Who? Me (37), DH (40) and our 9-nearly-10 year old twin DD's
TUESDAY: Grand Cayman
We had kind of an abrupt start to our morning. When we returned to our room on Monday night and read the Personal Navigator for the next day, it said "Don't forget to set you clocks back an hour." Well, we jumped the gun and set them ahead on Monday night! So, when the clock said 5:30, but we were already anchored in Grand Cayman and the sun was high in the sky, I knew something was wrong! It was actually 6:30, and we needed to get up! We wanted to be ready and dressed to get on the first tender at 7:30 to make our excursion with Captain Bryan's.
Well, despite feeling rushed and confused, all was well. Disney takes all of it's excursion-paying passengers on the first tenders, but we were 3rd in line for the next available, and were able to get out very early. Our rushing around was needless. I'd thought that Captain Bryan's told us to be there by 8:15, which we were, but we ended up sitting around and waiting until after 9am. It's island time, mon! So, don't rush to be out too early. We were a little disoriented and confused coming off the tender boat, having forgotten to bring our email from Captain Bryan's and having no idea where to go. Things are definitely geared towards the people paying for Disney excursions, not those who booked privately. As you come off the dock, there are plenty of people standing around offering excursion trips for just about everything, but it was hard to find someone who could tell us where to go to meet Capt. Bryan's. There were 6 other cruise ships in port that day, all dumping passengers on the piers -- very congested.
We finally figured out where to walk to find Captain Bryan's "office." It's behind a cute little bakery, and is basically a little tent in the middle of a parking lot with chickens wandering around. But the woman there was very organized and helpful. We had time to visit the bakery and get some drinks and pastries. They take American dollars, but because we were breaking a $20, we got some Cayman dollars as change. That was probably just because it was early and they didn't have the US dollars to give us yet.
Our experience with Capt. Bryan's was great -- a quick bus ride to the boat. There were probably 20 other people on the boat with us; none others from Disney, but lots from Celebrity, Carnival and NCL. The boat ride was just lovely, Sting Ray city was incredible, and then we stopped for a quick snorkel. Very, very enjoyable. They returned us to the marina we'd left from, and had vans to take us back -- either to town or to the beach. At the last minute we decided to go to the beach with a group, and ended up at Royal Palms. Looking back, this was probably a good thing, although we had no idea at the time that tendering had been stopped because of the bad swells. Royal Palms was a nice facility, lovely beach with clean bathrooms and showers. There was a little beachside bar and restaurant where we got something to eat and sat in the shade (it was HOT!!). It was actually very delicious -- pizzas and salads and burgers. The girls tried to swim a bit, but the water was getting too rough (same swells that were hampering the tendering operation back at the pier.)
We showered off and walked out of the facility; note -- we never paid anything to use it, although we'd heard there was a fee. There were taxis waiting to take people back to the dock. I can't remember what the charge was, but DH paid up front and they dropped us right off at the pier. As we drove up, we saw a line of (literally!!) thousands of people snaking away from the dock down the street. We knew something was up. We decided to look around in some of the shops while dh went to investigate. THANK GOODNESS WE HAD THE RADIOS! We would never have split up if we didn't have some way to communicate. By this time the girls were hot and tired and had had enough of Grand Cayman. We were looking in a store when dh radioed and said, "Come out now, they're moving to another dock."
We were able to get in a line of people moving to another dock, and along the way we learned that they had shut down tendering because of the rough waves. We heard later that a tender boat had actually been lifted out of the water and slammed down on the dock -- very dangerous. The Disney tents were totally trashed -- DH saw them before they moved, and we saw them in a damp pile after they moved to the other pier.
We had a brief walk to another pier, kind of a commercial location. The waves were really high -- breaking over the bulkhead, and even sometimes up on to the pier. It was a little bit chaotic with hundreds of people and no clear cut lines, but Disney quickly got organized. There were a bunch of Celebrity passengers mixed in somehow, but they soon got things straightened out. We were probably 200 hundred people back in the line. They would try to bring the tenders up to the dock and load people on. The boats would slam into the dock and the waves pushed them up and down. It was frightening. In the meantime, we are standing on that hot pier in the blazing sun, not sure what is going to happen. We didn't want to get out of line and go back shopping or anything -- that could only mean a longer wait. Luckily we had water, hats, and towels -- we covered our head and shoulders with the white towels to deflect the sun. A lady behind us started to pass out, but Disney crew came and took care of her. I'm not sure what happened, but she seemed to get on an earlier tender.
They would load the tenders as best possible -- painstakingly slow as they tried to keep the tenders steady and off the dock. Finally the larger ones just gave up. As each new tender pulled up at the dock, they would drop off water, more cast members and other supplies. The cast members did their best to keep us calm and informed.
The Magic, and the Carnival ship anchored next to it turned in an attempt to block some of the swell, and that seemed to settle things down a bit. As this was happening, the cast members on the pier told us what was going on so that we woudn't worry that the ship was leaving without us. I think that did help things subside, as they were able to load the tenders more effectively. We waited in line for about 2 hours, and finally boarded a tender. Everything was so incredibly orderly, and everyone was being so patient despite the heat and stress and fear and confusion. We got back on the ship about 4pm.
One of my daughters was really very frightened by the boat slamming into the dock and the waves breaking and got very upset. She was not hysterical, just crying quietly. There wasn't much I could do except hold her and pray with her that we'd get back to the ship soon. I do feel for the people who had younger children, or those that had to put up with crankier kids. I can't even say how proud I was of mine through the experience -- it was really an example of how sometimes things go wrong and you just have to make the best of a bad situation. They never complained or whined or got out of control, even though it was hot and boring and definitely not the most fun part of the week!
It felt so good to get back on the ship -- in the air conditioning and out of the heat and blazing sun. DH got quite sunburned on his face despite having a hat. He just didn't reapply the sunscreen often enough.
I took the girls to the 6:30 Hercules show and left them to go back and get cleaned up. I hated to miss the show - I think it was one of their favorites!! Because of people getting back to the ship so late with the tendering delays, they added a matinee of Hercules on Thursday, the sea day, but we didn't get to go then either.
Our dinner Tuesday night was in Palo's. We had Jemma from England as our server, and she's an absolute delight. I remembered afterwards that I'd read a mention of her on this board -- that her parents had done 2 back-to-back cruises recently. Well, she is truly a lovely young woman and we enjoyed talking to her.
Everything at Palos' was so good, but we were just so tired and worn out from the long day. DH's sunburn was uncomfortable too. I had a bellini (heavnely!), tomato and mozzarella salad, filet mignon (the gorgonzola was more of a sauce, not what I expected, but very tasty). The breads and antipasti were awesome. Jemma gave us some tiramisu to take back to the room because we were too full for dessert. DH had salmon, I believe, with risotto that he just loved.
Meanwhile, our kids went to dinner in AP by themselves!!! Because we got back so late and they wanted to go to the Hercules show, they missed dinner in the club. And they insisted that they did not want to miss seeing Deneval and Daniel in the dining room. So, we took them to AP before we went up to Palo's and settled them in and they had such a fine time. Where else could 2 10-year-olds go to a restaurant on their own? They just thought that it was so cool, and our servers gook very good care of them. Afterwards they went back to the room and watched tv (having all those Disney movies on the tv in the room is their idea of heaven!) until we returned.
We checked back in on the kids and settled them into bed, then went to Rockin' Bar D for the 80's Time Warp. That was a lot of fun, but we were just too tired to dance and party, so we called it a night.
Oh, I forgot --we had our turn down service this night. A lovely arrangement of rose petals in the shape of a heart and 2 towel swans. So sweet. Of course, with the kids in the room with us, there wasn't much opportunity for romance!!
Go to Day Five
TUESDAY: Grand Cayman
We had kind of an abrupt start to our morning. When we returned to our room on Monday night and read the Personal Navigator for the next day, it said "Don't forget to set you clocks back an hour." Well, we jumped the gun and set them ahead on Monday night! So, when the clock said 5:30, but we were already anchored in Grand Cayman and the sun was high in the sky, I knew something was wrong! It was actually 6:30, and we needed to get up! We wanted to be ready and dressed to get on the first tender at 7:30 to make our excursion with Captain Bryan's.
Well, despite feeling rushed and confused, all was well. Disney takes all of it's excursion-paying passengers on the first tenders, but we were 3rd in line for the next available, and were able to get out very early. Our rushing around was needless. I'd thought that Captain Bryan's told us to be there by 8:15, which we were, but we ended up sitting around and waiting until after 9am. It's island time, mon! So, don't rush to be out too early. We were a little disoriented and confused coming off the tender boat, having forgotten to bring our email from Captain Bryan's and having no idea where to go. Things are definitely geared towards the people paying for Disney excursions, not those who booked privately. As you come off the dock, there are plenty of people standing around offering excursion trips for just about everything, but it was hard to find someone who could tell us where to go to meet Capt. Bryan's. There were 6 other cruise ships in port that day, all dumping passengers on the piers -- very congested.
We finally figured out where to walk to find Captain Bryan's "office." It's behind a cute little bakery, and is basically a little tent in the middle of a parking lot with chickens wandering around. But the woman there was very organized and helpful. We had time to visit the bakery and get some drinks and pastries. They take American dollars, but because we were breaking a $20, we got some Cayman dollars as change. That was probably just because it was early and they didn't have the US dollars to give us yet.
Our experience with Capt. Bryan's was great -- a quick bus ride to the boat. There were probably 20 other people on the boat with us; none others from Disney, but lots from Celebrity, Carnival and NCL. The boat ride was just lovely, Sting Ray city was incredible, and then we stopped for a quick snorkel. Very, very enjoyable. They returned us to the marina we'd left from, and had vans to take us back -- either to town or to the beach. At the last minute we decided to go to the beach with a group, and ended up at Royal Palms. Looking back, this was probably a good thing, although we had no idea at the time that tendering had been stopped because of the bad swells. Royal Palms was a nice facility, lovely beach with clean bathrooms and showers. There was a little beachside bar and restaurant where we got something to eat and sat in the shade (it was HOT!!). It was actually very delicious -- pizzas and salads and burgers. The girls tried to swim a bit, but the water was getting too rough (same swells that were hampering the tendering operation back at the pier.)
We showered off and walked out of the facility; note -- we never paid anything to use it, although we'd heard there was a fee. There were taxis waiting to take people back to the dock. I can't remember what the charge was, but DH paid up front and they dropped us right off at the pier. As we drove up, we saw a line of (literally!!) thousands of people snaking away from the dock down the street. We knew something was up. We decided to look around in some of the shops while dh went to investigate. THANK GOODNESS WE HAD THE RADIOS! We would never have split up if we didn't have some way to communicate. By this time the girls were hot and tired and had had enough of Grand Cayman. We were looking in a store when dh radioed and said, "Come out now, they're moving to another dock."
We were able to get in a line of people moving to another dock, and along the way we learned that they had shut down tendering because of the rough waves. We heard later that a tender boat had actually been lifted out of the water and slammed down on the dock -- very dangerous. The Disney tents were totally trashed -- DH saw them before they moved, and we saw them in a damp pile after they moved to the other pier.
We had a brief walk to another pier, kind of a commercial location. The waves were really high -- breaking over the bulkhead, and even sometimes up on to the pier. It was a little bit chaotic with hundreds of people and no clear cut lines, but Disney quickly got organized. There were a bunch of Celebrity passengers mixed in somehow, but they soon got things straightened out. We were probably 200 hundred people back in the line. They would try to bring the tenders up to the dock and load people on. The boats would slam into the dock and the waves pushed them up and down. It was frightening. In the meantime, we are standing on that hot pier in the blazing sun, not sure what is going to happen. We didn't want to get out of line and go back shopping or anything -- that could only mean a longer wait. Luckily we had water, hats, and towels -- we covered our head and shoulders with the white towels to deflect the sun. A lady behind us started to pass out, but Disney crew came and took care of her. I'm not sure what happened, but she seemed to get on an earlier tender.
They would load the tenders as best possible -- painstakingly slow as they tried to keep the tenders steady and off the dock. Finally the larger ones just gave up. As each new tender pulled up at the dock, they would drop off water, more cast members and other supplies. The cast members did their best to keep us calm and informed.
The Magic, and the Carnival ship anchored next to it turned in an attempt to block some of the swell, and that seemed to settle things down a bit. As this was happening, the cast members on the pier told us what was going on so that we woudn't worry that the ship was leaving without us. I think that did help things subside, as they were able to load the tenders more effectively. We waited in line for about 2 hours, and finally boarded a tender. Everything was so incredibly orderly, and everyone was being so patient despite the heat and stress and fear and confusion. We got back on the ship about 4pm.
One of my daughters was really very frightened by the boat slamming into the dock and the waves breaking and got very upset. She was not hysterical, just crying quietly. There wasn't much I could do except hold her and pray with her that we'd get back to the ship soon. I do feel for the people who had younger children, or those that had to put up with crankier kids. I can't even say how proud I was of mine through the experience -- it was really an example of how sometimes things go wrong and you just have to make the best of a bad situation. They never complained or whined or got out of control, even though it was hot and boring and definitely not the most fun part of the week!
It felt so good to get back on the ship -- in the air conditioning and out of the heat and blazing sun. DH got quite sunburned on his face despite having a hat. He just didn't reapply the sunscreen often enough.
I took the girls to the 6:30 Hercules show and left them to go back and get cleaned up. I hated to miss the show - I think it was one of their favorites!! Because of people getting back to the ship so late with the tendering delays, they added a matinee of Hercules on Thursday, the sea day, but we didn't get to go then either.
Our dinner Tuesday night was in Palo's. We had Jemma from England as our server, and she's an absolute delight. I remembered afterwards that I'd read a mention of her on this board -- that her parents had done 2 back-to-back cruises recently. Well, she is truly a lovely young woman and we enjoyed talking to her.
Everything at Palos' was so good, but we were just so tired and worn out from the long day. DH's sunburn was uncomfortable too. I had a bellini (heavnely!), tomato and mozzarella salad, filet mignon (the gorgonzola was more of a sauce, not what I expected, but very tasty). The breads and antipasti were awesome. Jemma gave us some tiramisu to take back to the room because we were too full for dessert. DH had salmon, I believe, with risotto that he just loved.
Meanwhile, our kids went to dinner in AP by themselves!!! Because we got back so late and they wanted to go to the Hercules show, they missed dinner in the club. And they insisted that they did not want to miss seeing Deneval and Daniel in the dining room. So, we took them to AP before we went up to Palo's and settled them in and they had such a fine time. Where else could 2 10-year-olds go to a restaurant on their own? They just thought that it was so cool, and our servers gook very good care of them. Afterwards they went back to the room and watched tv (having all those Disney movies on the tv in the room is their idea of heaven!) until we returned.
We checked back in on the kids and settled them into bed, then went to Rockin' Bar D for the 80's Time Warp. That was a lot of fun, but we were just too tired to dance and party, so we called it a night.
Oh, I forgot --we had our turn down service this night. A lovely arrangement of rose petals in the shape of a heart and 2 towel swans. So sweet. Of course, with the kids in the room with us, there wasn't much opportunity for romance!!
Go to Day Five
She was handling the situation much better than I was. Whew! I never thought I would be so happy to be on the ship and off land in my life. 
