Grendel
Where ever you go, there you are.
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2003
- Messages
- 680
4/27 - Grand Cayman
Don't forget to read Day 3 first at.................
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=567644
It's Grand Cayman day and finally a day to sleep in!!! well uh...no..we have to meet in the Promenade lounge at 8:20 for our shore excurision...so maybe tommorrow we can sleep in? I wake up earlier than everyone and decide to take my own private walk up to Deck 10 and see whats going on. It's really peaceful at that time in the morning...while you'll see fellow DISer's up walking around...most are trying to get caffine into their body by any and all means..so no ones talking yet. I take up a spot in the bow and watch as not only the Magic but another ship converge on the port. It was kind of amusing watching the fleet of tenders waiting to pounce on the ship. Sufficiently filled with peace and calm its down to help with getting the family ready. Everybody's up, we get suncblocked, dressed, packed for the day..find excursion tickets..sign my life away promising if they loose me at sea its not their fault and its up to Topsiders for a bit of morning nourishment( i.e. Krispy Kremes
) Now that its Day 4 my hands are just starting to get a bit dry from all of the Purel I'm using at all the buffetts. Not that I don't trust all of my fellow cruisers..but I figure I can hedge my bets by at least "nuking" my hands after touching all those utensils.( I have no idea if this helped...but no one threw up all cruise 
so I consider it a success ). Several Krispy Kremes and a few Mickey Waffles later its down to the Promenade lounge to sign in and get our "Beast Sticker"...and then its follow the "Beast Paddle" in a long long winding line down to the tender. The tender was a little more..ummm..."unstable" than I expected. DW looked like this 
but we eventually made it to shore and then its follow the line to the bus. We had chosen the Rum Point Beach and Stingray City Excursion...(booked through Disney). Boarding the bus I felt like going "Moooooo" but refrained. A short 10 - 15 minute bus ride and were there!!! no not the beach..the ferry that will take us to the beach....and it will only take us 45 minutes to get there!! well at least the ride was enjoyable( yes im being sarcastic ). I glance down at my watch as were boarding the ferry and realize its already 9:45am! Where did the time go. The disney documentation said that the excursion was 5.5 hours including transportation. But this did not include meeting and tendering time. One of the tour operators told us that the ferry would not be back until 2pm to pick us up and that would be the only ferry. DW and I share glances and start doing some quick math. We really wanted to have some time to look around down town( i.e. shop ) and since the last tender leaves at 4:30 we know were cutting it close. Soooo were thinking that maybe will do the stingray portion of our excursion first when we get off the ferry..then we could hang out at the beach and maybe get a quick taxi back to port so we would have more downtown time. Well thought out dont you think? It was a good plan. And flawed in everyway. First mistake. By getting off the ferry and then going right to the stingray boat we didn't get to the beach to leave our stuff behind like others did. What does this mean? You guessed it no lounge chairs for us. You would think for the price that there would be plenty of chairs but alas...no. Second Mistake. It's already 10:30 we have been en route since 8:20 in the morning..the last thing we needed to hear was ok...now it will be another 20 minutes until we get to the stingray destination, which we will only spend 15 minutes at before heading back. Ugg..more time in a boat travelling and only 15 mintues!! what a jip. Out to the Stingrays we go. DD7 really wanted to do this, while DD13 didnt want to even be in the boat near them. The actual stingray part of this was great. Gigantic stingrays rubbing against my legs like they were cats. Acutally touching and holding them. While short it was still very enjoyable( my recommendation is if your at all interested in doing this...just do it yourself you'll get more time and probably a better boat ). Well its back onto the boat for our trip back to the beach. The captain gives a long list of why I should pay $20 for a Conch Shell that hes turned into a horn and then his first mate passess around a bucket of orange slices.( OK I have to ask...I'm not peevish about sharing food with people...but after all of the worries of Norwalk and just getting sick in general...does anyone see any problem with 25 sets of hands dipping into a bucket of cutup oranges?? ) I passed. Back to the pier and its beach time baby!!! OK where is it...I see the bar and some people hanging out in lounge chairs..but wheres the beach? Oh that is the beach...well maybe thats just part of it and there is some more..I see some beautiful white sand over to the left.. what? oh thats a private beach. OK..so I was a bit disapointed...you have to understand I've been reading posts about how wonderful Grand Cayman is and how Rum Point is the best of the lot. I'm expecting the beach thats in the Corona commercials. Then to walk down a pier and see the crowded lump of sand that is covered with Pine trees...pine trees!! I can see these at home. And then to walk in the sand with pine needles in it and there are no chairs open..*sigh* well maybe we will just hang out for a bit and head back to the port. I'm off to find out the various ways I can get back to port...ooopppss the only way back is a taxi at what they call "city money" in other words if I really want to go back its going to be $100+. So were stuck until 2pm. Well we might as well get lunch. It was about what you would expect for tourist trap food...the Coronas were cold. I kept ordering stuff beyond what was included in our pakcage and the "waitress" kept on saying "you realize thats extra?". I kept replying "yes"...I got the concept..I order stuff..I have to pay for it. DD7 was dying to get into the water. To her everything was fine and dandy and as long as she could swim everything was Grade A with her. DW saw they were renting floats and thought she could relax on one of these instead of a lounge chair...but of course they were all rented. ( Learn from this!!! He who hestiates is not only lost but stranded ). Well it wasnt till about 1pm shortly after the second stingray boat came back that DW was able to get a chair. Someone removed there towel from a chair they had reserved but werent using. It was about this time that DD7 made a great discovery. There were fish in the water!!!
DD13 didnt like this so back up on shore she went....I and DD7 however got out the snorkel masks and salvaged our beach experience with some great snorkeling. We found tons of little tropical fish( some big too ). I wish we had seen these sooner but was happy for the time we had. We even found several full sized Conch Shells...DD7 wanted to take them home..but umm noo they were mostly coralized anyway. It was quite the treat seeing fish that you normally only see in an aquarium. The ferry arrived right on time( Island time that is ) 2:15 and it was back to port. DD13 wanted to know if we could jump out of the boat and swim back...she was sure we get there quicker. At 3:20 we rolled back into port. Not as much time as we would like...but were experienced shoppers and so now its time to "power shop". We quickly find Thimble, Spoon, Magnet and the Del Sol store is right there. In we go and its Sun-Changing T-Shirts again for everyone( with the added touch of "Grand Cayman" on them....hey you have to have your souviniers ) DW wants to mail some post cards from the port....hoooray we find the post office and family and friends will now be thrilled with our exploits. Seeing a bank accross the street I run over and change some US cash into Cayman Island money. $1 bill and 1 of each coin type for each of the girls. Material memories in hand and wishing we could explore the shops...but not wanting to get left behind( would this have been a bad thing....I dont need much...I could tend bar on the beach or something...) its back to the last tender. Whew that day flew by. Time to get dressed for dinner. Looks like DD7 and I got a bit of sun even with the SPF 50 on. Guess lying on top of the water will do that to you. When we get to dinner I realize that I haven't had anything to drink all day and am very thirsty. Poor Cristi has to fill my water glass 3 times before he can even get the rolls. Then a great suggestion which would begin my downfall into "girl drink" addiction. Cristi suggested I have a virgin Pina Colada. He claimed that after one drink it would remove my thirst. You know what...it did!! Plus it was delicious. Yet somehow unsatisfying. I was drinking a kids smoothie! It's one thing to be ridiculed by burly men for drinking a "girls drink" its antoher to be ridiculed for drinking a kids drink. So the next one I made sure was "irished" up a bit( I'm irish 
so no flames...plus i dont know how id phrase it for a pina colada..) DD7 was totaly immersed in the spirit of dinner now. She was very proper about ordering and totally enjoyed the concept of an appetizer( chicken noodle soup every night ). We hoped she wouldnt be expecting this kind of treatment when she got home. Crisiti finnally manged to catch me with his coffee trick...though he had to do it with the creamer to catch me off guard( another check on his master list of dumb passengers hes fooled ). DW decided to forgo the show. I however had seen this show on the wonder and loved it. Hercules is probably my favorite Disney movie( I know your all going Hercules! what about Beauty and the Beast or The little Mermaid...hey what can I say I like Greek Mythology...plus I really like the soundtrack ). Once again I think they manage to pull off a good show because they stuck to something there good at. Sticking to their music and throwing in a few twists because its a stage performance. Pain and Panic steal the show and kept the three of us laughing. DD7 is a bit tired...but we have to make a quick stop at Studio Sea and shake our booty's. Back to the room and another wonderful towel animal. Eric keeps outdoing himself. I keep seeing him in the halls and hes getting fairly excitied about seeing his family in a few days. DD13 continues to look for Red Sox box scores while DW and I enjoy a few moments on the verandah. Then its time for the Magic to craddle us and slowly rock us to sleep.
next up Day 5 Cozumel.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=570558
Don't forget to read Day 3 first at.................
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=567644
It's Grand Cayman day and finally a day to sleep in!!! well uh...no..we have to meet in the Promenade lounge at 8:20 for our shore excurision...so maybe tommorrow we can sleep in? I wake up earlier than everyone and decide to take my own private walk up to Deck 10 and see whats going on. It's really peaceful at that time in the morning...while you'll see fellow DISer's up walking around...most are trying to get caffine into their body by any and all means..so no ones talking yet. I take up a spot in the bow and watch as not only the Magic but another ship converge on the port. It was kind of amusing watching the fleet of tenders waiting to pounce on the ship. Sufficiently filled with peace and calm its down to help with getting the family ready. Everybody's up, we get suncblocked, dressed, packed for the day..find excursion tickets..sign my life away promising if they loose me at sea its not their fault and its up to Topsiders for a bit of morning nourishment( i.e. Krispy Kremes
) Now that its Day 4 my hands are just starting to get a bit dry from all of the Purel I'm using at all the buffetts. Not that I don't trust all of my fellow cruisers..but I figure I can hedge my bets by at least "nuking" my hands after touching all those utensils.( I have no idea if this helped...but no one threw up all cruise so I consider it a success ). Several Krispy Kremes and a few Mickey Waffles later its down to the Promenade lounge to sign in and get our "Beast Sticker"...and then its follow the "Beast Paddle" in a long long winding line down to the tender. The tender was a little more..ummm..."unstable" than I expected. DW looked like this but we eventually made it to shore and then its follow the line to the bus. We had chosen the Rum Point Beach and Stingray City Excursion...(booked through Disney). Boarding the bus I felt like going "Moooooo" but refrained. A short 10 - 15 minute bus ride and were there!!! no not the beach..the ferry that will take us to the beach....and it will only take us 45 minutes to get there!! well at least the ride was enjoyable( yes im being sarcastic ). I glance down at my watch as were boarding the ferry and realize its already 9:45am! Where did the time go. The disney documentation said that the excursion was 5.5 hours including transportation. But this did not include meeting and tendering time. One of the tour operators told us that the ferry would not be back until 2pm to pick us up and that would be the only ferry. DW and I share glances and start doing some quick math. We really wanted to have some time to look around down town( i.e. shop ) and since the last tender leaves at 4:30 we know were cutting it close. Soooo were thinking that maybe will do the stingray portion of our excursion first when we get off the ferry..then we could hang out at the beach and maybe get a quick taxi back to port so we would have more downtown time. Well thought out dont you think? It was a good plan. And flawed in everyway. First mistake. By getting off the ferry and then going right to the stingray boat we didn't get to the beach to leave our stuff behind like others did. What does this mean? You guessed it no lounge chairs for us. You would think for the price that there would be plenty of chairs but alas...no. Second Mistake. It's already 10:30 we have been en route since 8:20 in the morning..the last thing we needed to hear was ok...now it will be another 20 minutes until we get to the stingray destination, which we will only spend 15 minutes at before heading back. Ugg..more time in a boat travelling and only 15 mintues!! what a jip. Out to the Stingrays we go. DD7 really wanted to do this, while DD13 didnt want to even be in the boat near them. The actual stingray part of this was great. Gigantic stingrays rubbing against my legs like they were cats. Acutally touching and holding them. While short it was still very enjoyable( my recommendation is if your at all interested in doing this...just do it yourself you'll get more time and probably a better boat ). Well its back onto the boat for our trip back to the beach. The captain gives a long list of why I should pay $20 for a Conch Shell that hes turned into a horn and then his first mate passess around a bucket of orange slices.( OK I have to ask...I'm not peevish about sharing food with people...but after all of the worries of Norwalk and just getting sick in general...does anyone see any problem with 25 sets of hands dipping into a bucket of cutup oranges?? ) I passed. Back to the pier and its beach time baby!!! OK where is it...I see the bar and some people hanging out in lounge chairs..but wheres the beach? Oh that is the beach...well maybe thats just part of it and there is some more..I see some beautiful white sand over to the left.. what? oh thats a private beach. OK..so I was a bit disapointed...you have to understand I've been reading posts about how wonderful Grand Cayman is and how Rum Point is the best of the lot. I'm expecting the beach thats in the Corona commercials. Then to walk down a pier and see the crowded lump of sand that is covered with Pine trees...pine trees!! I can see these at home. And then to walk in the sand with pine needles in it and there are no chairs open..*sigh* well maybe we will just hang out for a bit and head back to the port. I'm off to find out the various ways I can get back to port...ooopppss the only way back is a taxi at what they call "city money" in other words if I really want to go back its going to be $100+. So were stuck until 2pm. Well we might as well get lunch. It was about what you would expect for tourist trap food...the Coronas were cold. I kept ordering stuff beyond what was included in our pakcage and the "waitress" kept on saying "you realize thats extra?". I kept replying "yes"...I got the concept..I order stuff..I have to pay for it. DD7 was dying to get into the water. To her everything was fine and dandy and as long as she could swim everything was Grade A with her. DW saw they were renting floats and thought she could relax on one of these instead of a lounge chair...but of course they were all rented. ( Learn from this!!! He who hestiates is not only lost but stranded ). Well it wasnt till about 1pm shortly after the second stingray boat came back that DW was able to get a chair. Someone removed there towel from a chair they had reserved but werent using. It was about this time that DD7 made a great discovery. There were fish in the water!!! DD13 didnt like this so back up on shore she went....I and DD7 however got out the snorkel masks and salvaged our beach experience with some great snorkeling. We found tons of little tropical fish( some big too ). I wish we had seen these sooner but was happy for the time we had. We even found several full sized Conch Shells...DD7 wanted to take them home..but umm noo they were mostly coralized anyway. It was quite the treat seeing fish that you normally only see in an aquarium. The ferry arrived right on time( Island time that is ) 2:15 and it was back to port. DD13 wanted to know if we could jump out of the boat and swim back...she was sure we get there quicker. At 3:20 we rolled back into port. Not as much time as we would like...but were experienced shoppers and so now its time to "power shop". We quickly find Thimble, Spoon, Magnet and the Del Sol store is right there. In we go and its Sun-Changing T-Shirts again for everyone( with the added touch of "Grand Cayman" on them....hey you have to have your souviniers ) DW wants to mail some post cards from the port....hoooray we find the post office and family and friends will now be thrilled with our exploits. Seeing a bank accross the street I run over and change some US cash into Cayman Island money. $1 bill and 1 of each coin type for each of the girls. Material memories in hand and wishing we could explore the shops...but not wanting to get left behind( would this have been a bad thing....I dont need much...I could tend bar on the beach or something...) its back to the last tender. Whew that day flew by. Time to get dressed for dinner. Looks like DD7 and I got a bit of sun even with the SPF 50 on. Guess lying on top of the water will do that to you. When we get to dinner I realize that I haven't had anything to drink all day and am very thirsty. Poor Cristi has to fill my water glass 3 times before he can even get the rolls. Then a great suggestion which would begin my downfall into "girl drink" addiction. Cristi suggested I have a virgin Pina Colada. He claimed that after one drink it would remove my thirst. You know what...it did!! Plus it was delicious. Yet somehow unsatisfying. I was drinking a kids smoothie! It's one thing to be ridiculed by burly men for drinking a "girls drink" its antoher to be ridiculed for drinking a kids drink. So the next one I made sure was "irished" up a bit( I'm irish so no flames...plus i dont know how id phrase it for a pina colada..) DD7 was totaly immersed in the spirit of dinner now. She was very proper about ordering and totally enjoyed the concept of an appetizer( chicken noodle soup every night ). We hoped she wouldnt be expecting this kind of treatment when she got home. Crisiti finnally manged to catch me with his coffee trick...though he had to do it with the creamer to catch me off guard( another check on his master list of dumb passengers hes fooled ). DW decided to forgo the show. I however had seen this show on the wonder and loved it. Hercules is probably my favorite Disney movie( I know your all going Hercules! what about Beauty and the Beast or The little Mermaid...hey what can I say I like Greek Mythology...plus I really like the soundtrack ). Once again I think they manage to pull off a good show because they stuck to something there good at. Sticking to their music and throwing in a few twists because its a stage performance. Pain and Panic steal the show and kept the three of us laughing. DD7 is a bit tired...but we have to make a quick stop at Studio Sea and shake our booty's. Back to the room and another wonderful towel animal. Eric keeps outdoing himself. I keep seeing him in the halls and hes getting fairly excitied about seeing his family in a few days. DD13 continues to look for Red Sox box scores while DW and I enjoy a few moments on the verandah. Then its time for the Magic to craddle us and slowly rock us to sleep.next up Day 5 Cozumel.
http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=570558
Sounds like quite a bit of riding and little excursing. (is that a word?
) Anyway, sounds like lots of memories were made that you'll remember always. Can't wait to hear about Cozumel.
, didn't have a whole lot of cash, and the KTTW card just doesn't work on the island (!) so we didn't rent any snorkeling equipment, just checked out the fish from above. All was fine until my toes started getting nipped on by those critters. I thought it may have been the nail polish on the toes, but they found DH's toes too. These fish had nasty little teeth. That was enough for me. I asked someone who was snorkeling by to snap a few pictures of the guilty parties for me and got out. Time to go anyway!
