1-3-04 Western - Day 4

[RKB]

1-3-04 Western - Day 4
Woke up and looked out the porthole and saw that we were in Grand Cayman! The weather was excellent! After a quick breakfast we went to the Walt Disney Theatre to get our tickets for the tender. We got right on - no wait, but had to wait for more passengers to fill it before we took off. We easily found Captain Marvins. Since we were early for our excursion we shopped a bit then came back to load onto the bus. We drove about 20 minutes - enjoying the island scenes and tropical vegetation. We got on the boat and were on our way to Stingray city. We only brought masks and snorkels because I knew that you couldn’t wear fins with the stingrays. I didn’t realize that we also got a snorkel stop so we borrowed fins from the ship. The water was surprisingly cold! After the snorkel stop we took off for the stingrays. We got into the chest deep water and walked out about 25 feet from the boat. The stingrays came right over. They brushed up against us and swam all around us. They felt very soft and velvety. I didn’t get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked because my DS couldn’t touch the bottom and was clinging to my neck. I finally got him back to the boat and went back to the group and they were finishing up! It was time to get back in the boat. It seemed to go by very quickly. I bought the DVD so I can enjoy it at home and see what I missed! They are mailing it within 2 weeks. (VHS $45.00 DVD $57.00). One point about Captain Marvins - our boat only had about 20 people on it. Other boats at stingray city were very crowded - I don’t know which companies they were with. We were very happy with ours. A bus took us back to Captain Marvins. We got our free rum cakes. We then wanted to hurry and go to the Turtle farm and Hell. We went over to the Taxi area, but they all wanted to take us on expensive tours which we didn’t have time for anyway. Our last tender in was 4:30. We finally found another couple that teamed up with us and we got a taxi driver to agree to a quick trip to Hell and the Turtle Farm for $10.00 each. We ran into the Hell gift shop and got a few things, took our photo by the Hell sign, glanced at the rock formations then hopped in the Taxi. We then went to the Turtle Farm. We wanted to get to the Turtle Farm around the time we were there because we had family members back at home who were watching to see us there on the webcams. If you go to the website for the Turtle Farm you can see where the cams are. They did see us and got a kick out of it! The turtle farm as great - you can actually pick up turtles and hold them. They also have a great selection of cute souveniers. After about 30 minutes we were back in the taxi and on our way to the pier. The lines for another cruise ship tender was extremely long (may have been Carnival?). At Disney we walked right up and got on. It was around 4:00 so we had 30 minutes to spare! Time really flew on Cayman. We went to the Castaway Club cocktail party. There were many hors de voures and free drinks. We went to Hercules then dinner at Animators Palette. We saw our photos from formal night on our way into dinner at Shutters. We couldn’t decide which to get so we stacked them altogether for later. Dinner was good - the Around the World menu. The Seafood stew as a bit spicy for my liking. We went to the Family Dance afterwards - it is hard to dance when you are stuffed! We then all turned in for the night in anticipation of Cozumel and swimming with the Dolphins…

 

[BAKAROMA]

This is great thanks so much for the reports. We leave in four days. Did they have life jackets for kids for Captain Marvin

 

[RKB]

Yes - they have life jackets in all sizes. They also supply snorkels and fins if needed. They serve fruit punch and water. We brought some granola bars for snacks. This will help to keep the kids happy!

 

[WaltDisneyWorld]

Were you able to get on the 7:30am tender? We would like to take the 8:30am excursion with Captain Marvin's but the information says to arrive at the store front at 8am. Would we have enough time to get there? We are going to do the same excursion that you did... one snorkel stop and the Stingray City stop. We also want to see Hell, Turtle Farm, and Butterfly Farm following the excursion as you did. Any tips to do it all?

 

[RKB]

I am not sure about the 7:30 tender. We did not try to go that early because Disney made it sound like there would be long lines to get off. They have a system in place where you go to the Walt Disney Theatre and get tickets to get on the tender. We left about 9:45 or 10:00 and experienced no lines to get off. We had the 11:15 Captn Marvins - we met at 10:45 as requested and they left even a bit early. Maybe post a question on the main board and see how easy it is to get off at 7:30. It is a 10 minute walk (not far at all) from the pier. As for the Turtle Farm and Hell, we were a bit rushed since the last tender is for 4:30. We were lucky to find a taxi driver that would do exactly what we wanted for $10.00 each. I don't know if you could also fit in the butterfly farm, but we enjoyed the butterflies in Key West so that is an option. Hope all goes well!

 

[WaltDisneyWorld]

Thanks for your help and suggestion!