Grand Cayman Island Tour

[kaw904]

Anybody do this excursion through Carnival? What did you think of it?

 

Thanks.:)

 

Marilyn

[AtoZgirl]

The tour offered on the ship is a lot like, if not completely the same, as the other privte tours, which go to Stingray City, the Rum Factory, Hell and the Turle farm... then its AWESOME. One of those once in a life time experiences. Do it. If its your first time cruising, obvioulsy you'd be safer booking through the ship. If not trying booking it privately as it will save you a lot of money.

[cruisebie]

My DD & I did this last year. It was fun, but not something I would want to do a second time. We chose this tour since we weren't interested in doing the Stingrays and wanted to see something of the island.

 

After tendering from the ship, we waited around maybe 30 min. for someone to show up to take us on the excursion. Spots for other tours were pretty clearly marked, but this one wasn't. Finally someone came and led us to a spot 2 or 3 blocks away to board our busses. I was kind of surprised by this since a couple of the other people had mobility issues. This whole first part of the excursion seemed to not be well organized. It may not be like this every time, but this time it was. The rest of the tour went fine, though.

 

After boarding our bus, our tour guide pointed out various buildings in town as we wound our way to our first stop at the Tortuga Rum Factory. We had about 15-20 min. at this stop. There were various flavors of rum you could taste in those little cups like you get catsup in at fast food places. There were also rum cakes in many different flavors and sizes you could buy and I believe there were also samples of the cakes out as well. We bought a sampler pack of the cakes and enjoyed them after getting back home. We also brought some back as gifts for family & friends.

 

Back on the bus, our next stop was Hell. Before we reached Hell, our guide made a stop at 7 mile beach (we weren't allowed to leave the bus) and the Homestead House (oldest house on the island-again, we did not get off the bus). At Hell, we had about 15 minutes to look at the rock formations and buy any postcards we wanted to send. There were two tiny gift shops and they were jam packed with people. If you plan on sending postcards from here, it would be a good idea to have some labels already printed with names and addresses. By the time you are able to pay for your cards, there isn't much time to address them and drop them in the mail.

 

Next we were on to the Turtle Farm at Boatswain's Beach. We had the longest stop here, maybe an hour or so. We were given a tour of the tanks with the turtles and were allowed to hold a turtle if we wanted. It was pretty interesting to see all the sizes and types of turtles. After the tour, there was time to wander around the grounds a little and stop in the gift shop and restaurant for something cold to drink.

 

From the Turtle Farm, we were taken back to the port area. We were dropped off right at the port area and didn't have to walk back from the original boarding spot.

 

On the whole, most of the tour seemed very rushed. I would have liked an opportunity to get out at the beach for a few minutes for pictures at least. I think they have these tours running pretty regularly, so they want you in and out at the various stops before the next group arrives. Our tour guide was very good. He gave us a lot of information about the island and was very funny also.

 

We did enjoy the tour and since it was our first time on Grand Cayman, it gave us an introduction to the island. When we go there again, this August, we're thinking of renting a car and exploring on our own.

[chirpy007]

We picked up one from the dockside which was much cheaper. You cant miss them. There was 7 of us in a people carrier, it was a bit rushed aswell. To be honest I would have been very happy to rent a car as its a lovely safe island.

[kaw904]

Thank you so much for taking the time to post. This is our second cruise (went first time last year), but still not feeling comfortable enough to book outside of Carnival. Maybe a few cruises from now we will.:)

 

Marilyn