Half Moon Bay stingray excursion

[InNeedOfSaltWater]

I'm a noob this will be my first time on a cruise (not even booked yet) as well as snorkeling.. So be gentle please.. 

 

I have watched a lot of YouTube videos about half-moon and one if them was going over all the excursions. He mainly talked about the horse one and said that you don't have to worry because they take very good care of them. 

 

My question is about the stingrays.. I know they are netted off to keep the other sealife out.

 

But are they kept in that netting their whole lives and fed by local staff?

 

Or are they 'wild' but trained to come into the netting area for the snorkel adventure every day because of feeding?

 

Depending on the answer I may not do it,  I already bought my snorkel gear (except fins) so I may just do my snorkeling at the beach.. And no I will not be venturing off to do reef snorkeling, I'm not that adventurous. 

[chadvarner85]

The nets dont go all the way to the sea floor for the rays to come and go as they please. Keeps most other sea life out. They feed the rays well so the always come back for more food.

[sparks1093]

12 minutes ago, chadvarner85 said:

The nets dont go all the way to the sea floor for the rays to come and go as they please. Keeps most other sea life out. They feed the rays well so the always come back for more food.

That's my understanding as well. When we were there they had babies swimming around the cove as well, but said we might not see them since they have more places to hide. I found the excursion to be quite educational and enjoyable, even though I passed on the snorkeling part.

[InNeedOfSaltWater]

Awesome thank you! 

[bguppies]

If you ever cruise again and enjoy the Half Moon Cay experience with the sting rays. 

Try a cruise to Grand Cayman and do an independant excursion to see their sting rays at Sting Ray City.

Still my favorite excursion I have ever done and do that excusion every time I go to Grand Cayman.

Petting and feeding wild sting rays is incredibly fun.

[InNeedOfSaltWater]

7 hours ago, bguppies said:

If you ever cruise again and enjoy the Half Moon Cay experience with the sting rays. 

Try a cruise to Grand Cayman and do an independant excursion to see their sting rays at Sting Ray City.

Still my favorite excursion I have ever done and do that excusion every time I go to Grand Cayman.

Petting and feeding wild sting rays is incredibly fun.

 

Idk I see the word Cayman and automatically think crocs 🤣🤣🤣.. 

 

[CruzCra-Z]

On 7/25/2022 at 12:00 PM, InNeedOfSaltWater said:

I'm a noob this will be my first time on a cruise (not even booked yet) as well as snorkeling.. So be gentle please.. 

 

I have watched a lot of YouTube videos about half-moon and one if them was going over all the excursions. He mainly talked about the horse one and said that you don't have to worry because they take very good care of them. 

 

My question is about the stingrays.. I know they are netted off to keep the other sealife out.

 

But are they kept in that netting their whole lives and fed by local staff?

 

Or are they 'wild' but trained to come into the netting area for the snorkel adventure every day because of feeding?

 

Depending on the answer I may not do it,  I already bought my snorkel gear (except fins) so I may just do my snorkeling at the beach.. And no I will not be venturing off to do reef snorkeling, I'm not that adventurous. 

I did the stingray excursion my first trip to HMC.  If I could do it over I wouldn't book an excursion at all.  The beach is perfection and I felt the excursion just cut into my relaxation time.  

-I wanted to add I don't do horse excursions either.  One thing I didn't like about the ray excursion is all of the lifting of the ray(there were only 2 or 3 I think)  out of the water for photos, kissing and yes some people licked them, all encourage by the staff.  Just didn't sit right with me, it felt wrong.

Edited July 26, 2022 by CruzCra-Z

[Homosassa]

The interesting fact about Sting Ray City in Grand Cayman is that the "City" is a sand bar at the entrance to the harbor. The fishing boats stop there to clean their catches and would throw the innards overboard. The sting rays learned to associate the sand bar with easily available food and would congregate there.  They still do for the tourist boats that also feed them.

 

The rays in Half Moon Cay probably have the same learned behavior about easily available food. No need to fence them in.