Grand Cayman Island tour

[momphoto]

We have booked the Island tour/turtle farm excursion when we are visiting Grand Cayman in March and wonder if anyone has done this and if so your opinions? The tours says you visit the rum factory, town of Hell and the Turtle farm.....$49 per person....is it worth it? thanks in advance!

[serene56]

Is that through the cruiselines or through a private vendor.

 

Please check the port of calls board because we did this tour for soo much cheaper.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=147

 

Please be aware that the turtle farm is there and the turtles are used for consumption., My SIL was really put off about not having that information ahead of time

 

the rum cake factory is a store that sells rum cakes, the "town" of hell is a 5 minute stop-- you see it, take a picture, mail a post card.. 49 bucks-- wow

[momphoto]

Thanks so much for that info on the turtle farm. I looked up the info and when I told dd about it she was totally against going! I think we will just jump on a bus to Hell and maybe visit the beach?

[chirpy007]

There will be loads of tours available right at the port alot cheaper than that. I think that is well overpriced. Its a nice island but the stops arent what you might be expecting. The rum shop is tiny and Hell is a bit bizarre. Having said that im glad l did the tour :D

[kywildcatfanone]

We did this tour last year, it's been our only Princess tour (all others have been private), and we really enjoyed it. The rum factory was nice, hell was interesting, but the turtle farm was the highlight to us. You can hold them, and the tour guide we had was very knowledgeable. They seem to take very good care of the turtles, and have a good release program. I don't think they sell them for consumption, in fact, if I remember right, the reason the turtle farm exists is because the population was dwindling because of poaching, so they started the breeding/release program.

 

Mike

[serene56]

If this is your first time to grand Cayman you really should consider a stop to the Stingrays.

 

If whats stopping you in the crocadile guy steve whatshisname== these stingrays are not in wild waters, they are rather tame.

They are fed from humans for many many years.

 

If getting in the water with stingrays sounds yucky--stay on the boat- thats what I did my first trip-- next trip I did manage to get into the water-- the water was below my hips so it wasnt like I would drown

[CaliJohn]

I agree with the serene56's comments on Stingray City. We did the Turtle Farm, Rum Factory and Hell, but Stingray City was far and away the highlight of the excursion. My wife and son stayed on the boat but my daughter and I had a blast with the Stingrays.

 

There's quite a few pics of the excursion on the photo link in my signature.

[caber]

I am with the rest. I have done the full tour and also the stingrays. I would just go to the sandbank to swim with the stingrays. It`s better than anything else I have done. "Hell" isn`t worth going to and the turtle farm was ok but we had more time there than we needed.

[momphoto]

Thanks for all your replies. We actually did Stingray city a few years ago when the kids were smaller. We really liked it and being able to walk among the stingrays and touch them was a thrill!

[Kismets_mom]

We did a combo Stingray City/and Island tour through Captain Marvin's. It was really cheap, about $35 if I recall, and we had a small group. After the stingrays, we went to the turtle farm, hell and the rum cake factory. I highly recommend them. I found Captain Marvin's through cruise critic boards.

[Woodmnky]

The turtle farm was the highlight of our cruise to the Western Caribbean. It is true that SOME of the turtles are sold for consumption, but we were told that this is approx 1/3 and they are kept in a separate area. The turtles that are sold are done so to a) keep people from poaching wild turtles and b) to fund the breeding and release of the other turtles.

 

As a turtle lover, it was an OK trade off as they really are doing a lot to repopulate the wild sea turtle population. Also, you can assure DD that any baby turtles that she would see and hold are going to be released and not made into food.