Well, I promised in another thread to post our experience on the Pirate Encounter in Grand Cayman. We just got off the 1/13 Magic and did the Disney pirate excursion.
Overall, a lot of fun - great for kids (of all ages). I guess my only negative was that it was kind of short - a little over 2 hours.
We did the 10:30 tour. Started in Studio Sea and took the tender to shore. Another guide met us at the dock and we walked about a half a block to the pirate tender boat. The adventure started there with a pirate playing it up as we got on that tender that took us out to the Valhalla. We boarded and got a brief lay of the land from the pirate equivalent of a first officer. We sailed past the cruise ships and took a couple of shots of the mini-cannon at them. then the kids were put to work swabbing the deck with the other pirates handed out soft drinks (no rum punch until the post-swim trip back). A couple of the dad's got "picked" to be put on trial. I ended up being one of them courtesy of my daughter. Nothing like a cold bucket of ice water over the head on a hot, sunny day!
The swim break was the highlight. You can go off the plank (the "low board") or off the railing on the upper deck. All complete with pirates doing back flips.
A quick rip back with soft drinks and rum punch and we were done.
We did Grand Cayman last year and had already done the Stingray City tour with Captain Marvin. I guess if I hadn't done Captain Marvin last year, I might have opted to do that this time. But having done stingrays, the pirate excursion was a great pick this year. It's VERY kid friendly. The pirates are entertaining and ironically, very nice when they take a lull in the act.
The excursion is operated by Jolly Roger (
http://www.jollyrogercayman.com) - they run the Jolly Roger & the Valhalla.