Nativeway-- tell me all about it

[formerlivaboard]

Booked the rays, reef, and rum point tour for January after reading this thread. Can't wait to go!

[momof4_tn]

Just curious. I love the idea of the Rays, Reef, and Rum Point, but when I look at their website vs our itinerary I can't see how we can do it. Our time in Grand CAyman is 10-6 on RCCL in January. Has anyone asked them if this can be accomodated?

[Sarapdot]

Just curious. I love the idea of the Rays, Reef, and Rum Point, but when I look at their website vs our itinerary I can't see how we can do it. Our time in Grand CAyman is 10-6 on RCCL in January. Has anyone asked them if this can be accomodated?

 

 

I'm sure if you call Sharon she will help you out. She's pretty acomodating. :)

[silentbob007]

Hi everyone, posted a long review of my cruise on the Royal Caribbean board, but I thought I'd share my experiences with Native Way on this one. I was traveling on this excursion with my dad.

 

I visited Grand Cayman on the Freedom of the Seas, which had an 8-3 stop. I reserved the shortest, cheapest tour ... Stingrays, Coral Garden, and Starfish, which was $40 apiece.

 

The ship started sending tenders over at 8 AM and the tour itself was scheduled to start at 9:30. We worried about a rush to the tenders, so we grabbed the first one out and ended up ashore quite early at about 8:30. Around 9:00, Eldon arrived in the general tour waiting area (there is a banner advertising Native Way, though it is in a busy area with many other tours meeting around there) and started checking people off his list and asking them to return by 9:30.

 

At 9:30, we were handed off to our bus driver who led us across the parking lot, to the bus, and drove us across the island to the marina our ship would be sailing out of. In the end, there were 10 people on our tour. The ride out of the marina and out to Stingray City was about 20 minutes or so, and we were invited to either lounge within the ship or on top in the sun. Stingray City already had about 7-8 ships anchored in the area, but we nudged ourselves in and jumped into the water. Our crew consisted of 2 people (sorry ... forget names), one of which was the captain of the ship and lead guide while the other was the photographer and spotter. You could see the huge difference in groups at Stingray City between our group (10 people) and what I assume were some ship groups (30-50 people). The water was about 4 feet deep and the stingrays would swim around your legs. The guides were very specific about not grabbing at the rays or kicking/splashing/swimming in this area. Each person was able to hold a ray, kiss one, and and be given a "massage" by one, guided by the captain. We also were allowed to feed the rays under the watchful eyes of the guides (who would let you know if your fingers were sticking out too much). I definitely felt safe and I felt like the guides were very attentive and watchful for mistakes.

 

Once that was done, we headed a few minutes out to a coral garden for snorkeling. The snorkeling was less than impressive but there were a few pretty fish. This lasted 20 minutes or so and the photographer made sure he got underwater pictures of everyone.

 

We then cruised around a bit until the guides spotted some starfish. We ended finding a few (with nothing else around ... just a sandy bottom). We could swim down (15 feet or so) and touch one or one of the guides brought one up to touch. This lasted 10 minutes or so.

 

After that, we headed back to the marina, jumped back on the waiting bus (where the next group was waiting), and headed back to the ship. On the way back to the marina, we were given the opportunity to purchase the photos taken by the photographer. He showed them on his laptop and offered them at $20 apiece or $50 for all, which he would burn on a CD right then (and include his business card if there was a problem).

 

The purpose of booking this trip is the stingrays. It was a good experience and I'm glad I did it once. The rest was fairly mediocre, but again, the snorkeling is secondary on this tour. For anyone interested, I would have no problem recommending Native Way.

[rockbock]

Thanks for the detailed review. I wish there were more like this available when I was trying to select which company to go with! It's so hard to know which company to choose if there aren't detailed reviews available.

 

It sounds like you had a much better trip than the ship excursions, but it also seems like your trip was a bit rushed. I was sooooo happy with Frank's Watersports when we did this excursion with them on 10/6. They did NOT stop anywhere for us to explore the starfish, which would have been nice. But otherwise, it sounds like we probably got a better excursion for less money with Frank's. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1499068