The tender situation in Grand Cayman had me
worried. On our previous cruise Bob had stood in line alone to get tender
tickets for the four of us traveling together. Things were different on the
Victory…each person had to show up at the Caribbean Lounge to
get a ticket. (Only those who had NOT booked a Carnival tour had to go through
this ritual to get off the boat.) I had made arrangements with Nativeway to do
an 8:30 a.m. Stingray tour. To complicate matters even further, the island was
an hour behind ship time so that meant our tour was to start at 9:30 “ship
time”. I had visions of waiting and waiting to get off the ship and then
missing our tour.
Only five of us were to see the stingrays…Bob and
the oldest son were going scuba diving again. Their plan was easy…get off the ship
whenever and walk to Eden Rock Diving Center. Since they are both certified
they were just going to dive alone without a guide.
Being nervous about getting to shore on time, I
made sure everyone was up early for breakfast. Around 7:30 the announcement was
made that tender tickets were ready to be given out. We all went down to the
lounge just to “check” on the situation and they were still giving out tickets
for the first tender. Taking the tickets would mean that we would have to go to
the tender immediately and none of us had brought our “stuff” for the day with
us.
Getting off the ship at 7:30 seemed a bit early
so we trudged back to the cabins to get our gear. I figured this would chew up
enough time so that by the time we made it back to the lounge we would get a
later tender number and be right on schedule for our tour. What do you
know…back at the Caribbean Lounge we got the last seven remaining tickets for
tender ONE!! I had envisioned long lines and we just walked right up and got
the tickets with no wait whatsoever!
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| Tender boats loading to transport passengers to shore in Grand Cayman. |
Besides the Victory, there were only three other ships at Grand
Cayman that day…two Royal Caribbean ships and the Conquest. Still the dock area was a mob
scene when we got off the tender. After all of my worrying about missing our
tour, it was only 7:00 a.m. island time and we had an hour and a half to kill!!
Bob & #1 son left us and headed off for their scuba dive. The day was
incredibly hot and humid and none of the stores were open. I spotted a couple
of benches across the street in the shade of a store awning and that is where
we went. Just sitting there was miserable…my youngest son is very sensitive to
the heat and I truly think he was about to have a “melt down”! Eventually some
of the stores started opening and the “kids” left to seek some
air-conditioning. I made a couple of trips across the street and eventually
located the guy from Nativeway to let him know we were there.
Around 9:25 we went to our designated spot to
meet up with our tour, but then we waited another 15 minutes or so until the rest of our tour group showed up. There wasn’t any place to sit down and by this time I
think we were all just ready to head back to the ship and cool off. Eventually the
group was all assembled and we were lead down the street and around the corner to
some waiting vans. Part of the group was doing the Stingray tour with us and
the others were doing a tour that combined the stingrays and a trip to Rum
Point Beach.
At this point we weren’t separated by tours…we
just were told to get in either van. Finally being able to sit down and get
cool was wonderful and the day started to improve! The ride through the island
was interesting…there were many signs of the hurricane that had ravaged the
island the previous year.
The vans arrived at a marina area and at this
point the two tour groups were split according to destination and loaded onto
separate boats. Our boat had 19 people headed out to visit the stingrays.
Ah…the sea breeze felt great. Besides three Nativeway staff, there was also a
photographer on board who explained she would be taking still pictures that we
could purchase at the end of the trip. On our first visit to Stingray City back
in 2002 a videographer had accompanied our tour and we bought the VHS tape as a
souvenir of our day. The video was set to Caribbean music and was well worth
the $50 or so it cost.
As I had expected, there were many boats once we
reached the sandbar where the stingrays congregate. Our boat was carefully
backed into position so we could join the throngs of people feeding the rays. I
was very impressed with the individual attention that we received from
Nativeway. The guides caught rays and made sure we each had a chance to hold
them, feed them and get pictures…multiple times if we wished. At one point a
few people from one of the huge tour boats tried to join our group and were
told “no” that they should go back to their own group.
After a lengthy time with the rays, we boarded
the boat and went a short distance to a spot where we could snorkel. After
three cruises, I’ve finally gotten the hang of breathing through a snorkel and
I could have floated for hours watching the marine life below.
When we got back on board, we started back to
shore but after a few minutes just stopped. Turns out we were running ahead of
schedule and rather than wait at the dock for the van, the guides decided it
would be cooler out on the water. I was sorry that they hadn’t figured this out
earlier so we could have snorkeled longer. The boat was bobbing up and down and
my poor daughter-in-law started getting sea sick. We stayed put for about 20 minutes before
resuming our trip back. During this time the photographer went around letting
people look at the digital photos on her camera. We had taken many pictures
with our disposable water cameras and decided not to purchase any of the ones
she had done. I might have considered a video if it were available.
We were dropped off at the tender dock in
Georgetown. Daughter-in-law was feeling better by that point and headed off to do some
shopping. The rest of us (myself, sister & two sons) shopped for a short
time but headed back to the ship fairly quickly. (We did manage to sample
several rum cakes however!) Dinner time that night was spent sharing stories of
stingrays and scuba diving. I’m sorry that Bob and older son couldn’t have gone
with us, but they had a great time scuba diving instead.
The evening entertainment was the Victory Idol
show…an interesting twist on the usual cruise talent show. The singers that
performed in the show were outstanding…at least all but one was anyway. He was
merely there for “comedy”! Hector (the super shopper) was one of the judges of
the contest and was quite entertaining himself! Hector is a Cuban and an
“interesting” character! The boys always made it a point to talk to Hector when
they saw him around the ship…he usually responded by blowing his little
whistle!! I’m sorry I didn’t get a picture of Hector to add to my album!
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