GC Stingray City: Worth it or Worthless?

[nimoh]

View attachment 115058

that picture is enough to keep me away, unless there is an off season

 

[mike_s]

that picture is enough to keep me away, unless there is an off season

i went when it was about that crowded and I'll say it wasn't an issue. the boat was a little crowded on the way out. (I think we had about 50-70 people on it).

but I was on vacation and had a good time. Sometimes your time and how you feel about it is "what you make of it".


But it's DEFINITELY not the 2 adults and 2 kids in the Royal Caribbean commercial where they are the ONLY ones out there . (the one where the kid says they 'look like giant portabella mushrooms'. )


I'd do it again even if that crowded. But I'd prefer to do the dive version next time. (note they only do that in 8-15 ft of water. So it's a short easy dive).




Here's some pics from Cruise Critic site. Very similar to what we saw, but only that our boat was about 100 yards away from the "big crowd of boats" all on it's own, which was nicer.

 

[Queen Triggerfish]

I'm clearly of the minority opinion here, but personally I don't think it's worth doing unless you have a strong desire to actually touch the stingrays (or maybe have kids with you?). I've done it several times on both scuba and snorkeling. Your chances of seeing Southern Stingrays on other dives in Grand Cayman is quite good (I've seen as many as six on one dive there), so it just doesn't seem worth it to me to go with the hoards to see them. That said, if I were to do it again, I'd snorkel. The dive itself gets pretty repetitive after about 10 minutes as another poster stated. After the stingrays move on, the dive master will then lead you around a few coral heads but there is just SO much sand that visibility to pretty poor.

BUT, if it actually seems intriguing to you and you might regret not doing it, then by all means check it out. I don't think it's terrible or anything, would just prefer spending my time there doing other dives.

I'm sure you will have fun whatever you decide!

 

[Rescue Diver68]

Geeze! Looks like about a trillion more people than when I did it in 1995!

 

[ScubaBing]

Dove Stingray City in Decmeber - it is once in a lifetime for me. Interesting once. Not interesting enough to do again.

 

[EastEndDiver]

If you are diving the North Wall try doing it as a surface interval between dives.Thats the way I did it several times .Ask the dive op if they would swing inside for the Surface interval.

 

[tridacna]

Thanks for all the advice. I guess that doing it on the last day before flying would be fun either SCUBA or snorkel.

 

[Wolfie]

That's the spirit, last day sounds great.
Been there done that got the t-shirt. Glad I did it.
Do yourself a favor and pick a day that the cruise ships are gone.....