How much time do you have at the stringrays with Marvins, Sotos, and Nativeway?

[pepper]

I have been pondering only the 2 to 2-1/2 hr tours (due to our time in port) available with these operators and was wondering out of that time, how much time is spent in the water with the rays and snorkeling at the reef/gardens compared to transport/drive time? This may be the deciding factor between which group I go with, so I'd appreciate if anyone can give me the breakdown for these operators. We will be in port from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., but we'd like to try to squeeze in a trip to turtle farm before we head back to the ship.

 

Thanks in advance!

[CaribbeanBound]

Seems to me NativeWay was at least an hour at the sandbar.

 

Complete review...

http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/westerncaribbean.html

[Mariann563]

We went with Cpatian Marvin for the half-day excursion in Nov. 2004. It was a wonderful experience. We got to their boats and had an awesome ride out to the ocean through the channel. We saw lots of millionaire homes, many which had major damage by Hurricane Ivan very recently. There were huge sailboats in their backyards which had been tossed there during the storm. We also saw some that were mostly under water etc. By now, most of those shoud be fully repaired and looking beautiful, I'm sure. Once out to the ocean we had ample time to snorkel and swim with the sting rays. The crew members were all very friendly and helpful. They get in the water with you and point things out to you etc.

 

Marianne