Just booked Captain Marvins!!

[MarkLem]

on the 3 hour "half day", Our 6 and two year old didn't do the snorkeling but did get in with us at Stingray City. There is no charge for under 3.

Capt MArvin also has a 2 hour that I believe only does stingray city. Go to their website (do a search) and they have all the info online. You can also email them. They were very responsive to our emails.

 

[disneyeveryyear]

We had about 20 of our DIS friends all booked on the same 1/2 day excursion. We all e-mailed Ruth and had her link our reservations. Therefore, even when they had enough people for 2 boats, we were all able to stay together.

It was a blast!!!! We were even lucky enough to have Captain Mogan himself as our Captain!

We also bought the DVD for $66 and love it! It is so beautiful and I love the music. It realy helps on these cold wintery day.

 

[il-gander]

For those of you that have been to Stingray City, how much time did you actually spend snorkeling there? I understand that it is pretty shallow, and a lot of people have talked about standing and letting the rays brush up against them. None of us have snorkeled, but I really think my DDs would enjoy Stingray City!

Carla

 

[patches-4]

Just exactly how much swimming is involved ? How hard is snorkling for one who doesn't swim much at all, (have snorkled some before but not much)? Is the water very deep where the stingrays are?

 

[MarkLem]

At Stingray City you don't snorkel at all. It's a sandbar inside a barrier reef some miles off shore. The water is only about 3 1/2 feet deep or so. You stand up there. Swim fins on your feet aren't even allowed. You can don a mask if you want to bend over and look at them more clearly, but most people don't even do this.

You can book a trip that only goes to Stingray City (usually 2 hr excursion or so) or you can book a trip that offers several snorkeling dives before you get to Stingray City. It's up to you and how comfortable you are in the water. Snorkeling is usually in about 10-20 feet of water. Snorkeling involves nothing more really than floating leisurely on the surface, breathing through the snorkel and looking down at the fish through your mask. You kick your flippers slow and mainly effortlessly. If you get bothered by snorkeling it's not because of the physical exertion (as I said this can be quite minimum), but fear or inability to relax or be comfortable, or the fact that you plain can't swim!

 

[il-gander]

Originally posted by MarkLem
At Stingray City you don't snorkel at all. It's a sandbar inside a barrier reef some miles off shore. The water is only about 3 1/2 feet deep or so. You stand up there. Swim fins on your feet aren't even allowed. You can don a mask if you want to bend over and look at them more clearly, but most people don't even do this.

OK, this is where I'm confused. What MarkLem has posted above jives with pretty much everything I've read about Stingray City. But, we are looking at the DCL excursion called "Island Tour and Snorkeling with the Stingrays" because we want to go to the Turtle Farm too and see a bit of the island. The DCL description of this excursion, which I've included below, and the photo at http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/d...excursiongroupingindex?id=GrandCaymanExGrping both seem to indicate that snorkeling IS involved.

<i>Island Tour & Snorkeling with Stingrays (3.5 hours)

Visit the Cayman Islands' own slice of paradise, the world-famous Seven Mile Beach. Then you'll experience classic island architecture with a trip to "Old Homestead." Next stop: the one and only Cayman Turtle Farm. Then you're off to a prehistoric rock formation like no other in the world, a place the locals call "Hell." Finally, it's Stingray Sandbar! Here you'll get up close with amazing sea life. Snorkeling equipment is provided.</i>

I'm just trying to figure out if we need to try and get snorkeling lessons before we go in October. This is the only place where we would perhaps be snorkeling, and we're really more interested in the rays than the snorkeling. Help!

 

[@GoofyNut]

I wanna go back .......................

Don't be at all worried if you can't or don't snorkel, cause you can get the flotation vest and flippers and just "paddle around" with your face real close to the water and see an awful lot too. I know, cause that's what I did.

When you get in with the stingrays the water is as said before, only about 3+ feet deep and you walk on a sandbar.

IT WAS AWSOME.

We had a 2 year old on our ship and she was able to get in with
her parents with no problem and had a ball. If you booked thru DCL she would have been too young to go.

Also there was a challenged girl on our ship and they were absolutely the best with helping her on and off the ship and being patient showing her the rays.

Have fun and be sure to ask how to get the video.

 

[MarkLem]

Originally posted by il-gander
[OK, this is where I'm confused. What MarkLem has posted above jives with pretty much everything I've read about Stingray City. But, we are looking at the DCL excursion called "Island Tour and Snorkeling with the Stingrays" because we want to go to the Turtle Farm too and see a bit of the island. The DCL description of this excursion, which I've included below, and the photo at http://disneycruise.disney.go.com/d...excursiongroupingindex?id=GrandCaymanExGrping both seem to indicate that snorkeling IS involved.

<i>Island Tour & Snorkeling with Stingrays (3.5 hours)

Visit the Cayman Islands' own slice of paradise, the world-famous Seven Mile Beach. Then you'll experience classic island architecture with a trip to "Old Homestead." Next stop: the one and only Cayman Turtle Farm. Then you're off to a prehistoric rock formation like no other in the world, a place the locals call "Hell." Finally, it's Stingray Sandbar! Here you'll get up close with amazing sea life. Snorkeling equipment is provided.</i>

I'm just trying to figure out if we need to try and get snorkeling lessons before we go in October. This is the only place where we would perhaps be snorkeling, and we're really more interested in the rays than the snorkeling. Help! [/B]

That picture is of people in 3 feet of water at the Stingray City sandbar floating and looking at the stingrays with a mask! The fact that they have fins on is very misleading because on our trip they told us no fins. BUt that is indeed a picture of what I am describing you do at Stingray City.

In my opinion, this does not sound to me like snorkeling is involved. None of the stops in the above description involve snorkeling, unless they are going to allow you some beach time at 7 mile beach, where you could (as I did) snorkel off the beach if you want to. Snorkeling equipment is provided at Stingray City for those that want to put on a mask as I said, and bend over to look at the stingrays underwater, or I guess you could do as the people in the picture are doing and float on your stomach in the 3 feet of water (all 6 boats worth of people when we were there were standing, not floating). This is what the description above is implying in my opinion. In the excursion we did with Capt. MArvin it stated explicity that there were two snorkeling stops on reefs and a third stop at Stingray City. The Disney description above does not say anything about any stops for snorkeling (as I said, you do not snorkel at Sting City).

I might also add that if they are going to do all of that in 3, 3.5 hours, that is one whirlwind tour! Our 2 snorkel plus the stop at Sting City was 3 hours just in itself. Just the Stingray City trip by itself is probably over an hour (about 20-25 minutes to get out there, 30 minutes there, 20-25 minutes to get back). Doesn't seem to leave much time for the other stops.

Hope this all helps...

 

[il-gander]

That is just what I wanted to hear, thanks very much! I think we would really enjoy this excursion, but we don't plan to really get into snorkeling this trip, and I would rather not pay for lessons if they are not needed. We'll be happy to stand with everyone else on the sandbar and enjoy the rays. Thanks-

Carla