Help us choose a Grand Cayman excursion

[MikeJ]

I was checking out a couple of Grand Cayman threads, but haven't seen the answer to our particular question. We've narrowed our excursion list to two: a) the Shipwreck & Reef Snorkeling tour, and b) Island Tour & Snorkeling with Stingrays. Our kids are 11 & 13. For those who have experienced one or the other (or both) of these tours, what did you think?

- Mike

 

[DawnL]

We didn't do any of these on the 7/6 Western - but at dinner that night it seemed that everyone was thrilled that went swimming with the Sting Rays.

 

[PartiesNBalloons]

We just returned from the July 20th Western cruise... while we did not do either of the excursions you have mentioned, we did take an excursion with Capt. Marvins. Our excursion was 3 hours long and was the highlight of our trip. We snorkeled at 3 spots.. (1) Coral Gardens was beautiful with lots of fish (2) Barrier Reef was great, we saw a barracuda and an eel along with lots of fish and coral (3) Stingray City, this was kinda freaky but a lot of fun. On our excursion, there was a scuba diver video taping the entire trip. You could purchase a copy for about $50. We bought one because from where we are from, no one would ever believe just how beautiful the water is and that we had actually swam with stingrays! We booked the excursion on our own and our boat had about 30 people total on it. It was Great!

 

[inkkognito]

We did the Island Tour/Snorkeling with Stingrays and LOVED it! We don't have children, but most of the families on the tour did. The island tour part was okay...the kids would probably enjoy holding the turtles at the turtle farm, whereas Hell probably wouldn't be exciting for them (it's a rock formation...they sell lots of cool t-shirts tho'). But the stingray snorkeling is the best!!! We are going to do it again in January. We had been broken down into small groups in vans for the island tour, and the same small groups each had their own boat. That meant plenty of person attention for feeding the stingrays, holding them for photos, etc. I wish I had the pics., but our waterproof camera cracked and they were ruined. But it was a great experience...most of the kids really seemed to enjoy it except for one very young little boy who didn't want to come in the water. But the rest of the kids all seemed to love it. I think the "regular" snorkeling would have to be great too, as we took the glass bottom boat tour and the reefs were fabulous.
Barb
Visit the Platinum Castaway Club at: www.castawayclub.com

 

[llachance]

We did the shipwreck and snorkel on the 7/6 cruise and had a great time.

 

[amcanzo]

We just came back from the 20th-27th Western and did the Island Tour and Snorkeling. The tour was okay.....as has been said; the turtle farm was probably more interesting before a hurricane destroyed it back in October. They still have turtles to hold and look at though. The snorkeling was really cool. My girls are 11 & 9. The 9 yr old loved it! My 11 yr old spent too much time worrying that the stingrays were actually going to sting her! It was fun and everyone else around us liked the snorkeling. Dh and I even got to hold some stingrays..... That was cool!

HTH
Ann

 

[prymsu]

I think Stingray City is the best of the best!