Which tour operator to choose for Stingray Sandbar?

[Three Little Birds]

Stingray Sailing was great. The air conditioned van was great on the way back. In addition, Chip and his crew were great with my girls (ages 6 and 3). He did extra things, like jumping off the back of the cat to fetch a starfish for the kids to see that made it worthwhile. I would use this company again in a second and would recommend them to anyone.

[jamaica06]

Do any of the tours include lunch or bar drinks or is that seperate?

[screennamebroken]

What is the price for Stingray Sailing? I cant seem to get the website to open.

Thanks :cool:

[jetengines]

Just talked with Michelle today (Chip's wife) and stingray city and reef are $45 pp and includes transportation, drinks (rum punch and fruit punch). Others have said they have had fruit as well, but that was not mentioned in Michelle's email.

 

I am very interested in Stingray Sailings, but it is basically the same price as the ship excursion. Can someone tell me why I would choose Stingray sailing over the ship's excursion? Is it size of tour group? Thank you all.

[podemos]

I went with Soto's Cruises because they had the cheapest rates ($30 for Coral Gardens snorkeling and Stingray Sandbar, transportation and drinks included). We felt comfortable and were reasonably entertained by them.

[Caliterp07]

I am very interested in Stingray Sailings, but it is basically the same price as the ship excursion. Can someone tell me why I would choose Stingray sailing over the ship's excursion? Is it size of tour group? Thank you all.

 

Smaller groups is a huge plus to me, and a lot of times you can get a more personalized experience. (They're more willing to cater to any requests you give them up front when you're booking).

 

My biggest thing though, is that i'd rather support the little guys than the cruise ships.

[KrAzYGaL]

If you book independently you will definitely have a smaller group probably around 20 or even less depending on how many ships are in port. Also you will be thankful that you did so when you are at stingray city and see other boats with tons of people on them and you will have less people/more room to move around/sit in the shade/or in sun whatever.

And you do get more personal attention (the guides usually help everyone feed stingrays/hold them for pictures if they want, which you could not possibly do with tons of people).

[Kristy19]

I emailed Nativeway 2 days ago to book the stingray tour and have not heard back yet. I've been checking both my inbox and the spam folder. Should I be concerned and send it again, or does it normally take a few days? I just don't want them to book up.

[jsosb1969]

100% - they're the best. I just got back from a trip to GC and the guys gave us about 45-min on the reef BEFORE we even got to the sandbar (which was crowded). Once the crowd lessened - they took us over and gave us quite a show. About 1-hr on the sandbar - way WAY more than we paid for. $40 US...by the way...and the guys gave us a lesson on stingrays too.

 

For example - Irwin was killed by an EAGLE ray - with a stinger about 3X the length of these rays...and he basically impaled himself - and would have lived if he hadn't ripped out the barb. So - it's safe too - I'm a total wimp - but it was AWESOME! A MUST do if you're in GC...Moby Dick is every bit as good as you can get...smaller size - more attention - more info - more FUN!

[Scrappytraveller]

Stingray Sailing was great. The air conditioned van was great on the way back. In addition, Chip and his crew were great with my girls (ages 6 and 3). He did extra things, like jumping off the back of the cat to fetch a starfish for the kids to see that made it worthwhile. I would use this company again in a second and would recommend them to anyone.

 

A GREAT BIG DITTO TO THIS!

You'll be so happy you chose them over the ship excursion, believe me. The group size was perfect and the crew really went out of their way to show us a variety of things. Not all companies bring food for the rays but these guys had a full bucket for us. Wonderful tour, my favorite part of last week's Freedom cruise.