Grand Cayman & a non swimmer

[meripour]

What is the recommendation for the day in Georgetown, Grand Cayman if you dont swim well enough for the deep. Appears that is the bulk of what is offered to do.

Any suggestions for a great day?

[sonnylax]

Check the Cayman Islands forum. You can do Stingray City -- If you can deal with a short boatride and you can stand/wade around in 3' of water (in a sandbar).

[tmessenger]

You might want to consider the Stingray City Swim and Snorkel Tour. The boat drops you off in water about waist/chest deep. I don't swim at all, and I had a great time. The water was calm and clear. I wouldn't miss this tour if at all possible.

[Vacation Nut]

I want to agree about Stingray city. I am a very poor swimmer. We took the ship's tour to Stingray City. They transfer you from a bus to a pontoon boat. It takes about 50 minutes to get to the sand bar on the boat. They have life jackets, OR you can just watch from the boat. I DID go in and the water was up to just above my waist (I am only 5ft 1 inch tall) It was WONDERFUL. I didn't swim, just walked around with the Stingrays. Thoroughly recommend this, and I will do it again next time we are there.

[woodman]

Do not miss Sting Ray City. Wonderfull experience. You don't have to swim.

[CruisinDawn]

Captain Marvins offers a few different tours for non-swimmers.

 

Glass Bottom Boat: You go out to the shipwrecks and hover over them while those that want to get out & snorkle do. I elected to stay in the boat and enjoyed the view of the wrecks just fine. We were giving bread to feed the fish so they would swim right under the boat to see.

 

A totally land based excursion they have takes you to the turtle farm, hell, butterfly farm as well as a few other stops.

 

We have taken tours with them twice and intend to again when were there on the Freedom.

captainmarvins.com

 

Have fun planning!!

Dawna

[sea-jay]

I agree with all of the above. Capt Marvins organization is great. You shouldn't miss either Sting ray city or the turtle farm. I know that the thought of a 'turtle farm' is somewhat tame, but you will really enjoy it.

[wallie5446]

One of the 7 Mile Beach tours would let you get in the water and sand tween your toes. But I do agree with others about Sting Ray City. My Wife is not a swimmer either, and was very timid about going. It is on a sand bar that sits in 4-7 feet of water, you have a life vest on so you wont sink :D. She screamed for the first few minutes a ray would brush past her, then had a blast for the next 30 minutes. There were a few folks who went but did not get off the boat, just watched.

 

We have gone on many different tours in the Carib, and this is one of the not to be missed ones.

[sonnylax]

As an FYI -- The Nativeways tour did not make us wear vests at Stingray City. (The idea of wearing a lifevest in 4' of calm water is a bit silly, IMHO.)

[sea-jay]

As posted by Sonnylax

The idea of wearing a lifevest in 4' of calm water is a bit silly, IMHO.

 

Sonny - Of course you can swim. As a former Red Cross Water Safety Instructor, Life Guard and currently registered Scuba diver, I would insist that anyone that cannot swim and goes into water, especially in the ocean, wear a life vest. I am sure most of the people that post here and cruise, have heard of 'rogue' waves. Sometimes these can be quite high and if one happened to hit you while you were in waist deep water, on a sand bar no less, it could easily sweep you off your feet, off the sand bar, and bye, bye dumb person. For your information, water in the ocean is never "calm". There is always a current or surface movement. The water at Sting Ray city may seem calm if you compare it to the waves hitting a shore but it is not.

 

90% of drowning victims happen because they don't respect the ocean enough and don't understand what can happen. I would hope you do not let your non-swimming wife or children to be out there without a vest.

 

For your information, when my DW and I went to Sting Ray City, she wore a vest from the time she got on the boat until we got back ashore. She doesn't swim and I insisted she be protected even tho I was by her side at all times. Why? Because I love her and respect the ocean too much to take any chances. Any number of things could have happened such as, the boat hitting a submerged log, ripping the bottom out and sinking; I could have been knocked unconscious during the accident and DW could have then drowned because I didn't care enough to have her wear a vest.

 

'Nough said!

[TPKeller]

If you are looking for an alternative to a water based tour in Grand Cayman, I can highly recommend Geddes Hislop, who operates Silver Thatch Excursions - "the only authentic (land-based) ecotourism operator on the island of Grand Cayman since 1996."

 

My sister and I took his "Eastern Experience" tour, which highlights history, architecture, agriculture, wildlife (we were driving up and down the road getting better views of wild parrots :)) geology, shipwrecks (from the beach), and he even brought us lunch, and lime-based refreshment that his kids called "bug juice" :).

 

We arranged it all by e-mail ahead of time, and he was the most professional tour guide I've ever had. Highly recommended.

 

http://www.earthfoot.org/places/ky001.htm

 

Theron

[Georgia Peach2]

(The idea of wearing a lifevest in 4' of calm water is a bit silly, IMHO.)

 

It sounds silly, but the vest made the excursion ever so much more enjoyable for me. I can swim just fine but have only snorkled a couple times. I tried w/o the vest first but found that everytime a stingray swam under me I'd be startled & "forget" about the snorkel. After about drowning myself a few times I swam over to the boat & grabbed a vest. It made ALL the difference! I didn't have to concentrate on swimming/snorkeling & could just watch the rays to my heart's content.

 

Peach

[barbface1]

Don't miss stingray city.....i can swim but i was scared to go in the water with the stingrays (I ama wuss) but I still had a great time. Them my hubby decided he was going to carry me around on his back so that I was not scared.....it was great....you don't have to swim...you can walk it is really really shallow.

[montgomeryfamily]

Stingray City is fun and we have been three times, but I disagree that it is always shallow and you can always just walk around. Once when we went, it was fairly shallow on the sandbar, although it seemed closer to four feet in depth than three feet, as it came up above my chest (and I am 5'1''). The next two time we went, the water level on the sandbar was much deeper, certainly over my head. One of the previous posters characterized the water level on the sandbar as being between 4' and 7' and that better described the water level on our visits. We had read about the water level being very shallow and being able to walk around, but it must depend on when you go (time of year/time of day) and perhaps some other factors, but I don't know what.

 

We've been on the Capt. Marvin's glass bottom boat and that was very nice also, even though we snorkeled. We went because the glass bottom boat doesn't go to Stingray City--it goes to other locations- and we we wanted to snorkel somewhere new.

 

We have also been on the Nautilus. It is a large semi-submersible that has large picture windows. You can sit in the comfort of air conditioning and have great underwater views. They offer a trip with a snorkeling option and this is what we did--the snorkeling is at Cheeseburger Reef and over a shipwreck. There are some descriptions about this on the Grand Cayman port forum. You can also check there for more information about this and other non-swimmer tour options.

[Bonnie&Rob]

I second that Mongtomeryfamily. I'm 5' tall, and found the water at rest was not over my head. The swells, however, were. I am not a strong swimmer, and chose to wear a vest to be on the safe side.

 

Maybe I looked silly to some people, but I wouldn't have enjoyed myself as much if I was worrying about drowning.