Grand Cayman Review (Stingray/Reef/Beach)

[LizaMM]

I just posted my review of the Carnival Triumph 4/16/05 Western sailing over on the Carnival Boards and I just thought I would post the Grand Cayman portion here. I realize that I posted much of this info to some existing threads.

 

 

 

Grand Cayman

 

We knew that we wanted to have a visit to Stingray City. These boards at CC are priceless for all the info you can glean! I emailed several private tour companies in advance. Based on times of excursions available I had selected Native Way Watersports and the Rays/Reef excursion for us.

 

The plan was to have an early excursion then get back to the ship and have lunch and still have time for a visit to 7 mile Beach.

 

HOWEVER…..this was the ONE morning that I did not wake up very early!! I overslept and woke to realize that we were late. We tossed our stuff together quickly and made it down to deck 0 and the tender but by the time we got across to the pier we had missed our tour!! There was a man there with a Native Way sign as they had other excursions as well. I talked to him and explained. He got on his phone and talked to someone and then told me that there was another excursion about to leave the dock. I decided to jump on that one and he personally drove us in his car over to the dock. He remained in contact with the Captain of that boat so they knew we were arriving.

 

This “new” excursion was the Rays/Reef and Rum Point. We first boated over to Stingray City. There were only about 20 people on this excursion and the guides we had were wonderful! We anchored in a spot that was a good distance from what looked like much larger boats with LOTS of people which was nice. Each of us had the opportunity to have personal time with the guides. They held the Stingray and helped each of us to do the same and also took turns putting them on our backs. We also had the opportunity to each feed them if we wanted and time to snorkel and swim with the Stingrays as well before getting back on the boat.

 

Went over to a reef where we again had great service from the guides and time to swim and snorkel before we got back on the boat. As we got on the boat we were handed a menu and made our lunch order. The Captain called the lunch order in so that when we arrived at Rum Point our lunches would be ready for us.

 

Rum Point was nice. The food was brought out to a table and we could take ours and sit. There were plenty of picnic tables to sit at. After we ate I relaxed on a loungechair and my DD played on the beach and in the water with some other kids. There was a bar and shop but we were not into that. The bathrooms were well kept and clean.

 

After about an hour here we got back on the boat and headed back to the dock. Small bus brought us back to the pier. We still had time to walk around and souvenir shop a bit before getting in line for the tender back to the ship.

 

The line was long but moved pretty quickly as they can fit a lot of people on the tenders. As always, we had fun chatting with fellow cruisers waiting on line around us!