Temperature: 81 degrees
Princess Patter-Today's Activities: Bible Study/Singles & Solos Get-together/Cards & Board games/Backgammon Players/Knitters & Natters/Quiet Room (Skywalker's)/Paddle Tennis/Ping Pong competition/Brunchtime Trivia/Pictionary Challenge/Party Bridge Play/Bean Bag Toss/Top Deck Tunes with Sugar Cane Duo/Basketball Shoot-out/BOGO Happy Hour/Pop Choir Sign Up and Rehearsal/Afternoon Tea/Poolside Golf Chipping/Piano Melodies with Krzysztof Jankowski/Afternoon Brainbuster Trivia/Rapid Fire Art Auction/Caribbean Treasures-Roatan & Cozumel Highlights/Free Hair Consultation/Crab Shack (Cafe Caribe)/Jackie Kennedy Unveiling/Casino Introductions/Science & Nature Trivia Challenge/Production Show: Stardust/Cocktails & Dancing/Portrait Raffle drawing/College Football: Oregon vs Ohio State/Karaoke Power Hour/Music & Dancing with Massina Duo/Texas Hold'em/The Ultimate Deck Party/Jackpot Bingo
Cruise Life: Our alarm buzzed around 6am. I was incredibly tired as I didn't sleep well all night. The room was quite warm as Hubby forgot to set the temperature back to cool for the evening.
We sailed into Grand Cayman around 6:30am and dropped anchor. It was still dark out, but I could see the lights from the island. We quickly got dressed for our snorkeling adventure and slathered on some good ole SPF 30 for me and SPF 70 sunscreen for Hubby.
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| Sailing into Grand Cayman |
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| Coral Princess already dropped anchor |
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| Coral Princess |
We met our group at the pier sometime after 8am and then walked over to some mini-buses that would take us to another pier called the Yacht Club. Our snorkeling adventure for today: Stingray Encounter, Reef, Snorkel, Beach, and Lunch! Yes, it's basically a full day out on the water with some beach time.
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| Sailing out the channel...lovely homes |
After a 30 minute boat ride, we arrived at the Stingray Sandbar. It was fascinating that we're miles out in the ocean and yet we can stand on the sand with water that is waist deep! As I entered the water, the stingrays were all around me. I squealed with delight and also frightened at the same time. The stingrays were HUGE! I immediately put on my mask and snorkel tube and swam around while others stood on the sandbar. I left Hubby alone with his new GoPro camera. He was taking pictures and filming the stingrays underwater. I was capturing underwater shots of these beautiful marine creatures. They are sooooo graceful.
I took a few pictures of Hubby and a stingray trying to nibble at his GoPro camera. That was so funny to watch! Every now and then he would point his GoPro at me and I would smile and "bloop bloop bloop" water would enter my mask. Yeah, after a few times I stopped smiling. We had a blast here watching the rays glide around us.
Our next stop was a small/tiny barrier reef. Our guide mentioned this area was 8-10 feet deep. The minute I jumped into the water I felt like I was in a gigantic aquarium. The water was so clear and the fish were right in front of me. It was awesome!
We left our second snorkeling site and headed to Rum Point Beach to have lunch and enjoy some beach time. We sat at colorful picnic tables overlooking the beach. Hubby and I had ordered the traditional meal of Jerk Chicken with rice and peas, cole slaw, and corn. Our plates were huge. This was definitely a traditional meal for me and reminded me of the food in Jamaica.
We had a total of two hours of beach time here. Hubby and I wandered around and found a set of lounges to camp out on (hint: nap time!) and do some people watching. Hubby had found a Cayman Island Dining magazine. We noticed there were lots and lots of places for fine dining. When we were sitting at the picnic table I overheard a conversation between two couples. They were complaining how expensive the mixed drinks were at this beach. They each had an equivalent of a small Solo type cups and paid $12 for each. Now, it took them awhile to figure out the conversion rate and figure our how much they spent. Hmmmmmmm...I would have asked for the cost in US dollars before I ordered. But that's me. It is expensive to live in Grand Cayman. Regular gas was $4.70/gal.
Our boat ride back took about 45 minutes. Our mini-bus was waiting for us at the Yacht Club pier and ready to take us back to the ship's pier. By this time it was 2:30pm and we had an hour at the ship's pier before the last tender departed back to the ship. We walked around inside the terminal area and found a kiosk that had "patties". We ordered an ackee and salt fish patty to share. It was just okay and not like the ones you find in Jamaica with their flaky crusts. Hubby was looking for the Matouk's hot sauce after the first bite into the patty.
Our tender ride back to the ship took only 5 minutes. We were sad to leave this beautiful island. We had a wonderful time on our excursion and would definitely come back to see the rays!
Not much was going to happen this evening as we were both tired. I was exhausted. I did manage to rinse our snorkeling gear in the bath tub and wash our swim wear in Woolite. We had dinner at Horizon Court buffet. I had a small portion of pasta that was cooked in front of me (while in the buffet area) and a small portion of fish. I had a lot of plate exposed in comparison to the food portion on my plate. I didn't feel like eating. I did manage to get a picture of a dessert that was getting ready to be put on display. To give you an idea of how big this was: the words Tiramisu was handwritten on top. Yes, I took the picture with my iPhone and yes, I will post it here when I get back to US territory.
Speaking of iPhone. I forgot I had the GoPro app on my iPhone. I turned on the Go Pro's WiFi and synced it to my iPhone. I tapped on the application and was able to download a couple of pictures and a few videos that Hubby took. I have to stop and explain something. The GoPro Hero 3+ doesn't have an LCD screen on the back of the camera. So Hubby can't see what's being captured. He can only point the camera and hope he gets the shot or video. One of the things I love about the GoPro is that it has the fisheye capability. So, I know besides the main subject, most things in the background should be captured as well. Hubby was thrilled with his results and the camera's capabilities. He caught some cool stingray interactions on video. That's why I was carrying around my iPhone on the ship this evening.
While we were eating dinner in Horizons, we were watching the videos. I also wanted to show Gigi, a Princess photographer who works at the Photo Gallery, our video adventure.
Movie at MUTS: None. Just the National Championship College Football with Oregon vs Ohio State
Tonight we set our clocks back one hour. Tomorrow we'll be on the island of Roatan in Honduras. My eyelids are getting heavy. I'll be back tomorrow....
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