Stingray City Debate

[Alex777]

Since my wife works there, I have done both sites numerous times. "Stingray City" is a dive site, maximum depth of 14'. "Stingray City Sandbar" is a wading/swimming/snorkelling site where the depth varies from 3' to 8' or so. They are definitely separate locations, at least 1 mile apart.

I usually recommend the dive site to divers. It is less crowded with people, and provides much more scope for photography. I suggest adding 2 - 4 lbs. of weight to your normal dose and just sitting on the sand, watching the show and shooting up.

The Sandbar does have some advantages. It will cost you less to visit, and there are far more boats going there. My wife swears there are "more" stingrays at the Sandbar. There are definitely more people there. On holidays, it is a real party spot for younger residents of Grand Cayman.

 

[segundo3000gt]

Hopefully I'm not beating a dead horse but I thought I'd point to where we did the dive. You can see that there is much less boat traffic. Not sure if that's weighing in on your decision.

Divers Down Location

 

[sixgears]

Dive it. You won't regret it. I was there last Friday. It was a blast!

 

[creamofwheat]

I just got back from the Caymans and we did this dive. We were actually the only boat there when we did it, so we had many stingrays around (I am guessing 15-20, but it is hard to tell). It was a pretty neat experience, for sure. I haven't snorkeled it, so i can't say what that is like, but diving it was a lot of fun.

 

[DiverLS]

I was there in '91 and dove scuba. My breathhold diving sucks so I don't snorkel that well. I think that should be the defining thing. If it's just you, you know where you are best. If you are with a group and want the whole group to enjoy it, I'd advise deciding the breathhold skills of your least able snorkeler and decide.

I loved it and will go back the next time I visit the Caymans. I would advise mid-week, we dove on Thursday and I understood it was a lot better that then weekend. But it was a lifetime ago so things might have changed.

Hope that helps.

 

[RV]

I thought it would be the biggest waist of time.. but as it turned out, it was the funniest *******n thing ever.
The Boat pulls up, we get out... We're standing there watching the stingrays swim around us and all of the sudden a woman screams and climbs to the top of a friend of mime trying to get away from them.. This happened several times.
My friends' wife would not off the boat at first.. After talking her into it, she was on his shoulders wearing a mask and snorkel,, screaming and howling though the snorkel.. it was funny...
She ended up kissing one of the rays for good luck....

 

[spschneer]

We went this summer and did SCUBA and had a ball. We went with Ocean Frontiers and they said their "new rules" were their divemaster were the only ones to handle the squid...The divemaster had us get into a circle on our knees and she came around to each of us to have the Stingrays up close and personal...They also had a great photographer on-board(and in-water) with us that took dozens of shots of each diver so everyone had lots of choices if they wanted some photos. Like was said above, add a couple of pounds to your normal weight and plan to kneel or sit on the bottom. It helps keep the suspended sand down and helps keep the viz up.

 

[mike_s]

I thought it would be the biggest waist of time.. but as it turned out, it was the funniest *******n thing ever.
The Boat pulls up, we get out... We're standing there watching the stingrays swim around us and all of the sudden a woman screams and climbs to the top of a friend of mime trying to get away from them.. This happened several times.
My friends' wife would not off the boat at first.. After talking her into it, she was on his shoulders wearing a mask and snorkel,, screaming and howling though the snorkel.. it was funny...
She ended up kissing one of the rays for good luck....

you're not talking about me an my wife are you?

The stingrays will swim up to you and then run up your body looking for squid that you feed them. this freaked my wife out.

she ended up screaming and climbed on top of my shoulders trying to get away from them.

Some guy was standing on the boat with a video camera taping everyone and just laughing and going "this is great!" (referring to the 'carnage').

 

[RV]

I wish we had a video...

 

[CDRODA396]

If you look closely, you'll see the link posted by Mike S and Segundo are of the same location. My wife and I have been there a couple times and dove it every time.

According to local lore, it started when local fisherman used to pull their hauls into the protected inlet to clean their catch and would throw fish parts over the side...eventually some enterprising dive operator figured out how to capitalize on it and Stingray City was born....we heard basically the same story from several dive operators and many locals (I'm curios and like to ask more than one source!)

I definately think diving is the way to go, the bubbles dont scare or intimidate the stingrays in the least as they've become more than accustomed to them, and it allows you to hang out on the bottom and take turns taking pics as the DM passes the squid around.