Just Stingray City-No Snorkeling

[maureencruiser]

Hello, I will be in GC in a few weeks. I cannot swim and I wear glasses, so, I am not interested in snorkeling at any of the reefs. I only want a tour that does Stingray City. I have checked online with Captain Marvins, Stingray sailing,moby dicks,fat fish adventures, and nativeway. All the tours are Stingrays then snorkel at the reefs. I wouldn't mind Stingrays then go to a beach or island tour or something, but, no snorkeling-Can anybody reccommend another tour operator? Thanks in advance...Maureen

[copper6606]

Hello, I will be in GC in a few weeks. I cannot swim and I wear glasses, so, I am not interested in snorkeling at any of the reefs. I only want a tour that does Stingray City. I have checked online with Captain Marvins, Stingray sailing,moby dicks,fat fish adventures, and nativeway. All the tours are Stingrays then snorkel at the reefs. I wouldn't mind Stingrays then go to a beach or island tour or something, but, no snorkeling-Can anybody reccommend another tour operator? Thanks in advance...Maureen

 

 

I would also be interested in this- my husband is VERY timid of the water - so snorkeling is out. I'll check back for suggestions.:)

[EBallgrl]

Native Way Tours offers a great "Stingray City and Island Tour". I have taken this tour twice, there is no snorkeling unless you want to at Stingray City. In other words, there is not stop just for snorkeling. You stop at various locations around the island and then finish off at Stingray City. They can provide you with a mask if you want to look at the rays underwater but you most certainly do not have to snorkel there. They will bring the rays to you to hold so you dont even have to put your head underwater if you dont want to. I can provide a full review of this tour if you would like. They are great!

[WhiteRabbit]

Native Way Tours offers a great "Stingray City and Island Tour". I have taken this tour twice, there is no snorkeling unless you want to at Stingray City. In other words, there is not stop just for snorkeling. You stop at various locations around the island and then finish off at Stingray City. They can provide you with a mask if you want to look at the rays underwater but you most certainly do not have to snorkel there. They will bring the rays to you to hold so you dont even have to put your head underwater if you dont want to. I can provide a full review of this tour if you would like. They are great!

 

We have this tour booked for next week with Native Way. It will be the first snorkel experience for our kids 11 and 13. We did Stingray City Sandbar years ago and it was so beautiful and calm out there! The water is only chest high and very clear so you wouldn't have to put your head in the water at all to enjoy it. After Stingray City Sandbar, they will take us to the Turtle Farm, Tortuga Rum Factory, 7-Mile Beach (not to stay for long at all though from what I understand, could be wrong though), the Governor's House, and Hell. I figured it would be a nice sampling of things to see in Grand Cayman without being in the water all day.

 

I would also be interested in this- my husband is VERY timid of the water - so snorkeling is out.

 

I felt the same way at first, but what really helped me was that someone suggested bringing my own 'dry snorkel' that won't let water in the tube at all. It was great! I never once had a problem with breathing in any water at all, even on another snorkel trip we took later in rather rough water.

 

I can provide a full review of this tour if you would like. They are great!

Eballgrl, I would love to hear more about your tour! We are really looking forward to this trip!

[maureencruiser]

Hello, Well, I went ahead and signed up for the Nativeway tour-my boyfriend has never been to GC, so, that way, he can go to Hell and everything:eek:. Copper, I am also very afraid of the water-people don't understand why I go on so many cruises if I can't swim. They seem to think the cruise ship is constantly storm-tossed or something. Fools!! When will you be there? I'll be on the Celebrity Century in GC on December 18th. Just remember, when you go to the turtle farm, don't get too attached, they are raising them for food. Happy cruising....Maureen

[EBallgrl]

Hi, sorry, I meant to post my review yesterday but work got in the way! :rolleyes: Go figure! Well I wrote this review after I got home from my October trip on the Legend. It is long...I fully intended on writing a full trip review but I only got around to writing up excursion reviews, so here is my Native Way review...please let me know if you have any questions or if I left anything out!

 

Our first stop was Grand Cayman, we had booked an excursion that included an Island tour and Stingray City. Turns out that we were the only ones booked on this excursion so we had a private tour all to ourselves! I had used this company for the same tour last year and loved them; we only had a total of 4 people on that tour as well. We got on a tender, docked, and found our company…we had about an hour to kill before the tour started so we walked around and shopped a little bit. I bought a T-shirt. There were MANY companies trying to sell us tours while walking around in the port area.

When it was time to meet up with them we met our guide, Sheldon, and followed him to our vehicle for the day which was a nice SUV. He drove us through town, pointing out important beaches, hotels, etc. We stopped at the Governors house, a Rum Cake Factory, Hell, and the Turtle Farm before Stingray City. We actually had nice weather this day, which would turn out to be the ONLY day we had nice weather. Hell was the same as I remembered it from last year only this year we got to meet to owner who dresses up like the Devil. We only got to meet his wooden cut-out last year. He asked us where we were from and said WV, he promptly took out a photo album and showed us his wedding pictures because his wife is from WV also. Well he says “one of his wives”, he is Satan you know! I eventually got a kiss from him on the cheek outside while my family was dropping mail in the mailbox…eventually he kissed both DM and DS as well! Actually they kissed him too, the devil gets a lot of lovin! He was great, we took several pics of the whole ordeal. While we were looking at the rock formations, our guide was telling us all about Hell and its history and ended up catching an iguana for us to look at. This caused a crowd to gather and he started telling everyone else about the place as well…I guess they didn’t have as great of a guide as we did!

Last year when we went to the Turtle Farm our guide was able to come in with us, but this year they weren’t allowed (he would have to pay to get himself in). But he set us up with another guide inside so we weren’t left to wander alone. This guy was pretty good, he worked there so he knew everything about the turtles. We got to hold some of the smaller ones, and tickle their chins when they would start to flip out (calms them down, it’s the cutest thing!). The tour inside lasted about 30 mins, then used the restrooms, checked out the gift shop & hatchery, and met back up with our guide outside. I know there is a small controversy over the Turtle Farm (some of the turtles are used for local consumption) and I later discussed it with him. He assured me that it was a very small percentage of them that were harvested, and they were very strict with it. Turtle can only be sold on Sundays, so you can only get it from restaurants or buy it to consume at your home on that day. They do not export the meat at all, and basically reminded us that every country has their own delicacies that foreigners might find gross or wrong. This is something that they have consumed for generations, and there is absolutely no commercial fishing of the turtles in the wild, they all come from the turtle farm. As a Marine Science major, I absolutely love sea turtles and could never eat one, but I understand that this is their culture and I respect it.

On to Stingray City, we had our own boat, it was a smaller one, 25ft, but it was GREAT! (If you end up on this boat, I recommend riding up front!) It was so nice to be sailing out to the stingrays and passing boats that were absolutely packed with people (one of them was another popular company commonly mentioned on these boards). We just waved and continued on for our own personal experience. The boat was actually our tour guide’s personal boat. When we got to the sandbar we got all of our stuff together and jumped in. I had asked the captain, Fabian, what the water temperature was like and he said it was pretty cold…it was warm, really warm! Well you are no longer allowed to feed the Stingrays anymore, just the guides, but they still rubbed squid on our arms so that they would come up on us anyways. They do not know why tourists aren’t allowed to feed them, there haven’t been any accidents. My niece was excited to go out there but once she was in the water and saw them she kind of freaked out and got back on the boat and just watched. She later said that she didn’t expect them to be so big and so many (she is 8). She eventually pet a small on that the guide caught and brought to her. DM loved it! She said she was a little scared at first but once she got a mask on and went under the water with them she LOVED it! She had never done snorkeling before so she had never experienced anything like that. Again, it was so nice to have our own space and not be in the middle of a huge crowd of people. Our guide also went out and found a large starfish and a conch for us to hold.

On the way back some storm clouds came rolling in but we made it back in the SUV before it let loose. We were worried that it would be raining while standing in line for the tender but it quickly stopped raining. Once back at the port, we said our goodbye's, paid (w/ tip) and then we used the restrooms available at the port (clean enough!) and got right on a tender, no lines this year! So all in all we had a blast on this tour, and if we go back, I will use them again for a different tour. He said they are building a couple dolphin encounters on the island and they will eventually offer a tour that includes this. I can not say enough great things about this company, I wish them the best.

[WhiteRabbit]

Thanks for your review EBallgrl! This tour is the one I'm looking forward to the most. By this time next week we should be there! :D