Our excursion was early on this day, so we got up a little earlier to make it to breakfast. Actually we didn’t. The alarm didn’t go off, but I got up at 7:05 since my back was sore. (It was supposed to be 6:45) But no worries. We all got ready and even had time to hit the breakfast buffet by the Java Cafe. You can tell which is my breakfast. I'm starting to feel heavy from all the food.
Up at the Java Cafe, they have an assortment of donuts. They all look amazing. My goal was to try one before we left. Just not for breakfast.
Then we were off to our excursion rendezvous point on the ship. We had never done one through the cruise before, but I kinda liked it. It took a lot of the guess work out of it. No hunting people down or looking for transportation. You all stay in a group and hang out most of the day. We had to take a ferry across to land since there was nowhere for the cruise ship to dock. I think it is too shallow. So we piled on a boat and went across.
The boat looks awesome sitting out there in the water. Who would have thought something that huge could float? Look at the boys being so serious as always.
Even though we were with a general excursion group, when we got to shore, there were so many excursions, it was still easy to get lost, but luckily we figured it out. We talked to 3 women for a while. Mary, Carrie, and Stephanie. Stephanie works for Carnival so she was giving us tips. She is a vacation planner, not someone who works on board. Too bad I can't remember any of the tips. (You can tell I'm a good listener.) We then divided into groups for the busses. Only 3 busses with less than 20 people on each bus, but still a good sized group. We were the smiley face group. Can you see the sticker on Tyler's shirt?
Our bus driver was Ashton. They also drive on the left side of the road in Grand Cayman. Ashton was great. He gave us random facts about the island. I guess some guy bought a huge part of the island and plans to open a huge resort area but it is a 15 year project. They are 11 years in. The Grand Cayman islands were discovered in 1503 by Columbus. There are three islands but we were in the capital on the biggest island. It was lovely. Not as wild as Jamaica and more Americanized. You lost a little of the 'island' feel, but you don’t have people up in your business 24/7. Worth it.
We hiked through a plaza from bus to another boat. There were lots of little lizards around but Tyler couldn’t catch one. They were all different sizes, some quite big. I don’t think he’d want to catch a big one. Lookie here...he got his hands on something. It may be a statue.
By the water, we saw mini jellyfish floating around. So amazing. We boarded a boat to take us 45 minutes out to sea to Stingray City. Did I mention we were going to the Sensational Stingray Swim? I opted for Manatees, but I think the Stingrays were cheaper. Plus, I really love them as well and that is what the boys chose. We left the ocean just to go right back out. Our boat was Miss Go Go and it was a pretty nice ride.
There was loud music playing so you couldn’t really chat. I closed my eyes and dozed much of the time. I brought my fitkicks again, but when we arrived, they said NO SHOES of any kind because they can damage the rays.
Stingray City is an area off the Cayman Islands that is basically a sandbar. It is not too deep. You can stand, although with my height, I was usually tip toe and a good ocean swell would go over my head if I wasn’t watching. I’m not sure which came first, the stingray or the tourist. Probably someone saw a lot there one time and decided to come back and try to find them again. Maybe they brought tasty squid to tempt them. As it is now, I’m pretty sure the rays come back for a free handout but it seems to work for both groups.
We weren’t on our own out there, but I was happy to have the handlers helping. Without them, I’m not sure I would have been brave enough to grab a stingray and look it in the eye. As it was, one guy held a ray the whole time and let you touch and kiss it while Sash (the girl) took pictures. (Yes, they want you to buy the pictures) Beth, fortunately had a waterproof phone case so we got plenty of our own. Perfect. Other than that, you did get one squid to feed them. Their mouths are on the bottom and they don’t have teeth. They just suction up their food. It felt really funny and cool. The females are the large ones and you can see the barbs on their tails, but they aren’t aggressive and I think you would only get hurt if you stepped on one. They do tell you to shuffle your feet through the sand and not to take steps so you don’t accidentally step on one. That is easier said than done. I could barely keep my toes on the ground so I was trying to toe shuffle. When we weren’t playing with the ones the guides were holding, we were just watching. There were plenty more swimming in the water. I would use the goggles from the snorkeling set to look below. They worked great. Many brushed past us or we would stick our hands or feet out to feel their soft skin. It was awesome. Here are some pictures of our encounter.
The waves started coming in faster and with my height issue, I started to be buffeted about. It was very reminiscent of when we went snorkeling in Key West, but not quite as bad. I was still a little queasy when we got back on the boat. But holding still and watching the ocean or closing my eyes helped and it went away before we got back to the harbor. And it was all totally worth it. We made some great memories that day.
There were plenty of fish to see. Plenty of regular fish. Jonny also saw a larger barracuda-type long fish and Tyler spotted a different one that looked a little like a puffer. Funny that Tyler spotted it at all because he can’t see. Actually I think he had his prescription sunglasses on, so he was probably fine. Jonny went to take a video of the fish, but the camera was flipped so he just videoed himself swimming. It was pretty funny.
Back on the little boat, it was another loud ride back and then back on the bus with Ashton. When we passed KFC he mentioned that there were chickens all over the island but you wouldn’t find them hanging out there. But later, we literally saw a chicken right by KFC. Maybe that chicken couldn’t read?
Ashton mentioned what we could find around the pier. Mostly jewelry. He showed us four different streets where he said it was all jewelry. Then he pointed farther down and said you could find clothing down in the red building and crafts under a white tent. He was pretty accurate. You could find a few other things, but there was a lot of jewelry.
Money is such an interesting thing depending on where you are. In Jamaica, their economy was whack. Guaranteed, they would take anything you gave them, american money wise. No one would make you exchange and use Jamaican money. In the Cayman Islands, a U.S. dollar is not worth as much. It is only about 80 cents to a dollar there. (Sash showed up some money on the boat which looked like play money. It had the Queen of England and fish.) Their dollar would be worth about $1.25 in the states. Luckily most of the stores do the math for you or just have the prices in American dollars to make it easier. The good news is that I enjoy shopping in almost any country. I found a display of art, all done by June. I needed to take a picture.
We walked all the way down to the craft tent and it was very cool to see some of the stuff people have made. One of the prettiest things they have is a mineral called Caymanite. Lovely, but a bit too pricey for me. We did see an interesting shop on the way back. It was called ‘artifacts’ It supposedly was all items salvaged from ship wrecks. The idea is cool but I’m too suspicious. I’m sure they just get regular stuff and coins and then say they found it and jack up the price. It was a fun afternoon of shopping and I found some great things for the kids. And Beth caught her own lizard...
Back at the dock, we bought one more thing, a ceramic stingray for the Christmas tree. I want something to remember this awesome day. Then we had to wait in the long line to get back to the boat. It was very long but it moved quickly as they filled up the ferries. Selfies all around.
We had to wait a long time on the ferry while people got off because they check bags and sure enough...they checked Beth’s candy again. Does she eat that candy, or just carry it around each day?
Back on board we decided to give ourselves a little more nap time this time. We gave ourselves 3 hours to shower and sleep and we sure needed it. Both Tyler and I showered to remove salt water and such, then we crashed. I was dreaming so deeply, it was hard to get up. When we did awaken, we weren’t terribly hungry so we went to the library to play games. While there, I mentioned the Monologue Jar but we forgot to bring it so Tyler sent me back to the room but I couldn’t find it anywhere.*
Upon returning without said Monologue Jar, we actually decided to check out some of the ship shows because we hadn’t gone to any. We went to see Kelly do a comedy sketch. It wasn’t that great. We chuckled a couple of time and when I laughed at a religious joke, he called me a Baptist. :) I think I would skip his show next time.
We went to another show after dinner. It was called ‘Celestial Strings’ We weren’t sure what to expect but the pre-show was annoying. This girl with a funny white fairy outfit flitted around the stage making fake pouty expressions while a guy in a white suit conducted an imaginary orchestra. It was very cliche and overdone. We were a little concerned about the show, BUT...it was fantastic. They all wore white the whole show with some white face paint as well. They didn't change costumes. They just took off layers and added them back on. The strings part consisted of three violin players (with electric violins) wearing white of course, who played along with all of the songs. There was so much filler music and it was so loud that often the strings got lost in the mix but when you could hear them, they were great. I wish they had done more string solos or highlights from them.
The cast was great. Six girls and six boys. There was a main Soprano and Alto and a main Tenor and Bass and all the songs were split between them. Two more girls and 2 more boys had mikes and would sing along for filler and harmony and the last four people were just there to dance. All the singers were very good. The soprano was excellent and she sang a song with some high range opera style notes that reminded me of 5th Element.
Their song choices were really good. Lots of random picks but excellent songs. The whole show was quite enjoyable. And even when they finished, they went out into the atrium promenade and sang some more. Dedicated.
* In the evening, Tyler went looking for the Monologue Jar since we lost it. He tried up at the Havana bar since that is where we last saw it. He described it to the guy there and suddenly the man's eyes lit up and he said, “I’ve got it” Apparently they usually just throw things away but Tamas opened it and was intrigued and started reading questions between his chores. He had gotten to question 68. I think he was sad to see it go, but happy that it was returned to its owner. He said Tyler should sell them. :)
Another excursion tomorrow but not as early. Our towel friend was interesting. Bear or Yoda? You decide.
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