1/02
I’d love to say that the second day of the New Year started with a wake-up call from Mickey Mouse at the sleep-in time of 9:00 a.m. No – that would be like wishing on a star. Our wake-up call around 3:00 a.m. was not from Mickey, but a small child in room 5024. “Dave, Dave…what’s that noise?”
“I’m sleeping…leave me alone.” That noise seems to be young Max tossing and turning like he was sleeping on the Titanic instead of the Disney Magic. After rushing into Max’s room, I find that Max is burning up like a hot potato. But do not fear, being the over-packer, mother-of-three, I have packed an entire infirmary held firmly in place by the dozens of pockets in the over-the-door-shoe holder. A little Motrin and we can back to dreams of Thomas the Train for Max, dreams of College Football and Beer for Dave…and Brent the Cruise Director for me. (Once again MIL…just teasing).
What’s this? I didn’t pack a medicine dispenser for young Max? Do you think Max can self-dispense 2 teaspoons without spilling on our pristine white sheets laundered with special Snow White cleaning solution? Probably not – there’s no way that Max will sip this medicine willingly. We’ll have to be like MacGyver and improvise. “Dave, you tip his head back and I’ll just slowly drip it down his throat.” O.K., bad idea. Dave suggests putting the medicine in the tip of his sippy cup. Yet another bad idea. Dave then says, “Hey, why don’t we call medical services and ask for a syringe?” Well, that would be a brilliant idea between 9:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. (with at least an hour break in there for lunch) but at 3:00 a.m., I’m fairly certain that call is going to cost us more than my “Break-your-bone-massage” I got yesterday. So, being somewhat rational at 3:00 a.m., we try the “Medicine Song and Dance” and manage to get a wee-bit down Max’s throat…and a wee-bit more all over the sheets and his pajamas. After giving Max a bath (and the medicine is working, he’s perking up), we dress him and say, “Time to go back to bed Max.” “No mommy, I already did. I’m awake.” No joke – this is going to be a long night.
Rick and Kathy knock on our door bright and early while Dave and I groggily open the door hoping that it’s room service with a super-sized order of caffeine. No, no…time to get ready and head out to Grand Cayman. The kids and I go up to Topsiders to get breakfast while Dave…well, frankly, I have no idea what Dave was doing in hindsight.
We disembark, Max is feeling a bit more perky, and take the tender to shore. There’s like 50 boats lined up in the ocean, it’s like a used boat lot for luxury liners. The tender is a like putting your life in Cruella DeVille’s hands hoping that you land safely on the other side. We do and weave our way through the throngs of people to be plucked out of the crowd by some enterprising taxi driver who promptly takes us to her waiting car.
“Where are you headed to today?” I suppose “Back To Bed” is not a good answer, so we answer, “The Hyatt, please.” Many years ago, Dave and I enjoyed a week long stay at the Hyatt, as did Rick and Kathy. I had sent e-mails to numerous hotels while researching what to do for our GC excursion – we decided that a beach day with a pool was right up our alley:
Hello Su,
Thank you for your interest in our resort. I do have a day rate for suite rental on Jan 02/07 that rate is US$325+20% tax for the day this includes the use of a 1 bedroom ocean view suites and use of all the facilities of the resort. Alternatively you can purchase a day pass for the rate of US$35 per person the day pass rate includes use of the pools and beach chairs, towels etc. To reserve a day use suite you should try to make reservations no later than 48 hours prior to arrival, for day passes you may purchase those upon arrival to the resort at our seven mile beach bar on the beach in front of the resort.
Regards,
Ryan
Ryan Williams
Reservations Coordinator
Hyatt Regency Grand Cayman Beach Suites
Tel: 345-949-1234 x 4703
Fax:345-949-8528
We pull up to the Hyatt…and where did it go? I remember a luxury resort on both sides of the street, bustling with people and Pina Coladas. What we pulled up to could best be described as a small boutique hotel on the ocean with a large vacant lot across the street. Turns out the Hurricane was devastating and the Hyatt suffered serious losses, and I’m sure someone, somewhere made out with a good amount of insurance money. But – no problems, there’s a pool and a beach with our name on it and I have Ryan’s e-mail that says for a mere $35, I get a comfy lounge chair and with any luck, a Cabana Boy to go with it (I'm sure that's what the "etc" means in Ryan's e-mail...).
We head towards the beach to only be stopped by the Security Guard inquiring if we are guests of the hotel. Well, of course not…we’re special “sneak in the back way” kind of guests and we have the e-mail to prove it. We’re just on our way to the bar to place our order, “2 Pina Coladas, 3 Juice Boxes, 4 Lounge Chairs and 1 Cabana Boy.” Turns out, we need to head back to the lobby and purchase our day passes. I arm Dave with Ryan’s e-mail and head to the beach to await his arrival…no, no, no, that won’t do. “Missy (my name is Su…not Missy), you’ll have to wait here until your husband brings back the vouchers. “Here” would be in the outdoor corridor with three kids who are close enough to the ocean to feel the sand between the toes, close enough to the pool to envision diving in the deep end, and for me, close enough to the bar to see that frosty glass of alcohol calling my name. After waiting endlessly for Dave, “Here” turns out to be the Penalty Box, better known as Hyatt Hell. Seriously, Dave was gone for 20 minutes (doing what, I wasn’t quite sure), and I’m trying to convince three kids that although NO ONE is in the pool or at the beach, we apparently lack the wrong wrist band (apparently those Oceaneer Club bracelets lose their charm once you leave the boat) to enjoy the $35 of fun.
Dave comes back with the hand-written day passes and the explanation for the long delay – apparently the Hyatt does not do the day passes in high season. Doesn’t matter that we had the e-mail in hand to prove that we were not crazy and not making it up, they wouldn’t budge. But Dave, having gotten a trial run getting Max’s Oceaneer Club bracelet and knowing that good cop/bad cop thing might work, “You really don’t want me to tell my wife that all the planning she did to get us here was for nothing, do you?” No sir–here’s your passes!
Crap...I forgot to put pants on the kid....
The beach and pool were great and was especially nice that it wasn’t crowded (of course not, there’s hardly a hotel to speak of and the tightest security on the island). We had the taxi meet us at 2:30 to take us back to the boat. On the way there, I ask Dave, “You did grab your license to get back on the boat, right?” Now, if you knew Dave you would know that anything relatively important – driver’s license, I-Pods, Cell Phones, Car Keys – well, they seem to go to Never-Never Land. In fact, Dave has lost so many cell phones that he’s no longer insurable. We’re on the 3rd I-Pod and I can’t even count how many times he lost his keys. So it should come as no surprise when Dave says, “Umm…I swear I picked up my driver’s license, but I don’t know where it is. Maybe I left it in the room.” Great – looks like I’ll have to take the tender back, go up to the room, open the safe, get his passport (or Driver’s License if we can find it), go back to the Island and get Dave. Or to teach him a lesson, I could just leave him there. Or, we could try the ‘ole, “You really aren’t going to make my wife take this rickety tender back to the boat and leave me here all alone?” After weighing our options, we tried Combo Platter C and made it past security and on to the tender, back to the boat. (apparently all the tight security is being employed by the Hyatt, not the Magic).
I have to make a confession and apologize at this point to anyone that may have taken the tender immediately after us and sat upstairs, thinking that the seat and floor were wet from the kids swimming in the ocean. No, that would more specifically be one kid swimming in pee. Turns out Max had to go potty and I had two options – either let him pee off the side of the boat (with a high likelihood being on the second floor that a good wind would have redirected his pee to the unsuspecting passengers on the first floor- besides, it reeked of Michael Jackson holding his kid over the balcony and who needs that sort of publicity on vacation) or let him pee on himself (he was already wet from his bathing suit). Well, you can guess what option I took. Sorry!
Once we got back on the boat, I deposited the kids and hubby back in our rooms and made my way to the crew bar…err, medical services. It’s all on the same floor. And I am happy to report, that there are things for free on the boat. Yep – the syringe to dispense Max’s medicine was complimentary (as of this writing – there is still the chance I’ll get a bill from Vanguard Medical….).
Rick and Kathy graciously took the kids to the show, while Dave enjoyed his “man time” and poor Max clung to me like a tumor growing on my hip. After using our newly found syringe, we manage to get enough medicine down Max to turn him from Hot Potato to a Warm Potato Salad and he begins to perk up and actually has an appetite. By the time Delaney and Jack return from the show, Max is ready to go. Now – big dilemma yet again, we still have the reservation at Flounders Reef (because we forgot to cancel) and we have the way-cool OC bracelet and the medicine will probably wear off in a couple of hours. We opted for the safe Flounders Reef nursery knowing that Max could go back to his world of make-believe Nemo and swim upstream to the cribs at the back of the club. There is no way that we’re risking having our bracelet clipped off Max’s wrist for falling asleep during the Do-See-Do…we still have three full days of vacation left! So off the Club and Nursery our kids go, while the adults head to Lumiere’s for dinner.
We have been informed by Nicoleta that everything is “Deli-shooes” on the menu tonight but she still had her favorites. Not wanting to be disappointed with dinner, I follow her lead and enjoy the Herb Crusted Halibut. No more beef for me – I don’t need the 7-day Fogo De Chao tour of the Disney Magic. Before dessert arrives, we hear the dreaded, “Beep, beep, beep.” Fairly certain this time that it actually means something, we look and it says, “Delaney would like to be picked up.” Isn’t she a little young to be worried about pick-ups? Since I lost the shamble, I gave Dave my dessert order and worked my way up to the Lab to pick her up. It dawned on me that perhaps Delaney’s new BFF Julianna is no longer at the Lab, thus the page. When I see Delaney, I ask, “So – when did Julianna get picked up?”
“About two minutes ago.” Ah…I’ll have to talk to Julianna’s mom about this! I ended up bringing all three kids back to Lumiere’s for a Mickey Mouse Ice Cream Bar. They are in heaven, and I am begin to wonder if we have Max eat 10 of them, will it keep his fever down?
** The kitchen at Lumiere’s is the largest on the boat, so large in fact that if the other two kitchens catch fire (each restaurant has its own kitchen), Lumiere’s can support the entire boat. Which is great – but let’s get back to two kitchens on fire, do you think we’d still be on the boat enjoying our Halibut at Lumiere’s if the ship is burning? **
We head back to our rooms and decide to call it a night. Despite a sick child and a lost driver’s license, I have to say this was a great day had by all.
Yep, its true, I figured I was in for way more than $10 at the Treasure Ketch or She Sells Sea Shells so why not use it to my advantage. If Max got to stay, and Jack and Delaney helped make sure he stayed in line, I would give them each $10 to go buy something they wanted.
It appears that during this highly touted observation period, not one single counselor observed Max. One of the counselors broke out of the huddle (poor kid lost that bet) and approached Dave, Sir it appears that no one was informed they needed to observe your son. We can reschedule another observation session for later today if youd like. Dave says, You arent really going to make me tell my wife that no one was observing him, are you? You dont think that perhaps since he wasnt disruptive and there were no disciplinary issues that just maybe, he should be allowed to stay. After all, I was observing him and he seemed fine to me. And that is the story of how we got the elusive, highly-touted Oceaneers Club bracelet that can be resold on Ebay for millions. Maybe not millions, it frankly might be priceless to a vacationer with three kids and an upcoming Spa Alone time.
Max, had that super sleepy look about him, and since we already had reservations at Flounders Reef, thought that perhaps this was a better option for him than the Oceaneers Club (after all, why tempt fate with the new bracelet). After getting all kids in their appropriate places, and directions for Rick and Kathy (just answer the page if it goes off), we head upstairs for a romantic dinner for two.
