Grand Cayman

Saturday, November 9, 2019

One of the channels on our room TV was linked to the webcam mounted at the front of the ship. Tuning into the channel was our way of checking on the weather, sea conditions and location of the ship. I referred to it as our "faux porthole." 😄

Via the TV, I could see we were getting close to Grand Cayman when I woke up. As I was getting ready for the day, Bob walked out to the lower promenade deck (our "faux balcony") to get a better look. I was in the bathroom finishing some business and heard the cabin door open. I just assumed it was Bob returning, but then the bathroom door opened a crack and it was Wan, our cabin steward!! Oh my!! 😲

I'm not sure who was more surprised...him or me! He quickly apologized and left. With my business finished, I tried to flush the toilet but nothing happened. A few seconds later the Captain made an announcement that the ship had lost propulsion and we were on emergency power. That was the reason for Wan's unannounced visit...he wanted to warn us that the toilets weren't working. Oops. Too late.

Bob and I went outside and could see four of the big tender boats and a tug pushing on the side of the Veendam trying to keep it in place.

Other than the non-flushing toilet, everything else appeared to be functioning as normal. But by the time we got to the buffet (by elevator) the captain made a 2nd announcement that people should stay out of the elevators and that the air conditioning would not be working. Walking out to the back of the Lido Deck we could see that the tender boats had left but the tug was now attached to the back of the ship by rope and was pulling to keep the ship in place.

Given the circumstances, I was doubtful that we would be going ashore today but around 8:15 the captain announced that some of the power had been restored and we were able to pick up tender tickets at the ocean bar. The ship was starting to get warm with no AC so I was glad we were able to leave.

Tendering to shore.

Grand Cayman is not our favorite port in the Caribbean and probably wouldn't even make the Top 10 list. The most popular attraction is Stingray City Sandbar but having done that a couple of times already I figured we would just take our gear and find someplace to snorkel from shore. But...that was before Jon and Michelle decided to cruise with us.

Once I knew they were coming, I wanted them to experience swimming with the stingrays and I had booked a tour for the four of us with Nativeway Watersports. The ship tours are usually very large groups and I knew from prior experience that Nativeway would be on a smaller boat with fewer people.

We were to meet our tour on shore at 9:45 and not knowing how long the tender process would take, we were there over an hour early. The guys shopped in some of the stores near the tender dock while Michelle and I sat on a bench in the shade of the white tent where we were to meet the tour.

A little after 9:45, no one had showed up so I called the number on our email confirmation. (I was thankful for T-Mobile and their 25 cents/minute rate!) Sharon, the owner, said she was on the way but had been held up by traffic because streets were closed for the Pirate's Week parade. When she did arrive a few minutes later, she got us connected with our driver and told him to treat us well because we were a very special group of her relatives. 😉 And he did! We were given seats in the front of the small bus while others from a large group on a different tour sat in the back.

After driving to the other end of the island, the driver dropped us off at the Yacht Club. We met Chris, our boat captain for the day, and another couple who were staying at the Westin Hotel and would be joining the four of us for the tour. Chris pointed out a large cooler filled with jugs of water and punch...both the non-alcoholic and alcoholic versions...and told us to help ourselves whenever we wanted.

With only 6 people on the tour we had plenty of room on the boat!

The boat was pretty fast, but it still took around 25 minutes to get to the sandbar known as Stingray City. On the way, we met other boats heading back to shore so the area wasn't near as crowded as what we had seen in the past.

Many years ago, fishermen would congregate on the sand bars to clean their fish and stingrays came to eat the fish guts and squid that were thrown overboard. They soon learned to associate the sound of the boat motors with food and it became a tourist destination.

With our little group of 6, we were able to have a lot of interaction with the rays. And then when Chris brought out a bucket of food for the rays they went crazy...even crawling up our backs!

The second stop on our tour was snorkeling at a coral reef a very short distance away from the stingrays. The coral was so much nicer than what we had seen at Key West and so much more enjoyable in the calmer water.

 If Oprah can have her "favorite things", then so can I and on this cruise it was the inflatable noodles that I purchased on Amazon. I bought a package of 6 for $5.95 last September and Michelle and I used them while we were snorkeling here and again at multiple ports during the cruise. They fold up very small but yet are the size of a regular noodle when inflated. I just checked and the same ones are now $20. Yikes! So glad I got them when I did!

When I got back to the boat after snorkeling I found myself in the middle of a school of large fish. I didn't realize it at the time, but Chris was tossing in tiny pieces of Doritos to make them swarm around me!

Our third and last stop on the tour was at Starfish Point...a secluded beach with many starfish visible in the shallow water. A tail-less stingray swam up next to us while we were in the water with the starfish.

On the way back, Chris gave us gals each a chance to drive the boat. A van was waiting to take us back to Georgetown when we returned to the dock.

It was 2 pm by the time we took the tender back to the ship. We dropped off our snorkeling gear in the room and went directly up to the Lido Deck. The buffet was closed but we were able to get a small plate of nachos at the Dive-In for a late lunch.

All seemed to be well on the ship when we returned and there was no sign of the issues from the morning. We could feel the cool air-conditioned air as soon as we entered the ship (which was a welcome relief) and the toilets were back to their normal WHOOSH when flushed.

After eating such a late lunch we weren't very hungry, but we didn't want to miss having dinner at our new reserved table! I had the French onion soup from the everyday menu, wiener schnitzel and a dessert of hazelnut cake.

The evening entertainment was excerpts from the BBC film, Planet Earth II set to the live accompaniment of the ship's musicians. It was the 3rd or 4th time we had seen it, but still thought it was fabulous. We also saw a similar presentation of the BBC Frozen Planet video when we were in Antarctica.

After the show we went up to the Lido buffet to get a glass of lemonade and then went to the Crow's Nest to play cards. At first it was a nice quiet place to visit but then a very large...and loud...group from the bar crawl came in. The crew member leading the group was screaming into the mike which made it impossible to even carry on a conversation in the room. We waited it out while they played a game that must have been called "hip hip hooray". Finally they paraded out singing "we are the bar hop"... Looked like they were having a great time!

Later, when we headed back to our room we could still hear them walking through the ship singing loudly!

The Orange Party was scheduled to start at 10 pm but our beds were calling.

Grand Cayman...or not.

Thursday, March 5

Bob had a rough night with tummy troubles. He blamed it on the tacos he had for a late lunch yesterday on the ship, but in retrospect I think it was just a 24 hour bug.

For their first visit to Grand Cayman, J & K had reserved a stingray city tour. Having done that tour a couple of times on previous visits, we had just planned to go ashore later and snorkel at Eden Rock, not too far from where the tender docks. 

The ship didn’t arrive in Grand Cayman until around 10 a.m. and for some reason there was a major delay getting the tenders running. Since Bob was still feeling sub-par we made the decision to just stay on the ship. Both of us agree that out of all of the islands we have visited in the Caribbean, Grand Cayman is our least favorite. I know most people have the opposite opinion, but we prefer the more laid back feeling of an island like Roatan or Dominica.

After a little lunch, our afternoon was spent lounging in the shade on the port side of Deck 10. From there we had a fabulous view of the beautiful turquoise water surrounding Grand Cayman. The tenders were loading far below us out of Deck 0. It was well after noon and they were still calling tender numbers trying to get passengers transported to the island. (J & K told us later that the island was a zoo…so crowded with the thousands of cruise ship passengers on shore.) We made the right decision by staying onboard.

While Bob snoozed, I took my camera and roamed around the empty ship taking photos. This is the adult pool at the back of the Lido Deck. Not sure if you can tell by the photo, but the water was just a bit nasty looking...and wasn't the first time that week or the next that it looked like that. The following day (a sea day) we watched as they drained the pool (making it unusuable for quite some time) and eventually refilled it. Not sure why that can't be done at night or anytime rather than a sea day.

This painting was in the stairway that we took every day to get to the buffet. It caught my eye because the scene was Creek Street in Ketchikan, Alaska where we had visited back in June!

And this photo is Mt. Rushmore...from our part of the country!

Earlier in the week we noticed these cabins on Deck 9. I believe this area had formally been an open deck at the front of the ship but now cabins have been added. The cabin doors and hallway decor was different than the rest of the decks of cabins.

Later in the afternoon we put on our swim suits and relaxed in the hot tubs…the most strenuous thing we did all day! By dinnertime, we were showered and dressed for formal night, but although he wasn’t feeling too bad, Bob decided he should play it safe and not eat. So we switched back into our casual clothes and went to the buffet where Bob kept me company while I ate.

Usually towards the end of a cruise I am trying to cram in as many activities as possible, but knowing we still had another week ahead of us we both decided we just didn’t want to do ANYTHING after dinner. Bob watched a little TV…and I did a little organizing in the cabin. A day totally different than we had planned but nice. Yes...very nice.

Carnival Legend - Grand Cayman

Grand Cayman

I don’t want this to be taken in the wrong way…but I don’t really care for Grand Cayman. I know I am on a cruise in the Caribbean…to me that is paradise…but when compared with our other ports, Grand Cayman comes up short.

The two girls were the only ones who had not visited Grand Cayman previously. I suggested we do a tour to see the stingrays (even though I have done the tour twice already)…because that is just what you do when you are in Grand Cayman! I didn’t want them to miss out on something that is so unique to the island. BUT…neither of them wanted to go nor did the guys. Jane, my sister, had also done the stingray thing 2 times so she was open to new ideas.

Bob and Zach are both certified scuba divers. The last time we visited Grand Cayman they did a shore dive at Eden Rock. This time they wanted to do a boat dive and took the easy way and booked through Carnival. Not being with them I can only pass along that they had a great dive and were well pleased.

So…what could the other six of us do? Before the cruise we took the kids to a dive shop and got them all nice snorkel equipment. We have learned the hard way that snorkeling with cheap equipment means you won’t enjoy snorkeling. Since Eden Rock is such a short walk from the ship I suggested just snorkeling on our own. A cheap plan and one that we could do on our own time schedule.

The morning we arrived in Grand Cayman we had breakfast in the dining room since there was no rush to get off the ship. By the time we had finished eating, it was easy to just hop on the tender and go to shore.

The girls wanted to do a little bit of shopping. The last time we were here Tim almost had a “meltdown” due to the heat so I was a bit surprised that he was willing to wander in and out of the shops. (Just goes to show how love will make you do strange things!)

Jane and I weren’t interested in shopping so we split up and told the kids to meet us at Paradise Restaurant at Eden Rock.

We sat for awhile at one of the outdoor tables, and although no one said anything, I think they expected us to order something (which is totally understandable.)

Since we weren’t really wanting anything to eat or drink at this point, we walked over to the lounge chairs set up in a patch of sand. Once we left the shaded area of the restaurant it was HOT. Jane and I decided to go ahead and get in the water and do some snorkeling while we waited on the kids to show up.

As I started to get in the water an employee came running up and said “You MUST wear a snorkel vest.” Rats. I hate snorkel vests. I’m not sure that he really had the authority to MAKE me wear the vest, but I didn’t want a confrontation so we each spent $5 to rent a vest.

There were stairs to enter the water…and right by the stairs were about a half dozen HUGE tarpons. The guy that had talked to me was feeding these fish so they were staying close to get a free meal. I am not exaggerating…the fish were over 3 feet long!!

Eventually the kids showed up and we rented vests for everyone (so much for our “free” day of snorkeling!) Wearing the vests was the main reason that we didn’t have much fun. The stupid things ride up under your neck while at the same time giving you a major “wedgie”.

I am blessed with natural buoyancy (fat) and find it very easy to float, even when not wearing a vest. Without the vests we would have stayed longer and definitely had more fun.

Erica was terrified of the big fish and wasn’t sure she was even going to get in the water. Eventually Time convinced her to get on his back and he would swim out past the fish…what a funny sight that was! Eventually she did relax and have fun. This was her first time snorkeling!

Matt and Marji were a little more experienced.

In theory our plan was a good one…but in the end we didn’t stay as long as we had planned…and we spent $30 renting the vests. The snorkeling was pretty good…but we just got tired of fighting the life vests and decided to head back to the ship. I guess the positive was that by not waiting until the last minute we didn’t have any wait to get on the tender.

Here are a couple of the photos I took that day. I got a Canon D10 camera last summer and absolutely love it for snorkeling. It also does underwater videos! (And it is a great camera on dry land as well!)

There were three other ships in Grand Cayman that day besides the Legend...

...and our little “gap” between the lifeboats actually gave us a view! Not quite the same as sitting on a balcony…but not bad for the price we paid!

As we left Grand Cayman we were treated to a rainbow through our window in the dining room.

Next up…Cozumel!