Nativeway Island and stingray tour?

[Sky616]

My 8 yr old son wants to see the rays but does not want to snorkel. According to this tour we see the stingrays and then do an island tour. He is not a great swimmer and I told him you can touch at the sandbar. Has anyone done this tour and how long did you stay at the sandbar and was the island tour interesting. I think it would be perfect for us, just looking for some other opinions. Thanks!

[EBallgrl]

Here is a LONG review of that tour when I took it for the 2nd time this past October, hope it helps!

 

 

 

October 21st

Our first stop was Grand Cayman, we had booked an excursion that included an Island tour and Stingray City. Turns out that we were the only ones booked on this excursion so we had a private tour all to ourselves! I had used this company for the same tour last year and loved them; we only had a total of 4 people on that tour as well. We got on a tender, docked, and found our company…we had about an hour to kill before the tour started so we walked around and shopped a little bit. I bought a T-shirt. There were MANY companies trying to sell us tours while walking around in the port area.

When it was time to meet up with them we met our guide, Sheldon, and followed him to our vehicle for the day which was a nice SUV. He drove us through town, pointing out important beaches, hotels, etc. We stopped at the Governors house, a Rum Cake Factory, Hell, and the Turtle Farm before Stingray City. We actually had nice weather this day, which would turn out to be the ONLY day we had nice weather. Hell was the same as I remembered it from last year only this year we got to meet to owner who dresses up like the Devil. We only got to meet his wooden cut-out last year. He asked us where we were from and said WV, he promptly took out a photo album and showed us his wedding pictures because his wife is from WV also. Well he says “one of his wives”, he is Satan you know! I eventually got a kiss from him on the cheek outside while my family was dropping mail in the mailbox…eventually he kissed both DM and DS as well! Actually they kissed him too, the devil gets a lot of lovin! He was great, we took several pics of the whole ordeal. While we were looking at the rock formations, our guide was telling us all about Hell and its history and ended up catching an iguana for us to look at. This caused a crowd to gather and he started telling everyone else about the place as well…I guess they didn’t have as great of a guide as we did!

Last year when we went to the Turtle Farm our guide was able to come in with us, but this year they weren’t allowed (he would have to pay to get himself in). But he set us up with another guide inside so we weren’t left to wander alone. This guy was pretty good, he worked there so he knew everything about the turtles. We got to hold some of the smaller ones, and tickle their chins when they would start to flip out (calms them down, it’s the cutest thing!). The tour inside lasted about 30 mins, then used the restrooms, checked out the gift shop & hatchery, and met back up with our guide outside. I know there is a small controversy over the Turtle Farm (some of the turtles are used for local consumption) and I later discussed it with him. He assured me that it was a very small percentage of them that were harvested, and they were very strict with it. Turtle can only be sold on Sundays, so you can only get it from restaurants or buy it to consume at your home on that day. They do not export the meat at all, and basically reminded us that every country has their own delicacies that foreigners might find gross or wrong. This is something that they have consumed for generations, and there is absolutely no commercial fishing of the turtles in the wild, they all come from the turtle farm. As a Marine Science major, I absolutely love sea turtles and could never eat one, but I understand that this is their culture and I respect it.

On to Stingray City, we had our own boat, it was a smaller one, 25ft, but it was GREAT! It was so nice to be sailing out to the stingrays passing boats that were absolutely packed with people (one of them was another popular company commonly mentioned on these boards). We just waved and continued on for our own personal experience. The boat was actually our tour guide’s personal boat. When we got to the sandbar we got all of our stuff together and jumped in. I had asked the captain, Fabian, what the water temperature was like and he said it was pretty cold…it was warm, really warm! Well you are no longer allowed to feed the Stingrays anymore, just the guides, but they still rubbed squid on our arms so that they would come up on us anyways. They do not know why tourists aren’t allowed to feed them, there haven’t been any accidents. DN was excited to go out there but once she was in the water and saw them she kind of freaked out and got back on the boat and just watched. She later said that she didn’t expect them to be so big and so many. She eventually pet a small on that the guide caught and brought to her. DM loved it! She said she was a little scared at first but once she got a mask on and went under the water with them she LOVED it! She had never done snorkeling before so she had never experienced anything like that before. Again, it was so nice to have our own space and not be in the middle of a huge crowd of people. Our guide also went out and found a large starfish and a conch for us to see.

On the way back some storm clouds came rolling in but we made it back in the SUV before it let loose. We were worried that it would be raining while standing in line for the tender but it quickly stopped raining. Once back at the port we used the restrooms (clean enough!) and got right on a tender, no lines this year! So all in all we had a blast on this tour, and if we go back, I will use them again for a different tour. He said they are building a couple dolphin encounters on the island and they will eventually offer a tour that includes this. I can not say enough good things about this company, I wish them the best.

[Sky616]

Thanks for the great review! We are still deciding but leaning towards this. This was Nativeway, correct? You live in another great vacation place, Myrtle Beach. I go on golf trips down there every year and we as a family vacation there about every other year. Where approximately do you live? Hope those fires are extinguished down there and you don't have any more of them.

[EBallgrl]

Thanks for the great review! We are still deciding but leaning towards this. This was Nativeway, correct? You live in another great vacation place, Myrtle Beach. I go on golf trips down there every year and we as a family vacation there about every other year. Where approximately do you live? Hope those fires are extinguished down there and you don't have any more of them.

 

 

Yes, the review is for Nativeway.

 

Have you ever golfed at "The Witch"? I used to work there.

 

I actually live in Murrells Inlet, so the fires were fairly far away. As far as I know they are out, and I hope we dont have anymore as well! Where in PA are you from? I grew up about an hour away from Pittsburgh.

[Sky616]

Yes, the review is for Nativeway.

 

Have you ever golfed at "The Witch"? I used to work there.

 

I actually live in Murrells Inlet, so the fires were fairly far away. As far as I know they are out, and I hope we dont have anymore as well! Where in PA are you from? I grew up about an hour away from Pittsburgh.

Nope, never played the Witch yet. It's on my list though. This year we played Kings North, Thistle, True Blue, Prestwick and Glen Dornoch. Murrells inlet is a very nice area, away from the hubbub of downtown Myrtle. We live between York and Harrisburg so not near the burgh. Take care.

[MDSue]

If you are talking about the reef, rays, and rum point tour, I can tell you about that. You will spend about 45 minutes or so with the rays. The water is waist deep, so no swimming is necessary. The water is crystal clear and there are alot of rays that will swim all around you- lots of interaction. After your time there, they will take you to a reef area where you can snorkel for about 45 minutes also. You don't have to be a good swimmer to snorkel and they offer life jackets for anyone who wants one. I found the snorkelling to be very nice and the water wasn't very deep there. After the snorkelling, you will take to boat over to Rum Point for a nice lunch. The beach is beautiful. I think we spent about 1 1/2 hours there. I would have loved to stay longer, but our ship was leaving early that day. Here are a few pics from our day with Nativeways. They run a very good tour.

Our guide

Snorkelling- there was plenty of fish- just hard to catch on camera

Rum Point