Grand Cayman - what to see and do

We just booked through island marketing, we are also doing the Nachi Cocum beach break in Cozumel, booked with them also. So I am not sure who the actual operator is.

Kayla


Looks like you're probably with the fat fish folks since they use the Sea-Doo's. They're rated #1 on Trip Advisor, so I'm sure you'll be in good hands and will have a great time.
:thumbsup2
 
Ds12 (then 11) and I did the helmet trek thru DCL. It was so cool. We had already done stingray sandbar and 7 mile beach a couple times on previous cruises so we were looking for something different.

I wasn't really into it but ds has wanted to do this since our 1st cruise. He was only 7 and couldn't due to changing from age to weight requirements, then back to age w/ DCL. I felt like we went on the Magic School Bus and got shrunken down and put inside an aquarium, walking around. I was a little nervous, it's 30' down but once I got on the ocean floor I was just wowed!!

This was the highlight of our trip and I even bought the video.
 
We are booked through DCL for the Boatswain's Adventure Marine Park. Has anyone done this recently? Is it worth the $$$$ - a bit pricey for a family of four!
 


Has anyone done the excursion to seven mile beach lately? We are most likely doing the catamaran/beach/snorkel in Cozumel so we are wondering if we should skip this (maybe skip an excursion here all together?) If the beach is really nice we may consider it.

Last Western we just walked around and DH found a rare coin shop so he wants to do that as well!
 
I just wanted to add that My family and myself were able to do the dolphin swim and turtle farm in Grand Cayman on our May 16-23rd cruise of this year, we were originally scheduled to do the one in Cozumel (we have a 3 year old son) but because we were not able to go to Cozumel due to the threat of the swine flu and getting deterred, Disney themselves booked us on this excursion which was cheaper and in my opinion very nice! I think it was worth the price honestly. They put you in group of other people and your group gets assigned a trainer and dolphin. They take numerous photos of each person with the dolphin and you can pet it and then splash around with it and teach a trick...it was to me just like discovery cove although I must admit, the water was warmer in Grand Cayman than at Discovery cove as it was ocean water ;) I would do it again if given the chance, even my son who was fighing with having to wear a life jacket (as we all had to) enjoyed petting the dolphin and you could bring your own camera too to take pics. I will post some when I can get the opportunity to upload them to photobucket ;) But we were not disappointed at all...even got to go to the turtle farm first before the swim. :thumbsup2
 
I just wanted to add that My family and myself were able to do the dolphin swim and turtle farm in Grand Cayman on our May 16-23rd cruise of this year, we were originally scheduled to do the one in Cozumel (we have a 3 year old son) but because we were not able to go to Cozumel due to the threat of the swine flu and getting deterred, Disney themselves booked us on this excursion which was cheaper and in my opinion very nice! I think it was worth the price honestly. They put you in group of other people and your group gets assigned a trainer and dolphin. They take numerous photos of each person with the dolphin and you can pet it and then splash around with it and teach a trick...it was to me just like discovery cove although I must admit, the water was warmer in Grand Cayman than at Discovery cove as it was ocean water ;) I would do it again if given the chance, even my son who was fighing with having to wear a life jacket (as we all had to) enjoyed petting the dolphin and you could bring your own camera too to take pics. I will post some when I can get the opportunity to upload them to photobucket ;) But we were not disappointed at all...even got to go to the turtle farm first before the swim. :thumbsup2

we are doing this excursion with dcl in 2 weeks. It starts at 7:40 - will we have time to do anything else in GC after the excursion? Do they take you back to the tender site or can you leave from the turtle farm yourself

I haven't found much from anyone who actually did this excursion so any advice is very helpful. TIA
 


I am sure that you will have plenty of time after the excursion to see and do your own thing, When we went, we had the latest time and that cut us close on the way back...we were on the last or one of the last tenders back to the ship (but we felt safe because it was done thru Disney themselves). I think that since you are doing an earlier time that you will be just fine. I think the swim itself is only about 45 minutes (if that) and some people do the swim before the turtle farm and some were vise versa. They put you in a shuttle (van) and take you straight there and then they drop you back off right where you picked the shuttle up from. Im sure that if you wanted to, you could take a taxi back (as I did see some people get in a taxi from there) so its up to you. You will enjoy it, not bad for the cheaper price :thumbsup2 I will warn you though, the pics they sale are expensive and they do not have any package deals, its only per photo...and I want to say that they were like $16 a photo (dont quote me on that one because I cant quite remember exactly) but they were expensive (or so I thought considering the price was per photo and no photo package deals). They give you lockers there and there is a place to change clothes if you need to do any of that ;) Hope this helps...let me look thru my photos now to see if I can find any pics from it for you...
 
Ok sorry for the wait but I found the pics..these are not the ones that they took that you could buy, these are the ones we took from our own camera.here ya go:

This is the Dolphin center where you go in to swim
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turtle farm across the street:
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Here is the dolphin encounter:
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We were in GC in March. We rented a convertible from Avis. They pick up you in town a block from the pier and take you to the rental office at the airport (10 minute drive in the AM much longer in PM). It was very smooth. We then took our time exploring the eastern part of the island (didn't do 7 mile beach area and attractions). Stopped here and there and ended up at Rum Point Beach. The beach is beautiful, shaded in many spots by trees, and is shallow for probablly 50+ yards. Chairs are abundant and complimentary. Facilities are clean. They do sell food and drink which was priced fairly for GC. Our car rental was just under $100 and our food $30, so for a family of four our total excursion cost was $130. Our DDs are 5 and 7 and loved it. It was probablly the hilight of the cruise for them.

The only other recommendation I would make is to get there before 11 or 11:30. it is a popular stop for lunch for full day stingray city and other snorkle tours. There were many groups coming in for lunch around then, but they came and went rather quickly.

I think you are a GENIUS.
 
I am sure that you will have plenty of time after the excursion to see and do your own thing, When we went, we had the latest time and that cut us close on the way back...we were on the last or one of the last tenders back to the ship (but we felt safe because it was done thru Disney themselves). I think that since you are doing an earlier time that you will be just fine. I think the swim itself is only about 45 minutes (if that) and some people do the swim before the turtle farm and some were vise versa. They put you in a shuttle (van) and take you straight there and then they drop you back off right where you picked the shuttle up from. Im sure that if you wanted to, you could take a taxi back (as I did see some people get in a taxi from there) so its up to you. You will enjoy it, not bad for the cheaper price :thumbsup2 I will warn you though, the pics they sale are expensive and they do not have any package deals, its only per photo...and I want to say that they were like $16 a photo (dont quote me on that one because I cant quite remember exactly) but they were expensive (or so I thought considering the price was per photo and no photo package deals). They give you lockers there and there is a place to change clothes if you need to do any of that ;) Hope this helps...let me look thru my photos now to see if I can find any pics from it for you...

You stated that you booked this through Disney so you had piece of mind. How can you book this excursion through Disney? Is there a website? Thank you in advance. BTW love the pics...really sold me!!
 
I think we had went to the Disney cruiseline website and looked under excursions and booked it. I also believe that if there are spaces available that you can also book while on-board the ship. But in order to completely Guarantee that you get to go, I would book online ;) It was fun!
 

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