Grand Cayman: Stingray City
Stingray City is a must-see in Grand Cayman. I try to be careful when picking excursions that include wildlife in captivity. I prefer to contribute to conservation rather than exploitation. I was pleased to learn that these stingrays are not held captive. They showed up decades ago when fishermen would clean their catch in the shallow water. Eventually they discovered the stingrays could be fed by hand which you can still do today.
Booking
There are a plethora of stingray excursions available through Carnival as well as local companies. I wasn’t interested in any of the combo excursions that added ziplining through the jungle or having lunch with the dolphins to the stingray excursion.
The most popular non-Carnival excursion company for stingrays is Captain Marvin’s. With this being a water shuttle/tender port, I didn’t want to take any chances on a water shuttle problem causing me to miss an excursion with an outside company. With Carnival you meet on the ship and take the water shuttle/tender together.
I booked the Sensational Stingray Swim through Carnival for $39.99. This is the bare bones Stingray City excursion. There was a “Deluxe” Stingray option that was slightly more expensive. From reading the reviews deluxe was just the same excursion on a nicer boat.
Main Lounge
They called my excursion for the water shuttle at 6:55am.
This is a look at the tender ride. It was less than 5 minutes.
George Town Cruise Port
When you get off of the shuttle/water taxi you can see the people with the excursion signs.
I found mine: Sensational Stingray Swim.
The guy with the sign told me to go stand in the line by the blue smiley sign.
They gave me a blue smiley to wear.
The wait was a nightmare. We got in line at 7:29. We were supposed to leave at 7:30. We didn’t leave until 8am.
First they told us they wanted us to sign the back of our ticket indicating we were told the water could be rough. Then they passed around a clipboard for us to sign. Then they wanted to count the number of people in line to compare to the number of tickets they collected. They came up short on people. It turned out a few had wandered off to talk to friends. Then they told us we were waiting on three more people from the ship. Finally we left without them.
The bus seemed kind of small. I was thinking there’s no way we’re all fitting in this thing.
Once the bus filled up they folded down these little seats in the aisle. I got stuck in one of them. It was only a 5-10 minute ride but it was uncomfortable in that seat.
Three people didn’t fit. They had to get on another bus for them. They were upset because they boarded back of the line to front. So the three people that were first in line were the ones left off of the bus. I think they came out better on a different bus.
Camana Bay
The shuttle dropped us off at Camana Bay.
Why did the chicken cross the road?
After a 5-10 minute wait on our tour guide, it was a short walk through the shops to our boat.
It was about a 30 minute boat ride to Stingray City. Here are the first six minutes.
They had a small bathroom on the boat to change clothes in. Everyone just left their other clothes under their seat while in the water.
Stingray City
Here are some Stingray City videos.
On the way back we were spotting iguanas in the trees.
Camana Bay
When we got off the boat I was moving with a purpose. I didn’t want the uncomfortable middle of the aisle seat on the ride back.
When we arrived at the pickup location they had two big beautiful buses waiting for us!
I took a seat in the back and had an entire row to myself and extra leg room.
George Town
After they dropped us off I walked around town a bit before returning to the ship.
Fort George
This is what is left of Fort George which was built in 1790 to protect the island. The fort was also used as a lookout for German Submarines during World War II.
The Green Parrot
I decided to grab a local beer before getting back on the ship.
This was a $7 beer.
George Town Cruise Port
Here is the tender/water shuttle ride back to the ship.
I enjoyed the excursion but next time I would probably check into a private company such as Captain Marvin’s. I have heard they offer better experience with a smaller group and more time with the stingrays.
