Stingray City with Disney, Captain Marvin's, or Shortrips.com?

[Poly Pal]

We need advice on the best way to see Stingray City. My kids (6 and 11) may be a little afraid to jump in the water with the stingrays (heck, I'm nervous myself!). Which excursions have you done? DCL? Captain Marvin's? Shoretrips.com?

I've read that the cruiseline excursions are cattlecalls with hundreds of people in the water at the same time while the privately arranged excursions are small groups. Does this matter?

Any suggestions?

 

[Michelemouse]

We used Captain Marvin's and absolutely LOVED it. Their office is a quick walk from the pier and then they drive you out to their boats. We stopped at two snorekling locations (The Aquarium and The Reef) and then went on to Stingray City, which was amazing. It was the highlight of our cruise.

We did a private excursion with Capt. Marvin's (there were 11 of us) and it was great. Our captain took the time to coax a moray eel out of his cave at The Reef and spent time having each of us hold an be photographed with the Stingray at SC. Maybe you could find others on your cruise who would like to do that with you. It broke down to about $45 each for the 11 of us, not including a tip to the driver. If not then there will be more on your boat, but I do think that they limit the number on each outing. Just be aware that there will be many, many other boats at Stingray City when you are there.

Have fun!

 

[WDWLVR]

We did it through DCL and enjoyed it. It was a larger group than some of the private ones but there was plenty of room in the water and everyone had plenty of chances to feed, hold the Stingrays.

I have heard good things about Captain Marvins as well.

 

[TheWog]

I have heard many people say do it on your own. You get great attention and sometimes get there earlier and are some of the only ones there. Capt. Marvins or Capt. Bryans are two of the best I have heard of. They both have websites.

cruisecritic.com ports of call boards should give you a ton of info.
grandcaymanexcursions.com is also pretty good.

 

[markey]

I just booked Rum Point Beach today with DCL. Here are my reasons why this suited us best. Don't have to go for tender tickets, know how it works done it at St. Thomas last year. Wanted beach time and only my DH and GS want to swim with those things, GD and myself want no part of it. So this way we can stay on the beach and they can do their thing with the stingrays and yet we are all together. Plus I am always uneasy doing things on my on in a port where the ship leaves early. Booked Key West and Cozumel on our own.

 

[ksjayhawks]

We did the dcl stingray city. There were several ships there when we were, but it didn't feel overly crowded. There were maybe 30-35 on our boat. We all had plenty of time to get pictures taken and feed the rays. It was an awesome experience. We went with dcl as we did not want to take a chance on getting left it it ran late--which it did. If you do a non-disney, I would go as early as feasible and ask about their refund policy if, for some reason, the boat should not be able to dock.

The water is not that deep--most of the people stood up, some of the kids snorkled and a few adults. Once the stingrays sense the food, they are there. If you feed them, be sure to follow the instructions as given.

It is a neat experience!

 

[jgalecpa]

I only did Capt Marvins, but some Dis-friends signed up for the DCL tour the same day.

We had about 15 people on a 50 foot boat and had a great time.

Got back to the ship that evening after picking up our free cakes after the tour, a lunch at Rackmans and some shopping.

The DCL tour people were ticked. The cruise never came off as they were told the seas were too rough!

Hogwash. We never saw more than mild waves.

They were mad and we were glad we chose the Captains!

Jim