no, thanks" and asked to be taken back to the pier. I even spoke with Sharon on the phone (one of the guides called her) and I told her that this is not what I expect when I book with NativeWay. She said that the problem is that I keep coming during a busy time and it will always be like that if I come when there are lots of ships at Grand Cayman.

 

So, word to the wise - if you book with Native Way you may have a large group depending on how many ships are in port and how many people they can book at the pier. They take anyone they can -- people stand around and book passengers as they get off the ships. You may have a nice group, but my experience says that they will take as many as they can fit on the boat.

 

Sherryl

[The Stapels]

We used Moby Dick on out Jan 06 RCI Navigator cruise. There was only about 20 people on the tour. We had 6 kids with us, and they really helped the kids overcome their fears. I would definitely use them again.

[Gregkal]

I booked #5 through carnival last year. It is a small boat that will not hold a great crowd of people. You get to feed them and the guide will hold the stingrays up so you can hold and kiss them. They really were very experienced. I would have no problem booking this tour again. Greg

[pjs678]

We used Capt. Marvin's last week and it was great. My kids got great attention from the guides and help getting used to the stingrays. The Carnival boat looked crowded.

[HopeILuvCruisin]

pjs678--

 

what time did you take the tour from Captian Marvin's? We, too are on the Miracle the beginning of March and are looking into this tour. Thanks!