We just returned from the VOS on April 27th. We took a RCCL sponsored excursion at each port with the exception of Grand Cayman where we had pre-booked a snorkeling excursion with the Stingray City Catamaran "Snorkelers Dream". All of the RCCL excursions were well organized. I cannot say the same for the "Snorkelers Dream". We had read on the message board how great the Snorkelers Dream was and decided to save a couple of bucks and book this one separately. There were ten of us booked in our group plus others from VOS or other cruise ships. The "Snorkelers Dream" confirmation told us to be at their boat by 10am. Unfortunately, they did not take into account the time zone difference (the ship stays on the same time the entire cruise). We ended up at the catamaran one hour early and had to wait. Then when we took off for Stingray City, the catamaran was so slow that it took us almost an hour to reach it. There was no refreshments on the boat other that some old grapes. Fortunately we brought our own. By the time we arrived at Stingray City we could only stay about twenty minutes. Then we went to a reef for about twenty minutes. The email confirmation we received from Snorkelers Dream stated three stops to snorkel but we barely had time for two. When we arrived back at the dock our taxi never showed up to take us back to the ship. The folks from the Snorkelers Dream could have cared less. Fortunately, we hitched a ride with a very nice couple traveling in two separate vehicles. The men rode in the back of his pick up truck while the women rode in her air conditioned Jeep. We made it back to the dock with only fifteen minutes to walk around Grand Cayman until we took the last tender leaving for the ship. I would highly recommend using RCCL's excursions. The few dollars we thought we saved by booking an excursion on our own was more than offset by the extra aggrevation.
Hi Bob,
Thanks for sharing your excursion expierence with the rest of us. There are some good reasons to stick with ship excursions, and this is one of them, but you don't know until you try it.
I saw as we were were leaving
a Tender coming to catch us and when it did VOS never slowed down and the Tendor tied up along side and dropped off on kid
I was wondering if he gets charged for that Tendor to the ship
RP
We went with Stingray City Catamaran also the previous week (4/13-4/20) and had almost the same experience. Only made two stops, got back to the dock and had to wait about 15-20min for our cab (there were still two more groups waiting on cabs to arrive)and only had about 20min. to walk around once we got back to the tender dock. Was very nerve racking. Would not do that again. Did enjoy the Stingrays!!!
On Grand Cayman we took a full day resort excursion--the bus was very late picking us up to go there & very disorganized boarding. For such an expensive excursion it should have been better organized & we sold have been given the full itme that was advertised. It was a beautiful place. Coming back the bus schedule was also very confused & was changed several times so they ended up having to make two sep. trips. On such congested roads it was an inconvenience for those left behind. Perhaps this is Island Time? If we go back there I'd take a ship's water excursion to avoid the crowds & less than professional boats.
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Snorkeling in Cayman
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