Will I be disappointed with the Island Tour on Grand Cayman?

[disneypoor]

We are on the DD for Thanksgiving week. We will only be at Grand Cayman from 11:30-4:00. My DH likes to see the islands and learn a little about the history behind them when we cruise. The problem is time. We have booked the Island Tour (which goes to the Turtle Farm and Hell), and it will last from 11:30-1:30. That doesn't really give us much time for anything else.

I've heard the water is just beautiful at Grand Cayman. Should we skip the island tour and choose something else, or is this a pretty good tour? My initial thoughts were to do the tour and then catch a taxi to seven mile beach, but I'm just not sure we'll have time. Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Susan

 

[bonnielynn]

Depends on what you are expecting.. was pretty dull..
didn't see really any beaches... I think I would have preferred something else...

 

[disneypoor]

Thank you for your reply. I was afraid it sounded kindof dull.

 

[shoes99]

We enjoyed the island tour that stops at the butterfly farm, the turtle farm and HELL. We didn't go near any beaches. We had fun.

 

[TinkerbellTris]

We did the island tour last September that included the turtle farm, hell, and stingray city. The only regret we have is doing the 11:00a.m. tour and there was nothing to eat except turtle soup at the turtle farm...we chose to starve, I would never ever ever eat a turtle, let alone turtle soup. Gross. However the tour was absolutly fantastic, and we reccomend it!

 

[TonytheWop]

We are on the DD for Thanksgiving week. We will only be at Grand Cayman from 11:30-4:00. My DH likes to see the islands and learn a little about the history behind them when we cruise. The problem is time. We have booked the Island Tour (which goes to the Turtle Farm and Hell), and it will last from 11:30-1:30. That doesn't really give us much time for anything else.

I've heard the water is just beautiful at Grand Cayman. Should we skip the island tour and choose something else, or is this a pretty good tour? My initial thoughts were to do the tour and then catch a taxi to seven mile beach, but I'm just not sure we'll have time. Any thoughts or opinions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Susan

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news for all of you who have booked or planned on stopping at Grand Cayman but Hurricane Ike has virtually destroyed the island and, there is no timeline as to when it will re-open as a cruise port. Sorry !!!

TonytheWop

 

[disneyfaninaz]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news for all of you who have booked or planned on stopping at Grand Cayman but Hurricane Ike has virtually destroyed the island and, there is no timeline as to when it will re-open as a cruise port. Sorry !!!

TonytheWop

Can you please provide a source of this news. I haven't heard anything about Grand Cayman and I have been following Ike.

Are you sure you didn't mean the Turks and Caicos which was heavily damaged by Ike with a direct hit?

 

[webray]

The island tour is great, and it is the best way to reach all the important places in the shortest amount of time. You can do this yourself, easily, rather than booking through disney. Just head up the dock to the taxi dispatch station, tell them you want the two hour island tour. You can do it right when the ship docks and then you will have the rest of the day free.

When we did it, they offered to leave whoever wanted to stay, at the beach.
No one in our group wanted that, but it was an option.

Everything else, shopping and restaurants are near the port, so walking around after the tour is no problem.

 

[Wick]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news for all of you who have booked or planned on stopping at Grand Cayman but Hurricane Ike has virtually destroyed the island and, there is no timeline as to when it will re-open as a cruise port. Sorry !!!

TonytheWop

Wow I haven't heard anything about that on the news. I'll have to do some serious checking into this.

 

[tonyolily]

Just made my reservations yesterday for the 9/27/08 sailing on the Magic which visits Grand Cayman and the CM said nothing about it being closed.

 

[Lollipop's Mom]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news for all of you who have booked or planned on stopping at Grand Cayman but Hurricane Ike has virtually destroyed the island and, there is no timeline as to when it will re-open as a cruise port. Sorry !!!

TonytheWop

Odd that NO WHERE on the net are there any reports of this - not on cruisecritic either....

 

[TonytheWop]

Sorry to all ...I mistook Grand Cayman for Grand Turk.
Enjoy your cruise to the Caymans while I shrink away

TonytheWop

 

[disneyfaninaz]

It's okay. We all make mistakes.

Yes, it is tragic that so much damage was done to the Turks. I believe Carnival has already suspended any cruises to there until further notice. DCL doesn't go there as of yet.

 

[disneypoor]

Sorry to all ...I mistook Grand Cayman for Grand Turk.
Enjoy your cruise to the Caymans while I shrink away

TonytheWop

Well, I'm very happy you were mistaken. You did have me worried there for a while. I did a search and also couldn't find anything, but then I kept worrying that maybe it was true. I'm so glad to know it's not. And like one of the previous posters said--we all make mistakes!

 

[okwmeister]

It has been a couple years since our last cruise, however, if you want my 2 cents, the best excursion our family has taken has been stingray city. The adventure of being out in the ocean surrounded by stingrays and then venturing off into deeper water for some fabulolous snorkeling was perhaps the most impressionable and lasting memory of all of our disney magic cruises.

 

[disneypoor]

It has been a couple years since our last cruise, however, if you want my 2 cents, the best excursion our family has taken has been stingray city. The adventure of being out in the ocean surrounded by stingrays and then venturing off into deeper water for some fabulolous snorkeling was perhaps the most impressionable and lasting memory of all of our disney magic cruises.

Several people have raved about the stingray excursion, but I can't get DH to do it. He says he's not at all interested in it. Any other ideas? Thanks!

 

[morgy827]

We did the Island tour ans we had a great time. We loved the turtle farm and our tour guide was great. He gave us so much history and extra info on the island. I'm not big into swimming with sting rays and we had a really great time doing this. I would definately recommend it if you are wanting to see a lot of the island in a short time period. We also had plenty of time to walk around the shops afterward and I'm sure we could have taken a cab to the beach if we had wanted to.