Nativeway Water Sports

[youngmel]

I am going on a cruise in April '07 and plan on booking the "Rays, Reef & Rum Point" tour through Nativeway. Anyone out there been on a tour with them recently? What was your experience with numbers on the boat and quality of the tour?

[csaeroach]

We did a tour with Nativeway Water Sports, and our tour guide was Ashton. He was excellent! I would highly recommend using this company while traveling to Grand Cayman. We will be there again Jan 2008, and I plan on getting in touch with them again and booking the same tour. It was truly one of our best experiences.

 

Chris and Shelley Roach

[Ripley]

Book the tour with Nativeway. You'll have a great time. Extremely pleasant and capable crew. Stingray City is a blast! When we return to Grand Cayman, we will tour with them again.

[Ripley]

Definitely book the tour with them. Very pleasant and capable crew. Stingray City is a blast! The boat was comfortable, snorkeling was good, Rum Point is a great place to relax.

[HERKIMER417]

We have one person with our group that is not good at going up or down ladders because of a knee problem.

 

On a previous trip to other ports, we had snorkeled on boats that had a stairway out the back and this was fine.

 

We would all love to do the stingray city but the ladder is a potential problem.

 

Can anyone tell me if Native way has a stairway or a ladder?

 

If you are not sure about Native way - does anyone know of a tour boat with a staircase?

 

Thanks

J

[DukeFamily]

We have one person with our group that is not good at going up or down ladders because of a knee problem.

 

On a previous trip to other ports, we had snorkeled on boats that had a stairway out the back and this was fine.

 

We would all love to do the stingray city but the ladder is a potential problem.

 

Can anyone tell me if Native way has a stairway or a ladder?

 

If you are not sure about Native way - does anyone know of a tour boat with a staircase?

 

Thanks

J

 

We were with NativeWay back in June - the exit out the back of the boat was more of a metal stairway - not straight down like a ladder, but angled out a little away from the boat. It was pretty easy going.

[DukeFamily]

I am going on a cruise in April '07 and plan on booking the "Rays, Reef & Rum Point" tour through Nativeway. Anyone out there been on a tour with them recently? What was your experience with numbers on the boat and quality of the tour?

 

My sons and I took this tour with NativeWay back in June. It was probably our best excursion. Sharon Ebanks and all the people involved are really great. The boat was comfortable and fun. There were probably 20 or 25 of us. The boats at the sand bar which were the ship sponsored excursions were big old things - double deckers - And you couldn't have fit another person on there with a shoe horn. It did NOT look fun. Definitely book with NativeWay - you can't go wrong!

[CMVAC]

We were on a tour with Nativeway 3 years ago. One person in our group has knee problems. She hurt her knee so badly getting back into the boat on the ladder that she was laid up with ice the rest of the time on the ship. I don't know that it is the ships fault. If there are any kind of waves and the boat is bouncing up and down when you get back on (as it was for us) it is easy to hurt your knee if you have a preexisting problem. I would recommend that you talk to Sharon and see if they have any boats that would be better suited to your friends knee problem. Or tell him to be extremely careful getting back in the boat. Getting out was not a problem.

[JustaTrace]

We're booked with Nativeway in March. Sharon was SO great with me on the phone and seemed really genuinely concerned that we couldn't get the tour that was our first choice, so she put us on a waiting list for that one. We booked the Stingray Sandbar and Coral gardens though and are very excited.

 

I just hope that we get tendered off the boat in time to meet them. I would hate to miss the tour.:(

[DENNAS]

Anyone know?

We get into port at 7:00 a.m. Not sure I want to try to make anything before 9. I did send an email to Nativeway, no reply as of yet.

 

We want to do the 2 stop- snorkle at Coral Gardens and Stingray City.

 

Also, how close is their office to the pier? OR, do they meet your group there?

 

If anyone can help me out, I'd appreciate it. THANKS !

[encoresue2]

Just used Nativeway on Jan 4th and had a great time, despite some high waves that made snorkeling interesting as you were "waved" away from the boat pretty quick. We were on the RRR trip and met the personnel right on the tender pier. They have signs and even if you don't see them...if you tell the "other" tour operators who you are looking for...they will point you in the right direction. I was quite pleased with how pleasant and friendly ALL the non-ship tour operators were and how they looked out for each others customers.

 

The Rays part was AMAZING althought it was crowded (there were 7 ships in port that day) and we did order the DVD of the whole trip for $66 and love it. Got to show our grandkids cool fish (snorkeling), grandparents kissing and holding rays (they loved that), and a relaxing lunch on the Rum Point Beach.

 

The only scary part was getting back as the trip took longer than anticipated due to higher surf. We were a little afraid we would miss the last tender at 3:30pm. BUT we got to the pier and there were hundreds of Radiance passengers waiting for the "last" tender...so we had nearly 30-45 minutes standing on the pier. Everyone had told me that Nativeway knew what they are doing....and they do.

 

Book it....you will love it.:p

[CMVAC]

dennas,

Don't know what happened in our Roll call thread but it's missing my last post. Nativeway said their morning tour leaves the dock at 8:30 (they meet you right at the pier) so I don't know if this will be any better than Marvins. Sotos check in is between 8:30 - 9:00 (close to the pier) and Moby Dicks is 8:30 - 8:45 (right at the pier). There are lots of reviews for Moby Dicks on tripadvisor.com under stingray city. Just wanted to let you know what I found out.

[luvs2sun]

We've also booked the RRR Tour with Nativeway-cruising on the Century and we also arrive at 7:00am. I was concerned about making it by 8:45am also since it was a tender port-so I posted my concern on the Celebrity board. They stated that tenders start at 7:30 so it shouldn't be a problem. We will be up & at 'em early that day to hopefully beat the rush, but the tenders usually run smoothly so I'm not worried. Others that responded to my question were actually early and had time to look around the pier a little before leaving on the tour.

[DENNAS]

luvs2sun....

I don't think we'd have a problem with the RRR with Nativeway.... we also get in at 7. That one is at 9. I am hearing (Thanks CMVAC) that the 2 stop with Nativeway is at 8:30, the same as Capt. Marvins, and THAT I am concerned with.... it's quite a push. They want us there at 8:00. First it takes (from what I have read) anywhere from 30 - 60 min for the ship to get situated, then they take the Princess Tours, then we are last... since we'd do the private excursion.

 

Maybe it would all work out just fine...... but if not, we'd lose our money.

Not a chance I want to take; besides that, it's a "stress-out" that I don't want to get myself caught up in.

 

CMVAC: My post last night did the same as yours today. I think at night, when it's busy, these posts are getting LOST, until someone else goes to post, then it's magically appearing.

The April 7 Star Roll Call had just been moved up in the thread and your name was there and the time too, (the post wasn't), so I went ahead, logged in to "answer you", and saw your response. If you go look now, yours is there and my new one is there too.

[lindalo5032]

duplicate

[lindalo5032]

Are the winter months the most likely time to have high winds and be unable to tender into Grand Cayman?

 

Has anyone gone in July or August? What was the weather like then?

 

We will be there in late July / early Aug. and I'm wondering what the chances are that we would not be able to tender due to weather?

[HERKIMER417]

Thanks - DUKE

 

I appreciate the information.

It's the verticle ladder thats the real problem.

 

A slanted set of steps will be fine.

 

J

[HERKIMER417]

Thanks - DUKE

 

I appreciate the information.

It's the verticle ladder thats the real problem.

 

A slanted set of steps will be fine.

 

J

[tazdeb]

When we were on on the Mariner of the Seas last July 4th we couldn't tender into Grand Cayman because of rough seas. The waves were 8-10 feet that day. I guess it all depends on which way the wind is blowing. If its from the north then then seas will be rough....TAZ

[MCManders99]

If you decide to book with Nativeway for the Rays Reef and Rumpoint Tour, don't wait. I asked about availability for May 1st for that tour and it was completely booked.

[savannah2117]

We just did the tour on 1/22/07. We tender right away at 7am. We were almost too early. We found out they had a couple of cancelations and put us on the Rum Point tour. We then walked about for about 45 minutes and came back. Everyone was getting on the van, we left the pier about 8:58am. I think they watch and sort of wait for people for a reasonable amount of time. The tender off the ship went really fast. We were on the Star Princess.