Triumph Cruise - Western Caribbean - Wednesday 3/22 - Grand Cayman - LONG

[sdwrdt]

I’d spent all my pre-cruise time learning about which excursions to do in each port, but not what to do before the excursion. I wanted to look around some of the shops, but didn’t really know where we shoudl head.

 

We headed down one alley way which had a lot of crystal, jewelry, etc. Things we weren’t really interested in. The girls liked seeing the pirate statues and the birds there, but we didn’t stay too long. While we were trying to figure out where to go next, we ran in to Jeff, Scott and the boys. Jeff crossed the street with traffic coming, so we basically lost him. While the kids were playing at the stingray fountain, Scott headed off. I guess my shopping beforehand was done, we’ll have to see what time we have after the excursion. Ron wanted to get a Mountain Dew, since he was having a bit of withdrawal with the ship carrying only Coke products. While he was finding one, I did find some seashell ornaments that were nice, but not quite what I wanted.

 

Jeff and Scott got to the meeting point about 10 and ended up that Dad would pay for everyone because we forgot our credit cards. We waited about 10 minutes (I think so that the person could possibly drum up so more business) and then were told to head towards the Nativeway van. There was already another family on the van. Lisa was our driver and guide.

 

She described most of the homes and interesting sites along 7-mile Beach and then took us to Hell. I enjoyed all Lisa’s descriptions of the vegetation and the area. We took the obligatory pictures of the kids with their heads in the angel and the devil cut-outs. We didn’t spend much time in the gift shop, but Trisha did earn a nickname from Lisa - “The Shopper.” I wasn’t sure how the boys would do in the gift shop, so I tried to keep everyone together and just glanced at most of the stuff. It was definitely a tourist trap, so don’t feel I missed out on much.

 

Our next stop was the Tortuga Rum Factory. It’s really only a gift shop where you can sample the different flavors of rums and rum cakes. On the way inside, I asked Lisa if I had to watch how much the kids sampled and she said that they could try everything and wouldn’t have a problem. I was very impressed with the fact that the kids wouldn’t go near the samples at first because they knew that rum was an alcohol. I finally convinced them that it was OK for them to sample the cakes. Lisa took great care of us and made sure that we all had samples of each kind. Another tour guide was providing the rum samples and he thought it was very funny when I asked for just a little. I remember trying the banana (which was good), the spiced (which I couldn’t stand), the cream (which we bought) and he had us try the liqueur (nice and sweet). I would take a sip and then hand the rest to Ron.

 

The rum cakes were very good - the only sample I didn’t like was the Original - I think. Unfortuantely, Lisa put all the samples on to one napkin and most of the cakes were yellow, so it was sometimes difficult to know which one you were tasting. The pineapple, coconut, and banana had very distinct flavors, though, so those we could tell. The chocolate was brown, so that was a gimme. We decided to buy a sample set, it had pineapple, coconut, banana, chocolate, key lime and original. The clerk said that for just $2 more, we could have 4 samples of rum (2 light and 2 original) and then all our purchases would be delivered to the ship. We were glad we bought that - didn’t have to try to keep track of the cakes.

 

Our next stop was the Turtle Farm. Lisa was also our guide here. She talked about that some of the turtles in the first pond were over 70 years old - one of the girls said she told us that the whiter the shells, the older the turtle. Our next stop was at the 3-6 month-old pool. They were small and really cute. The next pool was the best one - we got to each hold a turtle.

 

That’s where we learned how rude people really can be. While we were taking pictures of one of the kids, this lady literally jumped in front of our cameras saying that she wanted to hold a turtle! Lisa told her that she could hold one after we were done. As Lisa was passing the turtle on to another child, the lady pushed her way in again. We told her that we were all going to hold the turtle before she would have a chance. She never once apologized or even reacted to the fact that she was invading our space! Totally clueless would be the best description.

 

Our next stop was to pet the turtles who were raised on the farm. Then, Lisa showed us the Cayman Alligator - the only one left in existence on the island - and where the Cayman Islands got their name. There were some birds in cages, but I don’t really remember much about them. Lisa made sure that all of us washed up after touching the turtles. When I finished in the bathroom, Lisa was handing out paper towels to everyone and I asked if Trisha was already out. She asked “Who?” And I said “My older daughter.”

“Oh, you mean The Shopper? No, she’s not out yet.”

 

Lisa felt a bit rushed because we had just 20 minutes to get to the boat which would take us to the stingrays. Because she was in such a hurry, I didn’t stop at the gift shop - besides, the boys make me nervous around a lot of breakables. While we “cruised” through the gift shop (you can’t just enter the building without going through either the gift shop or the food area), I saw the cutest Christmas ornament. Wish I would have bought it. It had Cayman Islands and stingrays on it - kind of funny to be at the Turtle Farm and not have turtles, though, huh?

 

We got to the boat and almost laughed out loud when the Captain introduced himself as “Shyster.” (Still not sure if that’s his real name or not.) We were getting ready to load the boat and the other family realized that she’d left her camera on the bus. We waited about 20 minutes, until she finally got through to Shyster that we could go to the stingrays without it - as long as she was guaranteed that we would get it before leaving Grand Cayman.

 

Shyster asked that everyone remove their shoes and leave them on the dock. There’s a rule against having any type of shoes on while at the sandbar and Shyster didn’t want the shoes left in his boat. At first, we didn’t know how to react to that, but we all complied. (The shoes that were left on the dock were perfectly fine when we returned.)

 

Once we hit open water, Shyster was in a hurry to get us to the stingray sandbar. One time, we hit a wake so quickly that was big enough to make me grab for the boat as I was flying up in the air. It was a bit scary, but funny after we all landed back in our seats. When we got to the sandbar, Shyster pointed out where the life jackets, snorkels and masks were and then headed in to the water to get a stingray that we could feed, pet, etc.

 

His favorite trick was pulling the stingray’s mouth out of the water so that it would spit - especially at Stephen, since Stephen would scream when it happened. I was able to even get a back rub from one - it felt just like a kitten rubbing up against me. It felt great to have the stingray suck the squid out of my hand - kind of like a light vacuum suction. Ron, Trisha and I were the last ones in the water, we didn’t want to give up the wonderful experience!

 

To tell how smart those stingrays are - after we’d been at the sandbar for a while, they started to leave. But, there were 2 big boats that came and the stingrays came back, but to those boats! They knew that they would be getting fed soon! Everyone else had gotten back in to the boat and the new boats were FILLED with people, so we reluctantly got back on to the boat. When we saw the size of some of those boats, we knew we’d made the right decision and went with Nativeway. There was a total of 12 of us on our tour and our guides made sure everyone got as much time with the turtles and the stingrays as we wanted.

 

Because of the wait for the camera, it threw off the entire schedule. But, we got a nice relaxed trip back to the dock while we were waiting to be picked up to be returned to the tenders. We really enjoyed the colors of the water! At least it was relaxing until we realized that we weren’t being picked up until 3 pm (our tour was only supposed to be until 2:30 - when we were supposed to meet Jeff and Scott) and we still had to get back to the tenders before the last one left at 3:45! Shyster tried to make us feel better by saying that he can make it back to town in about an hour (which we didn’t have). Lisa and a driver came back and picked us up and dropped us off near the tenders in time to get in a MASSIVE LINE. But it moved really quickly.

 

We made it back in time to catch the second-to-last tender. We saw the last tender being loaded with all the alcohol and just a couple passengers! We just hoped that ours was part of that! We got the boys back to their dads and my mom was in the hall talking to them. She had gone to the doctor and received some antibiotics, so was feeling a bit better, but still not up to eating dinner with us.

 

“Memories of Our Fourth Day”:

• The weather on our fourth day was: beautiful
  
• The best thing about our fourth day was: swimming with the stingrays
  
• The worst thing about our fourth day was: worrying about being late for the tender
  
• The most interesting thing about our fourth day was: finding out how rude people really can be.
  
• The “nice” thing about our fourth day was: how great the Boys were
  
• One statement that best describes our fourth day is: experiencing wildlife

Notes for Next Time:

1. I DEFINITELY want to go to the Caymans again - just a beautiful place!
   
2. Don’t need to go to the Rum Factory, can find (and taste) rum cakes anywhere on the island.
   
3. Don’t think I could ever get tired of swimming with the stingrays
   
4. Use Nativeways again - they are very knowledgeable and helpful

The family’s list of Favorites:

• Ashley - swimming with the stingrays
  
• Trisha - swimming with the stingrays
  
• Dad - swimming with the stingrays
  
• Mom -swimming with the stingrays

[twinkletoes4445]

What a lovely review!!! So detailed... :)

 

The next time you are there, check out the little gift shop that is next door to Captain Marvin's (the building they are in is yellow, I think. It's about a five minute walk from the port-toward 7MB area). They have the neatest seashell ornaments. The first time we were there, we found the place (we used CM's) while we were waiting for our tour to begin. We recently returned to GC for a week, and I looked everywhere for ornaments, and ended up back at that shop because I just couldn't find a very good selection anywhere else. They really had some pretty ones to choose from.

 

We stayed at the Regal Beach Club. It's condos that are owned (rather than timeshare) and they are really nice. We had our own little stretch of paradise right in front of our room. We also rented a car and explored the entire island. We really enjoyed our drives to the East End. It's really much more enjoyable than the GT area...more "island" than touristy.

 

I also don't think we'd ever get tired of the stingrays! It was as exciting the second time as it was the first.

 

 

We're going back next January...and can't wait! :)

[sdwrdt]

The next time you are there, check out the little gift shop that is next door to Captain Marvin's (the building they are in is yellow, I think. It's about a five minute walk from the port-toward 7MB area). They have the neatest seashell ornaments.

 

I have saved it to my computer!

[phabric]

Great review. We are thinking of taking this tour. It has alittle bit of everything.