Magic 2/26/05 Part 4 Grand Cayman

[mrsnesbit]

Every Excursion was piled onto the first tender to Grand Cayman. It was crowded but fine. We were all awake and ready to go! It went very well and we got right onto the little white vans that took us to the Hyatt resort to pick up our Stingray city boat. The short ride was amazing as we got a close up view of the devastation left by the hurricanes! There was so much damage! Roofs missing, torn down trees and collapsed buildings. I felt so bad. There were two boats waiting and the group was divided between the boats although we probably could have all fit on one. I think tourism is way down. When we got to stingray city instead of seeing like 50 boats there may have been 10. Instead of hundreds of stingrays everywhere there were maybe 10-20 going between boats! It was a much different excursion than we expected. The water was very cool to begin with and our ds didn't even get out of the boat! What a bummer. Our dd age 4 (almost 5 so we just said she was 5 so she could go) had a ball chasing the few stingrays that passed by. It was a fun time despite the clouds, wind and cool water. I just wished ds would have gotten in. He would have loved it if he gave it a chance. i highly recommend a visit to the shallow water stingray city!! It is wonderful.

The kids and I took the next shuttle back while my husband and friends wandered around town. I got the kids showered and off to the clubs and tried to take a nap. I was able to keep in touch with my husband via our Motorola walkie talkies they reached all the way from the island to the boat which was cool. I never got the nap you know the screamies had radar so I skipped Hercules to sleep. We had Palo reservations for the evening!

The Palo story I wrote about in another thread when I was writing live from the Magic. Long story short. Our server was over extended with 2 large tables drinking like fish and throwing corks around the restaurant. She left us stranded with long waits and dirty dishes left for 30 minutes and on and on. when PJ came to ask how we were we were honest. He then booked us for an extra brunch on Him! for my birthday and promised me my birthday dance with Kristoff! Also he offered us another reservation for dinner the last night of the cruise and we took it! That was great! PJ became our buddy!! We love him.

Next stop Cozumel!

 

[yazee1]

We're going on the Magic in 4 weeks, so I'm glad to have the heads up on what to expect in Stingray City.

 

[mrsnesbit]

I would definately book an excursion in Grand cayman. There is still plenty of time to shop when it is over. The shopping isn't that great though. Everything is fairly pricey! I have read that a lot of the afternoon excursions were getting cancelled and sure enough on our trip that was the case too. We were glad to have the morning booking because we didn't want to miss the stingrays. we have been before and loved it!