nenner1
<font color=darkorchid>I must've been distracted b
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2007
When my eyes opened on Tuesday morning, I was assaulted with the sunlight pouring through the verandah doors. Although it seemed bright to me, it was actually partly cloudy and at times overcast outside. The Magic was already anchored in her tender spot near the Georgetown shoreline, and although it was early to me, folks were already being tendered ashore.
Grand Cayman, we have arrived! (Not a whole lot to see on the skyline here)
Our next door neighbor in the parking lot, the Norwegian Dawn (of which we would become more intimately acquainted with the next day in Cozumel). A couple of Carnival ships would join us later bringing the large vessels in port count up to four.
As I woke up and began my day, Ron took the kids down to the Parrot Cay breakfast buffet. It has the same food items as Topsiders but a larger and easier to navigate buffet line and much less people. They found they much preferred the laid back, uncrowded atmosphere in PC to the chaos that is Topsiders in the morning, so it became our new routine. They brought back a tray for me and Sarah, but we didnt have long to linger over our meal, we had to catch a tender and meet for our private Dis-exclusive Half-Day tour to Stingray City through Captain Marvins.
We headed down to the Buena Vista Theater and were immediately led down to Deck 1 for a tender, as many, many folks were leaving the ship at the same time.
The view from the tenders:
Once on land, we moved with purpose through the entrance plaza, and across the street to the Captain Marvins shop. Like I mentioned above, this trip was Disers only, coordinated by Judy (TJBaggott). There were nearly 70 of us in the group from our Dis meet thread , and Capt. Marvins had procured a special large boat big enough to fit all of us on the charter today.
Although we arrived slightly before the 9:45 check in time, we were still among the last to check in. The staff informed us that they believed everyone had arrived already so we would head out a little early. Most of our group was already piled on two buses, and we were a little nervous when one of them began to pull away, and we werent directed to the second, but in fact we were the first to board a third bus. We neednt have worried, as more of our group piled in the bus after us.
In just minutes we were off and heading out to the dock where Captain Marvins boats are moored (right by Captain Marvins house). Captain Marvin himself was outside to meet us!
Once onboard, everyone got settled and we were enjoying each others company. Last time we did this tour, we were on a boat full of Carnival cruisers- not that there was anything wrong with that, but we enjoyed being able to casually chat with each other about our experiences onboard
The view around the boat no it doesnt seem like almost 70 people but it was!
In fact when they told Judy they would have to obtain a special boat large enough to accommodate all of us, we joked on the thread about how bad this big boat must be. I think many of us were halfway expecting an older fishing ferry or something rickety, rusty, or otherwise unseaworthy. We couldnt have been more wrong, the Cayman Jewel was very nice, and certainly large enough to hold all of us comfortably.
Kids enjoying the breezy ride up on the bow:
As we enjoyed the ride, the staff was scurrying around trying to fit everyone with flippers and masks, and also inflatable snorkel vests. This group was well over double what a normal Captain Marvins tour consists of, and probably three to four times more children than they normally handle at once also. While they did have enough equipment for everyone, getting it all distributed was a lot of work.
**Continued in the next post***
Grand Cayman, we have arrived! (Not a whole lot to see on the skyline here)
Our next door neighbor in the parking lot, the Norwegian Dawn (of which we would become more intimately acquainted with the next day in Cozumel). A couple of Carnival ships would join us later bringing the large vessels in port count up to four.
As I woke up and began my day, Ron took the kids down to the Parrot Cay breakfast buffet. It has the same food items as Topsiders but a larger and easier to navigate buffet line and much less people. They found they much preferred the laid back, uncrowded atmosphere in PC to the chaos that is Topsiders in the morning, so it became our new routine. They brought back a tray for me and Sarah, but we didnt have long to linger over our meal, we had to catch a tender and meet for our private Dis-exclusive Half-Day tour to Stingray City through Captain Marvins.
We headed down to the Buena Vista Theater and were immediately led down to Deck 1 for a tender, as many, many folks were leaving the ship at the same time.
The view from the tenders:
Once on land, we moved with purpose through the entrance plaza, and across the street to the Captain Marvins shop. Like I mentioned above, this trip was Disers only, coordinated by Judy (TJBaggott). There were nearly 70 of us in the group from our Dis meet thread , and Capt. Marvins had procured a special large boat big enough to fit all of us on the charter today.
Although we arrived slightly before the 9:45 check in time, we were still among the last to check in. The staff informed us that they believed everyone had arrived already so we would head out a little early. Most of our group was already piled on two buses, and we were a little nervous when one of them began to pull away, and we werent directed to the second, but in fact we were the first to board a third bus. We neednt have worried, as more of our group piled in the bus after us.
In just minutes we were off and heading out to the dock where Captain Marvins boats are moored (right by Captain Marvins house). Captain Marvin himself was outside to meet us!
Once onboard, everyone got settled and we were enjoying each others company. Last time we did this tour, we were on a boat full of Carnival cruisers- not that there was anything wrong with that, but we enjoyed being able to casually chat with each other about our experiences onboard
The view around the boat no it doesnt seem like almost 70 people but it was!
In fact when they told Judy they would have to obtain a special boat large enough to accommodate all of us, we joked on the thread about how bad this big boat must be. I think many of us were halfway expecting an older fishing ferry or something rickety, rusty, or otherwise unseaworthy. We couldnt have been more wrong, the Cayman Jewel was very nice, and certainly large enough to hold all of us comfortably.
Kids enjoying the breezy ride up on the bow:
As we enjoyed the ride, the staff was scurrying around trying to fit everyone with flippers and masks, and also inflatable snorkel vests. This group was well over double what a normal Captain Marvins tour consists of, and probably three to four times more children than they normally handle at once also. While they did have enough equipment for everyone, getting it all distributed was a lot of work.
**Continued in the next post***
Thank you all for being so understanding!
The waters are so beautiful!!!! I am still trying to talk DH into taking a 7 day and going to GC... So far no luck. 
Have a great day and can't wait for another update!!!
It was such a wonderful cruise, I'm so glad the girls had such fun together! I've got some great pics of them coming up. The Christmas card from Adriane was so sweet! Have you all decided when you will cruise again? We are still thinking about Sept/Oct 2012 on the Fantasy (Eastern). Would love to have you join us!!! 
I think we are leaning towards 9/22/12. I guess it really is going to be April when the dates come out!! 
So good to hear from you! 
You had a great installment today too, looking forward to more!!
That's what put it over. And I purposely put it on the 2nd account cause I knew the bandwidth would skyrocket. Now I need a third account (yes. cheap. 
We would like to do an Eastern too. 
