KEY WEST -
We arrived in Key West on 7/7 and it was hot, hot and sticky. The ship docks in a great location, just a short walk to town. It is very easy to do the Conch Train or Trolley Tour on your own, both are very easy to locate. Our plan was to walk around and shop for a while and then do the Conch Train tour. We should have opted for the tour first. This tour in an open trolley type vehicle, no airconditioning. After spending 2 hours walking around, we all decided we had had enough and would rather just go back on the ship and hit the pools. The heat and humidity was really bad.
GRAND CAYMAN -
We decided to take a taxi to 7 mile beach. This worked out great. We paid $4 pp each way and asked to be dropped off at the Holiday Inn. It is about a 10 min. ride. The beach was beautiful and we had no problem just walking on. Our taxi driver even asked what time we wanted to be picked up, we said 2:30 p.m. and he was there waiting for us exactly on time.
I was talking to a woman who wasn't happy with the beach excursion, but she had no idea you could just take a taxi. I didn't even realize the beach excursion went to the same place until I spoke with her. She paid a lot more than what the taxi ride cost and the only other thing she got included was 2 drinks, but you could only order a rum punch, beer or soda. There is a bar maid who walks on the beach and a couple of time she asked if we wanted to use our drink coupons, assuming we came on the excursion (which of course we didn't have). We just said no thanks and that was that. My husband did order a Pina Colada later in the day, but beware, the cost was $9.50 without the tip. Also, the beach tour goes out in the morning and another one in the afternoon, so time is limited. We were on the beach from 10:00 - 2:30 and got in a lot more time than the people on the tour.
We did here rave reviews at dinner that night from everyone that did the Sting Ray City Tour.
COZUMEL
Again we opted for the taxi ride. This time over to Mr. Sanchos beach club, $5.00 per person each way, about a 10-15 minute ride (taxi drivers in Cozumel are fast and risky so beware). There was no charge to get into the beach club, but they will not allow you to bring in drinks or food. There is no charge for the regular beach chairs, but if you want 2 lounge chairs with an umbrella, I think it was $10 for the day. They have a great water trampoline for $4 for 2 hours which the kids loved. It was the best bargain. Large bottles of water were $3, canned soda $2 and we ordered nachos and salsa and some other light snacks. Their prices are very reasonable, we spent about $30.00 total on food/drinks. Beach and food area was very clean.
CASTAWAY CAY
What is there to say except they keep the best for last!!! This day was wonderful. They cleared the ship about 45 minutes earlier then the stated time, so we were actually eating breakfast when we heard the all clear and saw people running down the path to get one of those wonderful hammacks and umbrellas. We knew it was too late for us, so we just took our time. We weren't able to find an umbrella, but we had no trouble finding chairs on the family beach and we just pulled them into the shade under the trees. Granted we were back a little from the water, but it really wasn't a problem.
We did the Banana Boat ride which was a blast. That boat moves a lot quicker than I expected. You really do have to hold on.
There were a lot of jelly fish bites on this day, I heard mostly from people going out to the farther snorkling areas. I snorkled for a while, but swam through an area that had lots of very small things, I don't know what they were, but as soon as I swam into it, my ankles got very itchy. That was enough for me, headed back to the beach and did have a rash on two areas of my ankles. I washed off right away under the shower and within 15 minutes or so the itching stopped. Spent the rest of my day just floating around in the tube and was very happy doing so. My husband snorkled way out and was gone for a long time, but had no problem with jelly fish or anything else, so I think it was very hit or miss.
SEA DAYS
I must say these were my favorite days, I am actually looking forward to the Eastern in 2004 so I can have 3 of these. I like the fact that you can sleep in a little later and don't feel a need to see this, see that. There are activities non-stop on these days, so you can do as much or as little as you want.
One word of caution - people do save those pool chairs from early, early morning and no crew member ever removed one that I saw. I was determined not to be one of those people. The first morning we went to breakfast and got out to pool around 10:00, no seats to be found and not a lot of people around either. All you saw were white towels. We finally found 2 seats, but not together.
On the 2nd Sea Day we went out by the pool around 8:30 thinking we were doing good, again almost everything was taken (guess lots of other people had our same idea). My husband actually saw a woman putting towels down on the 2 chairs before 7:00 a.m. and we never saw her come back. Those chairs sat empty for hours. It really isn't fair, but they do it. There seemed to be less of a problem getting chairs up on deck 10, but if you have little ones and need to be close to the pool, you may want to skip breakfast for that chair!!
That's about it for me - now need to wait to 2004!!
We arrived in Key West on 7/7 and it was hot, hot and sticky. The ship docks in a great location, just a short walk to town. It is very easy to do the Conch Train or Trolley Tour on your own, both are very easy to locate. Our plan was to walk around and shop for a while and then do the Conch Train tour. We should have opted for the tour first. This tour in an open trolley type vehicle, no airconditioning. After spending 2 hours walking around, we all decided we had had enough and would rather just go back on the ship and hit the pools. The heat and humidity was really bad.
GRAND CAYMAN -
We decided to take a taxi to 7 mile beach. This worked out great. We paid $4 pp each way and asked to be dropped off at the Holiday Inn. It is about a 10 min. ride. The beach was beautiful and we had no problem just walking on. Our taxi driver even asked what time we wanted to be picked up, we said 2:30 p.m. and he was there waiting for us exactly on time.
I was talking to a woman who wasn't happy with the beach excursion, but she had no idea you could just take a taxi. I didn't even realize the beach excursion went to the same place until I spoke with her. She paid a lot more than what the taxi ride cost and the only other thing she got included was 2 drinks, but you could only order a rum punch, beer or soda. There is a bar maid who walks on the beach and a couple of time she asked if we wanted to use our drink coupons, assuming we came on the excursion (which of course we didn't have). We just said no thanks and that was that. My husband did order a Pina Colada later in the day, but beware, the cost was $9.50 without the tip. Also, the beach tour goes out in the morning and another one in the afternoon, so time is limited. We were on the beach from 10:00 - 2:30 and got in a lot more time than the people on the tour.
We did here rave reviews at dinner that night from everyone that did the Sting Ray City Tour.
COZUMEL
Again we opted for the taxi ride. This time over to Mr. Sanchos beach club, $5.00 per person each way, about a 10-15 minute ride (taxi drivers in Cozumel are fast and risky so beware). There was no charge to get into the beach club, but they will not allow you to bring in drinks or food. There is no charge for the regular beach chairs, but if you want 2 lounge chairs with an umbrella, I think it was $10 for the day. They have a great water trampoline for $4 for 2 hours which the kids loved. It was the best bargain. Large bottles of water were $3, canned soda $2 and we ordered nachos and salsa and some other light snacks. Their prices are very reasonable, we spent about $30.00 total on food/drinks. Beach and food area was very clean.
CASTAWAY CAY
What is there to say except they keep the best for last!!! This day was wonderful. They cleared the ship about 45 minutes earlier then the stated time, so we were actually eating breakfast when we heard the all clear and saw people running down the path to get one of those wonderful hammacks and umbrellas. We knew it was too late for us, so we just took our time. We weren't able to find an umbrella, but we had no trouble finding chairs on the family beach and we just pulled them into the shade under the trees. Granted we were back a little from the water, but it really wasn't a problem.
We did the Banana Boat ride which was a blast. That boat moves a lot quicker than I expected. You really do have to hold on.
There were a lot of jelly fish bites on this day, I heard mostly from people going out to the farther snorkling areas. I snorkled for a while, but swam through an area that had lots of very small things, I don't know what they were, but as soon as I swam into it, my ankles got very itchy. That was enough for me, headed back to the beach and did have a rash on two areas of my ankles. I washed off right away under the shower and within 15 minutes or so the itching stopped. Spent the rest of my day just floating around in the tube and was very happy doing so. My husband snorkled way out and was gone for a long time, but had no problem with jelly fish or anything else, so I think it was very hit or miss.
SEA DAYS
I must say these were my favorite days, I am actually looking forward to the Eastern in 2004 so I can have 3 of these. I like the fact that you can sleep in a little later and don't feel a need to see this, see that. There are activities non-stop on these days, so you can do as much or as little as you want.
One word of caution - people do save those pool chairs from early, early morning and no crew member ever removed one that I saw. I was determined not to be one of those people. The first morning we went to breakfast and got out to pool around 10:00, no seats to be found and not a lot of people around either. All you saw were white towels. We finally found 2 seats, but not together.
On the 2nd Sea Day we went out by the pool around 8:30 thinking we were doing good, again almost everything was taken (guess lots of other people had our same idea). My husband actually saw a woman putting towels down on the 2 chairs before 7:00 a.m. and we never saw her come back. Those chairs sat empty for hours. It really isn't fair, but they do it. There seemed to be less of a problem getting chairs up on deck 10, but if you have little ones and need to be close to the pool, you may want to skip breakfast for that chair!!
That's about it for me - now need to wait to 2004!!
