Stingray City Questions

Newbie Joined: 09 Nov 2007 Posts: 1 Location: Canada

Hi...my family of 4 is booked on our first cruise ever on the Carnival Victory for the March Break 2008.

Grand Cayman is one of our stops and we have definitely decided to do the Stingray City Tour - and after all the great reviews I have read on your site, we are going to be brave (not book through the ship) and go with Soto's. However, the cruise ship did offer an excursion that covered not only the stingrays but 7-mile beach, the Turtle Farm and a stop in "Hell" (for $77). I was wondering if anyone could tell me if there are any other places that offer excursions to these other places (or in combination)...or how we could get to them ourselves. We basically have about 8 hours in port - but don't want to cut things too close. Again, we are not "experienced" travellers (went to Florida a few times and Cuba once) so we are worried about getting lost, being late, missing the ship, etc. If these other places are not feasible time wise, we would at least like to find a nice close-by place to hang out a bit after the stingray tour, have a bite of lunch, relax on the beach, maybe do a bit of "beginner snorkeling" (we have our own equipment). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Also, I know this is a site for Cayman but we are also making stops in Cozumel and Ocho Rios, Jamaica. If any fellow cruisers have any suggestions on excursions (not booked with the ship), again it would be of great help!

Thanks!

Happy Traveling! Very Happy

Posted: Mon Nov 19, 2007 2:43 pm Post subject:

Hi SonshineK23 -

Activities booked through the ship are designed to accommodate the largest volume of people, resulting in hectic, crowded and chaotic tours. Our recommended SRC operators charge about $30. Hell is free and the beaches are free. Soto?s will drop you off on Seven Mile Beach but you would have to taxi to Boatswains Beach. Hell is really not worth seeing if you are only here for a day. You will end up paying around the same or less by arranging your own combination tour and avoid being herded around like cattle. Most of the cruise ship SRC tours take 100+ passengers on their boats; our recommended operators such as Soto?s take only 20.

Read through some of the posts in this and our SRC forum; check out the videos and pictures and see what others had to say about their experiences and how they planned their logistics. If you have any questions just ask and I?m sure you will receive all the assistance you need.

Have a great vacation!

Posted: Thu Nov 22, 2007 8:06 am Post subject:

SonshineK23

Welcome to the forum. Joe is absolutely right. Don't worry about missing out on Hell. It is ok if you are not on a tour but the last time I tried to go just to mail something from there there were 3 tour busses and it was "HELL" trying to just get in the place. Wait until you come back and can stay awhile to visit. It really isn't worth the hassle if you are on a tour. Enjoy Stingray City and go snorkeling somewhere like Cemetary Beach and just relax. You really should try to stay away from any of the excursions that the cruise ship offers. You will do better by Joe's experienced advice. Good luck and have a fantastic time!

Newbie Joined: 04 Nov 2007 Posts: 13

I would have to agree with everyone else - doing those with the ship is going to be organized chaos. From what you have said - the last thing you want to do is be running around trying to see everything and not really get to experience the wonders of Cayman. If you look at it - the most you could really spend in each place would be about an hour or so and then you would have to be coralled up and bussed off to the next place. Picking one and doing that - maybe two - would be your best bet. Depending on how many cruise ships are in port that day - check out the cruise ship calendar post in this section - it might take a bit to get from the ship and back. They actually stay out in the bay and you ride boats in to the dock. Hope you have fun!

Posted: Sun Nov 25, 2007 9:48 pm Post subject:

I agree with everyone else - Hell is useless. We ended up there since we got lost this past August, but didn't go in.

Our daughter lives in Cayman and I will say her boys love the Turtle Farm but they are only 4 and 2.

You do need to do Stingray City.

We took the same cruise you are taking back in the 90s and I will strongly suggest that you only do a cruise sponsored excursion in Ocho Rios. Don't rely on anyone else in Jamaica. Cayman - yes, Jamaica - no.

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