Diving for me and snorkel for wife; Singray City

[Torontonian]

My wife and I will be on Carnival Miracle, to be in GC Tue. Aug. 29/06, 7am-4pm. I'd (recently PADI AOW) like to dive and I hear GC has great wall diving. (The only one time I did wall diving was in Bay of Pigs in Cuba and it was really good) I'll suggest my wife to a snorkel trip to the Stingray City Sandbar.

We'll probably need to go separate ways for that in the morning.

I also hear there is the Stingray City scuba and snuba in 10-12' shallow water, different than the Stingray city sandbar.

We haven't booked with anyone yet and are looking. I'm an air hog. Can you suggest good dive shops that would work with cruise ship schedules, and if they also have 100' tanks that'll be even better.

Would it be possible for us to get back together in early afternoon, to go for a Stingray City scuba for me and either snorkel or even try snuba for my wife? Does any ops do that?

Thanks a lot.

 

[mike_s]

Well my wife and I did the Stingray City snorkle thing a few years ago when on a cruise. Here's a quick review so you'll know what to expect so you can plan your trip. While it's not the exact answer of what you want to do, it'll give you an idea of what happens with the snorkle trip.

The cruise boats in Grand Cayman are not docked. They anchor and you use a tender that can hold 100-150 people to get to shore. That's where the problem lies. You've got 2500 people on the cruise boat and they all want off at the same time. It was an about 1 hour wait to get off the cruise boat because of the "crowds" all trying to get off at once. So if you book on your own, make sure to allow an extra hour for ship departure. We booked the excursion "through the ship". They allow passenger with cruise line excursions tickets to get off first. So that could cause independent reservations guests more problems.

After getting off they took us to a bus where we had to wait about 15 minutes for everyone to gather. It was then an about 10 minute ride north to where the snorkel boat was located. They packed about 50-70 snorklers on a boat. it was packed. We had an about 15 minute boat ride to the north reef and the stingray city area. We did a two-part trip with reef snorkel and then the stingray part. They were maybe located 500 yards apart. We did a shallow reef snorkle for about 45min-1hr and then the stingray snorkle for about 45min-1hr. It was lots of fun. Then the boat ride in and bus ride back to the wharf area. Total time gone was about 3.5-4 hours. We had about 2-2.5hours of "shopping time" before we got back on the boat. It took about a 30 minute process to tender back on.

Now... this might have been more info than you wanted, but just wanted to show how much of our precious shore time was taken up by the cruise lines inability to manage the boat tenders. This will deffinately cut into your shore time. Hopefully this helps some in that planning. PM if you've got quesitons.

-Mike

 

[Torontonian]

Thanks a lot Mike. It's very valuable info.

I had actually emailed two ops almost two weeks ago and did not get any response. Maybe people in Cayman are enjoying the weather and water so much, they don't check emails. I'll try again, and with other ops soon.

 

[daval]

try http://www.7milediver.com/ they do north wall and stingray city trips as well. I did a full week of diving with them in march and they were a great operation.

 

[Doc]

I'll suggest my wife to a snorkel trip to the Stingray City Sandbar. We'll probably need to go separate ways for that in the morning.

A bad idea. Go with her. If she is a good snorkeler, she can enjoy and be around you. They take the "snorkel only" trips into very shallow water, but there are combo trrips, and the dives are only in 15fsw anyway. (You will not need anything more than an 80 for that!)

I don't usually like "canned critter dives", and Cayman's Stingray City certainly is that, but understand that this is a truly unique experience, and it has come to replace the wonders lost of Cayman past.

Cayman was the mecca for divers starting in the 60's and running until the early 80's. With development and run-off siltation, a lot has changed. Do the Stingrays with old Maude. :05: She'll thank you for it.

GOOGLE is your best friend: http://www.google.com/search?source...,GGLD:2004-30,GGLD:en&q=snuba+cayman+stingray

Stingray City hints:

1) Overweight by 10 to 15 pounds. You want to go ker-plunk on the sand.

2) Fill your wife's bathing suit with frozen shrimp or squid. Take lots of pictures!

 

[cinder4320]

We snorkeled the stingray city and I couldn't imagine diving there. I didn't see anything(only sand no reef) besides stingrays and it is super shallow. I still recommend the trip but wouldn't pay extra to dive it. Also check with the cruise for booking trips. The ones through the cruise will make sure you get back on time and wait for if you arrive late.

Miranda

 

[Squeekycat]

A good tip for Stingray City - if you go looking for the eel, and you have just fed the stingrays, your hands will smell like fish. Make sure you rub them in the sand, and keep your fingers close to your body. Eels are nearsighted, and can mistake your fingers for a fish.

Have a great time - one of my all time favorite spots to have fun!!

 

[Jcsgt]

While feeding the rays, be sure to keep your thumbs tucked into the closed fist which contains the food. The rays and local snappers may accidentally bite your thumb, otherwise.

Also, consider a full wetsuit. A couple of divers from our group, in December, actually received "stingray hickeys". They are painful, from what I understand, and look awful.

 

[Torontonian]

Thanks for all the great suggestions.

It looks like this time I won't get to dive at Stingray city. Our ship is at port 6am - 3pm local time (7am-4pm ship time), so the last tender is 2:30pm.

I'm now looking to do a morning 2-tank boat dive trip, then get back at noon to go out right away with my wife to Stingray sandbar snorkeling trip.

So far I found Wall to Wall goes out at 7:45am from the Cayman Island Yatch Club, and gets back by noon. They usually dive the north wall at that timeof year. Also available is Divers Down just be the cruise terminal. Divers Down goes out 8am and back 11:30am. They dive north , west or south, but from their location and time, I wonder if they dive predominantly west.

If any of you had experience with Wall to Wall, or Divers Down, would appreciate hearing from you.


I have to tell my wife we need to come back another time for the SRC dive

 

[Torontonian]

Stingray City hints:

... Fill your wife's bathing suit with frozen shrimp or squid. Take lots of pictures!

Where are you pictures of your wife, after you filled her bathing suit?:evil: Or did she wack you with the camera afterwards.


I'm going diving hopefully to the north wall, while my wife will do the SR sandbar trip. We'll meet up probably 12:30noon, then thinking of heading to Eden Rock for some snorkeling before getting back on ship, to line up by 2pm. It's a short time in Cayman, but at least we'll get a taste of it.