Recommendation for family friendly private snorkel tour?

[Zandile]

Ideally we would like to hire someone to take us on a private snorkel tour, just my family of three (and possibly another couple or another family of 3, I'd prefer no more than 6 people total). Our son will be 6 at the time and although we plan on working with him extensively in the pool this summer this will be his first time snorkeling in the ocean, therefore I need someone kind and patient and willing to work with a 6 year old. My husband and I are both experienced snorkelers. We just want to avoid the cattle call experience.

 

I found the perfect tour like this in Cozumel, but there is so much else I want to see in Cozumel and it seems like the ideal place for us to rent a car and just explore on our own. My son REALLY wants to see the stingrays and Cayman seems like it will have more spectacular snorkeling (and we're not big shoppers). So, short of paying the person I found in Cozumel to meet us with her boat in Cayman....any other suggestions????

 

THANK YOU!

[kendik]

I'm interested in the responses to your post. We are cruizing with our 6 and 10 year olds. Who did you use in Cozumel for private snorkeling? Do you think we can do both snorkeling and the dolphin encounter in one day. Would love to hear back.

Thanks

[jmo1]

I will be surprised if you get any replies with private 3-6 person snorkel tours. My recommendation is to book with Captain Marvin. His boats are medium size (~40-ft) that only carry about 15-20 people. It is definitely not a cattle call. Their staff in extremely patient and helpful with children and others who are beginner snorkelers or afraid of the stingrays at first.

[katscruise]

We did a private tour thru Island Marketing. It was a boat that would carry 5 people. The captain was great and would take you anywhere you want to go. He took us to stingray city. The owner of the boat has kids of his own and knows the island well. The great part it is only your family on the boat. http://grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com/ Let me know if you have any other questions.

[bladerunner6]

I will be surprised if you get any replies with private 3-6 person snorkel tours. My recommendation is to book with Captain Marvin. His boats are medium size (~40-ft) that only carry about 15-20 people. It is definitely not a cattle call. Their staff in extremely patient and helpful with children and others who are beginner snorkelers or afraid of the stingrays at first.

 

We just used Captain Marvin's and recommend them highly.

 

The kids on our excursion seemed fine.

 

And we certainly had a great time.

[tertrac]

We did a private tour thru Island Marketing. It was a boat that would carry 5 people. The captain was great and would take you anywhere you want to go. He took us to stingray city. The owner of the boat has kids of his own and knows the island well. The great part it is only your family on the boat. http://grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com/ Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

We are looking at the private tours from Island Marketing for our first cruise in June.

 

Which tour did you take, and did you have any time issues because of tendering?

 

TIA

[katscruise]

We did the outrage eco tour on the boston whaler it was great. You can do whatever you want to do fishing snokerling tubing. We went to stringray city and to starfish beach and thru the mangros. It was worth they money we paid. The captain is a great guy and just wants to please. Book early he is very busy. Stringray city was much better on a small boat I have done other tours in the past this was the best. No problem with times, we had lots of time for shopping after. You can e-mail them for times. You meet him not to far from where you get off the tenders.

[highcard]

I recommend Soto tours. We went the first week of April. there where 10 people in our group and I believe 2 other small groups for a total of 15 people on the tour. I was glad we did not go with ship and their filled to the rim double decker boats!!! we had an 18month old, 7, 8 and 11 year old with us. They all had a great time! I would go with them again! Erin

[snorkelmom2]

Your child will do fine as long as long as he/she is comfortable in the water. We got a dry snorkel for our son so the water couldn't splash in as easily and he practiced for a few weeks. He was a pro by the time we got there. He was the first one in the water and the last one in the boat every time. Booking a trip to Belize next so he can snorkel all day!

[HILBY]

We just returned from the caymans and had a freind of ours from the caymans recommend ezona. She used to run the bayside tours operation but went on her own a while back. We chartered her boat "the heavanly hooker", for 3 families for the day. We had 4 -13 year old boys and 2 -7,8 year old girls. 12 people alll together. We had the time of our lives on that charter!! Ezona and Stacey took us to stingray city, kaibo beach and 2 other spots to go snorkeling. they fixed us fresh conch, pointed out lobster, eels, and barracudas while we were snorkeling. Ezona took care of the girls when they were a bit too scared to go in the water with the stingrays as well, so the parents could get in. Her website is http://www.ezonasaquatics.com/

very reasonable. 10 minute drive from the pier. no problems!!!

[Zandile]

Hello, I've been off the boards for awhile, didn't realize there had been so many responses! After researching I've booked the Stingray City Eco-Tour Private Charter Excursion through Island marketing, it is the one on the inflatable boat, it looks like fun for my speed freak boys.

 

Someone asked about Cozumel, we haven't been yet so I can't recommend but I had heard good things about Mystic Snorkeling Tours with Roswitha Flury. Since we're doing the private charter in Grand Cayman though we're just going to take it easy on Cozumel, it seems like the easiest of the Western Ports to bum around on your own for the day.

 

Good luck to everyone on their excursions!

[sph7]

I will be surprised if you get any replies with private 3-6 person snorkel tours. My recommendation is to book with Captain Marvin. His boats are medium size (~40-ft) that only carry about 15-20 people. It is definitely not a cattle call. Their staff in extremely patient and helpful with children and others who are beginner snorkelers or afraid of the stingrays at first.

I booked Captain Marvins for Apr/26/07 because I thought we would get around 15 people on board. I was dead wrong. At first it was only 15 people from our bus to the dock and a group of 20 other people from other bus joined us.

 

The boat was very crowded. Also, the group of 20 people are late teen and pre-20s. They were loud and running around in the small space. They even jumped off from the top deck of the boats while holding hands when we were about to leave to the next stop and etc.. We had few kids on board, so their mothers got extra worried about the "free-spirited" group.

 

And because of the crowd, the captain was rushing us. For instance, we are supposed to get 25 to 30 minutes for each stops. However, at Coral gardens, they called us back after 20 minutes and at Reef Barrier, they called us back after 15 minutes. Since they rushed us so much, we had more time to spare at Sting Ray City; but Reef Barrier was much more interesting than a sand bar. I was not very happy.

[tertrac]

We did the outrage eco tour on the boston whaler it was great. You can do whatever you want to do fishing snokerling tubing. We went to stringray city and to starfish beach and thru the mangros. It was worth they money we paid. The captain is a great guy and just wants to please. Book early he is very busy. Stringray city was much better on a small boat I have done other tours in the past this was the best. No problem with times, we had lots of time for shopping after. You can e-mail them for times. You meet him not to far from where you get off the tenders.

 

This is the tour we booked. Glad to here good things about it. My 2 DS really want to tube. Thanks for the info.