Rum Point Beach and Sting-ray city.... With a fearless 5 year old?

[Paigeanne]

We are sailing on the Magic to Grand Cayman and Cozumel Jan 26th. We've been to Cozumel and are not going to do an organized excursion there. It's is our 1st trip to GC, and want to make the most of it.

2 questions.
1. Is Rum point and String-ray city a good excursion for an 8 & 5 y/o? My 5 y/o is very mature for 5 and is FEARLESS, but tiny. He definitely has lil man syndrome. Will he be able to be included (will they have a small enough mask, can I hold him if he can't touch, etc..) in stingray city?

2. The idea of a 5.5 hr excursion gives my husband hives!! He is the worrier of the bunch and just KNOWS the boat will leave us in GC. if we book with Disney, we have a guarantee they won't leave without us, right?

And what about Tiki Beach?

 

[violetmonarch]

We are sailing on the Magic to Grand Cayman and Cozumel Jan 26th. We've been to Cozumel and are not going to do an organized excursion there. It's is our 1st trip to GC, and want to make the most of it.

2 questions.
1. Is Rum point and String-ray city a good excursion for an 8 & 5 y/o? My 5 y/o is very mature for 5 and is FEARLESS, but tiny. He definitely has lil man syndrome. Will he be able to be included (will they have a small enough mask, can I hold him if he can't touch, etc..) in stingray city?

2. The idea of a 5.5 hr excursion gives my husband hives!! He is the worrier of the bunch and just KNOWS the boat will leave us in GC. if we book with Disney, we have a guarantee they won't leave without us, right?

And what about Tiki Beach?

I am on the same cruise as you, and I wanted to go to the Stingray excursion, but my DS is 4, and Disney won't allow his age to go. Booking it thru Captain Marvins, though, they have no age requirement. The thing that held me from booking it there was that in Cozumel there is a ray excursion where the rays are barb free. Yes, if you book thru DCL, they guarantee you back to the ship on time.
As far as the Rum Point, I am actually not booking anything in GC and need ideas as well to do on my own. See you there!!

 

[MrShiny]

We did two in GC - Stingray City through Disney and then semi submarine (Nautilus I think?) on our own so we could fit both in.

Stingray City is amazing. Note though that I would not do it with anyone who is not comfortable in the water. The sandbar is usually in 3 feet of water, but this can go up to 6 feet. I know a friend who was out there when a storm rolled in and had it go from 3-6 almost instantly.

The rays are wild and pretty big ("things bigger than me in the water" our then 12 year old said - our 8 year old had no qualms).

If they don't like it though, they can sit on the boat and watch the folks in the water with the rays. They also get a ray and show off it's body parts, including barb.

 

[Lisa Anne Colling]

Years ago we booked Captain Marvins on our own. Our kids were 4,2 and 8 months at the time so there really wasn't an excursion on Disney we could do. It was from this experience we discovered the cost savings to booking our own excursions.
All kids are different and you know what your kids can handle and what they can't. We had people look at us like we had 2 heads when we showed up on the tour with our kids, but at the end we had people come up to us and tell us how much the enjoyed our kids and couldn't believe how much our kids enjoyed the tour. My boys, the 2 youngest slept through alot of the land tour. My 2 & 4 year old loved the turtle farm! My 4 year old listened to every word the tour guide said. She was so cute "Mommy, did he say to the right or left?" This is while the people that thought we were nuts, chatted through the whole thing. My 4 year old did better then them! LOL! When we went out to Sting ray city, we thought our 2 year old was going to jump overboard as soon as he saw the sting rays. We had to hold him back while we got ready, he kept yelling "Nemo"! My husband took turns taking them in. They were not scared and did much better then me! We did not take the baby in. He did enjoy watching everyone while eating his lunch. It was a fantastic day! My kids have always been water kids and fearless. We are a family that believes that the best way to learn is my seeing and doing and they are now 13, 11 and 9 and have had some amazing experiences and are not afraid to try new experiences! You know your family best!

 

[Kimosabe]

We did the Stingray City "snorkel and sail" in GC with three girls (DD10, DD8 and N10) and a five-year old nephew who was also quite small but generally fearless. Niece and nephew live on the beach in Florida, and I figured they would do well with the rays...well, not so much! However, DD10 and DD8, once they were able to touch one and realize these creatures had no interest in eating them or otherwise attacking, had a great time. (To be fair, DD8 released her death grip from my body but was still a bit uncertain...however, DD10 couldn't get close enough to them after that -- she loved it).

I assume this is the case with most of the sting ray excursions, but two of the crew from our catamaran got into the water with us and (presumably with a little food) would get the rays up in their arms so that the rest of us could get a very close look and feel. That helped the kids' courage quite a bit. The shallow water was also very helpful in that regard.

Our particular excursion (through DCL) was wonderful overall. The boat motored out to Stingray City for a while....then took us snorkeling nearby...and then put up the sails and sailed us back home. Very relaxing with lots of room on the boat for everyone...free lemonade and water, as well as a cash bar if you want something stronger.

As noted, we had a small five-year old with us, too, but we took our own masks for the kids. All of these excursions expect kids to come (if the age range allows it), so they should have some smaller masks, but you might consider taking your own just to be sure.

 

[Trish5814]

My family learned a very valuable lesson last September on our Disney Cruise to Alaska. We did the Taku Lodge float plane excursion. The float planes dropped us off at the lodge and returned to Juneau with earlier gueste. While we were at the lodge a severe weather front came in and fogged us in. The float planes could not come back to get us. Disney not only held the ship for us, but paid for a fleet of helicopters to come in and fly us out. The ships captain was waiting for all of us when we returned. Disney went out of there way to ensure our safe return at a huge expense to the company. We were lucky enough to get a helecopter ride out of it- which our son loved. I took from the experience that the money saved by booking excursions on your own is not worth the security of Knowing that Disney will take care of you and get you back to the ship if something goes wrong on their tour- even if as in our case it was not their fault. Give yourself some piece of mind- book thru Disney.

 

[MikeAndNick]

In June we did Sting Ray City. No one had to get off the boat, many stayed on and watched from the boat. In the water there were adults that would scream and run and 4 and 5 year olds that were hugging and kissing the rays. It is really their personality and how you approach it.