Problems booking an excursion in Grand Cayman due to ship timing??!!

uandmfan

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 2, 2014
Hi everyone,

I was looking at booking an excursion with a provider other than Disney for this port in February. I spoke to some of the companies recommended here and on cruise critic. However, due to our arrival and departure times in port, they can't accommodate us on their tours! We are arriving too late for the morning tours and leaving too early for the afternoon ones.

Disney doesn't offer the tour I was hoping for either...........

Any idea/suggestions? Has this happened to anyone else? I was hoping to take the kids to Starfish point.

Thanks!
 
We had the same issue. We ended up picking a Disney excursion as there just wasn't any other choice. We ended up doing the stingrays.
 
How was the stingray excursion? My kids will be 3 and 6. The site says they have to be five, I think. I'm not sure how much the kids will like it.
 


From what I can tell they won't let my 3 year old on much. But other providers would. So this will be frustrating.

Is there beach nice it is it really crowded. That day seem to be busy in Port. I have fond memories of it there but maybe we should skip it???
 
How was the stingray excursion? My kids will be 3 and 6. The site says they have to be five, I think. I'm not sure how much the kids will like it.

The stingray excursion was great. We did the Deluxe one. The guides were wonderful and there didn't feel like too many people on the excursion.

I think the issue with kids is that it is chest deep water for an adult with waves. It wasn't really rough water but young kids would have to swim the entire time.
 
So I checked, and basically there is one Disney excursion that my son can go on. He's only 3 so he will be to young for basically everything they offer. We are considering a beach day but there are 6 of ships in port - 16,000 people! I'm looking into booking a cabana at a beach resort for a beach day. Otherwise I think it's going to be nuts. So maybe we will go in and walk around for a bit, but I think we may end up just staying on the ship. I'm sad because I have fond memories of the Island, but with 2 kids and basically no activities available, and 16,000 cruise passengers in port, it may not be worth trying to get anything done! We'll see.

I'd do a beach break through the ship but they are all very expensive and don't come with umbrellas - which we would need. I thought there would be more availability for activities with my son. The tour operators would take him, we just can't make the times :(

Thank you!
 


See if you can find a private provider. We did a stingray excursion with a single provider - he was amazing, but we were 12 and used his biggest boat, which he was selling the week after we left! The other boats he run/supervises accommodate much smaller groups, like 6. But because it was just us, he met us when we arrived and got us back when we needed to go back.

Of course, if it's a 16,000 person day, it might be a little harder to find a small boat! You could also consider trying to get a group together from a cruise meet-up group, but that has its own issues obviously with payments and such. It was hard enough organizing 12 from a family group!!
 
We used Captain Marvin for the Stingray excursion. He had a special time just for the Disney ship. Great excursion!
I remember two families traveling together with younger kids and seemed to be having a good time.
The boat ride to where the stingrays are was fun for all ages.
 
We did a day pass at the Westin, their beach was beautiful... I agree though that I think the port duration on GC is kind of ridiculous, way too short
 
Have you tried Acquarius Sea Tours? We had a great tour with them - Stingray City, Starfish Point and snorkeling - on DS's 5th birthday. They were great and the price was super reasonable. DS loved Starfish Point!
 
Although DCL no longer does excursions to the turtle farm, you could easily catch a ride and do that with plenty of time to get back to the ship. they have a swimmng area and restaurant on property that you could take advantage of as well as seeing the turtles and exhibits.
 
Hi Everyone

Thanks for all the suggestions! I did try Aquarius. I was able to find a private charter for the 6 of us that will take us to Stingray City and the Starfish Point. We can do some snorkeling and they will pick us up at the port. A bit more than I was hoping to spend, but it will get us what we want with transportation. So I'm quite happy!

Thank you :)
 
Just want to let you know that we used Crystal Charters for a group of 6, including my daughters who are 3 1/2 and 5. They LOVED both starfish beach and the stingrays (the reef snorkeling not as much, though they had an awesome time dipping their feet & splashing on the back of the boat). My DH and I just held the girls at stingray city, since it was a little deep, but it worked out great! The rays just swarmed our guides and both girls got lots of attention, too! Just an FYI, our guide told us that the rays tend to steer clear of people in life jackets. So we just held the girls real tight. The water wasn't rough, so it was OK. (DH and I are both pretty tall though. 5'9" and 6'3" ) Both girls petted and kissed the rays and had an excellent time!

We were just off the boat last week and I was sorting through these pics tonight. (Now the LONG wait until our next cruise in 2019...)
 
That's great. Thank you for letting me know about your experience. It will probably work the same way with us!! Still six months to go but looking forward to it!!
 
Hi everyone,

I was looking at booking an excursion with a provider other than Disney for this port in February. I spoke to some of the companies recommended here and on cruise critic. However, due to our arrival and departure times in port, they can't accommodate us on their tours! We are arriving too late for the morning tours and leaving too early for the afternoon ones.

Disney doesn't offer the tour I was hoping for either...........

Any idea/suggestions? Has this happened to anyone else? I was hoping to take the kids to Starfish point.

Thanks!

Check out StingRay Sailing or Cayman Eco Adventures . They cater exclusively to cruise ships and DCL. They are sister companies and we've used both, had 6 yr olds and 9 yr olds at the time. Very knowledgeable and highly expert captain and crew. They actually monitor the ships' tender times and plan their excursions accordingly. Sailed to StingRay City, then to a snorkeling point (amazing reef) then to Starfish Point. Very trustworthy and safe. Good luck!
 
Hi

We had success booking with Island Splash Watersports. They will do a stop 2.5 hour tour with us to Stingray City and Starfish Point. They have good reviews on Trip Advisor, will pick us up at the port and don't charge us anything until the day of the tour. I'm nervous about missing the last tender, so I want to be back at the dock an hour and a half before the ship is supposed to leave. I think this will be good enough for our family.

I appreciate everyone's suggestions!

Now I just need to figure out Costa Maya and Cozumel........... :)

Thanks!
 
Disney won't let you book an excursion for a child too young for it.
We recently did the Eastern Caribbean cruise on the Fantasy with our adult children and grandchildren. Booked the dolphin encounter in Tortola thru DCL and the 2 youngest grandkids were only 2, so they were unable to signup for the encounter and their moms just signed up for the observer version. When we checked in on the ship for the excursion, the tour provider was there and said that the 2 two year olds could do the encounter for free, and the moms could pay the price difference once we got there.

BTW, my kids thought that this excursion was overpriced, and one of the worst parts is that you are not allowed to take your own photos of the encounters and the photos they take there are not cheap. For 15 people price for the photos on CD was over $600. That is in addition to the cost of the encounter itself.
 
BTW, my kids thought that this excursion was overpriced, and one of the worst parts is that you are not allowed to take your own photos of the encounters and the photos they take there are not cheap. For 15 people price for the photos on CD was over $600. That is in addition to the cost of the encounter itself.[/QUOTE
There are a lot of bad things about this kind of excursion. I always recommend research before booking any animal encounter.
 
We decided to stay on the ship at Grand Cayman. After the early day in Cozumel and the early day coming up with Jamaica, it was nice to enjoy the slides and pools and movie theater that day where most everything was fairly quiet.
 

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