Stingray's and turtle farm combination excursion

[littysmom]

Hi, I we are sailing to Grand Cayman next month. Can anybody recommend an excursion that includes a Turtle farm, and Stingray adventure combination?

Thanks so much.

Lisa

[mamabearjp]

We did not do the combo. We just did the turtle farm last year. It was AMAZING! And I'm glad we just did one cause we spent all day at the turtle farm and had a great day! Plenty to do and their man made snorkel area is really cool. And the time you get to spend with the turtles is so much fun. After you go through the tour you can do whatever you want. Go back and touch the turtles, go snorkeling and swim with them, eat, go to the little aviary they have or shop at the gift shop. We spent most of the day snorkeling. I hope someone can help you with the combo one, but thought I'd share our experience 🙂

[littysmom]

Do you remember who you booked with?

Thank you for the info.

 

[mamabearjp]

We were on the Carnival Breeze and we booked with Carnival. It was our first time to Cayman and we didn't feel comfortable booking with anyone else yet. (fairly new cruisers lol, only taking our third one this year). Not sure what company they used if they source that out. They were great, had plenty of time. shore excursioner probably has some available. Not sure on price comparisons.

[littysmom]

Thank you!

[tja273]

Carnival offered an excursion that included both of these in January.

[nicoleinwi]

We did this combo tour which also included a stop in Hell.  Tourist area where there are weird rock formations.  We just booked the ship tour.  

[Buck1949]

On 3/20/2019 at 4:44 PM, nicoleinwi said:

We did this combo tour which also included a stop in Hell.  Tourist area where there are weird rock formations.  We just booked the ship tour.  

 

Nicoleinwi.....

this is the exact tour we (4 older adults) are looking to do...stingray swim, turtles and Hell.  We have no real thoughts/desire to snorkel. We will be coming in next February 12th on NCL at 11am. and leaving port at 6pm. With having to Tender I figure we safely have about 5 hours.  How long was your overall tour,, and do you have any other thoughts or suggestions about how to best do this?  We ‘normally’ do private tours so anykind of suggestions - ship or private would be appreciated. 

 

Thank you!

Edited April 13, 2019 by Buck1949

[nicoleinwi]

2 hours ago, Buck1949 said:

 

Nicoleinwi.....

this is the exact tour we (4 older adults) are looking to do...stingray swim, turtles and Hell.  We have no real thoughts/desire to snorkel. We will be coming in next February 12th on NCL at 11am. and leaving port at 6pm. With having to Tender I figure we safely have about 5 hours.  How long was your overall tour,, and do you have any other thoughts or suggestions about how to best do this?  We ‘normally’ do private tours so anykind of suggestions - ship or private would be appreciated. 

 

Thank you!

 

We were in port 8-4 and our tour started at 9. I don’t recall how long it was but after the tour I think we had maybe an hour to wander shops. 

 

We aren’t usually into ship tours either, but did for this one.  I think the reason was either we could find a private tour to do all 3, or the tour started too early and with tendering we didn’t want to risk not getting on 1st tender.  The only nice thing about the ship tour is you don’t have to worry about tender tix, as you’ll have priority to get off.  Unknown to us though, the tour met on the pier and we were easily able to get on the 1st tender and just looked around port (nothing was open) before we met.  With your later port call people might be ready to get on land and still not finishing up breakfast like we had.  

 

You didn’t actually snorkel with the stingrays (or maybe you could, we didn’t).  It is so packed with boats you basically stay near your boat and just stand in the water.  I’m 5’7 and depth was about chest high.  The stingrays are just swimming all around you.  

[Buck1949]

1 hour ago, nicoleinwi said:

 

We were in port 8-4 and our tour started at 9. I don’t recall how long it was but after the tour I think we had maybe an hour to wander shops. 

 

We aren’t usually into ship tours either, but did for this one.  I think the reason was either we could find a private tour to do all 3, or the tour started too early and with tendering we didn’t want to risk not getting on 1st tender.  The only nice thing about the ship tour is you don’t have to worry about tender tix, as you’ll have priority to get off.  Unknown to us though, the tour met on the pier and we were easily able to get on the 1st tender and just looked around port (nothing was open) before we met.  With your later port call people might be ready to get on land and still not finishing up breakfast like we had.  

 

You didn’t actually snorkel with the stingrays (or maybe you could, we didn’t).  It is so packed with boats you basically stay near your boat and just stand in the water.  I’m 5’7 and depth was about chest high.  The stingrays are just swimming all around you.  

 

Great information. Thank you very much !

[mississauga]

On 3/12/2019 at 1:19 PM, mamabearjp said:

We were on the Carnival Breeze and we booked with Carnival. It was our first time to Cayman and we didn't feel comfortable booking with anyone else yet. (fairly new cruisers lol, only taking our third one this year). Not sure what company they used if they source that out. They were great, had plenty of time. shore excursioner probably has some available. Not sure on price comparisons.

Did you have young children with you? Bringing our grand daughters age 5,3 and 20 months. Would they like it? Even if you didn’t have children with you, did you observe that it was an ok excursion for the young ones? Did parents hold the child or did they go in with swim aids?

[mamabearjp]

Oh most definitely very neat for young ones. Not sure about the 20 month old as far as fun. We did not have our son with us, but he is 9 and I would definitely think he would like it. I can't answer for sure about the swim aids (sorry! not much help). I can't remember if they had a playground (you might look it up, we were all adults and my kiddo is a little older and I think he'd have fun snorkeling with us so that's why i think he'd like it) I think overall it's a very good family friendly place, but as far as them being entertained for hours and highlight of their trip I'm not sure. They have other attractions like the bird avairy and the shark tank and some walking around to do. I think it would be better than a beach day in my opinion. 🙂 Hope that helps!