Plug for Captain Marvins

[Lamar Cheeks]

We had a great experience with Captain Marvins (www.captainmarvins.com) last week.

I had e-mailed a couple of weeks before our Rhapsody cruise to get on the two-hour snorkel and stingray tour. They had no openings (we were 8 in all) but said they would put us on stand by and we should report to their shop (two blocks from tender landing) and check in at 9:45.

We did. They had no cancellations, but they said they would take us to the beach and pick us up at 1 p.m. for the afternoon snorkel trip. Keeping in mind that our ship left at 4 p.m. Cayman time, they guaranteed they'd get us back to the ship.

As we prepared to do so, one of their fishing charter captains called and said the fishing folks were a no-show. So it was immediately arranged to put our group on a fishing boat and take us out. We had a quick drive to their boat, a nice snorkel and a good stingray experience. Even though it was very crowded at Stingray City (five ships in port) we only had about 16 on our boat and had a great time. Other boats at Stingray City had hundreds packed on like sardines, and we heard later that people felt they were much too crowded.

Also, we had our 2-year-old with us, and the dive guides brought a sting ray right to the boat in 10-foot waters so she could see it. Wonderful. The dive guides were quite professional and helpful.

In short, the folks there did everything they could to help us out. I'm sure there are other excursions that are similarly good, but this one turned out great because of the short walk to their headquarters and the way they took care of us. So I'm giving them a plug because they easily could have said "Sorry, you're out of luck."

[twinkletoes4445]

They are great people. We used them when we were there on our cruise, and again when we visited the island for a week (this past January). We're going back again next January, and plan to use them again.

They are just so nice. We had a wonderful time on our excursions with them. Joan and Ruth were so helpful during the planning stage. They even helped me when we were trying to figure out where we wanted to stay while we were on the island.

My only regret...is that we didn't do the shipwreck snorkel, but that's also on our list for the next time.

Nicer folks would be hard to come across.