Cruise Day 3: Grand Cayman

Monday, day 3 saw us offshore from Grand Cayman. Being the punctuality freaks that both my wife and I are, we were up shortly after the sun getting breakfast at the buffet. Pier at Grand Cayman Everyone going on an early excursion met in the theatre. We were one of the first couples to arrive. After that it was sitting and people watching time for a while. We were really just getting into the cruise and already there were plenty of people turning bright shades of red. Some look really painful. Quite a few people appeared to have stayed up partying late the night before. Finally our ship guide showed up and escorted us down to the lower level to disembark. Grand Cayman doesn't have a place for the ship to dock so we piled into several tenders and were ferried ashore. The tenders have high walls so it's not much of a view. When we got into town, they cut us loose without telling us where to go. We wandered around until we found some more people who were also going on the stingray city snorkeling tour and we banded together. Our tour guide was late but finally showed up and marched us away from the pier and through the touristy part of town. Grand Cayman is a very pretty town. Lots of pastel colors. Lot's of banks and jewelry stores too. Church We loaded into some not so new but not broken down buses and headed towards 7 mile beach. We got some interesting tidbits from the guide. 7 mile beach is only 5 miles long. 95% of all buildings in Grand Cayman were either damaged or destroyed during the previous year's hurricanes. It was obvious there was still some rebuilding being done but the city was mostly intact. We got on the boat taking us out to see the stingrays. It was an open boat with plenty of room to move around. After a short trip, we made it to the sand bar where we snorkel. And snorkel we did. I'd guess we were out there for an hour or so. After that it was a short ride back in the boat, a short ride in the bus (which is better than a ride in the short bus) and then time to wander for a bit in town. The storm that had shaken the ship the first night was still following us and it looked like it would finally catch us. We had to be back on the ship by 2:30 instead of 5:30 as scheduled. The captain wanted to stay ahead of the storm. We bought some trinkets and returned to the ship for a nap before dinner. We woke up and lost a few dollars in the casino before returning to the room for some relaxation. The ship was rocking and rolling all night from the storm. It was creaking like a pirate ship but the motion was lulling and we both slept great. We enjoyed the excursion to see the sting rays and would recommend it to anyone. It was a very uneventful day for the most part but it went way too fast. Costa Maya was up next. The storm finally caught us. Boy, did it catch us. Tags: cruise vacation caribbean