Allura Catamaran to Singray City

I've booked this tour and hope it is the right one. I have a few questions for those of you who have taken it:

I notice when booking this through Carnival that there are four timeslots within a couple of hours, yet the tour is supposed to be 3 1/2 hours long. Does this mean there are four Allura Catamarans?

Is there a reason to take the earlier timeslot? I would rather sleep later unless there's a reason.

Will I feel deprived if I don't do one of the combo tours, such as stingrays and dolphins or turtles?

I really love sailing and hope that this tour involves more time on the water than those other tours, and hopefully a less rushed experience with the stingrays. Is my thinking correct?

Is there something else I should be considering?

Thanks so much, everyone. It's my first time in the Cayman Islands and I don't want to blow it ;)

we are booked to do this Feb 10th, I also was wondering the same things. I also had one question, does anyone know how much the photo dvd is that the photographer on the boat makes?

Ah, another good question! We bought the photo CD from a catamaran/snorkeling excursion in Cabo last summer, and loved the pictures so much we used a couple of them on our Xmas card. It was definitely money well spent.

If you took this tour, what did you think about it?

I would still love the answers go my questions :D

we are booked to do this Feb 10th, I also was wondering the same things. I also had one question, does anyone know how much the photo dvd is that the photographer on the boat makes?

Jamie,

How did your Allura Catamaran to Stingray City go? I would love to hear all about it :) Thanks!

The best time ever. This was my 3rd time to Stingray City and I will say it was my favorite. I have been on the party boats and they are just too crowded. It was a quick ride to the marina and the bus driver was chatty and informitive. I dont think there were more than 18 of us on board, after a breif safty demonstration we were on our way. It is about a 45 minute ride out to the sandbar, there was no wind so we motored out. The crew was great, we had the captain whos name I cannot remember for the life of me, Dennis and Lu (she is the best photographer ever!) When we got there it was not really crowded and we were the only cruise ship in port that day which is a rareity. We were allowed to spend just over an hour in the water with the stingrays and that was plenty of time. When you first get there Lu will take your family over to the side with the captain and a stingray and she will take photos of your family with the stingray as a group and then individuals there were 4 of us in our family and one of us was a 9 year old. She will tell you that on the way back you can view the photos and purchase them if you want. I will tell you that you can either buy singles or you can buy all of the photos she took of your group. We chose to buy all of the photos of our group, she puts them on a disk and they are yours to do what you want with, she puts no restrictions on them at all. Our disk had 104 photos on it (some we never saw because she snuck my kids away to do a few silly photos that she wanted to surprise us with) and was $80.00 I think it was well worth it considering the photos on the ship cost $20 each. I would be happy to answer any other questions you may have.

The best time ever. This was my 3rd time to Stingray City and I will say it was my favorite. I have been on the party boats and they are just too crowded. It was a quick ride to the marina and the bus driver was chatty and informitive. I dont think there were more than 18 of us on board, after a breif safty demonstration we were on our way. It is about a 45 minute ride out to the sandbar, there was no wind so we motored out. The crew was great, we had the captain whos name I cannot remember for the life of me, Dennis and Lu (she is the best photographer ever!) When we got there it was not really crowded and we were the only cruise ship in port that day which is a rareity. We were allowed to spend just over an hour in the water with the stingrays and that was plenty of time. When you first get there Lu will take your family over to the side with the captain and a stingray and she will take photos of your family with the stingray as a group and then individuals there were 4 of us in our family and one of us was a 9 year old. She will tell you that on the way back you can view the photos and purchase them if you want. I will tell you that you can either buy singles or you can buy all of the photos she took of your group. We chose to buy all of the photos of our group, she puts them on a disk and they are yours to do what you want with, she puts no restrictions on them at all. Our disk had 104 photos on it (some we never saw because she snuck my kids away to do a few silly photos that she wanted to surprise us with) and was $80.00 I think it was well worth it considering the photos on the ship cost $20 each. I would be happy to answer any other questions you may have.

Wow, Jamie, this is awesome information! We will definitely want the photo CD. 100ish photos for $80 sounds like a fine deal to me. We went on a similar tour in Cabo San Lucas last summer and bought the photo CD, and actually used some of the pictures on our Xmas card this year :)

Did you ever figure out about the four timeslots within a couple of hours issue? Do they really run all those timeslots? Does this mean there are four Allura Catamarans? Or do they cancel three out of the four? Is there a reason to take one timeslot over another?

Thanks so much!!

Wow, Jamie, this is awesome information! We will definitely want the photo CD. 100ish photos for $80 sounds like a fine deal to me. We went on a similar tour in Cabo San Lucas last summer and bought the photo CD, and actually used some of the pictures on our Xmas card this year :)

 

Did you ever figure out about the four timeslots within a couple of hours issue? Do they really run all those timeslots? Does this mean there are four Allura Catamarans? Or do they cancel three out of the four? Is there a reason to take one timeslot over another?

 

Thanks so much!!

I'm still curious about the timing of the tour. I'm trying to figure out if I should change my booked time to an earlier time.

Advice, Jamie or anyone else?

I'm still curious about the timing of the tour. I'm trying to figure out if I should change my booked time to an earlier time.

 

Advice, Jamie or anyone else?

I've been stalking and waiting too! I'm already booked on this excursion for my cruise in 4 weeks. I'll make sure to post if we don't hear from anyone else.

I've been stalking and waiting too! I'm already booked on this excursion for my cruise in 4 weeks. I'll make sure to post if we don't hear from anyone else.

I wish that someone who has taken the tour would answer before you go, but if not, I appreciate your offer :)

I've booked this tour and hope it is the right one. I have a few questions for those of you who have taken it:

 

I notice when booking this through Carnival that there are four timeslots within a couple of hours, yet the tour is supposed to be 3 1/2 hours long. Does this mean there are four Allura Catamarans? No, there are not four catamarans. That was an error on Carnival's part. We had booked the 8:45 time slot and Carnival rebooked us for the 8:15 time. I did like getting there earlier. There were not as many boats out there yet.

 

Is there a reason to take the earlier timeslot? I would rather sleep later unless there's a reason.

 

Will I feel deprived if I don't do one of the combo tours, such as stingrays and dolphins or turtles? We didn't feel deprived. It was a smaller group than the party boats, although there were probably 50 in our group.

 

I really love sailing and hope that this tour involves more time on the water than those other tours, and hopefully a less rushed experience with the stingrays. Is my thinking correct? Yes. We were there longer than other boats. And the captain and his assistant were great in the water. Because we had a little larger group, they both even took photos of my husband and myself with my camera, saving us the cost of buying the CD. They would catch the stingrays and show us how to hold and touch them. It was an amazing experience to be able to swim with them in their own habitat!!

 

Also, it was about an hour to sail back. Very relaxing!! We saw several boats go back and forth past us plus there were a couple of other catamarans now but it was a great excursion and worth the cost to us. Plus, it also gave us time to shop and go to Margaritaville once we got back to the port instead of feeling rushed to get back to the ship.

 

Is there something else I should be considering?

 

Thanks so much, everyone. It's my first time in the Cayman Islands and I don't want to blow it ;)

I'm back!! The trip was amazing!! I'm answering your questions within your questions. Hope this helps!!

Other things to know ... this catamaran only has a large jug of water onboard. No snacks or anything else to drink so bring your own if you want something else to drink or snack on. The crew were great and would rotate through those of us sailing on the way out, explaining what would happen when we got out there. Then there was an additional safety informational talk before we got off the boat. There are steps to go down into the water, not a ladder. You can bring your own mask and snorkel if you want to look under water (they also have some there for you). You cannot wear shoes in the water.

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask!! :)

I'm back!! The trip was amazing!! I'm answering your questions within your questions. Hope this helps!!

 

Other things to know ... this catamaran only has a large jug of water onboard. No snacks or anything else to drink so bring your own if you want something else to drink or snack on. The crew were great and would rotate through those of us sailing on the way out, explaining what would happen when we got out there. Then there was an additional safety informational talk before we got off the boat. There are steps to go down into the water, not a ladder. You can bring your own mask and snorkel if you want to look under water (they also have some there for you). You cannot wear shoes in the water.

 

If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask!! :)

Thank you so much for answering all my questions! I really appreciate that you came back and took the time to do this for me! I'm happy that you had a fabulous vacation. Isn't it too bad that we have to re-enter the real world?

The stingrays do sound like an interesting excursion so I googled "cruise videos" and found some about excursions. They appear so gentle out on the sandbar. How long was the cat trip to the sand bar?