Wednesday, March 23 ~ Grand Cayman

I know many frequent cruisers have been to Grand Cayman so many times that they don’t even bother to get off the ship at this port, but I was super excited to come here as it was a brand new port to me! After years of reading other peoples reviews, I knew there was one place I HAD to go when I finally got to Grand Cayman… Sting Ray City!!  The idea of standing out there on a sand bar in waist-deep crystal clear blue water while sting rays swim around my legs, and getting to touch and hold the sting rays sounded so incredible that I knew I wanted to experience it first hand. There are many private companies offering boat tours to Sting Ray City plus one or two snorkel stops, so I sent out a few emails to see if anyone had space for us.  Unfortunately, I got many replies saying they were already booked that day!  As popular of a port as Grand Cayman is, the day we would be there was one for the record books as there would be over 21,000 cruise ship passengers on 7 ships in port that day!  After contacting a few more companies, I was finally able to book us on a tour with Captain Marvin’s, going to 2 snorkel stops plus Sting Ray City, for $45 per person.  This is the description of the tour from their website:

Captain Marvin Three-Stop Stingray/Snorkel Tours:  Our three-stop stingray/snorkel tour lasts three hours, dock to dock. The three-stop stingray/snorkel trip goes to the Stingray City sandbar plus TWO snorkel stops, both the Barrier Reef AND the Coral Gardens.  The cost of this tour is US$45/person for ages 12 and over, US$30/person for ages 4-11, and free for children under age 4. We strongly recommend that you bring flotation devices for children under age 4, as our snorkel gear is for ages 4 and over. We provide snorkel vests, life vests, mask, snorkel and fins for everyone ages 4 and over. You are welcome to bring your own gear if you like. We offer complimentary shuttle service from your hotel or condo on Seven Mile Beach.  It is also strongly recommended that you know how to swim in order to be safe for the snorkeling stop. Our three-stop stingray/snorkel tour is available every day of the week. The schedule from Monday through Friday is 10 AM until 1 PM, and 2:30 until 5:30 PM. On weekends, the schedule is from 9 AM until 12 noon, and from 1:00 until 4:00 PM.

Our original plan was to go to Seven Mile Beach after the tour as it is said to be a beautiful beach, and they said they could drop us off there free of
charge.  In addition to this being my first time in Grand Cayman, it would also be my first time at a tender port.  I wasn’t thrilled about the idea of not being able to come and go from the ship whenever we wanted to, and I was unsure of how the ticket process worked.  Since we weren’t booked in a suite and don’t have elite status, I was afraid we might have a long wait before we could get off the ship.  Our tour started at 10am, but we needed to check in at Captain Marvin’s office by 9:15am.  With the first tender starting around 8am, we knew we had to be on one of the first tenders to be on time for our tour. We spoke to someone at guest services the day before to find out the logistics of how the tendering process works. She said that they will have tickets available for pick up from the Gastrobar starting at 8am on a first come, first served basis.  Our plan was to be there promptly at 8am in hopes of getting one of the lower tender numbers so we could get off the ship ASAP.

Knowing it would be another early morning, we put our room service breakfast door tag out last night and requested the 7-7:30am time slot.  We were still fast asleep when the phone rang at 6:42am to tell us our food was on the way.  I guess I can’t really complain because I would rather it be delivered early than late, but geez!  We weren’t ready to eat THAT early!  On the bright side, we were able to eat breakfast outside on the balcony as we watched the ships sailing into port.  

The local tenders were much bigger than I expected, with 2 levels that held hundreds of people.

The weather was so beautiful for the entire cruise, but those dark grey clouds didn’t look promising for today’s forecast!

I was on my way down to the Gastrobar at 8am to get our tender tickets when John came on the overhead to announce that the first tender was ready and we could get on now with no wait.  I did an about-face in the hallway and went back to the cabin to get J, and we went down to deck 2 to board the tender.  Having never done this before, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the whole process was fairly painless.  We walked down a few stairs to a platform where crew members were waiting to help us climb onto the tender.

The tender was only about half full when we got there so we waited for 5 minutes while the rest of the boat filled up.  We found seats on the upstairs deck hoping for a pretty view of the Equinox as we sailed to shore.

Once enough people were onboard, they took in the ropes and we were on our way.

Remember those scary dark clouds hovering above our ship all morning? Well they decided to open up and rain down on us while we were on the 10 minute tender ride! So much for the pretty views from the top deck!!  I went downstairs to seek cover as the rain was cold and uncomfortable while on a moving boat.  We reached the pier on shore by 8:15am and filed out of the boat, down the short pier, and into the port.

Since we were still very early for our tour, we spent a few minutes walking around the port area and checking out the stores. It was already getting crowded because some of the other ships started running their tenders earlier than us.

Captain Marvin’s store was located 1 block to the left of the port area, and it was very easy to find with this huge sign out front.

There were already tons of people waiting around, so we got in line and tried to figure out what to do next.  They passed around a clipboard with a waiver we had to sign… you know, the usual stuff- if we die, we can’t sue them! haha  Once we got to the front of the line, the lady asked us to pay our $45 per person in US dollars, gave us a receipt, and told us to come back at 9:30am for our bus to the boat.  It was only 8:45 so we spent some time at the nearby stores and walking around the port area.

We went back to check in again at Captain Marvin’s store at 9:15am (15 minutes before we were told to return), and the lady organizing everyone to get on the buses, Anna, was very upset with us.  She said she was looking for us and yelling our name, but that our bus left without us at 9am.  I said the lady in the store told us to return at 9:30, but Anna said we should have been back by 9am.  We wouldn’t have left the area had we known we only had 15 minutes to wait!!  What’s more, the tour details that came with our original confirmation email stated we needed to check in by 9:15am so why would we need to be back to their office by 9am??  Had the tender not worked out so easily, it is possible that we would still be trying to get ashore at 9am!!  

Anyway, Anna found space for us on a different boat, and a bus came within 2 minutes so we hopped on and headed off to the boat dock. Our bus driver’s name was Dennis, and he spent the entire 30 minute ride giving us a very entertaining speech about Grand Cayman.  Did you know that the rental cars in Grand Cayman have white license plates whereas the locals have yellow license plates? They drive on the left side of the road, so the white plates help the locals identify the tourists so they can stay a safe distance away because most tourists aren’t used to driving on the left side of the road! haha!  

Our boat for the tour was 2 stories tall, and we had 3 guides and 40 people on the tour.  When we booked the tour, I was told we would have a maximum of 20 people on our tour, and the guides said they hadn’t had 40 people on a tour in many months, but with over 21,000 people in port, I guess they allowed more people to book the tour.  There was enough seating for everyone on one of the two decks, but I doubt we could have comfortably fit anyone else!  J and I sat upstairs and enjoyed a 30 minute ride to Sting Ray City.

Today was extremely windy and the water was very choppy.  At 10:30, we arrived at Sting Ray City and it was already very crowded.

The guides tried to park our boat between the other boats, but the winds were tossing us around a lot.  There was so little space that he gave up and said we would go snorkeling first and come back here later when it was less crowded. I doubted his logic, knowing that popular tour destinations tend to get more crowded as the day goes on, not less crowded!  I had also read that many of the sting rays leave the sand bar after they get fed by the first few tourists in the morning so I was really bummed to have to come back later.

We motored away from Sting Ray City to a reef about 5 minutes away (we could still see Sting Ray City from the reef).  The guides said we could borrow snorkels, masks, and fins if we wanted to, and we could spend 30 minutes snorkeling at the reef.  The waves were pretty rough, but it wasn’t that hard to snorkel because you could just float and let the current take you around.  There was excellent snorkeling at this site with so many interesting fish to see.  This is just a handful of the many photos I took while snorkeling…

I got tired pretty quickly so I swam back to the boat after about 20 minutes. Once everyone else was on board, we motored back to Sting Ray City, and of course, it was even more crowded than it was an hour ago!

The winds were still very high so I wished we had stayed here before.  It was scary to watch them attempt to park the boat as we came close to hitting our neighbors many times.  Eventually they were able to squeeze into a small spot and drop the anchor so we could climb out into the water.

Sting Ray City is a sand bar in the middle of the sea where it is shallow enough to stand and it is usually fairly calm waters, but today with the high winds and rough current, we were getting knocked around a lot.  It was very hard to keep our balance as the waves kept crashing over us.  Once all 40 people from our boat were in the water, we all crowded around one guide with one sting ray.  In my research prior to the cruise, all the photos I had seen of Sting Ray City showed tons of Sting Rays swimming around, but we did not experience that at all today.  All 40 of us had to ‘share’ this one sting ray so we had very limited time to really play with it.

The guide told us we could touch the sting ray

Then the guide held up the sting ray so we could see the bottom… I took this photo at exactly the right second as he was spitting out water!

Then the guide told us it was time for us to hold the sting rays.  We all took turns taking our photos and holding the sting rays, and we were able to find one of the other tourists on our boat to take photos for us.

They say you get 7 years of good luck if you kiss a sting ray…

The guide pushed the sting ray up onto our back for a back massage!

Some people had a chance to feed the sting rays but I didn’t know where to get the food and I was tired of being tossed around and bumping into people so I just got back on the boat.  Sting Ray City has the potential to be lots of fun, but we hit a double whammy with rougher than normal seas and winds, and a more crowded than normal port day. Hopefully I get a chance to take this tour again some day with better conditions!

I was glad our boat wasn’t as crowded as their boat!!

Once we were all back on the boat, we motored about 10 minutes to another reef for some more snorkeling.  There were 2 stingrays who frequently swim around this reef- one without a tail, so they called him Frisbee! haha

There was a lot of coral at this reef, but I thought the fish were better at the first stop.  The real highlight was swimming with the sting rays!  Unlike at Sting Ray City, we had plenty of space to spread out and explore and have one-on-one time with the sting rays.  They are so elegant as they glide across through the water, and it was amazing that they were totally unthreatened by us swimming in their waters.

This was Frisbee haha

It was very hard to swim back to the boat when I was ready to stop snorkeling as I was swimming against the current.  Once everyone was back on board, we spent 30 minutes motoring back to the dock.  On the way, the guides served us water and fruit juice.

Apparently in Grand Cayman, they steer motorized vehicles with their feet! haha

We had exactly 3 hours on the boat, plus 30-40 minutes on the bus each way.  Overall, I thought Captain Marvin offered good value at $45 per person, but they could use better organization with the buses.  Only one bus came to pick us up after we got off the boat, but that bus only holds 25 people and we had 40 people on our tour.  I’m sure the 25 person bus is normally big enough, but they knew we had 40 people on this tour and they should have sent 2 buses to get us. We were lucky enough to fit on the bus, but there were 15 people left waiting at the dock when we pulled away. I am sure another bus came to pick them up, but I don’t know how long they had to wait.

We got back to the Captain Marvin store near the cruise port at 1:45pm.  J and I originally considered going to Seven Mile Beach after our tour, and the bus driver was willing to drop us off there if we so desired, but dark rain clouds were rolling back in and we were tired from all that time in the water, so we just wanted to go back to the ship.  Also, I had a feeling that the beach would be a mob scene by this time of the day with all these ships in port and I didn’t feel like fighting the crowds.  

There is a little stand-alone cigar shop directly across the street from Captain Marvin’s store (unfortunately, I don’t remember the store name).  J was curious so we went in for a few minutes and ended up having a really great shopping experience.  Giuliano was the guy working behind the counter and he gave helpful advice and was very knowledgeable about the different types of cigars sold in his store.

After that, we went back through the port area to find a long line at the tender dock.  Luckily, a tender pulled up just after we got there and everyone on line was able to fit on this boat.  Once we were back on the Equinox, we went straight up to the Oceanview Cafe for a late lunch.  J had a burger and I had the stir fry.  Again, it seemed like no one knew about the stir fry station and there was no line to place my order.  

We grabbed a table outside and ordered a round of frozen cocktails to cool off as we enjoyed our lunch with a view.

After lunch, we went back to the cabin to spend some time relaxing on the balcony and watching the tenders return to our ship and other ships leave port. 

Celebrity Silhouette

Carnival Magic

Our first stop on tonight’s pre-dinner drinks tour brought us to the Ensemble Lounge.  We didn’t spend much time here during the cruise, but I did like that they usually had some live music playing whenever we walked by.  I ordered the Kir Royale (Domaine Chandon Brut sparkling wine and Chambord Black Raspberry liquor) and J had a beer.

Our next stop was the World Class Bar.  Aside from the time we spent here during the mixology class, we had yet to spend any time at this bar.  For some reason, I thought all of the drinks here were above the $13 limit of the Premium Beverage Package… maybe that was something I had read here on Cruise Critic prior to the cruise?  We were pleasantly surprised to learn that EVERY drink on the menu at the World Class Bar cost $12, just like at the martini bar, so we could have any drink we wanted!  We spent the next 2 days trying every drink on the menu (to be fair, there’s only 10 drinks and we each only ordered 5 and then tasted each others drinks).  We started with 2 of the most exotic drinks on the menu…

Bulleit Infusion (I thought they would give us the entire pitcher, but they only pour out a little into a glass and put the rest of the pitcher back behind the counter)…

Double fisting the shakers

Mystic Ketel One

Infusing the rum in the Zacapa Above the Clouds with applewood smoke

The Ciroc Tropically Yours tasted like a gourmet pina colada!

Dinner was delicious as usual, although I didn’t have a huge appetite tonight (likely due to all those yummy drinks at the World Class Bar, plus the fact that we ate lunch fairly late).

Whole Wheat Orecchiette

Crispy Salt Cod Bacalao Croquettes

Fusilli Pasta

We decided to skip dessert tonight, so I apologize for not having photos of that menu.

Tonight’s show was the Tenors of Rock and we thought it was one of the best shows over the whole cruise!  They were a group of 4 singers who did a variety of rock songs from the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s, and some of them were in unique arrangements to put their own spin on the song.  Their voices were far better than the voices of the singers in the production shows, so that really added to our enjoyment of this show.

After the show, we walked around the ship for a bit. At around 10:50pm, J decided he wanted to use his Captain’s Club coupon for the free scoop of gelato (this was the only perk we cared about so we wanted to make sure to use it before the end of the cruise!), so we figured we would be fine to get it before the gelato bar closed at 11pm.  I was told earlier in the week by someone at guest services that we did not need the paper coupon when we redeemed our free scoop because the info was on our seapass card and the person at the counter would know we hadn’t redeemed it yet when they swiped our card.  When we got there, the lady said that she did need to have the paper coupon to give us the free scoop.  Of course we didn’t have it on us because we didn’t think we would need it!  So with 10 minutes to go until they closed, we ran back to the cabin, grabbed the paper coupon, and ran back downstairs to the gelato bar, arriving at 10:57pm.  By now, there was a second woman behind the counter who was helping to clean up, and she was very strict.  She would not let him make an ice cream sandwich (which I had read on Cruise Critic that people were able to do that on their cruises), and she said he could only pick 1 flavor and no toppings.  J opted for rum raisin, and I opted to hold off on my scoop until tomorrow since I really wasn’t very hungry.  That was one of many times during the cruise that we got false or inaccurate information from the people at guest services (J got at least 4 different answers when he asked 4 different people how many laps around the track equal one mile HAHA And he also got false information about the pricing for the mixology class).

On our way leaving the gelato bar, we ran into some people from our tour in Panama at Cafe al Bacio, so we sat and chatted with them until midnight, then went back to the cabin to go to bed.

Up Next:  our last sea day 😦