Beware of Sotos on Grand Cayman

[weegl]

I want everyone that might be considering purchasing a stingray city excursion on Grand Cayman to be aware of what happened to us last week. Because of positive recommendations from others on this board, we pre-booked with Sotos for our excursion. When we arrived at the appointed place and time to be picked up, a representative of theirs showed up to tell us that they would not be going out that day "because of windy conditions." Only after extensive prodding on my part (why was everyone else going out then if its so windy?), did she admit that they canceled us for lack of participants.

 

My take on that is: if you make a guaranteed booking then you carry out on the promise. That's especially true if your customers have no way of learning about the cancellation until the last minute, so you have no options. She did not book us with a competitor, nor offer an alternative, so we just sat there dumbfounded.

 

Furtunately, we walked back over to the tender pier and found an excursion just leaving and bought in at the last minute and had a great day. That made up for a very uncomfortable experience with Sotos.

[Jeanne B]

What tour operator did you end up going with? Glad you were able to get on with another group...still frustrating though I'm sure!!

[richtersl]

If you were there on Monday the 15th like we were, most tours to the Stingray City had been cancelled that day due to high wind, even our ship's tour. We had walked over to Captain Marvins to book a tour to Stingray City and even they had cancelled their tour there that day.

 

This was believable to us considering the weather front we had passed through earlier that morning with 12-19' waves.

 

We did hear later on that some folks were able to find a tour operator to take them to Stingray City and they all had a blast.

[cali-croozer]

How much did you pay for the tour you took? And, what did it include? Not many people book right at the pier so I'm interested in all the details. Thanx

[weegl]

Every other operator was taking trips out there. So her "reason" was not valid.

 

I honestly can't recall the operator that we ended up going with, but it cost us 35.00 pp and included all of the typical excursion amenities (transport, snorkel gear, drinks, etc.) and made 2 stops. For some reason, the name Dockside Tours is hanging in my head (makes sense, since that's where we booked).

 

The folks that took us out were very personable and knew what tthey were doing. They even caught some conch on the way out and made a fcresh dip for us to snack on on the trip back!

[cali-croozer]

Thanx for the info. I'm glad your day ended up working out.

[ttowners]

My wife and I were on the Grand Princess, and were supposed to be on that same afteroon Soto's tour (11/17). When the lady from Soto's came to the meeting place, she told us up front that they didn't have enough people to go out to Stingray City. We also found the same tour at the dock for $35......named Duncan's Stingray City tour. It was $10 more than Soto's, and Stingray City was the only stop unlike most of the other tours. We are just glad we got to experience it. The stingrays were awesome. The sea conditions were pretty rough, but there were a few boats out there.

 

I'm sure part of the problem was the lack of non-cruise ship tourists. When the island returns to normal, there should be plenty of people for all of the afternoon Stingray City tours.