Grand Cayman Stingray City

First time in Grand Cayman and would like to find a company that has a minimum amount of people on board and maybe goes out either earlier or later than the rest of the boats. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Sorry, I can't remember the name of the company we used, but I found it on the bulletin board on cruisecritic.com. (I know I've read some negative comments about that board here recently, but I found it had lots of useful info when I was on it several years ago.) We stopped in Cayman on a cruise and I had read on that board in advance about booking your own trip. I was very glad I'd done it. We were on a smallish boat with about a dozen people. We made a couple of other snorkel stops before going to Sting Ray City, so got there as some of the other larger boats were finishing. We anchored off to the side, out of the mass of people, but still had plenty of interaction with the sting rays. I was appalled to see how big some of the boats were and the large number of people they were carrying; can't imagine it was as fun an experience.

I'd actually been to Sting Ray City before it was a "city" - years ago on a snorkel trip when the guide just stopped in the area to let us see the sting rays. We were the only boat there. Now it feels like a stop at Times Square.

stingray city or stingray sandbar?

did you know there are two distinct areas:

stingray city proper, where the water is 12-15 ft deep. this is where you would go if scuba diving.
and stingray sandbar where the water is 2-3 ft deep. This is where you can wade in the water with the rays.

We were last there a few years ago and did a scuba trip on a small boat (about 12 people). was expensive, but we had a very attentive dive master with us, lunch on the boat and 2 dives with the rays at different places.
There were very few other boats around - but that may have been because there was a strong current that day.

We passed the sandbar, it was very crowded with dozens of large boatloads of people. Our captain said it was all the cruise ship passengers.

Not sure which one a snorkel trip would go to - you would have to ask before making a reservation.

You can hire Rodger Ebanks for around $450.00. His boat can accommodate 25 and he has all the gear for the best sting ray city trip, fern grotto and lobster grounds. There was 4 of us so we found 3 other couples to make 10 and split the cost 10 ways. We got to sting ray city and the other attractions way before the tour guides with the loads of 50. We stayed at Morritts and contacted him through his girl friend Risa. She is a concierge at Morritts. Getting to sting ray city early is key to a very private trip. We were there by 8 am. By 8:45 other groups showed up with alot of cruise ship passengers.

Risa has not worked at Morritt's for many months now.

Are you diving or snorkeling? If diving, we usually dive with Cayman Diver out of the Grand Caymanian resort. When we did a stingray city dive with them it was just me and hubby. When we did regular dives it was me, hubby and one other couple. We love going back to them. Here's the website http://www.diversdown.net/_nsting.htm

Seaside said:

Risa has not worked at Morritt's for many months now.

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Sorry. Its been many months since our visit. Still, getting a private boat, avoiding the crowds and bringing squid make a great trip.

The trip to the Sandbar and a reef area from the Grand Caymanian Resort worked great for us, but it does leave pretty early, so won't work for everyone. The Web link above says you have to be staying on the island; it's too early for a cruise ship visit. And, be aware that some of the year, the weather may be too rough for it to be a good experience. Last Thanksgiving we didn't go because of the rough seas, but in March it was great. We had the sandbar to ourselves, and then on the way back from the reef saw gazillions of cruise ship folks there.

Our snorkel trip stopped at the sandbar so we were able to stand. But we were still somewhat away from where most of the "crowd" was located. We had earlier snorkeled in deeper water areas.

Red Sail

It has been several years since we were there, however, we used a sail company called Red Sail. Seems they went out from the area where the Hyatt is located. They took a catamaran out with a small number of people. It was a very pleasant sail. There were other boats out but he parked us somewhat away from the crowd. We were in deep water, with a diver going down and bringing the rays up to us. As I said, this was several years ago and I don't know whether Red Sail is still operating in the area.

easyrider said:

You can hire Rodger Ebanks for around $450.00. His boat can accommodate 25 and he has all the gear for the best sting ray city trip, fern grotto and lobster grounds. There was 4 of us so we found 3 other couples to make 10 and split the cost 10 ways. We got to sting ray city and the other attractions way before the tour guides with the loads of 50. We stayed at Morritts and contacted him through his girl friend Risa. She is a concierge at Morritts. Getting to sting ray city early is key to a very private trip. We were there by 8 am. By 8:45 other groups showed up with alot of cruise ship passengers.

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Risa and Rodger are married now and do many custom charter trips each week... you can email Risa at :

morningdreamwatersports@hotmail.com

Give her your dates and an idea of what you want to do ! ENJOY !!

escargot said:

Risa and Rodger are married now and do many custom charter trips each week... you can email Risa at :

morningdreamwatersports@hotmail.com

Give her your dates and an idea of what you want to do ! ENJOY !!

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Right on!!!! Good for them. We really like those people. Thanks for the contact info.

DianneL said:

It has been several years since we were there, however, we used a sail company called Red Sail. Seems they went out from the area where the Hyatt is located. They took a catamaran out with a small number of people. It was a very pleasant sail. There were other boats out but he parked us somewhat away from the crowd. We were in deep water, with a diver going down and bringing the rays up to us. As I said, this was several years ago and I don't know whether Red Sail is still operating in the area.

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We used Red Sail too a couple of years ago and had a great experience. I went scuba diving and my wife snorkeled. The boat was big and would have probably held 50 people but we were the only ones on that day (did it the day we arrived so maybe most others were settling in). They did not cancel and we had the whole boat to ourselves with a private guide!

Another vote for Red Sail. We used them on our trip from Rum Point to the sandbar and there were only about 10 people on the boat and maybe two other small boats in the area.

Cheers

x3 skier said:

Another vote for Red Sail. We used them on our trip from Rum Point to the sandbar and there were only about 10 people on the boat and maybe two other small boats in the area.

Cheers

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We did the same thing a couple of years ago and had a great time. Red Sail also gives guests at the Morritt's a discount.

Just be sure to book a day when there are no cruise ships in port. There's a web-site out there that shows which day what ships are in port. Just google it.

Just did Red Sail to SRC today

It was ok. The crew were nice enough, but it felt like...an assembly line. We've done several snorkel trips in Hawaii and other places, and this was the least personal of the lot. Not much (any?) educational information imparted, and the prices were higher than some other guides. We had 40 or so people on our boat (that's a sophisticated wild-a**-guess), so it was somewhat crowded, especially when another Red Sail cat pulled up next to ours and their boatload joined us in the water.

So, it was ok to do with Red Sail from Rum Point (especially since we're at Morritt's), but it wasn't spectacular. The reef was good, not great, but we did enjoy it. If I did it again, I'd probably look for a smaller operator, but I don't know who else (if anyone) operates out of Rum Point.

Regards,

sc
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SteveChapin said:

So, it was ok to do with Red Sail from Rum Point (especially since we're at Morritt's), but it wasn't spectacular. The reef was good, not great, but we did enjoy it. If I did it again, I'd probably look for a smaller operator, but I don't know who else (if anyone) operates out of Rum Point.

Regards,

sc
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Although this was posted earlier, I'm not sure the location was listed. Contact Risa and Rodger Ebanks. They have a couple of smaller boats and put together custom dive / snorkel / whatever you want to see trips... avoiding all the crowds. They also do dinner trips across to West Bay to dine at either Fisherman's Reef or Calypso Grill... places we had never been because of the distance driving at night ! They operate out of Kaibo so it's perfect for Morritt's people. Just email Risa with what you're interested in, the days, etc and your number. She'll call and work it all out. ENJOY !


morningdreamwatersports@hotmail.com

We used Captain Marvin's - I had read they were recommended - and we drove all the way around to the other end of the island from Morritts to get to them. IMO as operators they were OK, not bad but not great either - at least 40 people on the boat and not much information - so in the end it seemed Red Sail would have been the better idea since they depart from Rum Point, closer to Morritts. The experience itself was really fun however. Those stingrays are *huge*!!

We knew there would be cruise ships in the port the day we went, but we took an afternoon slot so maybe fewer - there were 2 other boats anchored within view but not too close. Someone said the most cruise ships are usually Tues-Thursday, not sure whether that's always true though.

Somewhere there's a Grand Cayman website which shows stingray city tour companies that get an eco-stamp of approval, and I noticed Captain Marvin's wasn't listed. I wish I'd known about it before we went. If I find the website, I'll come back and post.

Capt. Brian he is in the book @ Morritt's!!

HAD the best time & 12 people on the boat & the crew was OUTSTANDING!!