Grand Cayman Excursions

[Island Marketing Cayman]

Cayman is recuperating, power is now back to the Hyatt and expected to reach the Westin by mid month. George Town is back to “normal”, the Port is operating, all we need now is tourism :p The other day I was thinking how wrong we have been about storms all these years. Our biggest worry with hurricanes was the possibility of “the big one hitting” and because all of our eggs are in the same basket e.g. all major hotels on 7 Mile Beach, most condo on 7 Mile Beach, the Port for all of our cruise ship traffic facing the same Western direction, same as all hotels and condos. If the big one came from the south all tourism facilities would disappear in 24 hours….. The storm did come from the South, just as the hurricane of 1932 did, a deadly hurricane, force 5 and ferocious. 1932 caused many casualties, of course back then they had no idea a hurricane was coming until the wind picked up to 180 mph and everyone lived in huts. The only building that survived was St. James Caste, back then called Eden’s Plantation (I think) ( I found this great site 3 weeks ago

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/custom/sfl-inttrackmap.htmlstory I hope it still works, you can track hurricanes for the past 100 years or so..) At any rate, the opposite of what we had considered happened during Ivan, and by knowing the story of 1932 I bet it was the same exact situation as in Ivan. The storm surge came in from the East and the interior of the Island, the North Sound (where stingray city is located) became 25ft to 35ft deep from its usual depth of 10 to 15ft. The water rose and hit everyone from behind, most residential homes were flooded and wind blasted, I have seen videos taken overlooking my old school that showed my old football field with waves! I could have surfed instead of passing a ball around! Homes in South Sound, Bodden Town, Breakers and East End where hit by waves, that being the South Coast. The Port, 7 Mile Beach and inland in the middle of the Island are perfectly fine. Well, I would not say perfectly, roof damage, siding came off, satellite dishes gone, cars flooded etc. 7 Mile Beach and tourism areas for the exception of one resort in East End survived the storm, a friend called me from the Westin yesterday and said it looks as if nothing happened it looks perfect and will reopen at the end of October.

 

So, what happened that no one had previously envisioned? The opposite! All hotels, condos, shops in George Town, and the Port are fine, most people’s homes are damaged, and some are destroyed. I bet that as a Cruise Ship arrival who would do the “usual Cruise Ship thing” one could disembark, go to their excursion pickup point in George Town, be taken to their boat to play with our rays, be taken to 7 Mile beach after the rays and then go back to the port without realizing a hurricane just visited. A drive to some areas would surely prove different but the areas are never visited by passengers or should I say are hardly visited by passengers. What we have here is a failure to staff businesses, most people left due to no power, water etc so businesses no longer have staff (hotels, restaurants, dive shops etc) the few businesses who are 98% Caymanian operated have staff, but the majority have foreigners working at their establishment and they have left the Island. The last number I heard was 18,000 people have left Cayman which is out of a population of perhaps 40,000 people, almost half. That is a lot of people I think that the biggest dilemma will be the chicken before the egg situation, do we open without the appropriate staff or do we wait for staff before opening? Cayman needed 1,000 people to help rebuilding homes, Cayman wants a quick recovery and 1,000 builders will do wonders but there is nowhere to house that many people, so it is another catch 22. (It would have been hard to house 1,000 people before Ivan) The 1,000 would rebuild all homes damaged but until the damaged homes are repaired we cannot house the 1,000 people needed to rebuild the damaged houses that need to be repaired by the 1,000 people who cannot be housed because the houses are damaged, and on, and on, and on..

 

At the moment we all have more questions than answers but one thing is certain, the Port will reopen sooner than later, after all, the “floating hotels” are fully staffed and because passengers do not stay overnight it removes a lot of pressure form the infrastructure of the Island. Stays over visitors on the other hand need 100% of our infrastructure as they will need power all night long, a/c rooms, water, food etc. Not that cruise ship passengers do not need services, but do so for a limited amount of time as opposed to a visitor staying for 1 week. Never in a million years would I have though that I would see the day when people can truly say cruise ship passengers are gentler to our infrastructure, I have been “arguing” that for years. Perhaps I can now prove my point, passengers eat most of their meals on-board, they will shower on-board, do not need power or a/c (most ships leave by 5pm, still daytime) come in for a short 7 hour visit and then leave to visit their next Port. If there is a perfect tourist for Cayman it is a Cruise Ship Passenger!

 

Now, can we please let them in for a couple of hours?

 

Matteo

[cmez]

As always thanks for the update Matteo, and I'm glad to hear GC is on the road to recovery. I would love nothing more than to visit your island, and I'm still hoping that Carnival surprises us with a visit. Have you heard anything as far as when the port will be opened back up to the cruise industry? I heard it wont be until the latter part of November...

[cmez]

As always thanks for the update Matteo, and I'm glad to hear GC is on the road to recovery. I would love nothing more than being one of the first to visit your island (after Ivan), and I'm still hoping that Carnival surprises us with a visit. We're supposed to be there November 4th. Have you heard anything as far as when the port will be opened back up to the cruise industry? I heard it wont be until the latter part of November...

[mbisson]

I do see that NCL has posted that the Sun will not visit thru the end of Nov, but they also say that if the facilities are repaired it might start visiting earlier.

 

-Monte

[Adventure Girl]

Hello. Thank you so much for the information and updates on the situation in Grand Cayman. We were watching the storm and the news reports closely during Ivan and just feel terrible for what the people of Grand Cayman are going through.

 

I'm scheduled to sail on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas during the week of November 7th....with a port call scheduled for Georgetown on Thursday, November 11th. We have an excursion booked on the Buchaneer Catamaran through Grand Cayman Cruise Excursions. I am so hoping that the Mariner is allowed to call on Grand Cayman on November 11th, but I completely understand the struggle the island is going through to try and restore power and rebuild. I just know that the residents of the island, the merchants, tour companies, etc. would really benefit from cruise ships being allowed to stop once again. As you say, we bring our own hotel, foods, crew, etc. All we need to do in Grand Cayman get off of the ship and spend some money! That would make us happy and the local merchants as well.

 

Once more, thanks for the information and best wishes to everyone. Hopefully we will see you in November.

 

Sincerely,

Kimberly

[Lithium]

I appreciate the updates but I am somewhat frustrated that island marketing and grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com hasn't given me a refund and will not give me a refund. I had tours booked with them for sept 8th, but then hurricane Frances came in and I could not make the sailing. After all, I live on the west coast and FLL was closed up until about 6 hours before the ship sailed 2 days late. It was impossible for me, and 70% of the other passengers to make the ship. So Island Marketing won't refund my money because I have to notify them 2 weeks ahead of time in case of weather. I am sorry, but if people could predict a hurricane 2 weeks out it would be a totally different situation. I sent them numerous emails BEFORE the sailing and I never got 1 single reply. I was going to rebook with my deposit for the cruise we rescheduled but have decided to go with someone else or with the ship. After all, the ships tours may be more, but at least I know if something happens OUT of anyones control, I can get a full refund.

[marjmy]

I agree most people arriving on a ship do not see the island, we are very fortunate to have a friend on the island who picks us up when we tender in and off we going to the the other side (I think) we spend time driving around looking and then end up at RUM Point ( i believe that is what it is called) I like it there far better than 7 mile beach.

When we were there 18months ago we almost missed our ship due to the fact we waited too long to leave the beach, infact we had resigned to the fact we were toast and thought well that means we get to stay on the Island for an extra 2 days before we had to return to ft lauderdale to pick up our stuff, dont know how that would have worked though. But surprisingly enough the tender was waiting for us, so they know when all the folks are not aboard. (DARN). My husband and I were dining with Captain that nite and were terrified that the conversation about irresponsible people returning late to the ship,would come up, but it did not.

So what I am saying is take a trip around the Island it is beautiful.

There really more than the shopping, Turtles, rays and 7 mile beach

MArjorie

[Island Marketing Cayman]

Lithium ------

I understand your frustration, I guess, but perhaps frustrations are best directed at the Company itself rather than to the members of this board. We as a Company guarantee refunds in case of Ships not arriving into Port due to inclement weather, and we do have rules the same as many Companies do, I personally find our rules pretty straight forward, and comprehensive. Our terms have been created for Customer protection as well as assurance for both our Clients and our Company. I will not venture into great detail or a complete rundown of our complete terms but can tell you this:

 

Our Company requires passengers who were not able to arrive into Port due to inclement weather to write our Company, by replying to the reservation e-mail they had received for the reserved excursion within 2 weeks of missed excursion due to inclement weather or Operator cancellation. (Our terms can be found on our website: http://grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com/Terms.htm )

 

Our requirement is not 2 weeks in advance as we fully understand our Clients are not psychic, well, at least most Clients aren’t :rolleyes: The reason we require a confirmation from our Clients is mostly banking related, we unfortunately had no choice in the matter. When our Company first opened we were refunding all passengers when Ships did not call on Grand Cayman due to inclement weather, the procedure was automatic. Unfortunately it can take 2 to 4 weeks for a refund to show on a credit card statement and some passengers were disputing the charge due to their inability to go on the reserved excursion. The refund had been administered a week before the disputed charge, taken from our account instantaneously but would not show on statements for weeks, when the Client would dispute the charge the refund would be “frozen” due to the dispute. I am not sure if the banking system has a glitch but because the charge was disputed both the charge and the refund would be blocked until our Company replied to the nature of the charge, details of charge, details of refund, in short everything but a blood test which would take weeks, it would then take weeks for the refund to be administered.

 

We have 2 major reasons why we require Clients to write us within 2 weeks of cancelled excursion (please read, within 2 weeks and not 2 weeks before cancelled excursion) Reason #1. By having the Client write to us we are assured that the Client is aware of the refund due on to them, we can then reply and advise that the refund has been placed on their credit card and to please wait 2 to 3 weeks for the refund to show on their credit card, we know their e-mail address is current as they have just written using their current e-mail and will receive our notice (you would be surprised how many e-mail addresses no longer work within a 3 week period, most reservations are placed 2 to 4 months in advance and most e-mail addresses no longer work when we send notices) Reason #2. We shred all sensitive information within a 2 week period from our system due to security reasons.

 

I have just spent the past hour trying to research your account and without a “real name” it is not easy to do. I have encountered this case on Cruisecritic.com before, the last time we were blasted for not refunding we figured out who the person was and he had been refunded 2 weeks earlier Of course the refund did not yet show on the statement. After we contacted him to advise the refund had taken place he responded with a thank you, but his post was never removed or updated, it was left stating that we were a horrible Company that stole people’s money or something to that effect. That being one of the “problems” with most message boards, people write to tell of a horrible experience, when a Company fixes the problem or advises that the problem has been fixed the post is never updated, even when the posting party is totally wrong.

 

Now, this much I think that I have figured out. Your real name is Todd, Zuiderdam arrival Sept 8th, reserved for Scuba Diving & Stingray City. You have written twice, responding to both reservations on September 15th for a refund request. Both e-mails had been replied to advising that Cayman had no power, no phones and refunds could not be administered at that time but would be refunded ASAP. Your credit card deposit was refunded for both reserved excursions on September 17th 2004. We have had various notices on our Website to that effect http://grandcaymancruiseexcursions.com/Caymaninfo.htm Your refund was in the Sept 10th to Sept 20th period, due to the unusual circumstances an off-shore banking branch had to be utilized, whether it will delay the refund from showing on our statement I do not know but do know that the funds were taken from our accounts hence should be placed on your statement shortly. It has now been 3 weeks since we submitted your refund, as our Caymaninfo page states please let us know if you have not received your refund. By contacting your bank they would be able to let you know.

 

If you are not Todd you have also been refunded as everyone has, please contact us if still in doubt. Our Live Help is now back on-line 10 to 12 hours a day, our e-mail responses back to a 4 hour response. We do encounter some spam filter problems at times where servers reject our e-mails due spam filtering, we have since removed our Live Help Contact button form all e-mails, it was a nifty little button but kept some Clients from receiving our e-mails.

 

I hope this helps everyone,

 

Matteo

[TheWog]

sounds like a good company trying to make the best of a bad situation to me. Good luck all.

[Lithium]

Matteo,

I do appreciate the time you have taken and I in no way intended to "blast" you. And yes, my name is Todd. As of note, I have not received any refund, and I in fact have never received an email back from the original ones I sent (on the 15th). I am sure these are extinuating circumstances as the nature of what has happened to you and I sympathize with you. I am sure you have had more to worry about than little things like this. As of note, I also have not received any refund.

I did misunderstand the 2 week policy, my mistake, I am sorry.

I disagree however that message boards shouldn't be used for stuff like this. One of the main reasons I come here is so I can read experiences from other people with the things they have had to deal with. You do have an excellent point though that if things get resolved the original message is rarely updated or changed. I will be happy to remove my post or edit it that everything was fixed once I receive a refund.

I am very grateful though that you have taken the time to look into this. I understand things take time and like I said, I in no way intended to blast you or your company. I was just a little frustrated that I never received an email back (I understand you wrote one, which is good to know, but given the hurricanes it probably never made it here for one reason or the other) and I was frustrated because I read on your website that refunds were given several weeks ago. Thanks again matteo, I will book with you for our upcoming cruise in December! :D

[pudy68]

Matteo,

Do you have any idea how Soto's fared?

Thanks!

[mickeycrz03]

Matteo --- If I'm not mistaken .. we have booked the Stingray excursion with your company for our upcoming cruise in November. I was wondering if you know how The Links at Safehaven came through the hurricane. The ladies in my group are doing the stingray excursion and the guys hoped to play golf. Any information you can provide would be greatly appreciated. I have e-mailed the course direct but have not received a response yet.

 

Thanks,

Sarah

[Lithium]

Matteo,

Refund went through this morning according to my online bank statements. Again, thanks for looking into this for me. Assuming GC will be open for my upcoming cruise on Nov. 27, I will rebook with you again.

[scubalisa]

Thank you, Matteo for the information. I am glad that the people are recovering. I know it is a slow and painful process, and our hearts go out to you. We are visiting in January and are very excited about finally seeing your island. Do you know if anyone has been diving since the hurricane? Has the hurricane affected the safety of going diving, visibility or the reefs?

[allen.crawford]

Just wondering if anyone has heard when the first cruise ships will be stopping at Cayman?

 

Family members are sailing in late November with Cayman being on their original itinerary.

[Adventure Girl]

Does anyone know if/when Mariner of the Seas will return to Grand Cayman? I'm scheduled to stop in Grand Cayman on Thursday, November 11th. I'm hoping the port will be open by then.

 

Any info will be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

To Island Marketing staff: I'm just curious....did the Bucchaneer Catamaran make it through the hurricane o.k.?

[Nana Dawn]

Matteo, I just read that Carnival and Princess lines are returning to Grand Cayman beginning this weekend (October 30), which should put the Carnval Triumph there on 11/3. Do you know if the tours to Stingray City will be available?