chanthor13

Our favorite cruise line is Royal Caribbean. We find it's the best of both worlds for the adults and our 3 kids. Our next preferred cruise line is Celebrity, but the kids generally find it a bit boring. I've heard good things about MSC cruises, but haven't yet tried them.

If you want to avoid the kids:

cruise when school is in session (NOT summer, spring break, winter break)

the 9+ night itineraries

cruise the smaller/older ships

We enjoyed Pigeon Pt Beach, water was calm with boats/yachts in the background. I don't think it gets many tourists, other than those who head to nearby dockyard. We entered Pigeon Beach via the long way thru the Goat Trail hike after visiting the ruins if Fort Berkeley. The Goat Trail was very picturesque and thete were some great views. However, it was a bit challenging for my 10 y.o. as it was a hot and sweaty climb with some boulders and loose dirt/pebbles on the path. The trail marker indicated the path was 1 mile long, maybe as the crow flies, but I don't believe it as it took us at least 45 mins to hike. There is a paved road between Pigeon Pt Beach and Nelson's Dockyard, about 15/20 mins walk. Alternatively, there is a water taxi you can take across to Galleon Beach. I hear it's nice there as well with good snorkeling. No bus service from Galleon Beach or Shirley Heights so would have take a cab back to port or back on the water taxi to Dockyard for the bus.

That's exactly what we did on 12/29/17.

We took #17 bus to Nelson's Dockyard, stopped at Fort Berkeley, hiked the Goat Trail, swam at Pigeon Beach, then back on the bus to port.

Admission to Dockyard is $8US for ages 13 and up. Cash only, but there was an atm there. Bus fare $3.75ECD one way (approx $1.40US). Our driver took ECD or US.

The Dockyard is a working dock with historical significance for the British, with shops, restaurants, boutique hotels, small museum, etc. A small area to walk around with some placards noting items of interest/significance. A lazy walk around for 2 hours tops, not sure why there is an entrance fee as there is not much to see or do. You may hire a water taxi for an additional fee to get across English Harbor to the Interpretation Center and to Shirley Heights, which are both included in the $8 entrance fee.

Make a right along the water after exitING cruise terminal...10 min walk to ferries. 2 Ferries: one that goes to Pointe du Bout and the other with 2 stops: Anse l'Ane and Anse Mitan. RT fare is $7US, $5US for children age 5 -10.

We were disappointed by Anse l'Ane. Beach was dirty, sand was grey, water was cold and murky. Most of the storefronts were closed or abandoned.

From the ferry, Anse Mitan beach quality looked similar...except beach here looked smaller, there were more people, more shops looked open.

My understanding is that the truly nice beaches are at least an hour away from the cruise port.

The beach for both stops are right at the end of the dock.

We got off at Anse d'Ane. Not a great beach IMO. The sand was a greyish color, water felt cold in late December, water was dark, no fish to look at, sand was not very clean...lots of cigarette butts everywhere. Overall, there is an air of decrepitude, as more than half of the dozen restaurants/shops are shuttered/abandoned. Drinks on the beach was expensive... $5US for one local beer.

Saw Anse Mitan on the ferry back to cruise port. Hubs thought it looked more lively with more choice of shops and cafes. It was a smaller beach, with similar gray sand.

Javin responded within 2-3 days of my initial e-mail inquiry, maybe check your spam folder or try Facebook messenger, and was prompt in answering questions after booking. He gets great reviews, am looking foward to his tour is next week.

We are a family of 5 sailing on a family OV room on the Breakaway in a month's time. I think its the same size as on the Getaway.

We are old pros as we always stay in one room on cruises. Sometimes, we've been spoiled and managed to snag the large family rooms that Celebrity and RCL reserves for large families. But we've also stayed in small, dark interior staterooms. We've even been complimented by many attendants that we are very tidy. WE ARE NOT TIDY PEOPLE WHEN AT HOME! LOL.

The key is to pack light and be organized. The 2 adults are allowed a large suitcase and the kids each have a small carry-on size rolling suitcase. The empty suitcases are stowed under the beds or in the closet. Shoes are kept in the closet when not in use. Dirty laundry gets thrown in one suitcase at a time, makes sense to keep this in the closet or near the bathroom. When full, the dirty laundry suitcase gets stored all the way in, under the bed, and another empty one comes out in rotation. 3 pairs of shoes max per person are allowed.

In the early days we would bring one of those over the door organizers for all of our misc crap. Now, I find that we don't have much crap... and there are enough cubbies, shelves and drawers for all the little things.

It helps to have different shower schedules, too. The girls like to shower at night and the boys shower in the morning.

Good luck.

I just got back on a tour with Marvyn Gayle and he was great. I did a lot of research beforehand: Marvyn and Courtney Taylor were my top choices.

We were in Falmouth port from 7am-4pm. I organized a group of 14 people (6 of whom where children ages 7 to 13) from the roll call. We found Marvyn waiting for us with a sign at the port. We had a fun full day day: Blue Hole, tubing on the White River, lunch at Scotchies, and a short stop at Bamboo Blu beach. The highlight of the trip was the Blue Hole- it's a beautiful place and off the beaten path. The young guides took such great care of us and entertained us with so many daredevil stunts. They were fast, nimble, and crazy fun.

We were only able to spend a short time at the beach because our group spent so much time at the Blue Hole. In retrospect, I would skip the tubing to spend more time at the beach. The food at Scotchies was good (especially the chicken) but not something I would go out of my way for. Marvyn called ahead to have a buffet set up for us. The meal was $8pp (chicken, pork, rice, festival, and a drink, $2 extra for beer). I didn't find the meat very spicy, but my kids thought it was and barely ate anything. So definitely not worth $8 for picky eaters. My DH and I thought it was great jerk chicken.

Just returned from our Caribbean cruise... Falmouth was one of the stops. I am one of those people that seem to attract skeeters and the bites swell up badly. We spent the day at Blue Hole, tubing on White River and Bamboo Blu Beach. I didn't have one mosquito bite.

Returned to NJ today and spotted a skeeter buzzing around me in my garage. Not one skeeter in the tropical Caribbean, but they were waiting for me at home!

It's entirely optional and extra if you choose to tip but certainly not necessary.

Tips are optional.

However, we have never not given a tip at the end of our cruise. I would say my kids are usually in the kids club about 80% of the time during open hours. They make many friends and enjoy most of the activities. We tip between $50-100 per child depending on how much time they are there and how well the programs are run. The staff sometimes do shift around, but I ask the head counselor to distribute the tips accordingly and I do name names if anyone in particular impresses us.

I have seen plenty of parents not tip:confused:. The counselors do an amazing job -many have backgrounds in education. They help make my vacation so much better bc my kids are well-cared for and entertained. I believe their salaries are generally low and don't share in the general tips pool.

The Club does offer dining options on certain nights and if interested must sign up at least an hour (?) before the event. The info will be posted in the Adventure Ocean dailys. The AO counselors usually commandeer a few tables at Windjammer or Johnny Rockets for this purpose. My kids are foodies and generally choose to dine with us at MDR.

Hey, Grand Cayman is not Las Vegas, but we surely did plenty of fun stuff on the islands during our short stay.....

we booked our tours on line at http://www.caymanstingraycityunited.com, so we got alot of discount and it actual work out fine all the way through every stop we made. many shops by the sea after we came of the boat, so did some shopping,

 

the tour guide was very nice in welcoming us, the tour was fun, we saw birds, iguanas, nat geo, swim with dolphins, kiss stingrays, starfish....it was fun

 

great deals...was really fun, we had a great time

We will be in Grand Cayman in early November, trying to decide on a Stingray City tour. Where exactly do CaymanStingrayCityUnited take you? How are they different from the ones that do the 3 stops: SC, snorkel stop and Starfish Pt?

Thanks for your help.