SCUBA Advice On Stingray City

[Kokomo_Man]

I am going to Grand Cayman on the Carnival Valor (sailing May 2). I am considering booking a dive with "grandcaymanexcursions.com" to Stingray City.

 

Does anyone have any experience with this operator?... good? bad? or ?

[Middleager]

I am going to Grand Cayman on the Carnival Valor (sailing May 2). I am considering booking a dive with "grandcaymanexcursions.com" to Stingray City.

 

Does anyone have any experience with this operator?... good? bad? or ?

That is a broker. They are not the dive shop/op.

[Jazzbo]

We used http://www.ambassadordivers.com/ for a dive/snorkel trip in 2007. DH and I dove with and hand-fed the stingrays and my Mom & Dad snorkeled above. As they say, "the best 12-foot dive ever"! It was one of the highlights of the cruise for all of us! Jason, one of the owners, is from Arkansas. He was totally responsive. Larry, our divemaster, was quite the character and made the trip so much fun!

[dot73]

On the stingray scuba excursion, is there any coral and fish to see, or is it just at Stingray City where there is nothing but sand and stingrays? I have just been certified last November and I thought this would be a good dive to start off with on my cruise in December, followed by a dive in Grand Turk or Costa Maya. Thank you.

[jerry2457]

Do some checking around as I paid for a combo Sting Ray City and snorkel trip. The weather didn't cooperate so I did the sandbar with the StingRays but didn't do the snorkeling because of the rain storm. There are many operators who do a combo where you spend time at Stingray City and then snorkel a reef and are at each about 45 minutes to an hour and the whole trip is about 3-3.5 hours. There are lots of companies that do these trips and the guy who ran ours was from the US and a nice guy and they took pictures of you with the Stingrays that you could purchase.

[Colorado Kat]

We did the combo - Sting-Ray Alley feed, snorkle at a reef, and lunch on a beach.

 

Sting-rays were fun, the reef for snorkling really wasn't that great, and the lunch on a beach was nice. I've got to think most operators use mostly the same spots.

 

By the way, we booked independantly, and not thru our ship. Small boat, not very crowded. Maybe you could look at the Port-Of-Call boards for better info?

[bruce-r]

On the stingray scuba excursion, is there any coral and fish to see, or is it just at Stingray City where there is nothing but sand and stingrays?

Nothing but sand and stingrays. Very shallow, 12-15 ft deep.

 

If you do a 2 tank trip, the second dive will be a typical reef dive with coral, fish, etc.

[SheSailsFL]

On the stingray scuba excursion, is there any coral and fish to see, or is it just at Stingray City where there is nothing but sand and stingrays? I have just been certified last November and I thought this would be a good dive to start off with on my cruise in December, followed by a dive in Grand Turk or Costa Maya. Thank you.

 

There is nothing but white sand and very shallow water at Stingray City...it's a sandbar where the stingrays come to be fed when they hear the boats arriving...it's an amazing experience but scuba is not needed and I would even suggest avoiding fins to avoid accidentally poking the stingrays...you will be SOOO close to them that you can lie flat on the surface and they swim close enough directly under you to touch them..

 

Some tours will take you to a nearby reef or shipwreck for some good snorkeling or diving...you should book one that has that as an option if you want to some diving....if your cruise also stops at Cozumel you can definitely get in a dive there also.

 

Happy sailing!

[SmartShea]

It was a cool experience for me, a nightmare for my boyfriend. He stepped into the water and went right back on the boat. It's very crowded and there are rules: you can only touch certain parts of the rays, can only shuffle your feet so no swimming ( can be difficult with some of the waves if you are short and try to stay calm and just stand ), and no shouting. Well I can follow rules very easily but others clearly were not. Not sure if it was a language barrier but a group of girls were screaming and splashing and putting me at risk of a sting. So I moved all the way to the edge where they have rope to mark off certain spots.

 

The boat we took --we did it through RCI and they charged a TON for pictures. So be prepared for that, might be a good idea to get a waterproof camera.

 

I am definitely glad I did it but not sure if I would again. It was simply too crowded with a bunch of stupid people who cant follow rules! It was the excursions where you snorkeled at a reef after (not many fish that day, not really worth it)

[slabeaume]

My daughter and I did STingray sandbar and then snorkeling at Coral Gardens a few years ago. We had a great time. We weren't on a cruise, so went with a small organization. We didn't have a restriction of no swimming, but it was before Irwin was spiked by one, so maybe things have changed now. The snorkeling at Coral Gardens was fantastic , at least the part we were at. There were scuba divers there, but it was only about 15 feet at the deepest places. Much of the coral broke the top of the waterline.

[scf1270]

We did Stringray City through a private company (rather than a ship's excursion) recommended by friends. It was not crowded and no "stupid people" (although there's never a guarantee on that :rolleyes:)

 

Going back with our girl's and will either use the same tour operator, or another that has a land/water combo package.

 

Sara