RCCL Stingray Tours

[whitshel]

Does anyone know which operator RCCL uses for their stingray tours?:confused:

[dsharky]

Does anyone know which operator RCCL uses for their stingray tours?:confused:

 

Not 100% sure, but i booked with cruise.com for the RCCL explorer of the seas and they used portpromotions.com as their tour operator. anyone ever heard/experiences with them?

[Trainacomin]

Not 100% sure, but i booked with cruise.com for the RCCL explorer of the seas and they used portpromotions.com as their tour operator. anyone ever heard/experiences with them?

 

I was on the Rhapsody last week and did book thru cruise.com(which I won't do again) got the free excursion from portpromotions.com. The only problem we had was that our bus driver had a car wreck that morning and didn't come to work so the owner's wife had to drive the bus. This made us about sit around for about 45 minutes until the bus came to get us. Other than that the boat was fine, nothing special, and the crew was great.

There were about 10 boats on the sand bar so I don't know who RCCL used but I wouldn't book with them, I would find an independent(you can book them for $35 at the same place that all the tours meet). You could tell the cruise booked tours because the boats were overloaded with people. We only had about 25 people on our boat so everyone had their own space and everyone got up close to as many sting rays as came around us.

 

Clint

PS: Also it's very hard to find the ONE sign that portpromotions puts up so you know where to meet.

[OPSoccermom]

Does anyone know which operator RCCL uses for their stingray tours?:confused:

I would recommend saving your $$$$ and booking independently. We did the RCI stingray snorkel while on the Mariner in March. There were 150 people on the boat!! Half of our time at the sand bar was spent in line either getting into the water or getting back out. Then once you were in the water, it was every man for himself making sure you weren't getting kicked in the face by one of the throng of first time snorkelers. Someone even commented as they jumped in that it looked like the scene from Titanic - bodies floating everywhere.

 

There are many independent tours that you can choose from. None of the other boats we saw on the sandbar was even one-tenth of the size of the boat we were on with the RCI tour.

[rbcruiser]

Does anyone know which operator RCCL uses for their stingray tours?:confused:

I called RCCL and they would not tell me who their tour operator was . I have been doing a lot researching on this and other boards and even though I have booked all my other prior excursions through the cruise line, I decided to go with an independent for the basic reasons stated above.

[gulfcoast39]

We were on the Grandeur and our friends booked their RCCL, but we decided to go with independent one. I regret not booking through RCCL. Our tour was about 40 people. The crew did not really go out of their way to interact with us and show us how to feed the stingrays while we were in the water or even how to hold them. They did not take pictures and threw one baggie full of food out to us. However, my friends got pictures taken holding them and feeding them, etc. They even bought a CD of these beautiful pictures. I was very disappointed that I did not go with the ship's excursion and went on my own. I only hope to go back and do this again so I can get some good pictures too.

[OPSoccermom]

We were on the Grandeur and our friends booked their RCCL, but we decided to go with independent one. I regret not booking through RCCL. Our tour was about 40 people. The crew did not really go out of their way to interact with us and show us how to feed the stingrays while we were in the water or even how to hold them. They did not take pictures and threw one baggie full of food out to us. However, my friends got pictures taken holding them and feeding them, etc. They even bought a CD of these beautiful pictures. I was very disappointed that I did not go with the ship's excursion and went on my own. I only hope to go back and do this again so I can get some good pictures too.

We went on an RCI stingray snorkle and they not only did not sell a CD, they never took a single picture. So it sounds like the quality of the tours that RCI offers can vary significantly. I'd go with one of the vendors that our widely recognized on these boards. Do your homework. There are plenty of CC reviews of these excursions as well as several websites you can consult with.