Stingray City: snorkel or dive?

[caymaniac]

Do the dive, you'll be glad you did. Take a camera even if it is one of those disposables. It's worth the shallow dive and although it's on the sand, there are coral heads nearby that are available to explore around. The coral heads have fish, eels as well as other sea life. Actually I've snorkeled Stingray city once and dove it as well. I might even go back again as it's been about 10 years since the last time I went, it's a fun dive, especially it's fun if you've never gone before.

 

[nwflyboy]

We've decided to do the dive, rather than the snorkel. Looking more carefully at the days/hours of our comings and goings, it looks like we should have time to do 2 morning dives on our last day of the trip, before we fly home around 1 pm the following day. So we'll dive SRC plus one other morning site.

Oh, yeah, I'll definitely bring a camera. No disposables for me: I'll be buying a new Canon Vixia HF200 HD camcorder soon, and the Canon underwater housing for it before our trip in March. I plan to shoot a lot of underwater video on this trip.

So we'll dive Stingray City (plus 1 other morning site on Grand Cayman).

Next, I need to settle on where to stay. Any suggestions?

We'll only be on Grand Cayman for 2 nights: we should arrive from Little Cayman sometime after noon (probably mid-afternoon) on a friday, and have no particular plans for the rest of that day other than finding our hotel and getting settled then fed; we'll do our SRC dive and one other dive on saturday morning, no plans yet for saturday afternoon and evening. We fly home on sunday at 1 pm. So we really won't have a lot of time to while away on Grand Cayman (we will be coming off a week on Little Cayman, though, so we will probably have had our share of just kicking back). If you had just half a day there (after a morning dive), how would you spend it? We're not interested in "nightlife", party-hardy, etc.

And given the fact that we will have just spent a fair sum for a week diving on LC, we probably will be looking to avoid spending an arm and a leg for a high end hotel on Grand Cayman.

Thanks again for the advice & suggestions.

 

[billinwilliamston]

one of the major difference will be the number of people that are on your boat and in the water.

on snorkel trips, they put 70 people on a boat. when you get there, there will be 2 to 5 other boats there with that many people.

you stand on a sand bar, just like they are talking about above. with 70 other people standing on that sand bar. It's not that bad, but it's not like the commercials where they just show 3-4 people in the water. You don't wear flippers as that would hurt the rays' hitting them. Just a mask and maybe a snorkel

wanna now how crowded some of the snorkel locations can be? just check out this overhead shot from Google maps.

grand cayman - Google Maps


On a dive with them, you can expect a whole lot fewer people.

70 people!!??!! WOW!! Glad I wasn't on one of those boats. I've done the snorkel twice out of Rum Point with non-diving friends and relatives. One time there were 8 customers on the boat, 4 of which were us. The other time there were a total of 12 customers, that time 7 of them were us. The first one there was one other boat in sight, the second time there wasn't a single boat in sight. Afternoon vs. morning maybe? No fins and, of course, no gloves on either the dive or the snorkel as I recall.

 

[PhilC]

Next, I need to settle on where to stay. Any suggestions?

And given the fact that we will have just spent a fair sum for a week diving on LC, we probably will be looking to avoid spending an arm and a leg for a high end hotel on Grand Cayman.

Thanks again for the advice & suggestions.

When my wife and I did a similar trip last year we stayed at Cobalt Coast for our few extra days on Grand. Very friendly place and the only drooling cat I've ever met. It's certainly not the cheapest but it is away from the tourism of SMB without being an hour from the airport like the places on East End. DiveTech is on site and were great. After a week on Brac or Little with Reef Divers you'll be a bit spoiled so you want someone good to go with on Grand as well.

 

[frostfire]

Last time we stayed at Grand Caymanian, which very nice and quite convenient to town. The time before that, we stayed at Morritt's on the East end which was on the deeper dive sites of the island, but was far away from all the restaurants. Also, when we stayed there a hurricane came though which raised the surf to the point that all diving was cancelled at that end. (but not at the more protected sites near 7 mile beach. As there was no diving, 9 months later my daughter was born. ;-P

 

[diversteve]

Most of the SRC dives that I'm aware of happen after 1PM. Seemed like just about everybody did a 2tank off the west side then SRC after lunch. So factor that into your plans. From the SMB area, most of the diveops take you by van to their boat for the short trip. And most of them that I know of pick you up anywhere along SMB for either.

When you shoot video there, try to stay a little outside the group. Someone invariably gets kissed and moves and ruins the viz. You're given extra weight so you can stay planted but it doesn't really happen. Also there's usually a couple of 1/2 blind green morays in the few coral clumps nearby that you can get really close to - like 3' away if you approach them slowly.

Comfort Suites is a reasonable (like anything is reasonable on Cayman...lol) option. It's across the street from the beach so priced accordingly. Not as nice as the Ritz or the Westin though...

The problem with Cobalt Coast (or Sunset House) is that they're weeklong AI's so their daily rates are going to be $250ish in March.

There's also a B&B that looked reasonable if you get a car - it's a short drive to restaurants etc. from that area. We thought we'd do cabs but after a couple rides, renting a car was cheaper. Andy's at the airport has some of the best deals. Shangri-La : Cayman's Luxury Bed & Breakfast

 

[nwflyboy]

Thanks for the tips, Steve.

Seriously - there are no morning dives on Grand Cayman?! By "morning dives" I mean you get up early, head out and do one dive around 8 am, surface interval, then a late morning dive 10:30-11:00ish, and you're out of the water around noon. I've gone diving in many places, and this was the norm (or at least it was widely available).

What's the deal - every diver and dive shop employee on Grand Cayman is up getting hammered every night, and everybody wants to sleep in?

All kidding aside, this sounds odd to me based on my experience elsewhere. There are no dive shops that get an early start, none that head out and two two dives before lunch? Really?

 

[Cave Diver]

Stingray City

Stingray City Sunset House Hotel

The Stingray City trip departs the dive shop about 2:00 PM and gets back to the resort about 5:00 PM. The schedule is set up this way to make sure you have enough time between the morning 2-tank dive and the departure for SRC to get some lunch and relax. The afternoon trips never interfere with your dive package.

I did find ops the offer morning snorkel trips, but I didnt see any early morning dive trips to SC.

Yes, dive ops do offer morning trips to most dive sites.

 

[nwflyboy]

Stingray City
I did find ops the offer morning snorkel trips, but I didnt see any early morning dive trips to SC.

Yes, dive ops do offer morning trips to most dive sites.

Morning trips to most dive sites....but none that include Stingray City as a morning dive?

I imagine that there any many dozens of dive ops on Grand Cayman. Is this (two morning dives, one of which is SRC) really that unusual a request?

 

[Cave Diver]

Morning trips to most dive sites....but none that include Stingray City as a morning dive?

I imagine that there any many dozens of dive ops on Grand Cayman. Is this (two morning dives, one of which is SRC) really that unusual a request?

I recall hearing somewhere once that the SRC trips were under the authority of the Department of Environment and that their were limitations to the amount of trips because of the high level of animal interaction. However this is just a fuzzy memory and I can't cite a specific source for it.