Thread: Using an independent -- Still listen for the ship's tour cancellations!

In Grand Cayman if you're booked to go out on any sort of boat with an independent, the tours being cancelled by the ship will give you a clue.

When all of this sort of thing is being cancelled by the ship, yours will probably be too. No reputable indepentent tour operators will be going under dangerous sea conditions.

We met some folks who had their's to Stingray City cancelled by a well know independent (all the ship's had been cancelled as well) and was trying to find any to there they could take from anyone.

Didn't seem like a good idea to me. Do you think that was a wise thing for them to do?

No! If the ship cancels the tours, then the independents will also cancel theirs! I don't believe any legitimate tour operator would take the chance of going out in rough seas.

Cruiselines and Tour operators don't cancel tours without a good reason. When all (or most) water tours are cancelled you can bet there is a safety reason. Common sense was obviously NOT one of the better traits of the people that day that still wanted to go to Stingray City!

On our last stop in Grand Cayman in 2008 there had been a storm during the night and they water that morning was very choppy with high waves along with on and off sprinkles. Our ship, Carnival Victory and one other Carnival ship, don't remember which one, were allowed to anchor on the opposite side of the island where the water was calmer and tendered from there to the island but all other ships scheduled to stop at Grand Cayman that day simply missed the port. If I remember correctly there were 4 other ships scheduled to be in Grand Cayman that day with us. All water excursions were cancelled except some dive excursions which were not going to the same side of the island as Stingray City. No excursions to Stingray City, ships or private if booked by crusieline passengers or people staying on the island were run that day for a good reason.

Joy

Char & Joy .... That's what amazed me!

The ship had canelled all going to Stingray City. Nativeway, Capt.Morgan, etc. had cancelled theirs. Yet, these folks were going with some tour operator selling stingray tours on at the dock! They were even happy the others were cancelled because this one was so much cheaper.