Dolphin swim and stingray city reviews

[czmom]

Has anyone done the Dolphin swim and Stingray City in Grand Cayman? Did you go through DCL or on your own?
Thanks!

 

[GeeL10]

Has anyone done the Dolphin swim and Stingray City in Grand Cayman? Did you go through DCL or on your own?
Thanks!

Following this thread because I am interested too. I have never had the opportunity to swim with Dolphins and I am pretty sure I might choose to do this as my excursion!

 

[Whimsical1995]

I am booked for this one in December. Would like to hear about experiences too!

 

[mom4fun]

I was really wanting to do this one but have read quite a few bad reviews. The biggest complaint was high sales pitch to buy pictures and if you do want them they cost a ton. The other complaint I read was that the water was very murky, not what you would expect in the Caribbean.

 

[Anchors Away 2016]

We did the Dolphin swim on Grand Cayman, but not the Stingray City. We also added on the Turtle Farm, which is across the street. That was nice too. It was short, but worth it to us as you got to see the big turtles close up and hold the smaller, 1 ft size, ones. Plus they had 5 baby turtles too.

As for the Dolphins, we did the "extreme" swim, which included the dolphin "encounter" shaking their hands, giving/receiving dolphin kisses, etc., the dolphin "swim" where you hold onto their flippers and they swim backwards with you holding on, and the "extreme swim" which is you holding a boogie board and the dolphin pushes you by your feet. This one definitely gives you the most thrilling speed, but the regular swim was the most "close up" experience.

As for the water, in our case it was a man-made lagoon, next to the ocean. Water was plenty clear.

As for the cost of the photos. Yes, they are extremely expensive, and no, you can't take your own pictures. They are very clear about that. I think it was $200 for our family of four to have their pictures. I can't tell you if that is worth it to you, but I can give you some advice. Decide ahead of time if you are going to buy the pictures or not, and stick to that. If you decide to buy them, great. Start setting aside money for it now just like all of your other vacation expenses. If you don't want to buy them, great too. Just don't even go over to the photo area and look at them. I saw some families really angsting over their decision there at the counter and the sales people trying to make the sale. Who needs that? Decide ahead of time. You'll be happier.

 

[Suttonmama1]

We did dolphin swim in Cozumel and Sting Ray city in grand Cayman. Both were enjoyable but we preferred the sting ray encounter because the animals are in the ocean and it's much less commercial. We booked through DCL and though the upfront price was higher than dolphins you were free to take pictures with your own camera (there is no photographer so bring an underwater camera). The boat that took us out there had snacks and drinks for $1-2 and free water. Guides were great and very entertaining and patient with nervous kids. I would highly recommend.

 

[tigerchic89]

We did this one 6/15. The dolphin swim was ok.. we are glad that we got to experience the dolphins, that part was great... but yeah the water was murky big time, the picture thing was a total rip off. We got into port very late, so everyone on our excursion was feeling rushed. So when we got to the dolphin place, it was very aggravating that they wouldn't let us into the dolphin area.... we had to go on their nature/bird trail across the street (more pics!) and then we had to go upstairs to see their museum. Those 2 things were just weird to us.. we were ready to swim! I'm assuming they had other groups in front of us that were also running late, but it was aggravating.

But... Stingray City was AWESOME, one of our favorite things of the whole cruise.

So my advice would be to do stingray city, and see if you can do dolphins somewhere else.

 

[scrappinginontario]

We did the 'Adventure to Stingray City Sandbar (G08)' and it was amazing!!! There were 5 of us in our party ranging from 5 to 75 and we all loved it!! It was great and we would highly recommend it! Zero sales pitch and I don't believe they took pictures. The only thing we were asked to do was to add a report on Trip Advisor if we could. We booked through DCL and I would have no hesitation recommending this PA to others!

 

[czmom]

Thank you all! Was Stingray City crowded?

 

[scrappinginontario]

Thank you all! Was Stingray City crowded?

There were a lot of boats there (probably at least 8 at all times) but each group just keeps to themselves so I can't say we felt crowded. LOL - There seemed to be plenty of stingrays to go around. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

Just looked back at pics and at the time (not sure if it's changed) the Stingray City only trip sponsored by DCL was with a company called Marineland Tours.

If you're interested, here's a link to a post I put on our blog about our PA. It contains both pictures and videos. Hope this helps.

 

[tigerchic89]

when we were at stingray city, there were probably 10 boats there but it did not seem crowded at all, plenty of room to swim around and with the rays

 

[Stratus22]

We did the 'Adventure to Stingray City Sandbar (G08)' and it was amazing!!! There were 5 of us in our party ranging from 5 to 75 and we all loved it!! It was great and we would highly recommend it! Zero sales pitch and I don't believe they took pictures. The only thing we were asked to do was to add a report on Trip Advisor if we could. We booked through DCL and I would have no hesitation recommending this PA to others!

Awesome!! We have this excursion booked for our upcoming January Cruise and I've been searching to see who Disney used for this excursion. Thanks for the info. The boat that use looks fantastic. We can't wait for this recommendation!!!

 

[strycker]

If you're interested in going out to Stingray City and want an option that is not cruise ship affiliated, check out Cayman Eco Adventures. We took them last week on our stop in Grand Cayman. They pick up right at the port where you arrive and are great people! The boat (Ali'i Kai) is fast to get you to the spots quicker and thus maximize your time in the water. This is our third time out to Stingray City and it was the best we've been on. It had 3 stops total. One at Stingray City, second at the reef just beyond for snorkeling and the third to see starfish off Starfish Point. They have a photographer as well on board for a fee, but no obligation to purchase. She takes pictures of everyone while in the water as family groups with the rays. We did buy some as she took amazing split shots above and below water with us and the stingrays swimming around. Very reasonable price as well for a 4-5 hour excursion. It was $55 per person and included fresh fruit on-board, drinks (non-alc) and snorkel gear if needed. Can't recommend them enough after this experience.

 

[Michael2013]

We did the 'Adventure to Stingray City Sandbar (G08)' and it was amazing!!! There were 5 of us in our party ranging from 5 to 75 and we all loved it!! It was great and we would highly recommend it!

We are trying to decide between this excursion on DCL and a different one that goes to Stingray City. The other one is the "Deluxe Stingray Sandbar Snorkel" and the only reason we are looking at that one is because it has steps going into the water instead of vertical stairs (my wife can't physically climb up on the vertical stairs due to pulling up on the first step if that makes sense). Does the G08 excursion have stairs that touch the bottom of the sand bar so that they are easy to climb up on? I think if the stairs touch the bottom it would be ok. I would rather do the G08 excursion due to the time on it but her ability to get in and out of the boat is most important.

 

[scrappinginontario]

@Michael2013, that's a good question.

The tour we went on with DCL had stairs rather than a ladder. I don't have a good picture of the actual stairs but if you see the one attached below it will give you a bit of an idea what the stairs were like.

This video gives you a quick view of someone climbing the stairs in the background.

The thing I'm not sure about is if the bottom of the stairs sits on the sand bar or if the bottom step floats up and down. I would think it's the latter but I'm not positive. You can see from this video just how wavy it was the day we were there so the boat was bouncing up and time but I also don't remember it being difficult for any of us to climb the stairs and we had a 5yo and 3 70+yo in our group.

I hope this helps! We all loved this Port Adventure and would do it again in a heartbeat!!

 

[Jody Mahoney]

We did the 'Adventure to Stingray City Sandbar (G08)' and it was amazing!!! There were 5 of us in our party ranging from 5 to 75 and we all loved it!! It was great and we would highly recommend it! Zero sales pitch and I don't believe they took pictures. The only thing we were asked to do was to add a report on Trip Advisor if we could. We booked through DCL and I would have no hesitation recommending this PA to others!

Hi! We're considering booking this tour for our cruise in 2 weeks (!). We have a 5 yr old...is this tour actually to the sandbar where we can stand in the water? Or must you float the entire time? I keep reading about the Sandbar and then Stingray City. Thank you for your review!!

 

[dcassetta]

We are trying to decide between this excursion on DCL and a different one that goes to Stingray City. The other one is the "Deluxe Stingray Sandbar Snorkel" and the only reason we are looking at that one is because it has steps going into the water instead of vertical stairs (my wife can't physically climb up on the vertical stairs due to pulling up on the first step if that makes sense). Does the G08 excursion have stairs that touch the bottom of the sand bar so that they are easy to climb up on? I think if the stairs touch the bottom it would be ok. I would rather do the G08 excursion due to the time on it but her ability to get in and out of the boat is most important.

We did the deluxe tour last fall. The boat that they use has a step system that does extend all the way into the water. The bottom step was very close to the sandbar itself. It was very easy to use the steps to get back onto the boat. We chose that excursion on purpose because of the same concerns that you have about mobility issues. It was an excellent excursion, could not recommend it higher.

 

[texasgingerbread]

I am thinking about doing Stingray Bay as well but with a private company. If you are wondering about how busy it'll be a lot of times ports can be busier depending on the number of cruise boats are in port on that particular day. You can look up your port and day you'll be there at http://www.cruisemapper.com/ports/george-town-port-25?tab=schedule

I like to know this info especially when negotiating price with a private company.