Diving for me and snorkel for wife; Singray City

[Middleager]

We'll be on Carnival Miracle, to be in GC Tue. Aug. 29/06, 7am-4pm. I'd like to scuba and I hear GC has great wall diving. (The only one time I did wall diving was in Bay of Pigs in Cuba and it was great) I'll suggest my wife to the Stingray City Sandbar snorkel trip.

 

We'll probably need to go separate ways for that in the morning.

 

I also hear there is the Stingray City scuba and snuba in 10-12' shallow water.

 

We haven't booked with anyone yet and are looking. Would it be possible for us to get back together in early afternoon, to go for a Stingray City scuba for me and either snorkel or even try snuba for my wife? Does any ops do that?

 

Thanks a lot.

[mac66]

Stingray city is on a sandbar that varies from about 3-5 feet deep. Most tours then take you to the reef which is a couple hundred yards away for snorkling. The snorkling is some of the best I've ever done.

 

Most of the tours take about 3 hours. We did one last week at 9 am and we back by noon. Most tours run every hour or so, so you could be pretty flexable. We did our tour through Moby Dick tours but I hear good things about others as well.

 

I don't know about diving excursions but it would pretty easy to do an internet search for diving at GC and find a tour that fits your schedule.

[Middleager]

Stingray city is on a sandbar that varies from about 3-5 feet deep.

That would be the Singray city sandbar. I'm trying to find out about the Stingray City (different than Stingray City sandbar), for scuba diving

 

I don't know about diving excursions but it would pretty easy to do an internet search for diving at GC and find a tour that fits your schedule.

 

I've done internet searches. I'm hoping people who have experience with certain dive ops can give recommendations. Some dive ops on their web site don't post times and some are may not be flexible with cruise schedule.

 

Ideally after getting a few recommendations of dive ops, I can try to find out I can go with the same one for 2-tank dives in deeper places in the morning, then go again in afternoon to Stingray city for very shallow diving while wife go snorkeling there.

[bruce-r]

Ideally after getting a few recommendations of dive ops, I can try to find out I can go with the same one for 2-tank dives in deeper places in the morning, then go again in afternoon to Stingray city for very shallow diving while wife go snorkeling there.

Try contacting Casey at http://www.neptunesdivers.com and see what she can offer. I'm recommending neptunes for a 2 tank morning dive in any case.

[mac66]

Middleager, I've been to Grand Cayman twice. I did not know there was difference between stingray city and stingray city sandbar. My apologies. Good luck with your diving trip.

[Middleager]

Mac66, no problem. I didn't know either, then found out after reading about people standing up at Stingray city, and diving in 12', then found the difference.

 

Bruce-r, I emailed to them (and another shop) but haven't received any response in a week. Maybe these people in Caymon don't check their emails often.

 

Good thing there's still lots of time and in one search I found 26 ops in Cayman. In a few weeks I'll begin to email to a few more close to the cruise port.

[stwayne]

Hey Buddy maybe I can help you out.

 

I have scuba dived stingray city. It is a different location for divers than the snorkelers. The shop to use is diversdown.net. A four minute walk from the middle of Georgetown. You dive in 12' of water. A real gas. Wife can go along and snorkel from the surface. We had a couple of snorkelers on our boat. The dive master will bring the stringrays up to the surface for her to feed.

A must do once in your life. See photo's at

 

http://www.diversdown.net

[zydecocruiser]

Stingray City is the original and the sandbar was cultivated later. Almost all snorkel tours go to the latter, but some go to the original.

 

You can both scuba and snorkle at the original Stingray City - the 12-15 ft deep one.

 

Bay of Pigs? Hmmm...

 

Walls? There is more than one to choose from but weather conditions will play a part.

[Middleager]

stwayne, thanks. I just emailed them.

 

I saw their web site, but they listed a 2-tank dive for cruisers at 11:30am and then SC dive/snorkel trip at noon. So that didn't seem to fit. But I'm now hoping I can do a 3-tank dive with them, with the last dive to Stingray.

 

zydecocruiser, yes Bay of Pigs. We Canadians have no problem going to Cuba. Many of us are saying Castro will go soon, then things will change in Cuba and the place may be swamped with American tourists like in many other Caribbean locations. So it's good we get to see Cuba before it gets too.....

[Middleager]

In addition to Divers Down, I emailed several other dive ops (list from Cayman tourism site) to ask. Some responded, then I found some are no longer in service. The 2004 hurricane Ivan hurt/closed some businesses, but also cruise passengers seem not important to the dive business in Cayman.

 

Anyway, Divers down first said their dives start at 11:30am, then upon my asking again said their early dives start at 8am. However, their SRC dive trip comes back at 3pm, too late for last tender (2:30). In fact, there are two ships at port that day and the last tender for the other one is 3pm. Most companies' advertised afternoon dive or SR sandbar trips will come back too late for either ship.

 

Oh, Bruce-r, Neptune dives do sound good, but they don't pick up from cruise terminal (I'll need to get taxi to them) and they go out at 9am, back too late even if I just want to do an afternoon SR sandbar snorkel.

 

 

Thanks for the suggestions, so far it seems like the only way to do a 3-tank dive with last tank to SRC is private charter (too expensive). I might have to just do an early morning 2-tank dive, then maybe go on a SR sandbar snorkel trip together with my wife.

[bruce-r]

Oh, Bruce-r, Neptune dives do sound good, but they don't pick up from cruise terminal (I'll need to get taxi to them) and they go out at 9am, back too late even if I just want to do an afternoon SR sandbar snorkel.

I was able to take a "bus" to meet them at Public Beach on 7 mile beach and it only cost $3. I think they pick up at a different beach now, but if it is on SMB, then you can take a bus there.

[Middleager]

I was able to take a "bus" to meet them at Public Beach on 7 mile beach and it only cost $3. I think they pick up at a different beach now, but if it is on SMB, then you can take a bus there.

 

Neptune would've been good, but they start at 9am, too late for me.

 

Wall to Wall at the Yatch Club starts at 7:45am, and provides transportation. But I wonder if they need to go out heading east first then north, would that mean they more likely dive the north wall. Divers Down starts at 8am, so the time is also good. But it may mean they dive more at the west wall as it's convenient.

[Middleager]

Got more info.

 

Soto's Stingray sandbar snorkeling trip in the afternoon is usually 1-3pm. On Tue. Aug. 29 there are two ships at port, the 3pm is too late for both ships. So Soto will adjust their time to 12noon - 2pm, and bring people back to the cruise terminal. My wife and I can go to that.

 

As for the 2-tank diving in the morning, it's a choice between Wall to Wall

http://www.walltowalldiving.com

and Divers Down

http://www.diversdown.net

 

Wall to Wall picks up, and leaves the Cayman Island Yatch Club at 7:45am, back just in time. They try to dive the north wall, weather pending. Divers Down is near the cruise terminal, goes out at 8am, back at 11:30am. Both dive ops seem good, but it's my guess Wall to Wall needs to head east then north (from the yatch club) and therefore probably have better chance to dive the north wall, which I heard is better.