Grand Cayman

Hi

I'm going on Carnival Inspiration on 22nd Aug. Hoping to do Stingray City. Is it ok just to organise trip when we get off ship. Any ideas of prices. I'm taking my 13 year old daughter.

Mel

I would arrange the tour in advance, using an tour operator who has been recommended on this board. Most ships aren't in Grand Cayman as long as other ports. To go to Stingray City, there's a bus ride to the tour operator's boat. Then, there's the boat ride to the sandbar, time in the water, then the repeat trip. There's plenty of time for the excursion, but what if take the cheapest tour you can find in town and the equipment isn't up to par and breaks down?

Not saying you should book the ship's tour (I wouldn't), but I'd want to check out the company in advance. My recollection is that it's about $35 - $40 pp, but it's been a couple of years since I did Stingray City.

If you scroll through the G.C. board, you'll see that a couple of tour operators have had several repeated recommendations.

If you booked a tour straight at the dick would cost approx US$30.00-40.00 for three hours and three stops (SandBar, StingRay City and Coral Gardens normally). All good stops.

I'll be on the Carnival Conquest and the price of the stingray sandbar tour is $49. The stingray city tour is $49 also.:( Nativeway comes highly recommended and is $20 for a tour that goes to the stingray sandbar and the coral gardens. Their website is [url="http://www.nativewaywatersports.com"]www.nativewaywatersports.com[/url].

Soto's is also highly recommended by the cruisers here and they charge $24. You go to three places on their tour: the stingray sandbar, the barrier reef, and the coral gardens. Their website is at [url="http://www.sotoscruises.com"]www.sotoscruises.com[/url]. I received my e-mail confirmation from them the same day in a matter of hours.:D

You can wait until you get there to book a tour, but time is limited and tendering is very time consuming. Plus, these companies are substantially cheaper than the cruise lines and come highly recommended from the fellow cruisers here. Those are just a couple of the reasons we went ahead and booked our tour now instead of waiting.:)