Breakaway / Live (*) / Solo - Feb-07-17-2019...

[BigNance]

1 hour ago, sid_9169 said:

I have no idea how they get MSY from Louis Armstrong International airport... Just a musing...

IT comes from the previous name of the airport - Moisant.  Named after John Bevins Moisant, an aviator.

[sid_9169]

3 minutes ago, BigNance said:

IT comes from the previous name of the airport - Moisant.  Named after John Bevins Moisant, an aviator.

Thanks, BigNance... It was a total mystery to me...

[Nclgetawaymenhoney]

Welcome back! Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the tri

[sid_9169]

It seems fitting that after spending a hundred bucks to change my flight, I still ended up in plenty of time to catch the original earlier one... They said I could switch it back, but it would cost me another $75... I thought about it, but then I thought of all the extra money I spent this week on cabs and drinks and food and tips... The list goes on, and here I sit for the next few hours. I can't believe that I'm even considering eating at one of the over priced airport restaurants, but I'm leaning in that direction...

[sid_9169]

Alright, now we're seriously going to be skipping around a bit. The next group of photos on my Pixel are from the day of Grand Cayman... I decided for the very first time to take advantage of the free Platinum laundry service, so I wouldn't be heading home with just a bag full of dirty clothes, so I prepared that before heading a shore...

 

 

I had pre booked tender group C, but when they called for groups A and B, throngs of people descended the stairs towards deck 4... There was a massive line, and it was not moving at all. This is the reason they reserve tender groups, but it appeared that 2,000 people didn't get the memo. I just hung out until my group was called, and pretty soon I was on the way.

 

This is the day that I had hoped to finish at least a couple of chapters of uploads, but sadly it was not to be. I'm going to call Verizon when I get home and see if they'll refund me for my travel pass for that day...

 

 

[sid_9169]

Like I said, it was my goal to do some major updates, but Grand Caymans phone infrastructure had different ideas. I walked over to the main public bus terminal a few blocks from the tender pier.

 

 

[sid_9169]

There are chickens that just run wild in the streets. Maybe I could move here and be a homeless person, living off the wild chickens?

 

I took the bus way up to the North side of the island, to the place known as West Bay. I stopped at a restaurant that I've wanted to try called Macabuca. It's supposed to be one of the best places on the island. I ordered a West Bay painkiller, which turned out to be the weakest drink I had all week... The should call it the pain causer, for the $15 dent it put in my wallet...

 

 

[sid_9169]

Next, I ordered the conch trio, which included ceviche, cracked conch, and conch fritters. ($16 in Cayman dollars)

 

 

A couple more from the restaurant.

 

 

 

The food was pretty decent, but with the exchange to American dollars as well as the 15% automatic gratuity, it came to around forty bucks... This vacation just continues to pound my wallet.

 

 

[sid_9169]

I paid my tab, and started walking South with the beach on my left... It was getting hot now, and I had about a half hour walk to my next destination. The West Bay Diner is a place I always stop by when I'm here. It's owner is from Australia, and he's a super nice guy. Always likes to chat about where the customers come from and how their vacation is going.

 

Now, I had just eaten a half hour earlier, so I was hungry again. They had something on the menu called "cow foot" so I inquired about it. He says it's exactly what it sounds like, so I had to get some.

 

 

I also had a raspberry smoothie, because it was like a hundred degrees outside, and I still had another good bit to walk.

 

The cow foot was, let's say interesting... It was mostly bones with some sort of congealed stuff on it, which I assume was cartilage. Anyhoo, it was time to keep walking...

[sid_9169]

Time for my first airport bathroom break, so it got my suitcase all bagged up, and I'm going in...

 

I guess after that, I'm going to break down and eat at the airport restaurant... I knew it would come to this...

 

[sid_9169]

I just now bumped into a guy from the ship who I've cruised with at least a couple of times now... (Well, not together. But, he was there, I was there, yada yada yada...) He has a late flight back to Canada, so at least I'm heading home to warmer weather...

[sid_9169]

Alrighty then, back to Grand Cayman... I walked and walked and walked some more... (It's a good thing I like walking) I arrived at cemetery beach, a place where I usually come to swim and snorkel. I didn't wear my swimming trunks this day, and also had on sneakers, so no swimming today...

 

 

Soon enough, it was time to catch the bus and head back to George Town. I was on the tender and back to the ship pretty quickly, and took a shower and changed for dinner tonight at Teppanyaki...

Yes, I'm wearing water shoes with jeans and a dress shirt, don't judge me...

 

[sid_9169]

But, first I had to stop by Vibe for some tequila shots. Five bucks a shot over the limit plus 20% gratuity, of course.

 

 

[sid_9169]

Then, I was off to dinner. The food here is pretty good, and there's plenty of it. I asked if I could have filet, shrimp, and scallops (which isn't an official option on the menu) and they said no problem. There was first a salad and soup, followed by fried rice, and then the meat parade...

 

 

[sid_9169]

It was a great dinner, show, and service all around... According to my photos, I ended up at the Prime Meridian Bar afterwards.

Then, it looks like I ended up at Headliners for howl at the Moon...

 

 

[sid_9169]

And, that looks like it for Grand Cayman day...

 

[sid_9169]

Well, I decided not to eat at the restaurant, and instead bought a two hundred dollar bottle of water and a newspaper to pass the time... If I die, I die...

 

[sid_9169]

It looks like the next set of pictures are from the day we were in Jamaica... Also, Valentine's day. I've never really had much luck here. The very first time I visited on the Getaway a few years ago, I got off the ship, and not even five minutes later, some kind of bug flew directly into my eye. It burned soooo bad, it felt like my eye was on fire. My choices were to rinse it out in a bathroom with questionable water in a third world country, or head back to the ship and rinse it with definitely clean ship water.

 

I walked back as quickly as I could and cleaned it out, and that concluded my first foray into Jamaica. The next couple of times, I tried to book excursions with local companies, but none of them would give me the time of day because I was a solo. So, I ended up just calling it a sea day on most of my visits.

 

There was that one time in Falmouth, when I walked alone through the city streets in search of some good jerk chicken, but what I found fell wayyy short of good.

 

So, this cruise I had almost just decided to stay on board, but I figured I would give Jamaica one more try. I exited the ship and took a few pictures, as this was our last port, and I wouldn't have another chance.

 

 

[sid_9169]

Ok, let me go back just a bit to the morning before I left the ship. I had a nice breakfast and some coffee at O'sheehans. I asked if I could sit at the bar for better light, but they said it was only for ordering ice cream. There was clearly ketchup and mustard and other condiments on the bar. I said "so, people actually put ketchup and mustard on their ice cream?" She answered, "yes" so I saw that this was going no where, and just sat at the table.

 

 

 

[sid_9169]

Next I walked around the upper decks a bit, and came across this...

 

And, this.

 

[sid_9169]

As I was contemplating whether to get off the ship or not, I thought about how the week had gone so far. Nothing bad happened, but I guess that I hadn't considered the demographic on a ten day cruise during the school year. It was clear that I was one of the younger people on the ship, even though I'm on the verge of fifty. Now, I absolutely love my grandparents, but get about 3,000 senior citizens on board a ship, and it's like Wednesday at Publix. I like to walk quickly wherever I go, but this was not an option.  It just felt different from the other Caribbean cruises that I've been on. No hot girls in bikinis by the pool. Not even many "hot moms" due to the kids being at school.

 

I love hearing war stories, but some of these were civil war stories... But, anyway, I'm rambling

 

 

[sid_9169]

Tug or no tug? If given the choice, I always choose tug...

 

[ktmush2]

Well, maybe we could have left Captain America Underoo guy out of this...lol

[MrFunInTheSun]

Oh I missed this whilst it was “Live” as I was “Live” during the same time period on Symphony of the seas. Sorry I missed it Sid, going to catch up now. 😀 

[sid_9169]

Still more than an hour to go. It seems like I've been here all day, already...