Tuesday morning, and we arrive in Grand Cayman. DH and eldest DD were up early to go swim with Stingrays! My daughter has a fascination with stingrays that started over 2 years ago when we were at Sea World. My shy, quiet daughter spent over 2 hours talking with the information person by the stingrays there, and from then on, she was hooked. When I saw the swim with stingrays, I knew she had to do it.
I also knew that youngest DD would be freaked out, so I stayed on the boat with her while eldest DD and DH went off on their excursion. I took youngest out shopping with me and SIL instead!
I am lucky that my girls like to shop, although the trick is to buy them some little trinket every so often. My daughter came away with a little hat and a plastic ring. She is easy to please! Me, I saw some beautiful jewelry, but I knew that if I bought any of it, DH would leave me on the island, and I kind of like being on the cruise, so I decided it was best not to take out the credit card. SIL however was no help, trying to get me to buy a certain pair of earrings that were very unique, but I resisted.
A neat discovery, in one of the little shopping areas just to the right of the dock (when you get off the tender) there is a place, two stories tall, that has an aquarium on the upstairs floor with a shark in it. My daughter thought this was the neatest thing, an aquarium in a mall! We took pictures, of course!
Then back to the boat. As we arrived off the tender, I encountered a family with 2 little girls and all their luggage, waiting to get off. They were flanked by DCL officers. Me, being as curious as I am, asked the family what had happened. The dad replied that this was a sick ship and they were being forced off, that he did not want his family on this sick ship. Then the officers told me to move on.
I wanted more information. I went to Guest Services, and apparently they knew nothing. Huh? I finally did speak to someone that told me that it was the family's choice to leave, but he did not tell me why they were given that choice.
Now this may not make you wonder, but it made me wonder. If someone purposefully with holds information from me, it makes me think that something big is going on, when it may very well not be. Still, other people saw this family too, and there were questions, but no answers.
Starting on this day, I believe, we noticed servers standing at the entrances to the restaurants with handwipes. We were all supposed to take two, one for before a meal and one for after. A few people took the wipes and tossed them. Oh well, hopefully they did not become ill. We used the wipes, anyway, we were already washing our hands before we ate anything anyway. Better safe than sorry!
DH and DD arrived back safely from the stingrays, and DD was all aglow! She said she will never forget this experience, it was so wonderful. I was pleased.
After lunch, we tendered back to shore and grabbed a taxi van to go to the beach. We told the driver we wanted the Holiday Inn, he said fine. He dropped us at the Royal Palms, instead. We said we wanted the Holiday Inn, he said he only goes to the Royal Palms. Seeing as we were stuck, we got out of the van and walked to the entrance. After all, the beaches here are great, right?
Guess what, $3 per person to get past the gate. Ooohhh,
what a scam. The beach was small, dirty, there were Skidoos going back and forth across the water near the shore, we were watching our girls constantly to make sure they were seen by these people on the water vehicles. The water however was a nice temperature, the sand was soft, some parts were hard to walk on though from the coral pieces, but once you get past the negatives, we made our own fun.
One word of caution - I was under the impression that topless bathing was not approved on Grand Cayman. Well, guess what, there is a lot of topless bathing at the Royal Palms! My girls, having grown up with a European mother and grandparents, and having been to Europe, were not fazed, but there were plenty of guys pointing at the women sunning themselves. My DH thoroughly enjoyed the experience, by the way!
So, just a warning, don't know if it is like this at all the beaches, but it is what we experienced.
Time for dinner, so back to the boat we went. After dinner, we saw Morty the Magnificent for the first time. It was cute.
I wanted to do the Holiday Story Time with my family afterwards, but everyone was tired and so off to bed we went.
It was not to be a quiet night, as the THUD, THUD was back at 2:15 a.m. We tried to ignore it. It was not easy to do. It went on for a good hour. The next morning, I informed guest services, and I was told that it would be looked into. Fine, no problem, I had no reason to doubt that anything other than that would happen. I know better now.
Next day continues...
I also knew that youngest DD would be freaked out, so I stayed on the boat with her while eldest DD and DH went off on their excursion. I took youngest out shopping with me and SIL instead!
I am lucky that my girls like to shop, although the trick is to buy them some little trinket every so often. My daughter came away with a little hat and a plastic ring. She is easy to please! Me, I saw some beautiful jewelry, but I knew that if I bought any of it, DH would leave me on the island, and I kind of like being on the cruise, so I decided it was best not to take out the credit card. SIL however was no help, trying to get me to buy a certain pair of earrings that were very unique, but I resisted.
A neat discovery, in one of the little shopping areas just to the right of the dock (when you get off the tender) there is a place, two stories tall, that has an aquarium on the upstairs floor with a shark in it. My daughter thought this was the neatest thing, an aquarium in a mall! We took pictures, of course!
Then back to the boat. As we arrived off the tender, I encountered a family with 2 little girls and all their luggage, waiting to get off. They were flanked by DCL officers. Me, being as curious as I am, asked the family what had happened. The dad replied that this was a sick ship and they were being forced off, that he did not want his family on this sick ship. Then the officers told me to move on.
I wanted more information. I went to Guest Services, and apparently they knew nothing. Huh? I finally did speak to someone that told me that it was the family's choice to leave, but he did not tell me why they were given that choice.
Now this may not make you wonder, but it made me wonder. If someone purposefully with holds information from me, it makes me think that something big is going on, when it may very well not be. Still, other people saw this family too, and there were questions, but no answers.
Starting on this day, I believe, we noticed servers standing at the entrances to the restaurants with handwipes. We were all supposed to take two, one for before a meal and one for after. A few people took the wipes and tossed them. Oh well, hopefully they did not become ill. We used the wipes, anyway, we were already washing our hands before we ate anything anyway. Better safe than sorry!
DH and DD arrived back safely from the stingrays, and DD was all aglow! She said she will never forget this experience, it was so wonderful. I was pleased.
After lunch, we tendered back to shore and grabbed a taxi van to go to the beach. We told the driver we wanted the Holiday Inn, he said fine. He dropped us at the Royal Palms, instead. We said we wanted the Holiday Inn, he said he only goes to the Royal Palms. Seeing as we were stuck, we got out of the van and walked to the entrance. After all, the beaches here are great, right?
Guess what, $3 per person to get past the gate. Ooohhh,
what a scam. The beach was small, dirty, there were Skidoos going back and forth across the water near the shore, we were watching our girls constantly to make sure they were seen by these people on the water vehicles. The water however was a nice temperature, the sand was soft, some parts were hard to walk on though from the coral pieces, but once you get past the negatives, we made our own fun.One word of caution - I was under the impression that topless bathing was not approved on Grand Cayman. Well, guess what, there is a lot of topless bathing at the Royal Palms! My girls, having grown up with a European mother and grandparents, and having been to Europe, were not fazed, but there were plenty of guys pointing at the women sunning themselves. My DH thoroughly enjoyed the experience, by the way!
So, just a warning, don't know if it is like this at all the beaches, but it is what we experienced. Time for dinner, so back to the boat we went. After dinner, we saw Morty the Magnificent for the first time. It was cute.
I wanted to do the Holiday Story Time with my family afterwards, but everyone was tired and so off to bed we went.
It was not to be a quiet night, as the THUD, THUD was back at 2:15 a.m. We tried to ignore it. It was not easy to do. It went on for a good hour. The next morning, I informed guest services, and I was told that it would be looked into. Fine, no problem, I had no reason to doubt that anything other than that would happen. I know better now.
Next day continues...
