Captain Marvin

[laurspag]

Hi All,

 

I posted on here a while back, and I decided to start a new thread since I can't find the other one and I have new questions.

 

We are considering Captain Marvin's two stop stingray and snorkeling tour. We are not the best swimmers, so we are thinking that we will definitely participate in the stingray portion and probably stay on the boat for the snorkeling part. It appears from other threads that this is done commonly.

 

We are sailing on Freedom in May. Here are my new questions:

 

1) do the meet you at the pier and transport you? It appears from their website they do, but since I've never been to Grand Cayman before, I wasn't familiar with the port in general so I want to double check.

 

2) if we also do the turtle farm excursion through the same company, do they transport you from one to the other? If they do not, how far is it and how easy is it to find?

 

3) Is there an ideal spot to stop for lunch in between?

 

I've tried emailing with questions, but haven't been able to get any response. I have however, heard enough good things about the company that it seems safe to book with them.

 

Thanks in advance!

[caddyrag]

Hi All,

 

I posted on here a while back, and I decided to start a new thread since I can't find the other one and I have new questions.

 

We are considering Captain Marvin's two stop stingray and snorkeling tour. We are not the best swimmers, so we are thinking that we will definitely participate in the stingray portion and probably stay on the boat for the snorkeling part. It appears from other threads that this is done commonly.

 

We are sailing on Freedom in May. Here are my new questions:

 

1) do the meet you at the pier and transport you? It appears from their website they do, but since I've never been to Grand Cayman before, I wasn't familiar with the port in general so I want to double check.

 

2) if we also do the turtle farm excursion through the same company, do they transport you from one to the other? If they do not, how far is it and how easy is it to find?

 

3) Is there an ideal spot to stop for lunch in between?

 

I've tried emailing with questions, but haven't been able to get any response. I have however, heard enough good things about the company that it seems safe to book with them.

 

Thanks in advance!

 

We have gone on Capt Marvins trips many times and highly recommend them. We have always walked to their location from the pier where the tender lets you off, it's 2 block or so and no problem.

I've not done a combined turtles and stingray tour with them but I would think they would cover the transporation. There are several nice places to eat just across the street from Capt Marvins office. Nancy

[BlondieB]

We've used Captain Marvin's before and were very pleased. Once we exited the port area, we had to walk across the street to one of the little office fronts and pay. Then, a van picked us up and took us to our departure destination. You can stay on the boat as little or as much as you want, it's your excursion :D

[Alvinsr]

We have used Capt Marvin before, and have been happy.

My question, is this, our ship arrives at 7 am, and I know this is a tender port.

Is it possible to do the 8:30am Stingray/snorkel tour?

Would like to do that one to give us some time to visit some other things...

Will we be cutting it too close?

 

Thanks

[laurspag]

I've tried sending them emails numerous times, including the date and ship I will be on. They do not reply, so I have been a bit concerned.

 

I mentioned that we aren't the best of swimmers, and I like that we can stay on the boat during the snorkeling. I really want to learn to snorkel, but we feel we need to take some decent swimming lessons first. So, the snorkeling will wait until another time.

 

That being said...the website states that they anchor in deeper water, and then you swim over to the shallower part where you interact with the stingrays. My older daughter, who is 25, got really nervous as she is the weakest swimmer of the group. I wanted to assure her that their staff more than likely assists, and it's probably an extremely short distance before you are in shallower water, but I can't in all honestly say that without knowing. I did inform her that they have life vests and so forth that they supply.

 

Alvinsr, everything I have read indicates that they are very aware of what ship is there, and the times. It would seem like this wouldn't be an issue, but one of the others can probably answer this for sure.

[Angel1122]

I have captain marvins booked for next month. I am a decent swimmer, but I love to float. In St. Maarten the snorkeling excursion provided us with noodles. Does captain Marvins offer something similar?

[Alvinsr]

Angel1122

I don't remember seeing anyone use the noodles, they provide you with inflatable life jackets.

 

laurspag

 

they back the boat up to the sandbar, the water is about waist deep where you

get off the back of the boat, plus like i mentioned above they provide you

with life jackets.

i tried to attach a pic

[Angel1122]

Angel1122

I don't remember seeing anyone use the noodles, they provide you with inflatable life jackets.

 

laurspag

 

they back the boat up to the sandbar, the water is about waist deep where you

get off the back of the boat, plus like i mentioned above they provide you

with life jackets.

i tried to attach a pic

[ATTACH]304438[/ATTACH]

 

Even the snorkeling portion is relatively shallow?

[laurspag]

What a wonderful picture! Thank you for sharing. I think we are going to be just fine. I plan to reserve this weekend, and give them a call also regarding transportation between the two excursions.

[Alvinsr]

Even the snorkeling portion is relatively shallow?

 

no sorry if I wasn't clear, only the stingray part is shallow, the snorkeling is in deep water.

[OCruisers]

Captain Marvin's has a good long time reputation and I've never heard of anyone being "ripped off" by them.

We had been to swim with the stingrays before on a sailing catamaran on a ship's excursion but were with friends who wanted us to do Captain Marvin's with them so we booked it on line.

Unfortunately, Cap. Marvin had way over booked so we were on an extra small boat with a horrible anchor location. :(

We were OK with jumping off into water over our heads but some others (even with the life vest) were not.

LuLu

~~~~

[jaasb0808]

I have been researching lots of the same things getting ready to book our next cruise with a stop in Cayman and I just found this great video of Stingray City on an excursion with Captain Marvins, it looks like so much fun.

 

http://blog.sunplay.com/blog/stingray-city-part-one/

 

It is on my list for our stop to Grand Cayman.

[S.A.M.J.R.]

We've booked with Capt. Marvins for a stingray/snorkel & turtle farm/hell combo. According to emails we've traded, we walk from where the tender lets off to their office, they transport us to the boat for the stingray/snorkel, when that's done, we don't go back to the office, but they transport us to the turtle farm/hell stops. Then back to the tender docks.

 

Of course, it sounds good on paper, and I can let you know how it goes when we get back the end of the July.

[moesyk4]

We went with Captain marvins in January and it was amazing, highly recommend!

As the PPers have said, you meet at a little storefront and they drive you over. The storefront is just outside the port area, you can see it. Their boats (I think all of them) are in a little cove about 15 minutes from port.

We did the 3 stop with beach lunch tour so I'm not sure if the snorkeling is in the same spot, but it is about 10 feet deep. My son was 4 at the time and had gotten overwhelmed at the conch dive at the previous stop, so DH and I took turns snorkeling. There was another in our tour group that stayed on the boat the entire time, not sure why. It was obviously not an issue! The water was so clear we could show our son the fish and sting rays from the boat. They do provide little life vests if you are interested, and the salt water is so bouyant you practically float.

The sting ray stop was very shallow, maybe waist deep? Even when you hopped in. Our son had a puddle jumper (type of life vest) and was totally fine going in and hanging out with the sting rays.

I can't answer the rest as our tour was different. There was plenty of little restaurants by the pier so if you wanted to wait to eat, I'm sure you could. Our beach lunch tour obviously included lunch, which was nice.

[Marie51]

I've tried sending them emails numerous times, including the date and ship I will be on. They do not reply, so I have been a bit concerned.

 

I mentioned that we aren't the best of swimmers, and I like that we can stay on the boat during the snorkeling. I really want to learn to snorkel, but we feel we need to take some decent swimming lessons first. So, the snorkeling will wait until another time.

 

That being said...the website states that they anchor in deeper water, and then you swim over to the shallower part where you interact with the stingrays. My older daughter, who is 25, got really nervous as she is the weakest swimmer of the group. I wanted to assure her that their staff more than likely assists, and it's probably an extremely short distance before you are in shallower water, but I can't in all honestly say that without knowing. I did inform her that they have life vests and so forth that they supply.

 

Alvinsr, everything I have read indicates that they are very aware of what ship is there, and the times. It would seem like this wouldn't be an issue, but one of the others can probably answer this for sure.

 

Hi.....you don't have to know how to swim because they have flotation vests that everyone wears to keep you afloat. I didn't get any response from them or Nativeway so I finally booked with Soto because they answered my emails promptly and answered all my questions.

[CruisingMomma!]

I just called Captain Marvin's here is the toll free number 866 978 6364. They do pick up.

[stargate fan]

Hi All,

 

We are considering Captain Marvin's two stop stingray and snorkeling tour. We are not the best swimmers, so we are thinking that we will definitely participate in the stingray portion and probably stay on the boat for the snorkeling part. It appears from other threads that this is done commonly.

Thanks in advance!

 

I do not know how to swim. I can do a very modified doggy paddle and can tread water for a little while, but no more.

 

That said, we snorkeled/sting ray-ed with Captain Marvin. I wore a life jacket and flippers the whole time. I was a little nervous at first because I had never snorkeled and was scared to put my face in the water, and I didn't know how to swim. After a couple of minutes of heavy breathing through the tube I got the hang of it. It was absolutely amazing! I saw sea life that I have only seen on nature shows. We went to a barrier reef and saw coral and other formations that were incredible.

 

I'm not going to say, "don't be scared" because it was a little scary at first. But the fear turned to absolute wonder. Since then, I have snorkeled a lot, but always with a vest or a noodle when in deep water. We've also been to beaches where I've snorkeled in water only waist deep.

 

We also conquered our fear of heights and speed and now love zip lining, but that's another story.:D

 

Sting Ray city is a fun and unique opportunity. But snorkeling is a whole other adventure.

[pentiumvi]

We've booked with Capt. Marvins for a stingray/snorkel & turtle farm/hell combo. According to emails we've traded, we walk from where the tender lets off to their office, they transport us to the boat for the stingray/snorkel, when that's done, we don't go back to the office, but they transport us to the turtle farm/hell stops. Then back to the tender docks.

 

Of course, it sounds good on paper, and I can let you know how it goes when we get back the end of the July.

 

Hi S.A.M.J.R., we are planning on booking something similar as well!

 

Please do let us know how your trip went after you return.

 

Side note: For your combo tour, what time does your ship dock, and what time does it leave? I'm trying to figure out whether we'll have enough time...

[CruisingMomma!]

I just came back from Grand Cayman. We booked with Soto because they were only $35 for Stingray City and 1 other snorkel tour. They were great. One thing that surprised me was how easy and inexpensive it was to get to the turtle farm. It was $5 from 7 mile road and $5 to return to the ship using the public mini bus system. The buses seem to come every 5 minutes. The turtle farm was also very inexpensive see their web site. The trip from the Turtle Farm to the ship took less than 20 minutes. My 8 year old says she enjoyed wading with the turtles more than the sting rays. I preferred Sting Ray City. Have fun!

Cindy

[CruisingMomma!]

By the way, we sailed at either 3 or 4, and we had plenty of time to do Sting Ray City and 1 other snorkel and see the Turtle Farm. We even shopped back at the port for about 30 -45 minutes before all aboard. There is not a lot to see at the Turtle Farm, but it is worth seeing especially with children.

 

Cindy

[S.A.M.J.R.]

Side note: For your combo tour, what time does your ship dock, and what time does it leave? I'm trying to figure out whether we'll have enough time...

Sorry I haven't responded yet. According to RC, we arrive at 8am and depart at 4pm. I *UNDERSTAND* Grand Cayman should be an hour behind. I'm assuming Captain Marvin's knows when the ships get in and leave, and am trusting them to make sure we don't miss the last tender. :D

[laurspag]

I just got back and wanted to let everyone know that this excursion is absolutely outstanding. I will post some pictures when I have a moment. It is the best excursion I've taken in 6 cruises.

 

 

Sent using the Cruise Critic forums app

[stickit34]

MY wife and I just returned from a 5 night cruise out of FLL. We choose Capt Marvin from the list in GC because of the reviews and they were all spot on. We arrived to the location(directly behind the port shoppes) and we started our city/turtle farm tour promptly on time(GC time). The staff, facilities, etc. were all top notch. Our guide, Jonathan, was great and he really helped us gain knowledge about the island during our city tour. Once our city tour was complete they dropped us off at the next check point for us to begin our stingray tour. The entire crew on the boat was wonderful and we really enjoyed the stingray tour. I would recommend Capt. Marvin's to all visitors looking for a fun day in GC.