Norwegian Escape - Stingray City excursion (external provider)

Hi,

Question for previous Norwegian Escape cruisers who stopped in Grand Cayman and did the Stingray City excursion, through an external company (not NCL). I'm looking at booking the excursion with Stingray Sailing, and their instructions advise that we must be at their pickup point at 9:00am. Problem is, Norwegian is showing that we arrive at Grand Cayman at 9:00, whereas Stingray Sailing is showing me a screen shot of the local port authority website showing that Escape arrives at 8:00. Has anybody from the Escape done the Stingray City excursion and remember around what time they arrived in harbour? I'm being told Norwegian may be stating an arrival time of 9:00 to dissuade clients from going to certain external excursion providers. Any thoughts / comments would be much appreciated; thanks!

Captain Marvin's was great. Price was $45 pp, included stingray city and 2 snorkeling stops. Crew very friendly and safe.

My Itinerary shows 9am as well. I wouldnt take the chance. I cant imagine an excursion leaving before a ship carrying 4,200 arrives in port. Good luck. We're on the Escape March 3

Daylight savings time starts March 11...the ship likely stays on Florida time which would be one hour later than Grand Cayman time (which doesn't recognize DST). The excursion operators aren't going to mess with you...they want your business. Go with the local provider. The NCL ship excursions to Stringray City are crazy, two level boats filled to the brim with people. We were on a catamaran with around 25 people. Our crew helped us hold a stringray, etc and we had a photographer available too. The people from the ship's excursion kept pushing into your group wanting to hold it etc. I only noticed their crew helping people on and off the boat.

Be sure to schedule the Tender group 1 when you first get on the ship - on the app or television.

We are on the Escape the week of Feb 24 -March 3 and are also doing an external tour to stingray city. Our NCL itinerary and the cruise port site both show the Escape in GC from 0800-1600. Regardless, it was my understanding that the itinerary times are all local times and not ship times.

I believe that currently the time in Miami and Grand Cayman is the same until DST changes to one hour later for Miami.

We also did an excursion through Captain Marvin's and loved it. I believe it started at 10:00 or 10:30 which gave us plenty of time to tender in with an early tender group. We were done by 2. The tour was snorkeling, stingray city and starfish on a much smaller boat. It must have been the same tour another poster recommended. We loved the photos we were able to buy.

Hi,

 

Question for previous Norwegian Escape cruisers who stopped in Grand Cayman and did the Stingray City excursion, through an external company (not NCL). I'm looking at booking the excursion with Stingray Sailing, and their instructions advise that we must be at their pickup point at 9:00am. Problem is, Norwegian is showing that we arrive at Grand Cayman at 9:00, whereas Stingray Sailing is showing me a screen shot of the local port authority website showing that Escape arrives at 8:00. Has anybody from the Escape done the Stingray City excursion and remember around what time they arrived in harbour? I'm being told Norwegian may be stating an arrival time of 9:00 to dissuade clients from going to certain external excursion providers. Any thoughts / comments would be much appreciated; thanks!

Grand Cayman is a tender port. It is also a port that does not observe DST, so you may be arriving at 8:00 local time, even though NCL says it is 9:00. The issue you are going to have is that unless you are meeting your tour at the pier, even arriving an hour prior to meeting time you may not have enough time to get ashore and make it to the tour by 9:00.

My Itinerary shows 9am as well. I wouldnt take the chance. I cant imagine an excursion leaving before a ship carrying 4,200 arrives in port. Good luck. We're on the Escape March 3

There can be anywhere between 6 and 10 ships in Grand Cayman on a given day. Leaving before one arrives is not at all uncommon, especially if the excursion only accommodates a small number of people and it is full from other ships that arrive earlier.

Two weeks ago, we got off the Escape around 10:30-11 a.m. and booked an excursion to Stingray City right when we arrived at the tender spot. Turned out great. Our party of five plus four others. It was like a private charter. Paid $45 a person and included transportation to and from the tender + bottled water and soft drinks. Was extremely happy when I saw all the other big boats coming to Stingray City with TONS of people.

We used Acquarius Sea Tours! $50/pp and they took underwater pictures of you snorkeling and of course, with the rays. All included in the price! There was only 10 in our group :)

We used Crystal Charters and booked a private boat. Pricing will depend on the boat you book - but it was very reasonable. I highly recommend if you are interested in a private charter as well as seeing more than only Stingray City.

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We used Acquarius Sea Tours! $50/pp and they took underwater pictures of you snorkeling and of course, with the rays. All included in the price! There was only 10 in our group :)

I wanted to add that we also went to snorkel at the Coral Gardens (beautiful!) and visited Starfish Point.

Use Captain Marvins

We used Acquarius Sea Tours! $50/pp and they took underwater pictures of you snorkeling and of course, with the rays. All included in the price! There was only 10 in our group :)

Us, too and I can't rave enough about Captain Mario and his crew. It was our favorite excursion of the cruise, maybe even ever. Our group was small, too, maybe a dozen of us, and he was great at making sure everyone was comfortable in the water, helping with snorkel gear, taking pics, and just a nice guy in general. Picked us up at the port and brought us back in plenty of time, yet we didn't feel rushed at all. We saw those other packed boats next to to us at String City and felt really bad for the people on them....they were so crowded compared to ours. And the stop at Star Fish Point...pure Caribbean right there. If you have the chance, use Aquarius Seas Tours.

We actually used Stingray Sailing for our tour over Thanksgiving week ( the 9 am slot). His meeting location was a short little walk from where our tender arrived. He drives the group to the marina where you board his catamaran. I think we only had about 20 people on board. He's really good about securing a good anchor spot once out at the sandbar area. There are tons of boats out there and our captain seemed to attract a good number of stingrays. I loathe being on boats with massive amounts of people so we enjoyed his tour. He stops at a nearby snorkeling location and then throws up the sails for the ride back. Once back at the marina his wife drove us back in the van to the port.

Use Stingray Sailing, they are fantastic! We were there Nov 2017 and also concerned about the time change/ship time and tendering etc...then that morning our safe wouldn't open so we missed the first tender. Once in port realized we had a short walk to the the next pier over...still had time to get a snack, check in and realized I had forgotten my bathing suit. Found one at the kiosks and still had time, lol. After all that, the tour was great!!! You will see other boats OVERLOADED with ppl, we only had 14 people. Stingray sailing will anchor away from the chaos and really are knowledgeable about the rays. The bus to & from the boat is air conditioned and nice. It's very low key, you will love it.