Best Stingray Tour for 2 year old Child

[sbnuggie]

Howdy,

 

What is the best stingray tour for children. I will be with my family and our friends. There will be a total of 10 of us to include 5 children. The youngest will be 2yrs 3 months old. Im not worried about the other 4 kids as they will be 4.5, 5, and 8.5 yrs old. Our criteria:

 

1. Covered boat with a bathroom?

2. Stingray's and 1 snorkel stop.

3. Not a cattle call boat, less then 20 people, if possible.

4. No sailing ships, with the 2 yr old if she is antsy and wants to get off boat, it will be a miserable slow sail back both for the child, parents but other guests as well.

 

My wife and I were VERY spoiled in that we went to GC last May and booked with Fat Fish and had an AWESOME time, one of the best excursions ever, but we were without kids (anniversary cruise). Wave runners are out this time around due to cost and age of kids and size of our group. So any suggestions as to tour operators meeting the above criteria would be grateful.

[em_in_murphy]

Howdy,

 

I'm not sure this will meet all your criteria but we booked with Nativeway when we were in GC for the Stingray tour. The boat is motorized, has a little covered area but not totally covered and I believe it did have a bathroom. Their groups are usually small but it was definitely more than 20 people the last time I went. I think we had about 30 on our boat but that's way less than the 100 or so on the cruise tour and the cost was cheaper. Depending on how many in your group, Sharon will give a discount. A friend went this past November and got the tour for $25 because they had 25+ people. We either paid $30 or $35 per person.

 

I'm not sure about getting off the boat because it's about a 20-30 minute ride out to the stingray and the tour also included snorkeling at Coral Gardens and a place that had all these starfish.

 

Their email is nativway@candw.ky

Hope this helps.

Emily

[barbaraanne]

You can try stingray sailings dot com, and ask them, as well as ask any operators you'd like. However, I'm not sure you will find a lot of them who will allow a 2 year old in the water, especially with a 4, 5, and 8 year old all together. It will take a bit of effort for all involved in that tour. Plus the little ones may be somewhat frightened by the rays. I know for ships' tours, the minimum age is 8 on Princess, anyway. Good luck!

 

Are you sure they wouldn't prefer the turtle farm or dolphins, even though all the adults want the stingray tour? Maybe you could do a combined tour, if you are interested in that.

[em_in_murphy]

I'm not sure you will find a lot of them who will allow a 2 year old in the water, especially with a 4, 5, and 8 year old all together.

 

Back in 2004, my son was 2 yrs and 8 months and Nativeway said it was ok for him to go on the tour. I took him knowing that I may have to stay on the boat with him and just watch. Because he was young and probably wouldn't go in the water, I was not charged for him. This is an option and then you and spouse could trade off by staying on the boat with him so each of you have an opportunity to swim with the stingray. The guide will also bring a stingray to the boat for you to see and touch if you don't want to go in the water.