drew sailbum

You could take a public bus. Nearest stop is by the intersection of Shamrock Rd and Pedro Castle Rd. You can usually pay and extra CI$1 per person to have the bus divert from its route. That could get you to Pedro St James. Better to call for a taxi for the ride back to town as it would be a walk of a mile or so back to the bus route.

Lunch may be a bit of an issue. There has bee of-and-on discussions to have a vender provide food service at the site. Not sure of the exact current status. If you go with a rental car then there are easy options not far, just back on Shamrock Rd, either at the Wendy's or a Subway and Chinese restaurant are in Countryside Shopping Centre.

I'm sure your tour operator can provide snorkeling vests for your boys. The Barrier Reef snorkeling stop is in water too deep to stand up so it will help if they are comfortable in deep water and know how to swim.

The Cayman Islands National Museum is at 3 Harbour Drive on the waterfront in George Town and an easy walk from the cruise tender docks. Housed in the Old Courts Building, the museum is the oldest surviving public building in Cayman.

Nearby and just south of the museum is an old step well that was uncovered when building a shopping mall. The step well is located in a shop to the rear of Bayshore Mall The well is visible through a glass inset in the floor of one of the shops.

Another downtown historic treasure is Elmslie Memorial Church located at 48 Harbour Dr. Shipwrights used their knowledge of boat building to construct an impressive roof that is essentially a ship's hull turned upside down, beautiful indeed.

Further afield is Pedro St James historic site, the location of Cayman's first capital. The Great House has been restored to reflect how the house was in the 1700s. You'll probably need a rental car as cruise ship tours are relatively rare. Also known locally as Pedro Castle, the site is a 15-20 minute drive from George Town.

Cayman, unlike most Caribbean islands, was not inhabited prior to arrival of European settlers. As such there are no pre-historic ruins to explore. But Cayman does have a few of the historic pints of interest as mentioned above.

The small spot of beach in the OP's attached image is used on occasion, with permission of the port, for pickup of passengers for some ship sponsored scuba diving activities. It is not open to the public.

For a proper stretch of sand beach catch a ride down to Seven Mile Beach.

Some of Walkers Road does have sidewalks. But the side roads to connect from the waterfront to Walkers Road do not have sidewalks. Walkers Road is not a good alternative for those wanting to go to Sunset House.

Generally in Cayman transport for tours are in large passenger vans or small buses which are not outfitted for handicapped accessibility. I would suggest checking with Carnival for them to confirm, but I would be surprised it they offer accessible transportation. :(

As I recall, the Turtle Farm itself is mostly accessible for the basic (front part of the park) tour. The pathways are suitable for wheelchairs. You might need help from someone to lift a baby turtle from the touch tank. A fuller tour including the back part of the park includes a snorkeling lagoon, but I do not recall a Hoyer lift or similar to assist wheelchair users in and out of the water.

There are a couple private tour providers on island that do offer accesible transport. I think the information from my post from this thread is still current.

We definitely have buses on Sundays.

This thread from December 2016 has a little bit about the updated bus routes. Unfortunately old information seems to predominate on some legacy pages out on the internet. We need to just add a sticky for bus route info since it is such a common topic.

Tortuga Divers is owned by Red Sail Sports, but the Tortuga location is on the far east end of the island and that would not work for cruise visitors. Red Sail has operations out of many of the larger hotels on the west side of the island and is one of the largest dive operators on the island.

Since the OP prefers smaller operators I would suggest checking out Off the Wall Divers which operate out of a sort of coop at the Lobster Pot Dive Center, near Burger King on the George Town waterfront. Off the Wall and the other dive operators working out of Lobster Pot are all small operations that can probably work to fit your schedule well.

Guy Harvey Island Grill offers nice seafood with a second story patio that overlooks the water. They are a short walk just past the Hard Rock Cafe.

Rackham's also has a great waterfront view and is a frequently mentioned favorite here on Cruise Critic. You have the option to buy your preferred fish at the fish market on the beach next door and Rackham's will cook it to your liking. But you could just go with one of their regular seafood menu items for that member of you party. Located at 93 North Church St, Rackham's is a short walk to the north of the Royal Watler cruise terminal.

The bus back can be caught on the road right in front of the Turtle Farm. Cayman generally does not have formal bus stops, so just wave down a passing bus anywhere along the road. Any passing bus, regardless of direction, goes back to the bus depot in George Town.

Cayman's buses are actually large passenger vans that seat about 15-17 passengers. Routes are colour coded with a large numeral designating the route. IIRC the West Bay Routes are #1 and #2.

Never heard of it here in Cayman. Lots of other jewelry stores though.

I'm up early and hearing the VHF radio calls between Port Security and the incoming ships. Port Security told the Norwegian Escape they are tendering to the Cargo Dock. That seems to correspond with the listing on the Cayman Port website which simply days "Dock". So seems we have a confirmation.

And, as bookbabe noted, the terminals are very close. The cargo dock is immediately adjacent to the North Terminal. You just have to exit/return by a different gate in the fence.

Is that Kimpton/Public Beach stretch really over a mile long? It doesn't seem that long when you're at Public Beach looking over that way. Or do the buses do the whole bypass section instead of cutting down that little side street that runs beside the Kimpton to Tiki Beach?

Buses do the whole bypass typically. The bypass is a little over three quarters of a mile long.

For anyone walking south from Cemetery Beach I presume they will easily make it into that stretch of beach where most of the traffic is over on the bypass. But once they are in that zone they have some distance to go before they can bail out and grab a cab.

Perfectly safe, but it's a long walk. And a hot one in the summer. Yes, the main road with the buses follows the beach, and it's developed all along the way, so you'd be passing hotels and condos, etc.

Remember that the main road (West Bay Rd) is no longer contiguous. Traffic flow between West Bay and George Town has to divert over onto the bypass where it goes around the new Kimpton hotel.

So if you are going to start a beach walk at Cemetery beach and walk back towards George Town then you will reach a stretch where you will not find buses running along the adjacent road. Once you walk a total of about a mile and a quarter you would be at Seven Mile Beach Public Beach and again find buses running along the main road.

OK. Probably does mean tendering to the Cargo Dock.

A very, very few tiny specialty ships (liveaboard scuba dive vessel and such) can actually pull up and dock there rather than tendering ashore. Just wanted to be sure you were not on one of those.

What ship are you on?

My best guess is that it may mean you are tendering to the cargo dock which is just south of the Royal Watler terminal.

Has anyone used the ferry at the port to go to Rum Point? We will be in Grand Cayman at 10:00 am & the next ferry leaves at 11:00 am. The company says that we can make it, but was wondering if someone has actually done this on this time frame without any trouble of making it there in time with tender & all. I can't find any reviews, so I'm assuming it's fairly new? I just hope they're not just saying yes, you can make it, to get our money & know darn well it's not enough time.

Since this thread originally started in 2012 a company Cayman Ferries has re-instituted ferry service to the Kaibo Yacht Club and Rum Point. (No service on Mondays) I am relying on their website information linked above, though perhaps things have changed a bit. Verify with them to be sure of details.

The ferry departs from Camana Bay, not from the port. You would need a taxi from the port to Camana Bay to catch the ferry, and a return taxi to get back to the port. Taxis are not always waiting for the ferry return so you may need to call ahead or build in enough time to wait for a taxi.

Their website lists departures from Camana Bay at 11:30am (Tues-Fri). You should have enough time to reach the ferry departure point at Camana Bay if your stated arrival in port is 10am.

Specifically, there is no Iberostar resort in the Cayman Islands at this time.

All Inclusive is a rarity as well in Cayman. There is not an AI beach resort in Cayman comparable to AI beach resorts in other ports.

The ship's time is set at the3 departure port. If you leave from Miami and they are on DST, Cayman will be one hour ahead. The ship's time is constant and remember that when you are returning to the tender.

 

Cheers

 

Len

This is NOT correct.

Cayman does not observe DST. The US east coast ports do. So when it is 11:15am island time it will be 12:15pm ship time.

Cayman is one hour behind ship time in this case. Definitely not ahead.

It is correct that generally ships do not change the ships clock throughout the cruise, at least for Caribbean cruises. So if they say the last tender is 5pm ship's time that would be 4pm Cayman time.

There will be multiple tenders, more than enough. The limiting factor in getting everyone ashore is usually how fast everyone can get loaded on and off the tenders.

If your ship is the only one with later arrival then that may work in your favor when it comes to land transportation. There can be some traffic jams, most notably when everyone is heading back to the port around the same time. If your later arrival also means a later departure then you may be in luck.

You might find a taxi just hanging out at the Turtle Farm, more so in the afternoon when taxis are looking for fares back to the port.

But if you do not see a taxi the Turtle Farm is right on the bus route. You can flag down any passing bus which will take you back to the bus depot, about two blocks from the tender piers. Bus fare is CI$2 (US$2.50) per person for that trip.

I'm joining bookbabe in saying I am simply stunned.

The Cayman Islands has a 9-1-1 system. Any cell phone that operates on the GSM standard can connect. It is a free call.

I urge anyone who suspects they have been served an adulterated drink to immediately call 911. Try to preserve any evidence and make note of who served you the drink and any information that might help determine how your drink was spiked.

This is almost unheard of in Cayman. Alarmingly there were unconfirmed reports floating around though that was all the way back in 2010. There was an unconfirmed allegation of tampering that arose during a criminal trial in 2015 related to an incident that occurred in 2013 though the presence of a drug was not supported by test results. I have not seen or heard of other such incidents in recent years and certainly none has been confirmed.

Cayman takes reports of any criminal activity against tourists VERY seriously. Targeting a tourist can be seen as an aggravating factor.

We went to this beach on October 3rd and wanted to provide some information....

We were approached by "Jason" the "Beach Manager". He told us Calico Jacks was closed and wouldn't open until 11:00. He had nice chairs and umbrellas and so we rented 2 chairs and an umbrella for $20. He also told us that Calico Jack's charged $10 for each beer and that he could go across the street to the beer store and get us a 10 pack for $10. ....

I found your experience alarming.

To be clear, the Cayman Islands Government does not employ this "beach manager". Certainly no civil servant acting in his official capacity would ever be in position to direct business to or away from a particular business in this way. And unless something dramatic has happened recently there is no such position as "beach manager" at any public beach in Cayman.

To attempt to provide a positive CaymanKind experience to all our tourists the government of the Cayman Islands has in fact created a Public Lands Commission which will have an inspection unit with the responsibility of policing beach vendors. We expect our beach vendors to provide a positive experience and a friendly welcome to our guests. The behaviours exhibited by this "Jason" as described in your post do not meet the expectations the public has for those interacting with our tourist guests.

*** Please note. I am not a government official and do not speak for the government of the Cayman Islands. However I do relay the desire of so many of the people in Cayman to extend a welcoming greeting and a desire for you to enjoy your day in Cayman and the hope you will consider a return trip.

Yes, 3-4 hours is a one-way hike time for the Mastic Trail. That is a bit tough to fit in to a cruise visit since you would need nearly 90 minutes for the round trip to drive there and back to the ship. Add a few minutes if you are renting a car to get you there.

Humbly, I only recommend the Mastic Trail for experienced hikers who take a GPS and a cell phone with adequate battery power to call 911. People have on rare occasions found themselves lost if they wander off the trail a bit.

The Botanic Park is a much safer easier option. Like the Mastic Trail it is accessed off a side road off Frank Sound Rd. Frank Sound Road is the major north-sound road that cuts across the island in the eastern half of the island. No prizes for guessing where the side roads Mastic Road or Botanic Road take you.

Buses do serve Frank Sound Rd, and you could pay a small extra charge, usually $1 exra per person, for the bus to divert down a side road like to the Botanic Park. So perhaps CI$5 (US$6.25) per person in total would get you to the gates of the Botanic Park.

The problem is the return, as you would need to walk back out to Frank Sound Rd (a mile or so) and then wait for a bus. Buses do not operate on a schedule so your could be waiting quite a while. Renting a car is thus preferred.

It is possible, and not particularly difficult, to do both in a day.

From the port I would walk the long block inland to Edward Street and then catch the bus from the depot next to the Library. The bus dispatcher can help you get the right bus but any Bodden Town (BT), East End (EE), or North Side (NS) bus will drive right past the Cayman Islands Brewery at 366 Shamrock Rd. Make that your first stop.

At the end of your brewery tour ask the kind folks to call you a taxi since the distillery, Cayman Spirits Company at 65 Bronze Rd, is not on a bus route and walking from the nearest stop requires dodging traffic on a very busy road. Call for a taxi to the beach or back to the port at the end of the tour if your driver did not wait for you.