"Captain Marvin's" Grand Cayman Things to Do Tip by Dabs

There are a lot of recommended options for tours on Grand Cayman, many of which cater to cruise ship passengers so they know if your boat is diverted or is coming in late. We ultimately chose Captain Marvin's 2 stop snorkel tour because we wanted to get an early start and we wanted to see Hell and 7 mile beach in addition to Stingray City. Captain Marvin's also had a longer tour that included Hell and the turtle farm but I had read reports that it wasn't very clean and then I read that the turtles were raised for food and I lost my stomach for it.

Per their instructions, we got the 1st tender off the boat and walked over to Captain Marvin's office in George Town where we took care of the payment, $35 per person with cash, $38 with credit card. The boat dock that Captain Marvin's uses is just a short ride from the cruise dock, we made a stop to pick up some other people from their other location. The real Captain Marvin, who is 95 years old, doesn't do tours anymore but he was at the docks when we arrived.

The boat ride over was a little choppy and I'd estimate that it took about 20 minutes, the boat we used was a motorboat with 2 long benches on either side, we also saw at least one catamaran from another company which might be a smoother ride. One of the people on our boat said that this was the 1st day of their week's vacation that they could do the trip because of the water conditions, the next day I read that some cruise ships couldn't even dock in Grand Cayman. Once at Stingray City, the guides got into the water with us and showed us how to handle the stingrays without harming them and someone else took photos of our tour but since we didn't take the bus back to George Town we didn't see them or find out the charges. I had just purchased an underwater camera and my photos turned out pretty good. You can't wear anything on your feet here, no fins, no watershoes.

After the stingray city stop, we boated over to the Coral Gardens where we snorkeled with our guide.

The 2 stop tour lasted for about 2 1/2 hours including transport to and from George Town. They had water and fruit punch on the boat, the snorkel gear was included but we always bring our own masks and snorkels.

Website: http://www.captainmarvins.com/index.html