Captain Marvin's 1/2 day + land tour

[npeters]

Just back from our 8/21 cruise and had booked Captain Marvin's 3 stop (stingray city, barrier reef snorkel, and coral reef snorkel) plus a turtle farm/hell land tour.

 

Ship arrived at 8:00am, had to tender in, but made it in plenty time for the 9:15am check-in (10:00am start). Turned left from the pier as instructed and walked a couple of blocks. Easy, but had to remember to look the other way when crossing as they drive on the left side like England. Luckily, we were with some British friends so we were covered. There is a great English bakery nearby so had some tea and coffee until we boarded the van to Cap Marvin's pier. Nice sized boat with restroom facilities - about 30 passengers. Staff very helpful and nice. Ran into inclement weather (lightning was a bit scary) on our way to our 1st snorkel stop, so they detoured and went to Stingray City first because the weather was better there. Good call - the sky was blue, water was warm, stingrays frisky. Lots of other tours there but our guides rounded up stingrays for us to see, pet and feed. After that they took us to the Barrier Reef for snorkeling. Absolutely fantastic! Great snorkeling. We were there for quite a while. Last stop was Coral Reefs. I though Barrier was much better, but since it was our last stop, we didn't stay as long. Most passengers were ready to go. The staff hosed everyone down with fresh water after the last stop. Water and punch provided.

 

Land tour was a bit rushed since a couple of Carnival pax needed to catch their 2:45pm tender whereas the pax from our ship (the majority of this tour) didn't depart until 6:00pm. But, didn't mind too much since I don't like to linger too long on tours anyway. Hell was okay, fun to pet the turtles at the turtle farm but it started raining very hard so time there was short. Van comfy and airconditioned.

 

Overall, excellent value and quality product. The 2 snorkel stops were great but if you only have time to do 1, choose Barrier over Coral.

[erRN2be]

I am planning the 1/2 day stingray city/ 2 snorkels with Captain Marvin in April...There will be 7 ships in port on the same day that we are there so I know it will be crowded...was it horribly bad with it being crowded? How was the snorkeling..did you get to see alot of fish along with the coral? Are there chairs and such to sit on the boat (sounds like silly question I'm sure)? Any other details would be greatly appreciated.

[npeters]

There were also 6 other ships in port when we were in GC. Since our tour was fairly early, we didn't experience the "crowds" much. Stingray city was crowded, but the tour boats made a circle and the groups stayed near their boat. We had plenty of stingrays. Cap Marvins then took us to the snorkel spots and we had them to ourselves. Back in town, the land tour got us back to the port around 2:15p and the tender docks were very crowded with the Carnival and Princess pax. Luckily, our ship didn't leave until 6:00pm so by the time we looked at the shops and wandered around, the docks were empty.

 

The tour boat had plenty of benches to sit on. The snorkeling was fantastic! We had a little stormy weather, but the GC has the clearest water and we saw plenty of fish.

 

I would recommend you bring along snacks/lunch because we immediately boarded our land tour bus as soon as we got off the tour boat. Cap Marvin's dock is in a residential area so there are no restaurants or stores around. The 1st stop is Hell (only about 10 minutes away) where there is a small store. Some pax purchased candy bars and sodas there. Then the next stop is the Turtle farm where they had rum cake samples. Other than that, there wasn't any opportunity to purchase real food until the tour was over.

[WDWfan13]

Did you see any of the Sting Rays being used a hats? I have the 1/2 day tour booked with Captain Marvins, but I am disturbed by reports of the way the rays are treated on some tours.

[npeters]

Captain Marvin's crew did pick up some stingrays to show the underside mouth but didn't wear any as hats. I thought the stingrays were treated well as they were getting quite a bit of food. It's not like they're captive, they could easily stay away from the tour boats if they were being mistreated. We saw a few stingrays on the way to the sandbar so there are other areas where stingrays can be left alone.

[Green4me]

I have done capt marvins twice and never have they miss treated a ray.

 

The best tour if you can take the full day is hte conch dive(snorkle), lunch at a yacht club beach follwed by a reef stop and then sting ray city. They do hold up a ray for a photo op, but it is nothing different than petting a goat at the zoo :)

 

have fun