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Anyone ever just get off the ship and take a tour?


Moondawgie

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Is there anyone that has waited to get to GC and then found a tour at the pier? What is the least amount of money you spent? What did it include?

 

Please let me know. I would like to get to Rum Point Beach - no snorkeling included. We may want to make 1 or 2 stops if that is available.

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In Grand Cayman there are usually people w/signs around the pier where you come in but most of the tours are for Stingray City. Cab/vans line up and some of them take you to 7 Mile Beach. (We thought we'd get to say where we wanted to be dropped off at 7 Mi. Bch. but the lady driving our van was a bit rude and dropped us off at a place where we had to pay a small entrance fee. So if you want to go to a specific point, be SURE and agree on it before you get in the cab or van!) I'm sure you could hire a cab to take you to the places you want to visit, but have no idea of the price.

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We got off the ship(tender) and booked a tour right at the pier. We went in a van(six in our party and two others) to the Turtle Farm, Hell, and took a city tour for about $10-15 cheaper than if we booked the same excursion with RCI. There were many opportunities to book at the pier--it's been 3 years, so I can't remember alot of the details(except that it was easy). I do remember that we paid cash and not with a credit card. We did the same thing in Belize and it worked out great.

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Thank you Warrier and mlbcruiser.

 

I guess we can take our chances at the (tender) pier. I really wanted to see Rum Point Beach, but it's not a deal breaker.

 

Moondawgie, I want to visit Rum Point Beach too. So far it seems that you have to rent a car to get out there. I'm not sure if there is any other way. Taxi would be to expensive.

 

I'm still trying to find out more info about what is the best way to visit Rum Point.

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The problem in Grand Cayman with doing this-- the tour operator will put you in a van and go get more people- you could be sitting there for a long time waiting for those people.

 

MOST people on a cruise either booked with the cruiseline or set up something privately.

 

rum point.. (i thought that was a snorkle spot)

is it a beach??

 

I remember going there when we did stingrays-- but i cant tell you much about it.

 

Last time we only wanted to go to Hell but could not find any cab or operator to take us.

 

wow-- i did a search on trip advisor and see its a 45 minute ride from 7 mile beach.

what will a taxi cost to take you there??

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g147365-d149242-Reviews-Rum_Point-Grand_Cayman_Cayman_Islands.html

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Thanks for those reviews, Serene. The confirm what I believe about RPB. Do you know if you can just rent a car at the pier? I can't seem to get that many in my group to commit.

 

luv, I think that's what I am doing ... renting a car at the tender dock.

 

No one in my group is convinced so far that it's worth the trip/$$ to get there and some are convinced that the $10 tour is just as good.

 

So, since I don't want to go on my own, I'll see how it goes.

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I rented a car once and drove out to Rum Point. Nice day! Driving was easy once out of the port area. The driving is on the left though. :eek:

 

We rented from Avis. There was a van to pick us up right near the dock and took us to the airport where we picked up the car. 10 minute ride. We reserved online in advance. Very easy and a great day!

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Thanks for those reviews, Serene. The confirm what I believe about RPB. Do you know if you can just rent a car at the pier? I can't seem to get that many in my group to commit.

 

luv, I think that's what I am doing ... renting a car at the tender dock.

 

No one in my group is convinced so far that it's worth the trip/$$ to get there and some are convinced that the $10 tour is just as good.

 

So, since I don't want to go on my own, I'll see how it goes.

 

 

 

can ya tell me about that $10.00 tour??

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Serene, my daughter and SIL did that on their honeymoon. They just found a tour operator at the dock with a van who charged $10 for a tour of the island that included the rum factory, Hell, forgot what else, but they felt it was well worth it and included a lot of things for the price. There were others in the van of course. Sounds like Warrior's tour.

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It does sound like what we did. What is confusing me are the comments about how expensive the Turtle Farm is. It was less than $5.00 per person when we went around Christmas of 2004. Maybe they have added to the attraction and are charging more. The driver gave us a certain amount of time at each place(Turtle Farm, Hell(you can send a post card home from Hell), Seven Mile Beach for a photo op, and the Rum cake store. Then you ride around town and he showed us the sights. Keep in mind that it may be hard to book a tour in advance on your own with having to tender(sometimes it is hard to get off the ship). Grand Cayman can be a difficult tender because it can be rough. When we were there, one of the other cruise lines elected not to let their passengers off and we were told that we were lucky that our captain allowed us to tender off. It was easy to book right at the dock.

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I just can't imagine that one of these companies with vans would not take you where you wanted to go if you had a small group of people. They aren't going to care if your 3-4 hours are in one place over another. It is not that big of an island where they are going to spend that much more for gas. You might have to recruit a few people on the ship to take an excursion to Rum Point to go with you, but I don't think that would be hard. If you tell them where you want to go, they will talk a few more people into going to get enough in a van. Most people that go cruising are not as organized as most of us on this website. I have talked to lots of people that don't have a clue what they are going to do when they get off the boat. Alaska was alittle different(people seemed to have more concrete plans for excursions than on the Caribbean cruises).

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i have to agree with you when you say that most cruisers dont have a clue... :D but for this tour to Rum Point if having a family of at least 8 people will be worth it to do.

 

Most tour operators do two tours--once in the morning and another in the afternoon--with their vans full.

So going to Rum point would have to be somehwat profitable for them to do that.

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We were wanting to go to Rum Point so we could relax on the beach for a while and snorkel. We have a group of 6 people and we don't really want to go anywhere else, just spend our time at Rum Point. One thing bad about renting a car would be if we had trouble tendering off the ship. I guess the best bet would be to either rent the car and pray for good tending that day or just get off the ship and find someone to take our group out there. I really don't like not having a plan in place before we get off the ship.

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