This was one of the very rare exceptions that we did it through
DCL excursion because it was cheaper. Also, any excursion where you are small boated to another beach, island, stingray city or whatever, your arrival time back to the ship is dependent on that person's boat not stranding you. Any time we are dependent an a small boat getting us back in time for the ship, we would book through DCL so the ship doesn't leave without you. It's not like on land where if your cab breaks down you can just hail another one or pay the next passing car to pick you up. If you take an independent non-DCL excursion to Stingray City, you are dependent on that guy's small boat not breaking down out at sea and making you late for the all aboard time. Just saying. We have this same internal family policy on St. Kitts. We actually prefer Nevis to St. Kitts but whenever we port at St. Kitts, we do not take the ferry over to Nevis because if for whatever reason the ferry stops running due to mechanical or whatever, we would not be able to get back to the ship for all aboard time.
For the past few decades the stingrays know to come to that part of the ocean (Stingray City) because they've been fed by tourists every day like clockwork. Now that there will be no tourists for up to a half a year or more, I wonder if the stingrays will still come there anyways or will they lose interest? Hopefully the locals will boat out there and keep feeding them while the island is shut down.
