Native Way Tour Question

[Karen_N]

I think they are too busy feeding the Rays, and forgot to pay their internet provider bill.

I am sure a few hours/days everything will be fine.

I just tried to send an email to Sharon.

[lovintravelin]

what is the website for this tour?

 

nativewaywatersports.com

 

But, the website appears to be suspended. Does anyone have any info.? We are booked with them next month.:confused:

[tampacruiser34]

nativewaywatersports.com

 

But, the website appears to be suspended. Does anyone have any info.? We are booked with them next month.:confused:

 

hmn.... I'm booked with them in January :confused:

 

subscribing to thread to find status!

[Karen_N]

Just received the following email for the owner/operator of Nativeway...

Everything should be fine SOON...

 

Hi Karen,

I just learned that our site has problems. I just contacted our web master and should have things corrected today.

Thanks for your help.

Sharon Ebanks

[phantomII]

Just received the following email for the owner/operator of Nativeway...

Everything should be fine SOON...

 

Hi Karen,

I just learned that our site has problems. I just contacted our web master and should have things corrected today.

Thanks for your help.

Sharon Ebanks

I just got an email from them and it is working now.

[Karen_N]

Nativeways web site is back up and running!!!

 

http://www.nativewaywatersports.com/tours.htm

 

Karen

[bguppies]

We have booked the 'Rays, Reed, and Rum Point' excursion for our stop in Grand Cayman in 2 weeks. The email I received from Sharon states that we will return at 2:45 PM Eastern Daylight Savings Time. The last tender returning to the ship departs at 3:15 PM. Am I correct that we will have 30 minutes to get on the last tender? I'm assuming that we would have to get in line immediately upon arrival back at the port in order to make the 3:15 tender, which would leave no time to look around the shops in the port area. If anyone has taken this excursion can you tell us how everything went? It will be our first privately booked excursion, so we are nervous about missing the ship. Thanks!

Did Nativeways on my first trip there and did the Rays, Reef and Rum Point.

 

The Nativeways people were having issues all day, with their apparent inability to tell which people were supposed to be on which of their 3 tours.

(we wasted over an hour, meeting up with the other 2 boats in open water, to swap passengers, who they loaded on the wrong excursion.)

 

We were told we would be back with an hour to spare.

 

After all the swapping and arguing amongst the Nativeways staff, we wound up with less than an hour at Rum Point, (barely enought time to scraf lunch and hit the restroom) and then arrived late back to the dock they used.

 

Our captain/driver swore we had plenty of time to get back to the dock.

There was a couple who was off a RCCL ship, that was supposed to be back 30 minutes before us.

There was 6 or 7 of us from the Carnival Freedom and another 2 or 3 people from another Carnival ship.

By the time we got into sight of the ships, traffic was bumper to bumper and barely moving. (3 or 4 ships reboarding at the same time maybe?)

We got within a quarter mile or so and those of us from the Freedom had less than 15 minutes to final tender and the RCCL couple were already late.

All of us bailed out there and ran for the pier and made it with less than 5 minutes to spare..

 

Now judging from most reviews in here, I would imagine that Nativeways was having a huge brain fart of a day.

But one bad experience was enough and I have happily switched to Stingray Sailing and will never go back.

 

Bill

[andersonrm]

As the OP, I thought I would follow up with our experience and thoughts. First, we decided to switch from Reef, Rays & Rum Point excursion to the Stingray, Coral Gardens & Starfish Snorkel, due to the short window to return to catch the last tender. While I'm sure everything would have gone as promised, we just weren't comfortable cutting it that close. Plus, it would have left us no time to look around town before boarding the last tender. With that said, we had a great time on our excursion! There were only 13 of us on the boat, and we had an amazing time at both locations. The only snafu was similar to the previous poster, in that they did not realize until handing out lunch menus that our group was not going on to Rum Point, so we had to rendezvous with another boat and transfer there. We arrived back at the pier where Sharon met us and gave us a ride back to town. We had about 2 hours before we got in line to return to the ship, so had lunch and did a little shopping. Bottom line, for us it was worth it for our peace of mind to take the shorter excursion, and I would definitely book through them the next time we return to Grand Cayman!

[Life without whine]

Did Nativeways on my first trip there and did the Rays, Reef and Rum Point.

 

We were told we would be back with an hour to spare.

 

After all the swapping and arguing amongst the Nativeways staff, we wound up with less than an hour at Rum Point, (barely enought time to scraf lunch and hit the restroom) and then arrived late back to the dock they used.

 

Our captain/driver swore we had plenty of time to get back to the dock.

 

By the time we got into sight of the ships, traffic was bumper to bumper and barely moving. (3 or 4 ships reboarding at the same time maybe?)

We got within a quarter mile or so and those of us from the Freedom had less than 15 minutes to final tender and the RCCL couple were already late.

All of us bailed out there and ran for the pier and made it with less than 5 minutes to spare..

 

Will be on the Legend in January & am concerned as departure is at 4 pm - what time will last tender be? I know Sharon guarantees you will be on the ship but it sounds like if you weren't in running shape there may have been an issue. We were in Coz & the last passengers were driven to the ship after departure time - do you think Carnival has some leeway to wait when requested by tour operators?

[gbcruise]

Will be on the Legend in January & am concerned as departure is at 4 pm - what time will last tender be? I know Sharon guarantees you will be on the ship but it sounds like if you weren't in running shape there may have been an issue. We were in Coz & the last passengers were driven to the ship after departure time - do you think Carnival has some leeway to wait when requested by tour operators?

 

That's a very good question. I have booked private excursions most of the time and have found that people have booked on the ship and end up taking the same tour but at a higher rate, usually though we are still seperated by vehicle or boat. These particular tour operators may have some "pull" if they would be late in getting private passengers back. I would assume that something would be done to maybe delay the ship passengers where all people would get back at the same time allowing everyone to board the tender together. (hope this makes sense)

At the same time, just last week, a couple in Ketchikan missed the HAL ship and had to hire a boat (costing 1K) to bring them to board along side the ship as we were sailing out to sea.

[Karysa]

Grand Cayman is a port that is known for early departure times. Native way deals with this on a daily basis. Many ships depart at 4. This past March we went with them on the Rays, Reef and Beach. We had an amazing day. Things worked like clockwork for us. We were the only ones that opted for the beach on our tour and we were instructed where and when to meet Sharon who was going to drive us back. She was there on time and we had a relaxing and informative drive back. No issues with time what-so-ever and we were only in port until 4 as well.

[tekzilla]

I just sent an email to Sharon to switch from the Rays, Reef and Rum Point to the Rays, Coral Gardens and Starfish Snorkel that we have booked on our upcoming cruise in 3 weeks.

 

While I am sure that we would make it back on time, I would not be able to enjoy myself the whole time worrying about being late/missing the ship.

 

Also, we love the port in GT and want to spend some time shopping/eating in port before boarding the tender. Ill post a review when we get back!

[Karysa]

I just sent an email to Sharon to switch from the Rays, Reef and Rum Point to the Rays, Coral Gardens and Starfish Snorkel that we have booked on our upcoming cruise in 3 weeks.

 

While I am sure that we would make it back on time, I would not be able to enjoy myself the whole time worrying about being late/missing the ship.

 

Also, we love the port in GT and want to spend some time shopping/eating in port before boarding the tender. Ill post a review when we get back!

 

Our family of five agreed that the stingrays and rum point beach were the best part of the day in Grand Cayman. I know that you have made your choice but this is just some info for others who have yet to make their tour decisions in GC.

[shemustsail]

I just returned from a Carnival Cruise where I took the "Rays, Reef & Rum Point" tour with Native Way and it was AMAZING. I have been on many cruises, and I have taken many excursions. The Rays, Reef & Rum Point tour was far the best. The Native Way staff made sure the whole experience was FLAWLESS from making the reservation to returning back to the pier on time. I would highly recommend this tour with Native Way. I will be returning to Grand Cayman soon to go Deep Sea Fishing with Native Way.

[DalovelyDamanda]

Love all of the info about Nativeway. How long of a drive is it from the ship (Carnival Legend) to the beach (or wherever you get on the excursion boat)? Is it a van or bus with AC? Also, if we decide to do the RRR tour (Rays, Reef & Rum Point) what does the lunch consist of? Thanks.

[jtdlmc]

We went with Nativeways on the Rays, Coral Garden and Starfish tour last February. I too booked this particular tour as it was shorter and I wanted time to shop/browse the port area. Well, first off, similar to another poster's problem, we were about an hour late leaving for the tour (no explanation given). Then when we got on the boat they asked what three people were going to Rum POint and handed them menus. So after at the end of our tour we had to take these people to Rum Point (probably another 30 minutes or more added onto our tour since one of the guides had to get off with the people and he was gone for awhile). So by the time we got back to the port area we had less than an hour before we had to be back on the ship whereas our original tour would have left us with over 2 hours to spare. I don't know what happened to the people who went to Rum Point as they definitely would not have had much time to eat and get back to the ship - unless maybe they were from another ship.