We did this excursion on this past Thanksgiving. It was myself, DW, DD9 and DD7. As with all excursions, it took a bit of time to get going. First you need to turn in your tickets and a waiver, and get your towels. Then you walk down and leave the ship. You then get a special coin for lunch and another coin for drinks. Then you wait for the leader and you walk to another pier, probably a fifteen to twenty minute walk. From the time you first meet for the excursion, to getting on the boat to head over to Blackbeards Cay, it is about an hour. Then the boat ride to the island is about 30 - 45 minutes. The boat ride is somewhat uneventful.
Once you arrive on the island, the pier is right on the beach. We happened to be some of the first folks off and picked some chairs near the back. There are no shaded areas (from umbrella or trees).
DDs began to play in the sand, then went down to the water to build even more sandcastles. The water area is very sandy. I don't recall any rocks. After about 30 minutes, they opened up the stingray area. Everyone must wear a snorkel vest in the stingray area. Masks and snorkels are also available. It starts out by everyone exploring and snorkeling on their own. The stingrays are plentiful, as are other fish. Obviously, since it is not a huge area, the water gets a little murky. But in my very naive opinion, the visibility was still good.
After a bit, the folks in charged asked everyone to form two lines parallel to the shore. Men were in waist deep water facing the shore, and women and children were in knee deep water facing out. Once we started lining up, it was funny seeing the stingrays come over. They know they will be fed. Small fish were distributed to everyone (started just one per person, but then they came back with more). They had every one get on their knees and instructed us how to hold the fish for best feeding. The stingrays swam down between the two lines getting a nice feeding. Every once in a while, the stingrays would try to get in the middle by swimming in between the men. I was almost knocked over once by a larger one, but generally, it is a very low impact activity. Plenty of time to see and touch the rays.
Once the feeding is down, you are welcome to stay and snorkel some more. It was a nice encounter with the rays. Good for kids and adults.
Back at the beach area was the food. Nothing to write home about; burgers, chicken sandwhiches and pizza. No chicken fingers if you have a picky eater. Braiding was offered, but it was pricier than on board (wish I had done that research prior to getting the girls braids there). However, they were very gentle (DD9 doesn't like when people brush her hair due to snarls, but she was fine with the lady doing her hair.)
We then had more time to play in the water and make more sand castles. Wave runners and other items were available for rent, but I thought the price was high ($70 for half hour). The boat back to the Wonder left at 2:00 pm. The total time on the island was about three hours.
The trip back to the Wonder was also uneventful. We have been on another excursion (Fury Catamaran in Cozumel) where the final boat ride was a big party with dance music, etc. Nothing like that here.
Overall, it was a good excursion. Not excellent. Not bad. I would have liked more beach time. We also were the only excursion there. When talking to one of the employees, she said most of the time they have two or three. I would think if you were the second excursion to arrive on the island, you might have a difficult time getting a 'good' spot on the beach. Also the stingray area may be overwhelming with additional excusions. I thought we had a good number of people for the amount of activities and space.
By the way, we met some great folks while there. I was watching DD getting her hair braided, and a woman came out of the gift shop and addressed me by name (my DW talked with her inside the gift shop). Her DD was also getting hair braided. We wound up spending time with them each day after that.
So in summary, the stingray portion was nice, and probably was the best selling point. If you went specifically for the stingrays, I think you would think it was worthwhile. Food was just adequate, and I would like to spend more time on the beach. I think if there was a later shuttle back to the boat, I would have enjoyed it more.
Not a bad excursion, and depending on what else was going, we might do it again. If you are only going for the beach, there seemed to be a lot of overhead with getting to and from the island that you lost a lot of beach time.
I realize my comments are all over the place. If you have any specific questions, let me know, and I will try to answer.
