Captain Marvin Short Excursion Questions

[erries]

I'm considering booking the Captain Marvin short excursion, which goes to Stingray City and one snorkel stop, either Barrier Reef or Coral Gardens.

 

1. How do I know which snorkel stop I'm signing up for? Do I get to choose, or does the company choose, and will I know which stop is featured before I book?

 

2. Which snorkel stop is better?

 

3. Where is the Captain Marvin office located? Is it by the port area where I get off the tender ferry, or will I have to take a taxi there?

 

4. If my ship (RCCL Liberty of the Seas) arrives at 8:00, will I be able to go on the Captain Marvin short excursion that starts at 8:30? Is there a difference between ship time and island time?

 

Thanks so much! I really appreciate any suggestions or help you guys can offer.

 

Erica

[txladydi]

Erica, Hope I can help you on some of your questions.

 

1 & 2. They pick the snorkel spot, and they know how to pick the good ones.

 

3. They have an office near the port, within walking distance if you don't have trouble walking a few blocks.

 

4. Grand Cayman time is always Eastern Standard - they don't do Daylight Savings; so today they are the same time as Central Time, because they didn't "spring forward." The ship sails from Florida, right, so ship time is one hour ahead of Grand Cayman time. You should get there in time.

 

Now, one other suggestion: just email Captain Marvin's and ask if they can tell you which snorkel spot your tour will go to. They are really friendly and want to keep customers happy. Also, has directions to their office on their website: www.captainmarvins.com

 

Happy Cruising,

Di

[erries]

Thanks so much, Di! I think that answers all my questions. Mainly I was concerned about whether or not their office was within close walking distance of the port (which it apparently is) and whether we'd be able to make an 8:30 appointment. If Grand Cayman is an hour behind EST, then when the ship arrives at 8:00 ship time, that's 7:00 Grand Cayman time, which will give us plenty of time to get to Captain Marvin's for an 8:30 excursion. I'm used to booking excursions through the ship, so it didn't even occur to me initially to check time differences when researching private companies.

 

Thanks again! I really appreciate it.

 

Erica

[emmysmommy]

We're using Captain Marvins again for our upcoming cruise and Joan (at Captain Marvin's) was very quick to respond to my questions. And yes, it is a short walk from the cruise port area. Not more than 5 minutes.

[erries]

We're using Captain Marvins again for our upcoming cruise and Joan (at Captain Marvin's) was very quick to respond to my questions. And yes, it is a short walk from the cruise port area. Not more than 5 minutes.

 

Awesome, sounds perfect. Thanks for the info!

 

Erica

[ifdancecouldkill]

you also might want to consider how long it will take you to get on the tender. You have to get up extra early and meet in the show room to get your number for when you will board the tender. I think we got there an hour early and were not the first to be there but we were on the first tender off our boat.

[erries]

you also might want to consider how long it will take you to get on the tender. You have to get up extra early and meet in the show room to get your number for when you will board the tender. I think we got there an hour early and were not the first to be there but we were on the first tender off our boat.

 

Yeah, I think it's gonna be pretty close, but I think we can make it. When I made the reservation, Captain Marvin's emailed me back with instructions to be at their office at 8:00am island time, which is 9:00am ship time. We're scheduled to arrive at 8:00am ship time, which gives us an hour to get to their office. Hopefully that will be enough time, if we're on the first tender over.

 

Erica

[twinkletoes4445]

Have a wonderful time! We always use Captain Marvin's when we are in Grand Cayman. To get to their dock, you'll drive along the 7 Mile Beach area (they turn off next to the Courtyard Marriott), so you'll get to see the beach area. The first time we were there (we were on a cruise ship), we had the driver drop us at Rackham's so we could have lunch. After that, we walked back to the tender area.

 

Have fun! :)

[luv2trvlnow]

We were just there on April 30. Their office is very close to where the tenders arrive. We arrived at 7 am their time and made it to the office before it even opened which was 7:45 am.

 

There were only about 18 of us onboard. We didn't choose where we stopped. For us it was Coral Gardens. They also had a photographer onboard who took pictures, no video. The cost for 11 pictures of the 3 of us was $56. My only disappointment was we didn't get to feed the stingrays. The operator of the boat said that wasn't allowed, but we saw other excursions from other companies letting the people feed the stingrays. But it was great to hold and even get to kiss the rays. On the way back they dropped us off at the Royal Palms and Reef Grill where we spend a couple of hours before catching a taxi back to the terminal.

[modem9]

We just returned from our cruise yesterday. For Grand Cayman, we had booked the Captain Marvin 1/2 day excursion with the stingray adventure and both the Barrier reef and coral garden snorkleing. Our tour was from 10 to 1, Island time. This was 11 - 2 ship time.

 

This was an absolutely awesome excursion. We first went out to the barrier reef for about 25 minutes of snorkeling. The ride out was easy and they provided jugs of water and punch. There was plenty of shade for those who wanted it. Snorkeling at the reef was great, lots of different fish and very shallow. We next went to the stingray location. There were several other boats there as well. The water is shallow, mostly about 4 feet and totally sandy. No shoes are allowed. The stingray's are all around and rub you constantly. If is easy to touch them and very safe. Our boat handlers caught them for us we we could get good pictures and get up close and personal with them. Last, we went to the coral gardens for some deeper snorkeling. They fed the fish and we were surrounded by schools of fish. It was great. We were also allowed to hold some bait and have the fish eat out of our hands. Wonderful fun time. We didn't want to get our of the water for our trip back.

 

I was very happy with Captain Marvins and I definitely recommend them. If I had to choose, I would go to the coral gardens instead of the barrier reef because there are more fish and better for pictures. However, the reef was beautiful and I recommend both if you can. It is not to long of a day and you will want as much time in the water as you can get.

 

As others have said, it is an easy walk from the tender pier to their office. We tendered to the North/South tender spots and it was about 2 blocks away.

[erries]

We were just there on April 30. Their office is very close to where the tenders arrive. We arrived at 7 am their time and made it to the office before it even opened which was 7:45 am.

 

There were only about 18 of us onboard. We didn't choose where we stopped. For us it was Coral Gardens. They also had a photographer onboard who took pictures, no video. The cost for 11 pictures of the 3 of us was $56. My only disappointment was we didn't get to feed the stingrays. The operator of the boat said that wasn't allowed, but we saw other excursions from other companies letting the people feed the stingrays. But it was great to hold and even get to kiss the rays. On the way back they dropped us off at the Royal Palms and Reef Grill where we spend a couple of hours before catching a taxi back to the terminal.

 

Thanks for the info! I'm disappointed to hear that we won't be able to feed the stingrays, because I've read about lots of other excursions that allow this, but oh well. Overall it sounds like a great day!

 

Erica

[erries]

We just returned from our cruise yesterday. For Grand Cayman, we had booked the Captain Marvin 1/2 day excursion with the stingray adventure and both the Barrier reef and coral garden snorkleing. Our tour was from 10 to 1, Island time. This was 11 - 2 ship time.

 

This was an absolutely awesome excursion. We first went out to the barrier reef for about 25 minutes of snorkeling. The ride out was easy and they provided jugs of water and punch. There was plenty of shade for those who wanted it. Snorkeling at the reef was great, lots of different fish and very shallow. We next went to the stingray location. There were several other boats there as well. The water is shallow, mostly about 4 feet and totally sandy. No shoes are allowed. The stingray's are all around and rub you constantly. If is easy to touch them and very safe. Our boat handlers caught them for us we we could get good pictures and get up close and personal with them. Last, we went to the coral gardens for some deeper snorkeling. They fed the fish and we were surrounded by schools of fish. It was great. We were also allowed to hold some bait and have the fish eat out of our hands. Wonderful fun time. We didn't want to get our of the water for our trip back.

 

I was very happy with Captain Marvins and I definitely recommend them. If I had to choose, I would go to the coral gardens instead of the barrier reef because there are more fish and better for pictures. However, the reef was beautiful and I recommend both if you can. It is not to long of a day and you will want as much time in the water as you can get.

 

As others have said, it is an easy walk from the tender pier to their office. We tendered to the North/South tender spots and it was about 2 blocks away.

 

Thanks for your recap! We're just doing the short excursion, not the half day one, so we'll only get to stop at one of the two snorkeling stops, but from your review, it sounds like both are pretty great, so I'm not too worried about which one we end up with.

 

Also good to hear that there's plenty of shade available; my boyfriend's stepdad probably won't be interested in snorkeling, so he'll want to stay on the boat, and he'll appreciate the shade.

 

Thanks again!

Erica

[LilLaura]

About how many people are on the boats booked through Captain Marvins?

[txladydi]

About how many people are on the boats booked through Captain Marvins?

 

Laura, they have different sized boats; so depending on how many people book a particular trip they can take the right sized boat. But I would say they take between 10 and 20 on a boat. It's always a small enough group that you get individual attention from their crew.

 

Go to their website and they have pics of the different boats.

 

Di

[C. Anne]

Thanks for the info! I'm disappointed to hear that we won't be able to feed the stingrays, because I've read about lots of other excursions that allow this, but oh well. Overall it sounds like a great day!

 

Erica

 

 

That's weird, because we were thinking of booking with Stingray Sailing (I think that's what it's called)with Captain Chip and their website says that you can feed the stingray. Anyone know anymore of the excursion that Chip does?

 

Thanx

[rockmegently]

That's weird, because we were thinking of booking with Stingray Sailing (I think that's what it's called)with Captain Chip and their website says that you can feed the stingray. Anyone know anymore of the excursion that Chip does?

 

Thanx

 

We went with Stingray Sailing last month and you definitely get to feed the Stingray's. Captain Chip had a floating bucket of squid in the water with us so the Stingrays stayed nice and close. They know where the lunch is.:D

 

He seemed to be up on the regulations regarding the Stingrays. One thing you can't do is lift them out of the water. We saw that happen for photographs while we were on a previous cruise. Chip watched us very close when we were handling the Stingrays to ensure we didn't do anything illegal or that would injure them.

[erries]

Just got back a few days ago and wanted to report back. We *did* get to feed the rays! They suck the squid right out of your hand like a vacuum; it was so weird, but really neat to experience.

 

The whole excursion overall was GREAT, and I highly recommend Captain Marvin's. I think there were probably about 20 people on our tour, and the guides were all really friendly and helpful and enthusiastic. We got plenty of time with the rays (to feed, pet, kiss, and pose for pictures with them), and then we were taken to a snorkel spot near the reef shelf, where we saw tons of cool coral and tropical fish. At our request, they dropped several of us off at Seven Mile Beach (Royal Palms) on the way back.

 

Let me know if you have any other specific questions.

 

Erica

[10th Anniversary]

We are looking at booking Capt. Marvin's short excursion. We also want to visit Hell. We are not interested in the turtle farm or Rum Point. How would we get to Hell? Would Capt. Marvin's drop us off or do we need to return to the port and then figure out how to get there?

 

Also, how rocky (motion) is the boat that takes you to the Rays and snorkel? My mom does not swim and is afraid she will be sea sick from sitting on the boat for so long while others are snorkeling.

 

Thanks for the help.