Who to use for private Sting Ray City tour?

[cruznchic]

There are so many tours, combos, etc. it is a little overwhelming. Any suggestions on who to use? And if you did a combo what it was? Thanks for any guidance you can give!!:o

[azkcruizers]

My family party of 10 went with www.nativewaysports.com and did the rays reef and rum point tour. It was wonderful. They have a lot of great reviews on this board if you do a search of them. One of our best tours ever taken!:)

[Jungle Jane]

My family party of 10 went with www.nativewaysports.com and did the rays reef and rum point tour. It was wonderful. They have a lot of great reviews on this board if you do a search of them. One of our best tours ever taken!:)

 

 

I'll second the nod to RRR on NativeWays. If you read back on this board you will see many great reviews of this tour in particular and the company in general. We went on 2/7/08 so if you look at this board in the week or so following that you will see my review.

 

Enjoy Grand Cayman :)

[rcprncss]

I agree with Jungle Jane! Just did it last week.....Rum Point is beautiful! The tour is a good value.

[sledhead]

Just did the Rays with Moby Dick tours and although they were nice people and it was a great tour, they waited way too long for late people showing up and it was most likely because they were trying to sell more seats at the pier before they would leave. Because of this by the time we got done we had no time to visit rum point or seven mile beach. And our snorkelling stop was only like 15 mins. I think that was unfair to all the people that were there on time.

 

I would like to recommend them but because of this I cannot.

[sledhead]

Oh ya I forgot to mention that they use an old decrepit school bus for transportation so if you need A/C this does not have it...

[cruznchic]

Thanks for the advice! You guys are great!;)

[twosea]

we did this tour from nativeway just about a week ago...it was lots of fun and i just got my photos back from 1 hour photo and i'm wishing i could do it all over again...this tour is 3 hours long and it was perfect for us fair skinned afraid of a sunburn on our first day group...we were back by 12 and it left us some free time before going back to the ship for lunch

[Brooklyn1985]

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

[EBallgrl]

Ditto on Nativewaywatersports...we used them last year for the Stingray City and Island Tour. They drove us around the island, pointed out interesting things, went to Hell, the Turtle Farm, the Rum cake factory and then stingray city. Loved them, there were only 4 of us on the tour, very personal. My only complaint was that they confused us on our initial meeting time, but eventually we got it figured out and had a great time!

 

We are booked with them again for the same tour this year. I would have liked to try the snorkeling with them, but my mom, sis and niece all have bad eyesight and not sure if they would be able to enjoy it. My sister is the only one with contacts, and I had LASIK so we would be fine but we did not want to commit a tour to snorkeling in case mom and niece cant see anything! :eek:

[Eric in TX]

I had a group of 10 that chartered with Captain Bryan.

 

He has several boats, and we had the Allison (40 ft power boat) all to ourselves. His first mate got in the water with us, and was very good about keeping us separated from the other tour boats piled high with people.

 

We were also able to pair that up with a stop at Rum Point beach for a few hours for lunch. Everyone in our group agreed that it was the best day of our cruise!

 

Eric

[richbum]

Captain Marvin was great. He is actually the one who originally found Stingray City....:D

[Eddie's Girl]

Ditto on Nativewaywatersports...we used them last year for the Stingray City and Island Tour. They drove us around the island, pointed out interesting things, went to Hell, the Turtle Farm, the Rum cake factory and then stingray city. Loved them, there were only 4 of us on the tour, very personal. My only complaint was that they confused us on our initial meeting time, but eventually we got it figured out and had a great time!

 

We are booked with them again for the same tour this year. I would have liked to try the snorkeling with them, but my mom, sis and niece all have bad eyesight and not sure if they would be able to enjoy it. My sister is the only one with contacts, and I had LASIK so we would be fine but we did not want to commit a tour to snorkeling in case mom and niece cant see anything! :eek:

Maybe mom and niece could try contacts too. I got a prescription for them when I first snorkeled, in Tahiti. Much cheaper than a prescription mask. Snorkeling is now one of my favorite cruise activities and w/o the contacts I would never have known what I was missing.

[cruznchic]

How far in advance should I book with Nativeway? Thanks again for all the great advice!

[lovebug33]

My mom and I are pretty blind. We couldn't see far away, but we could see up close and we enjoyed snorkeling a lot!

[Jungle Jane]

How far in advance should I book with Nativeway? Thanks again for all the great advice!

 

Can't hurt to contact them now, I think the sooner the better. That way if someone ends up needing to be bumped for whatever reason you'd have first priority of not being bumped and I have heard of ppl reporting back that they tried to book with NW but they were booked up for that particular date.

 

Tell Sharon that the "crazy Harley Davidson store lady" recommended you-she'll totally know who you mean!!!!!!!!!!

 

She was so great on our tour, our ship was due to leave port first so she personally came and got myself and DD and brought us back in her own car and was able to stop for me quick so I could run into the Harley shop to get my hub a t shirt...she was impressed with how fast we ran in, grabbed/bought the shirt and ran out, all while she was double parked. She said we ought to be on Amazing Race :) She is such a sweet woman, really rolls out the red carpet for you.

[cruznchic]

Excellent. I'll take care of it this weekend. You've been a great help, and I'm looking forward to this excursion the most!!

[suzyjack]

Just did the Rays with Moby Dick tours and although they were nice people and it was a great tour, they waited way too long for late people showing up and it was most likely because they were trying to sell more seats at the pier before they would leave. Because of this by the time we got done we had no time to visit rum point or seven mile beach. And our snorkelling stop was only like 15 mins. I think that was unfair to all the people that were there on time.

 

I would like to recommend them but because of this I cannot.

 

Just curious, what time where you scheduled for? I understand they have two tours, one in the am and one in the pm.

 

thanks

[rikes]

We used Moby Dick for Stingray City Tour and the crew was great. Mark, Nick and William. As previously noted, the bus ride to the boat wasn't air conditioned but with the windows open and the sea breeze blowing in your face you didn't need air for this day. However, we did have a a/c bus return us back to port.

It was great, we had around 15 people on the boat, so everyone was able to interact with the stingrays. Other boats had 3 or 4x amount of people with them. For the price we paid it was a great value versus booking the tour on the ship.

[Nauti Nana]

Nativway is a wonderful tour company. Another friend and I booked them for our excursion last week. They picked us up at the port and we rode in an air conditioned van to the marina. The entire crew, including the Scottish photographer, couldn't have been nicer or more helpful. We did the Ray, Reef and Rum Point Beach tour which included a delicious lunch for a total of $60. The sting ray stop was fantastic, as was the snorkeling on the reef. It was very easy and had the most variety of tropical fish I've ever seen while snorkeling. The lunch at Rum Point Beach was delicious. I had the fresh catch of the day. The water at the beach was lovely. The only negative aspect of the trip was that it was over much too soon. I plan to return to the Cayman Islands and will definitely use Nativway again! Have fun!

[sledhead]

Just curious, what time where you scheduled for? I understand they have two tours, one in the am and one in the pm.

 

thanks

It was the am tour...was scheduled to leave at 930 but we didnt leave till almost 1030..everyone was ticked on board. I agree with another poster that the crew was nice we just didnt feel that we should have waited so long and they definitely need a better bus.