Of our four ports we'd be making, George Town, Grand Cayman seemed the least exciting. Nothing offered by the cruise interested us. Most of it was SCUBA, snorkeling, boating, or just a "relaxing beach day" (But hey, I'd get my first British Overseas Territories credit) George Town was also the first (and only) stop requiring a tender, a small boat that docks onto the ship to bring you ashore. Not really knowing how it was gonna work, Deka and I got up early to overeat at FABuffet and made sure we'd be on the first tender of the day. Once on land we ended up walking around the little mall area across the street from the cruise terminal and with hours to kill and nothing to really do, we ended up signing up for a locals tour showcasing a sort of 'best of' for the island.
So, um..... The grand tour of Grand Cayman. Our third port and fifth day on Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas.
So the day started off with our tender ride over to island itself, you can see two other tenders linked up to the ship (we were on the first one of the day)
We walked across the street to the tourist mall area... where of course people were doing the Cupid Shuffle (now kick, now kick, now kick, now kick) ugh
After hanging around the mall area for a bit (the first time in days I was able to get on free WiFi!) we signed up for a local tour and were off via a fun van ride around the entire west side of Grand Cayman. woo
Cayman Islands Governor's Official Residence.
West Bay Pink House, the Old Homestead... The most photographed house in Grand Cayman?
Oh, and Hell!
Hell, along with the Turtle Farm were the only real things of interest of us when looking for things to do and the tour we picked ended up bring us to both, woo.
Hell is a tacky roadside tourist trap, Cayman style
(Don't worry, there's still a gift shop!)
Hell, yup... A bunch of neat looking black limestone formations carved out by the sea over time.
It's rather pretty.
The shop keeper told me they used to have red flood lights shine on it at night and use smoke machines but no longer do it... But don't worry, there's still tack to be found :)
See?
Yeah..........
Also.... 4U2P
Oh, and I was pretty happy I wasn't driving....
damn
Ugh, the tour also made a stop at one of the many Tortuga Rum Stores...
uh..
People were getting drunk off the rum cakes....
I passed on the tainted cakes and went outside to look at the ocean until it was time to head to our next stop.
The next stop featured two options the Cayman Turtle Farm and Dolphin Discovery but due to time you had to pick one or the other. Deka went with the dolphins and I opted for the Turtle Farm because I saw you got to hold some!
Cayman Turtle Farm Island Wildlife Encounter! yaayyy, animals!
It turned out to be much larger than I thought... Kinda sucked that I only had about 15 minutes to run around and see the most I could without being left behind.
Gulls! I hadn't seen many birds up until this point...
Also, massive Cayman Blue Iguanas (native) were everywhere!
Caiman Crocodile
Oh... and turtles.... lots and lots of turtles!
Turtle.... yup
They farm them here to release them into the wild
(but also to eat! gross)
Ooh, ooh, ooooh! But they let you hold them too!
I'd never held or even touched a turtle in my life until this point.
And if the touch tanks aren't enough for you... they have a massive lagoon filled with turtles you can swim, snorkel, and even SCUBA in...
And also a water slide! (Can you bring the turtles on?)
Due to time and lack of swimsuit I didn't get to experience the whole area but if I ever come back, I'd be sure to try it all out. After a quick pass of the gift shop I made my way across the street to the Dolphin Discovery where most of the group was still hanging out waiting for our next stop on the tour... but it gave me a few minutes to see the dolphins. (we ended up having to wait on this lady we had named the Turtle Lady but it worked in my favor, I guess)
Dolphin Discovery
Dolphin snack time?
You can swim with the dolphins here or just get photos feeding/kissing them and stuff... I just looked at them from afar.
The famous Seven Mile Beach was out next stop. I'd never heard of it... but I guess its famous or something (it was rather pretty I guess) in the distant haze you could see our ship and one of Carnival's as well.
Beach time was promptly ruined.....
EWWW, COCONUTS!
After getting back to the port in George Town we still had a couple of hours before the boat left, so we walked along the shoreline and went to your typical tacky beach shops selling all the same crap we'd seen everywhere else.. or that you would see at any giving American beach town.
We ended up walking past the National Museum, I'd have done the tour... but we both wanted food more than a history lesson.
Mmmm, pizza!
(uh, my first time eating pizza from the Caribbean // Cayman Islands??)
Mmmmmm.....
Also, also.....
They had a Treasure Chest of toys!
Hell yeah we got some PARACHUTE MEN!
(and for the rest of our trip I was tempted to drop one down the 100 foot atrium on the ship)
With time running low, we headed back to the tender to get back to the ship... Just remember NO SMOKNG
So Grand Cayman ended up being pretty cool and what I had pretty much assumed would be the boring day turned out rather fun and I got to try some new things along the way, mostly being a master Turtle Holder.
Video proof!
So that's it for Grand Cayman, British Overseas Territories. Cozumel, Mexico is up next.... but we ended up spending less than 10 minutes in Cozumel itself... Also that will be the final installment of this trip... And maybe then I can get to all the back logged fair trips I've taken since (five, as of now....)
yay!
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