Turtle Farm with kids in April in Grand Cayman

I posted this question in the Port of Call Forum for Grand Cayman and I never got any responses. So, I thought I would try here. My husband and I enjoyed visiting the turtle farm a few years ago. I knew some day I would want to take my kids there. In my research it seems that there are no baby turtles in April...too early in the season? Does anyone have any experience of going to the turtle farm before May and being able to hold the turtles? We will be there in early April and I'm not sure I want to go if there will not be turtles for the kids to hold...not interested in the extra option of snorkeling at the Turtle Farm.

Have you tried to call them? Or, e-mail...if you look at their website, there should be contact info.

We were there in mid-April of 2014. They did have baby turtles, and my kids got to hold them. It was their favorite part of the entire cruise! The exact date of our Grand Cayman stop was April 17th.

What constitutes a baby turtle? I think the smallest we got to hold (in the touch tanks) in September were 10-15". I think that is true of the prior trip also. Those photos are near the middle:

https://goo.gl/photos/1QN3d9fxE2xVhjiJ8

I would not consider those babies, but maybe a year or two old? It didn't occur to us to miss anything smaller. We did see babies in the nursery, I believe, but behind glass.

FWIW, the snorkeling is awesome. The full loop is a bit of a swim, and most of the really cool stuff is on the far end near the shark tank, but my 7 year old handled it.

Thank you Mikesteg. Your pictures are exactly what I was looking for. I must have misinterpreted a review I read about there being no baby turtles. I'm OK with not seeing hatchlings, I just wanted my kids to be able to hold the small turtles. We will not snorkle as being that close to fish would freak my kids out :).

How did you get to the turtle farm? On a tour, taxi, or via the bus? There will be 5 of us (2 adults, 3 kids). I like to save as much money as possible and am trying to decide if we could manage the bus.

We held 10" turtles in March...

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We held 10" turtles in March...

 

 

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Excellent! I feel more comfortable now with the idea of going to the Turtle Farm. Still wondering though of any experience anyone has of going the cheap route and riding the bus to/from the Turtle Farm.

Excellent! I feel more comfortable now with the idea of going to the Turtle Farm. Still wondering though of any experience anyone has of going the cheap route and riding the bus to/from the Turtle Farm.

We took the bus, and it worked well for us. We were actually planning to take a cab back so we wouldn't have to wait a random amount of time, but there happened to be a bus ready when we walked out the door. I'm sure we'll go back, and do the same thing: take the bus to the farm, and try to take a bus back but grab a cab if the bus is nowhere to be seen.

We have taken the bus R/T to the turtle farm. I wasn't as prepared as I could have been so we walked a little more than we needed to trying to find the bus terminal or bus stop. It was quite early when we got off of the ship, and the shops were not opened, and not too many people were around to ask. All in all it was easy and enjoyable day:)

Thanks for the positive feedback. One other question I just thought of was...If you go to the Turtle Farm independently, can you go on a "formal" tour (i.e., there is someone to give you background information about the farm and each of the pools with different size turtles) -or- is it an entirely do it yourself tour?

Sorry, I don't know the answer and was hoping someone else would post. We did make it to the shark feeding, which came with a short speech/show. I don't recall seeing any other tours pass through, though we were around the pool most of the time and I don't imagine they'd walk through there.

Reporting back....it was totally easy to find and take the bus to the turtle farm. It was a self-guided tour. Don't worry about the Turtle Farm staff insisting that only they can take your picture for $$. Right after that there are tanks you can climb into and pick up the turtles. My advice is to go EARLY! By 10:30 when we were getting ready to leave, the place was packed with giant tour groups. We got to spend as much time as we wanted in the touch tanks holding the turtles. I'm sure the same can't be said with the giant tour groups.

Has anyone done Stingray City and then went to the Turtle Farm on their own?

Has anyone done Stingray City and then went to the Turtle Farm on their own?

we did that by heading to the turtle farm early and were back in the port by 11ish then we did an afternoon (leaving around noon) private trip to stingray city that we booked just after we got off the boat. the stingray city trip got back about 1/2 hour before all on board and it was about a 10 min walk back to the ship so it was a bit nerve wracking but we made it no problem and the private tour guy was very confident we would have no issue.

the stringray city boat was small it had about 10 or 12 of us on it from 2 different cruise ships.

Thank you!

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We did the Turtle farm with the Carnival excursion as it was not much more expensive than doing it on our own. It was great, it was amazing to snorkel with the turtles as we would follow them gliding through the water, although 2 of my kids didn't really like it and enjoyed the fresh water pool and the waterslide.

Does anyone know if it's feasible to do the turtle farm in the morning and then find a nice beach in the afternoon? From what I understand the transfer takes you back to the ship dock. Is that more convenient to ride that back and then taxi to a nearby beach or to leave the turtle farm in our own and head to a beach?

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We held 10" turtles in March...

/quote]

Perfect. We will be there in March and add this to our list of ideas we may check out.

 

What did you think of it in March?

Does anyone know if it's feasible to do the turtle farm in the morning and then find a nice beach in the afternoon? From what I understand the transfer takes you back to the ship dock. Is that more convenient to ride that back and then taxi to a nearby beach or to leave the turtle farm in our own and head to a beach?

 

 

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You will pass all of Seven Mile Beach going to the Turtle Farm. Just take the public bus to the farm, jump on a bus headed toward town, have them drop you at the beach, then take the bus back to town. That's our plan in a couple of weeks, we have visited the farm on a previous trip.

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