Soto's excursion was excellent

[PapaBear]

Thanks to those who reccomended them.The guides were excellent. Very knowledgable. Gear was in very good shape. We had 12 people on the tour and we were four of them. The guides showed us the nurse shark which was about 4-5 ft long. Being that close it might as well of been 15 ft long. We also got to see two different moray eels. The guides lured them out with squid then held them for us. The best was when we were at Stingray city. We got to hold Darth Vader, the oldest stingray at the sandbar. She is partially blind and estimated at 35-40 years old. She was the only black sting ray there, hence her name. She was like a puppy dog going from person to person on our tour looking for kisses. She actually curled her "lip" up as you went to kiss her. She stood with us the whole time there. She was incredible. The guides said she has been there since the late sixties. Don't know if she is a Soto's exclusive. No one back at the ship we spoke to had seen her.

It was funny to see the crowds at the other tour boats. We had all the space and stingrays we needed.

The videographer was excellent. He was in full scuba gear and got excellent shots. We received the DVD in two weeks. It has a Carribean music soundtrack to it. THe footage is phenominal.

I just wish we were at Grand Caymen longer. We set sail at 2PM (1PM) island time, so we had to cut the trip a little short, but we still made all three stops. It was well woth losing the half hour. Kudos to Soto's and VIP Productions

[njreindeer]

Hi PapaBear,

So glad to hear that you had such a good time in Cayman. I was there years ago and remember Darth Vader, she was just as tame back then.

Can you please give me contact information for Soto's? And can you tell me what kind if Stingray City excursion you booked - i.e., how long was it, how deep the water - standing-deep or snorkeling-deep, how much $$$, etc.? And how did you book the excursion, online or on the phone?

Thanks very much for your help!

Time 'til Mariner on 8/29/04 -- our first cruise!
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[rebsar]

sotacruises.com

[njreindeer]

Hi rebsar -

Thanks for the info, but I tried soracruises.com, and also sotocruises.com (I think I remember the name being Bob Soto? I could be mistaken...) but neither website comes up. If anyone has any info, please let me know. And if I find it, I'll post it here too.

Time 'til Mariner on 8/29/04 -- our first cruise!
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[njreindeer]

Hi again -- OK, I'm answering my own question... I found the website in another post: [url="http://www.sotoscruises.com"]www.sotoscruises.com[/url]

Here's a link to the other thread too, another favorable review of Sotos: [url="http://messages.cruisecritic.com/2/OpenTopic?a=tpc&s=927093444&f=688097554&m=751106222"]Stingray City & Soto[/url]

(I hope I did that link correctly....)

Time 'til Mariner on 8/29/04 -- our first cruise!
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