StingRay City

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Luckyfishrag

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I am going to Grand Cayman and want to go interact with the rays at Sting Ray City. Sounds fun. The thing I am wondering is should I scuba dive or snorkel? Which would offer the best interaction. I have heard that it is a very shallow area. Also, does anyone know of a reputable outfit to take me there and make it happen? I am going to be on a cruise to time is of the essence.
Lucky
 
Probably most of the people on this board have been to SRC as have I (last in 1998). When I first heard of it and the name, I thought it was a tourist trap. After going, I thought it was awesome. I snorkled and thought it was great. It's so shallow that most places you stand up and shuffle your feet to avoid stepping on them. You can hold them and feed them from your palm. They will swarm around you (and the food, of course) such that there will be 20+ at any one time. The only person with SCUBA grear was the photographer from the boat.

Enjoy!
 
Luckyfishrag once bubbled...
I am going to Grand Cayman and want to go interact with the rays at Sting Ray City. Sounds fun. The thing I am wondering is should I scuba dive or snorkel? Which would offer the best interaction. I have heard that it is a very shallow area. Also, does anyone know of a reputable outfit to take me there and make it happen? I am going to be on a cruise to time is of the essence.
Lucky

I've enjoyed diving with them twice at Stingray City (12ft deep), but that's probably enough for me. I had allot of interaction on scuba. My wife (non-diver) snorkeled above me on my first trip there and said it was okay. A couple of years later, I did it again but she did the Stingray Sandbar (?2-3ft) and enjoyed the interraction immensely.

Better stick with an outfit that coordinates with your cruise ship to avoid timing problems. Personally, I tried to time things to avoid the cruise ship crowds, so I'm not sure what would work out best for you.

DallasM5 once bubbled...
Probably most of the people on this board have been to SRC as have I (last in 1998). When I first heard of it and the name, I thought it was a tourist trap. After going, I thought it was awesome. I snorkled and thought it was great. It's so shallow that most places you stand up and shuffle your feet to avoid stepping on them.


Dallasm5 -Actually, you did the Sandbar... not the diving portion. And to assume that everyone here has done it, or has even been to Grand Cayman, would be greatly exaggerated.
 
Luckyfishrag once bubbled...
I am going to Grand Cayman and want to go interact with the rays at Sting Ray City. Sounds fun. The thing I am wondering is should I scuba dive or snorkel? Which would offer the best interaction. I have heard that it is a very shallow area. Also, does anyone know of a reputable outfit to take me there and make it happen? I am going to be on a cruise to time is of the essence.
Lucky

I've been to Sting Ray City twice and loved it both times. Scuba Dive it. What most people don't know is that there are 2 sting ray cities in that North Sound in Grand Cayman. 1 is shallow for the snorkelers and the other is 12-16 ft. deep for the divers. If you Scuba you can also dive some small coral croppings that are home to some great fish and a Moray Eel they call Psycho. The eel is very tamed and will let you pet it. My wife even got to interact with the sting rays and the eel on her 7th dive of her life. Take a disposible camera with you for some great pics of the eel and the rays.

Dive Dive Dive it, and hopefully you can not only pet the rays you can pet the eel.
 
CincyBengalsFan once bubbled...


I've been to Sting Ray City twice and loved it both times. Scuba Dive it. What most people don't know is that there are 2 sting ray cities in that North Sound in Grand Cayman. 1 is shallow for the snorkelers and the other is 12-16 ft. deep for the divers.
Dive Dive Dive it, and hopefully you can not only pet the rays you can pet the eel.

The snorkel area is called the"Sandbar" as the previous poster commented. You can at this area stand above the water.
The other area "Stingray City" is where you can snorkel but it is where most people dive.
My first experience with the eel was when I wasn't looking, he crawled into my BC and looped around my back and came out the other side, quite exciting to say the least! :wacko:

Dive Safe,
Caymaniac
 
This is sounding so cool... I would like to meet Psycho if I am lucky enough. I hope to meet him on one of his happy days. So, if we dive it at Stingray City, instead of going to Stingray sandbar, what outfitter do you recommend that we use? I would like to line it all up ahead of time. And time is runing out!
Thank you so much for your previous posts. It really helps to have people out there who have traveled the path before.
Thanks again!
 
Luckyfishrag once bubbled...
This is sounding so cool... I would like to meet Psycho if I am lucky enough. I hope to meet him on one of his happy days. So, if we dive it at Stingray City, instead of going to Stingray sandbar, what outfitter do you recommend that we use? I would like to line it all up ahead of time. And time is runing out!
Thank you so much for your previous posts. It really helps to have people out there who have traveled the path before.
Thanks again!

I have a friend that just landed on G. Cayman yesterday. He's diving with 3 different outfits over 3 days. We're trying to find out who's the best. He'll be back on Friday and I'll let you know what he had to say. I've dove with Don Foster's, Surfside and 1 other I believe. All were great and nobody had a cattle boat that I was with.
 
Hey Luckyfishrag, a safe bet would be Fisheye, I've used them several times in the past and they were great.

Dive Safe,
Caymaniac :D
 
I've heard good things about fisheye too. I've also heard excellent things about DiveTech.
 
CincyBengalsFan once bubbled...


a Moray Eel they call Psycho. The eel is very tamed and will let you pet it.

Dive Dive Dive it, and hopefully you can not only pet the rays you can pet the eel.

If it's the same eel that I've seen there (a large green moray), which I thought was called Eekie (or something) then please be careful. I saw a DM almost loose his finger and had a stay in hospital courtesy of an eel at the sandbar.

The rays are v.friendly though - watch out for "Darth Vader" a playful ray who is jet black in colour....
 
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