Nativeway "The Way to Go"

[Chall70]

I just returned from a Celebrity Cruise and had the pleasure of using Nativeway Tours while in Georgetown, Grand Cayman. We did the Reefs, Rays and Rum Point tour.

I reserved our space and date via the Nativeway web site. They confirmed our reservation via email and requested a credit card to confirm the reservation. Nothing was charged to the credit card until payment was made at the conclusion of our tour.

We were picked up at the pier by Eldon, who drove us to the tour boat in a nice air conditioned mini bus. About a 15 minute ride.

Another couple and ourselves were the only guests on board, along with Captain Thomas, mate Chris, and trip photographer. This boat could carry 50 guests with ease and was clean and in very good condition. Shade on top deck and main cabin area.

After a 30 minute ride we were standing on Stingray sandbar with Captain Thomas and 10-12 rays. Thomas was very helpful and showed us how to handle the rays and feed them as well. We spent about 45 minutes in the water with the rays (just 5 of us), while other tours nearby came and went with many, many more people.

Our next stop was a few hundred yards away, where we snorkeled the reef.

Water was very clear and much to see while there. Great coral and many, many fish. Spent maybe and hour at this location.

When back on board, lunch orders were taken from a restaurant menu (roughly 15-18 choices mostly seafood) and telephoned to Rum Point for our arrival. After a 20 minute boat ride we arrived at Rum Point and had lunch waiting for us. Food was great along with iced drinks. We spent about one hour enjoying Rum Point before returning to the dock and transport back to the ship pier.

This tour was one of the best we have taken on all of our previous cruises.

Captain Thomas was great fun and very helpful while we were with the rays and snorkeling on the reef. Only having 4 guests on board certainly made the trip very personal.

Nativeway is a very professional operation, with good equipment and fine personnel. They know what they are doing, and they know what their guests expect. I recommend them without any hesitation.