Grand Cayman Trashed?

[HollyH]

A work associate of my DH just got off RCL's Western Cruise which included a stop in Grand Cayman. He told my husband the island was completely trashed and given what they had been through, the islanders were not very receptive to visitors so soon after the hurricanes so no one was very pleasant to deal with. Anyone who recently sailed experience this or is his work-mate exaggerating?

 

[disneylover5]

The island is beat up. The people were wonderful that I dealt with. We went to Royal Palm beach and everyone was nice. I had my 81 YO DM with me and she is in a wheelchair...maybe that is why everyone everywhere was nice, not sure.

We had a great day there,
Lsia

 

[lbgraves]

We cruised 12/4/04 and were not impressed with GC at all. When you looked out over the island from deck 10 you could really see the destruction to the landscape. Everyone who we saw was friendly enough though. When we went the Hard Rock was still closed down. There were buildings closed down all along the street due to damage.

 

[LindaBabe]

I went on the 12/4 cruise also. I found the people warm and welcoming. Some thought letting cruise ships come back in November had been a bit premature, but they certainly felt more ready to welcome them by December. Yes, they've got a bit of a mess there. But they're also working hard to recover. They need tourists to enable them to recover - the average Caymanian is far from wealthy.

 

[ChrisnSteph]

We just got back from there. The island is pretty beat up. Most of the trees along the beach are just gone. I can imagine that is once a beautiful island, but it needs some time. The Hard Rock Cafe was open while we were there. And many of the locals seemed pretty grouchy, but I guess I'd be too if my home was destroyed.

 

[fasttj2004]

We just on the 1-29 western and Grand Cayman has a lot of damage in the areas outside of the main shopping area. We found the people very friendly and they welcomed the tourists.

 

[TooPure4u]

I also was on the 1/29 Western and thought GC was just plain boring. Granted we didnt venture out to far because we were orginally going for the stingray excursion but my son got a massive ear ache and we had to cancel. All in all, you walk a few blocks one way and a few the other way and that was it unless you had something planned. I bought a t-shirt at the hard rock cafe and a picture frame. I took money out of the mac machine but it came out in GC bills so I had to find a bank and exchange it. My plan was not to spend it on GC but to have it for Cozumel and for when we returned home. I found some of the locals to be grouchy but some were very nice. I have no desire to explore this island any further. Now Cozumel we can talk about !!!!!!!

 

[MarkRG]

As GC has been my favorite stop on DCL, I took a very close interest in the hurricane and the island. Basically the hurricane all but went over the island. A large part of it was actually submerged by the tidal surge.

Now, there are tons of pictures of what the island looked like after it passed, here's probably the best overall source: http://www.davidolson.com/

I was frankly heartbroken seeing this aftermath as it was a wonderful lush island. A lot of the greenery will take YEARS to come back. Some will bounce back, but unlike the effort Disney made with fixing CC after, GC don't have that kind of resources to replant an entire island in plant life, they will have to grow back on their own. By now they have most of the port cleaned up, a lot of the excursions and such are back in operation, but large parts of the island are still in very poor shape and will be for a long time to come, unfortunately. Here's a good source for updated info on how things are going as far as all the tourist venues. Note some placesstill have dates going into the end of the year to reopen. http://www.caymanactivityguide.com/projections.htm

 

[Skallywag]

I feel rather upset by the statements made about the condition of this Island through no fault of their own. Surely we should be sympathetic to their plight not finding fault with things over which they had no control. We are due to visit for the first time on our October cruise and appreciate it will take time to get things back to some sort of normality. Here in our part of England we had the minor hurricane years ago and I remember the devastation left by that. Please be patient and just enjoy your holidays.

 

[MarkRG]

Sorry, I am not trying to make it seem that way. I've been on all the regular DCL cruises, and the special 10-day, and GC is still my favorite stop, and I would like to get back there. The only place I put blame for the condition of the island is on the weather. Just don't want people going cruising there in the near future getting a big surprise when they go there. The level of damage those islanders are having to deal with is not something anyone could fix quickly.

 

[treesinger]

I feel rather upset by the statements made about the condition of this Island through no fault of their own. Surely we should be sympathetic to their plight not finding fault with things over which they had no control. We are due to visit for the first time on our October cruise and appreciate it will take time to get things back to some sort of normality. Here in our part of England we had the minor hurricane years ago and I remember the devastation left by that. Please be patient and just enjoy your holidays.

I think you're jumping at shadows. I didn't see anyone here complaining that the Caymanians weren't working hard enough or were to blame or were upset that their vacation was ruined because of the damage. There were a couple complaints about grouchiness (and we all understand why and don't blame them) and one "it was boring" comment. GC isn't for everyone. GC being boring wasn't a function of the destruction.
You make it sound like we're "ugly Americans" for noticing that the island was ravaged and the people aren't all smiles about it. I think you're overreacting a wee bit. All we're doing is observing the general condition of things.

 

[lbgraves]

I was disappointed that we went to GC in December. We were only the 2nd cruise to return for DCL I believe. IMO they returned too early. I am sorry for the people who experience the hurricane. Living on the coast of North Carolina, we have experienced the worst of what can happen as well. We have had destruction of our property and our town was surrounded by flood waters for a week which meant that no fresh food could be brought in...the store shelves were empty for some items for a while. While I sympathize with them, we paid alot of money to go on a cruise for vacation. An island that is recovering from a major hurricane is not on my list of places that I would chose to go for relaxation & fun on a vacation. We may try it again in 2006. We also didn't care for Cozumel but they weren't recovering from the hurricane. With kids, Key West wasn't a draw for us either so it was all the Western ports...including the American one. For right now, we are going to stick with the Eastern.

 

[jel0511]

We were the first DCL cruise to return to GC (11.6.04) and the island was trashed. I was suprised they allowed cruise ships to come back, when they weren't alloweing regular tourists yet. I've been to GC before, so to see the island so devastated was mind blowing, to say the least. I also believe they didn't wait long enough to allow cruise ships to dock, but they only way GC is going to get themselves back to where they were was to again allow tourists. It is the main source of income for the island, and they do desperately need it.

 

[mackymaddyconnorsmom]

We loved Grand Caymen on our 12/4 cruise. We did the stingray tour and the stingrays were there . We did turtle farm/island tour/ hell tour. We had a great time. We saw a lot of devestation from the hurricane. That was very sad. The people of Grand Cayman were happy to get tourists back. I asked them and they said they need them. Banking and tourism is there major source of income. The people were very nice and my family got to be in an article in the USA Today for tourism back in GC> You will love it and everyone will be nice. My friends are going there in 2 weeks.

 

[Skallywag]

I am sorry if I upset anyone but feel that trashed was such an unpleasant word to use in this instance. According to my dictionary it means waste or worthless and felt this perhaps was the wrong termanology in this instance.

 

[TheWog]

Trashed was a 3rd party comment the OP was trying to verify if true or not. I think it has been done.

GC wasn't what it may have been prior to Ivan and not the picture of paradise I had in my mind. I understand the plight they have and the destruction is awful. The trees uprooted along the way, houses without a roof or one being repaired. Hotels are working hard to get back to normal. Sea Grape beach was windy, because, as a local told me, the trees are gone and that means the natural wind barrier is gone. Overall, we had a pleasant day and would love to see it again once it is back to its original state or a version thereof.

 

[treesinger]

I am sorry if I upset anyone but feel that trashed was such an unpleasant word to use in this instance. According to my dictionary it means waste or worthless and felt this perhaps was the wrong termanology in this instance.

"Trashed" is often used as a colloquial term to mean "wrecked" or "destroyed". Trashed means that the situation is in need of intensive repair and settling, but that it is not unrecoverable.

Ok, we're on the same page I think. We just use the term "trashed" differently. We probably use the term "flesh wound" a little differently too.

 

[vossjemi]

Ok, we just got back from Grand Cayman. We were there on 1/22/05. This was the 2nd time we've been there...one pre-Ivan and one post-Ivan. Granted, there is still some storm damage, but this is one of my favorite islands without a doubt. Here is a cut and paste of my review of this island from another website.

We have been to Grand Cayman before. Went last Jan 04 on our Navigator Cruise. When we picked this PC itinerary, we were so excited that GC was on it as we loved it there soooo much.

Last year, we rented a car through www.grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com. We got their cheapest car with full ins for $43. They pick you up at the Blue Iguana, a few blocks from the pier. When the took us to their airport office, no cheap cars were left, so we got a free upgrade to a Black Jeep Wrangler. Woohoo! No complaints there. We drove the whole east side past the blowholes and the wreck of 10 sails seeing some of the most beautiful scenery I think I've ever seen. I absolutely love the blue green of Cayman's water. Its breathtaking. We also saw some gorgeous condos and mansions on the east side and finally ended up at Rum Point. This is what dreams are made of. No chair hogs here. We had also discovered that Red Sail Sports does a glass bottom boat Stingray snorkel from their Rum Point location, so we had that pre-booked. It was fantastic!

Ok, enough about last year. This time we wanted to rent a car as well, but the same company had none available. All were rented to locals after the hurricanes. Someone said Andy's had some cars but you had to get to his office as there was no pier pickup. So, we all decided to just make a lazy day of it and take a taxi to SeaGrape Beach. Anyway, we didn't leave our ship til almost 9am, so everyone did get to sleep in a little. I'm not sure why, but our Navigators told us if we left before 9, we didn't need tender tickets, but if we left after 9, we had to go to Guest Relations to get free tender tickets. We didn't want to have to deal with that hassle, so we left before 9. We took a taxi bus to SeaGrape for $4pp. This is a very beautiful beach about 3 miles from the pier.

As for hurricane damage, the downtown area looked great. On the trip out to Sea Grape Beach, the damage is still readily apparent. Many houses/buildings with roofs missing, many with black plastic as the roof. All the palm trees are torn up. The beach side of the road looks beautiful. The island side still has lots of debris everywhere. Seagrape is only 3 miles from downtown, but they still could not use credit cards there as the phone lines hadn't been installed that far yet. Still a lot of work to be done, but the beaches are wonderful!

We rented chairs and an umbrella. The chairs were $10pp and umbrella $5, and it includes a free soda/water. We brought our own snorkel gear, so we did snorkel some from here. It gets pretty steep pretty fast, and there was some coral/marine life, but nowhere near as pretty as what we saw at Aruba. Sea Grape also has waverunner rentals for $65 for 1/2 hour, but none of us felt up to it. It was a gorgeous day. We enjoyed just being lazy and swimming. We then decided to order some lunch around 2pm. Calico Jack's is the beach side bar/restaurant. DH & I had some delicious conch fritters and a mahi mahi sandwich we shared. Yum!

We went back to town around 3pm, for another $4pp. There is an international calling station in the building by the pier across the street from columbian emeralds. It cost $12.50 for 24 minutes I think. So, we got to have a good long talk with the family. DH & I then headed over to Blackbeard's for some Rum Cake and Hard Rock for some t-shirt souvenirs for family members who did the airport runs for us. Then, back to the ship. Ahh, I love Grand Cayman. I will go back there again some day!

 

[WMILLER86]

I am booked for this years Thanksgiving magic cruise, and on the itinerary it shows us NOT going to Grand Cayman, but to Costa Maya, instead. I do not know exactly why, but RUMORS are that Disney is not real happy with the many complaints about GC since the hurricane.
I was at GC on the 2004 thanksgiving Magic cruise, and she was pretty battered. But Capt Marvin himself took us on a great snorkel trip!

Willie

 

[MarkRG]

I am sorry if I upset anyone but feel that trashed was such an unpleasant word to use in this instance. According to my dictionary it means waste or worthless and felt this perhaps was the wrong termanology in this instance.

It's ok, in american slang, trashed means very messy or badly damaged, such as in referring to a fictional kids bedroom that is well overdue for a cleaning: "Jason's room is trashed." I know sometimes the words we use over here can be very vague.