LadyLt
Mouseketeer
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2002
- Messages
- 266
Day 4 Grand Cayman Island
Cast of Characters .
Bianca Your author, 51 year old retired cop, lover of Disney, part-time WDW CM
Christi .. My 20 year old daughter/ light of my life, also a lover of all things Disney
Neil . Christis boyfriend, 26 yrs old, cast member at WDW for last eight years
Many, many more people all wonderful friends from DDL
We arrive in the British Cayman Islands and stop at beautiful Grand Cayman. From the deck of the ship, we can see a bright red three story building standing out from most of the buildings which are either white or pastel colors. We later discover that it is the old Customs House which is now the Grand Cayman museum. We had to take tenders to the mainland for our excursions here. So we all had to go get tender tickets prior to leaving the ship.
For our excursion here we are going on a boat to visit Stingray City and then snorkel about a reef. Months before the actual cruise, Arlene started checking out Grand Cayman on the net and then by telephone. She located a small local company called Nativeway Tours owned and operated by a man and wife, Capt. Eldon and Sharon. Arlene reserved their boat for us for this day. The boat holds 25 people and we filled it with DDLers from our group. The boat came with a captain, an assistant, and a videographer. The videographer had a professional underwater video camera.
A quick note here about my daughter, when I first booked this cruise in 2001, Christi was to be my cabin mate. Then she dropped out because of college schedules. When Christi moved to Orlando in August, she told me Did I hear something about a Caribbean cruise? So she was back in to share with Margaret and me. Then she dropped out in November because of work conflicts at Disney. (During that period, Christi and I were signed up to go on the Stingray City Tour.) Christi quit working for WDW in December and got a job in Celebration. So Neil told her at Christmas that they would go on the cruise with the DDL group and he would get them a cabin. Arlene then managed to squeeze one more on the boat so Neil could go with us on the excursion.
The point of this side story is that Christi had assured me that no way was she going to touch a stingray. She said she could sit on the boat, but she wasnt getting in the water with those things. The point of going to Stingray City is that it is a sand bar way out in the Caribbean Sea from Grand Cayman. You can stand on the sand and the water is about chest to neck high. The stingrays swim all around the people. The stingrays have learned that when the boats come and people get in the water, there is food. All of the boats that travel there carry chub for the stingrays. The tour employees show you how to take it in your hand and then feed the rays by hand. It is very cool .. a sucking sensation when take it from you. The employees would catch the rays and hold them while you petted the stingrays and gave them close looks. Well, Christi fell in love with the rays. She touched, petted, held, and even had one wrapped around her head by our captain. I very much enjoyed this part of the excursion, too. I am not a big beach person. I dont like getting sand on my feet and legs and I am not a great swimmer. But the Caribbean sea is so warm and such a turquoise color. The stingrays are very cool to touch and rub. And I enjoyed feeding them out of my hand. Everyone on our excursion seemed to be having a blast. We stayed there close to an hour.
We then got back on the boat and he drove us another couple of miles. He stopped over a reef and told us that the water was ten to twelve feet deep. Everyone started to put on snorkeling masks and fins. I am legally blind without my glasses (I wore them in the water at Stingray City) and knew I would not be able to see anything in a snorkeling mask. Also, as stated before, I swim but not well. So I stayed on the boat and watched everyone else here. All of the snorklers seemed to a great time here. We were there another 45 minutes or so. The captain then headed the boat back to the yacht club area where we had left from a couple of hours earlier. This was a fantastic excursion. We saw other boats there that had many people on them. One seemed to have 150-200 people on it. I am sure that it was one of the sanctioned tours from Disney and the other large cruise ships. I am sure that they had fun. But we had our boat to ourselves and three crew members just for us. So I really believe that we go more attention and time with the stingrays than anyone on those larger boats. A thousand Thank You, Thank Yous, to Arlene for arranging this for us.
Another note here, we were there on Tuesday, Jan. 21. On Tuesday, Jan. 28, I got an envelope in the mail at home. It was my video from the excursion. It was fantastic. He had dubbed Caribbean music over the video of us. It is titled with the date of our excursion, the name of their company, and the location, and has wonderful video of all of us with the stingrays, on the boat, of the different fishes swimming nearby, and of the snorklers. He even swam below and took video up above of Christi and Neil snorkeling and holding hands in the water. He charged us $35.00 U.S. money for the video It is one of my absolute favorite souvenirs of the cruise.
Christi, Neil, and I then just walked around down near the docks for a couple of hours. We had lunch at a small family owned café and then did some shopping. We returned to the ship around 3:00 pm. I then went up on Deck 9 to watch the wonderful Caribbean steel band combo, Island Groove, that played each afternoon by the family pool. They were a wonderful music group and I took some photos of them. Christi and Neil went to rest.
That night, our dinner rotation was in Lumieres. Neil and Christi asked me to eat with them at their table. There was supposed to be another couple at that table that week. But they never showed up. The server didnt know if they didnt show up for the ship or if they were spending all their time in the cabin. But he didnt mind me being at Christi and Neils table. In fact, their server kept asking me to join them. As poor as I thought that the service was at my assigned table, the server at Christi and Neils table was marvelous. Not only did he give great dinner service, he told jokes and did magic tricks. Dinner was an experience at that table. Neil had mentioned to the server on Sunday that he loved escargot. He was then promised that he would have it on Tuesday night at Lumieres. The server brought him two escargot plates with six on each. Neil also ordered the lobster/crab appetizer. We all three ordered filet mignon. Christi and I eat steaks well done. They bought out steaks and mine was great, but Christis was still bleeding. Well, that was okay because Neil likes his medium rare. The server just grinned, picked up Christis steak and set it in front of Neil. Then he went off and brought Christi back another filet, well done this time. Then we had desert. So Neil had twelve escargot, a lobster/crab appetizer, two filet mignon, vegetables, and then two deserts. It is a good thing that this guy is 64, because I dont know where he puts it all. He is not fat at all.
Cast of Characters .
Bianca Your author, 51 year old retired cop, lover of Disney, part-time WDW CM
Christi .. My 20 year old daughter/ light of my life, also a lover of all things Disney
Neil . Christis boyfriend, 26 yrs old, cast member at WDW for last eight years
Many, many more people all wonderful friends from DDL
We arrive in the British Cayman Islands and stop at beautiful Grand Cayman. From the deck of the ship, we can see a bright red three story building standing out from most of the buildings which are either white or pastel colors. We later discover that it is the old Customs House which is now the Grand Cayman museum. We had to take tenders to the mainland for our excursions here. So we all had to go get tender tickets prior to leaving the ship.
For our excursion here we are going on a boat to visit Stingray City and then snorkel about a reef. Months before the actual cruise, Arlene started checking out Grand Cayman on the net and then by telephone. She located a small local company called Nativeway Tours owned and operated by a man and wife, Capt. Eldon and Sharon. Arlene reserved their boat for us for this day. The boat holds 25 people and we filled it with DDLers from our group. The boat came with a captain, an assistant, and a videographer. The videographer had a professional underwater video camera.
A quick note here about my daughter, when I first booked this cruise in 2001, Christi was to be my cabin mate. Then she dropped out because of college schedules. When Christi moved to Orlando in August, she told me Did I hear something about a Caribbean cruise? So she was back in to share with Margaret and me. Then she dropped out in November because of work conflicts at Disney. (During that period, Christi and I were signed up to go on the Stingray City Tour.) Christi quit working for WDW in December and got a job in Celebration. So Neil told her at Christmas that they would go on the cruise with the DDL group and he would get them a cabin. Arlene then managed to squeeze one more on the boat so Neil could go with us on the excursion.
The point of this side story is that Christi had assured me that no way was she going to touch a stingray. She said she could sit on the boat, but she wasnt getting in the water with those things. The point of going to Stingray City is that it is a sand bar way out in the Caribbean Sea from Grand Cayman. You can stand on the sand and the water is about chest to neck high. The stingrays swim all around the people. The stingrays have learned that when the boats come and people get in the water, there is food. All of the boats that travel there carry chub for the stingrays. The tour employees show you how to take it in your hand and then feed the rays by hand. It is very cool .. a sucking sensation when take it from you. The employees would catch the rays and hold them while you petted the stingrays and gave them close looks. Well, Christi fell in love with the rays. She touched, petted, held, and even had one wrapped around her head by our captain. I very much enjoyed this part of the excursion, too. I am not a big beach person. I dont like getting sand on my feet and legs and I am not a great swimmer. But the Caribbean sea is so warm and such a turquoise color. The stingrays are very cool to touch and rub. And I enjoyed feeding them out of my hand. Everyone on our excursion seemed to be having a blast. We stayed there close to an hour.
We then got back on the boat and he drove us another couple of miles. He stopped over a reef and told us that the water was ten to twelve feet deep. Everyone started to put on snorkeling masks and fins. I am legally blind without my glasses (I wore them in the water at Stingray City) and knew I would not be able to see anything in a snorkeling mask. Also, as stated before, I swim but not well. So I stayed on the boat and watched everyone else here. All of the snorklers seemed to a great time here. We were there another 45 minutes or so. The captain then headed the boat back to the yacht club area where we had left from a couple of hours earlier. This was a fantastic excursion. We saw other boats there that had many people on them. One seemed to have 150-200 people on it. I am sure that it was one of the sanctioned tours from Disney and the other large cruise ships. I am sure that they had fun. But we had our boat to ourselves and three crew members just for us. So I really believe that we go more attention and time with the stingrays than anyone on those larger boats. A thousand Thank You, Thank Yous, to Arlene for arranging this for us.
Another note here, we were there on Tuesday, Jan. 21. On Tuesday, Jan. 28, I got an envelope in the mail at home. It was my video from the excursion. It was fantastic. He had dubbed Caribbean music over the video of us. It is titled with the date of our excursion, the name of their company, and the location, and has wonderful video of all of us with the stingrays, on the boat, of the different fishes swimming nearby, and of the snorklers. He even swam below and took video up above of Christi and Neil snorkeling and holding hands in the water. He charged us $35.00 U.S. money for the video It is one of my absolute favorite souvenirs of the cruise.
Christi, Neil, and I then just walked around down near the docks for a couple of hours. We had lunch at a small family owned café and then did some shopping. We returned to the ship around 3:00 pm. I then went up on Deck 9 to watch the wonderful Caribbean steel band combo, Island Groove, that played each afternoon by the family pool. They were a wonderful music group and I took some photos of them. Christi and Neil went to rest.
That night, our dinner rotation was in Lumieres. Neil and Christi asked me to eat with them at their table. There was supposed to be another couple at that table that week. But they never showed up. The server didnt know if they didnt show up for the ship or if they were spending all their time in the cabin. But he didnt mind me being at Christi and Neils table. In fact, their server kept asking me to join them. As poor as I thought that the service was at my assigned table, the server at Christi and Neils table was marvelous. Not only did he give great dinner service, he told jokes and did magic tricks. Dinner was an experience at that table. Neil had mentioned to the server on Sunday that he loved escargot. He was then promised that he would have it on Tuesday night at Lumieres. The server brought him two escargot plates with six on each. Neil also ordered the lobster/crab appetizer. We all three ordered filet mignon. Christi and I eat steaks well done. They bought out steaks and mine was great, but Christis was still bleeding. Well, that was okay because Neil likes his medium rare. The server just grinned, picked up Christis steak and set it in front of Neil. Then he went off and brought Christi back another filet, well done this time. Then we had desert. So Neil had twelve escargot, a lobster/crab appetizer, two filet mignon, vegetables, and then two deserts. It is a good thing that this guy is 64, because I dont know where he puts it all. He is not fat at all.
