SeaPA1

I have to think it's more due to 1) safety issues of getting back on the boat (climbing a boat ladder, in possibly choppy waters, isn't simple - especially for someone not physically fit); and 2) proper fitting of the vests.

I don't think it's a buoyancy issue - everything I've ever seen, read or heard in swimming/snorkeling/scuba diving training, indicates that "fluffy" = more buoyant. I know in scuba diving those who are heavy-set require much more weight on a weight belt to be able to sink.

Ok, that schedule looks pretty good. My observations weren't too far off - I was guessing on the meal, trying to fill up the extra time (I didn't see the cruise folks eating, figured maybe they had a boxed lunch or something).

FYI if you do it, the snack shop has a decent amount of stuff - cookies, candy bars, chips, soda, sports drinks, water, ice cream... No full meals, but you'd probably find enough to tide you over.

I've not done a cruise ship excursion to Anthonys Key Resort, but did a dive trip there a few months ago & saw the cruise folks come in on a couple of days during our stay at AKR.

They'll pick you up at the cruise dock & bus you over to AKR. At the resort, they'll give you a briefing & take you out on a dive boat with others from the ship (when we were there, they did not mix the ship guests with guests who were staying at the lodge). They'll do a checkout (mask clearing, regulator retrieval, buoyancy check - sometimes they do that right at the dock, sometimes they do it when you get out to the dive site). I *think* they did two dives - go out on the boat, come back during surface interval to give you a chance to spend some $ in their giftshop, then back out for the 2nd dive. The dive sites are short boat rides - don't think you're getting cheated by staying close, some of the premier dive sites around the island are no more than a 5 minute boat ride from the resort (you'll be diving the same sites as the resort guests).

I'd imagine they feed you lunch, but from what I remember that was not done right at the resort (unless they fed the cruise folks while the lodge guests were out on a dive).

So my guess as to the 6 hours - roughly a 30 minute drive to the resort; briefing, gearing up, etc 30 minutes. Dive for an hour; roughly an hour surface interval; another dive; hour for lunch, then load everyone on the bus for the drive back. That would take up most of the 6.

Hopefully someone who's done it from the ship can correct me if I'm wrong, or confirm if I'm right.

AKR's a nice place & a very well-run operation. If you go, I'd be shocked if you didn't enjoy it.

Faster to the Fun - carnivals early boarding program

Ah, gotcha. That would certainly come in handy on the wait to get back onboard at the end of the day - that's usually a looooooong line. My crew ended up knocking out a little bottle of banana rum to pass the time.

What is FTTF?

Or, in internet terms, *** is FTTF? ;)

It would almost certainly be cheaper to book on your own than booking through the cruiseline (probably considerably cheaper).

Basically, it comes down to this:

Mahogany Bay is right at the cruise terminal. Before the terminal was built, it was mostly marsh & mangrove. They cleared it out & built a manmade beach area, along with various amenities (restaurant, bar...).

Bananarama is on the other side of the island, a 30 to 45 minute drive away. It's located on one of the prettiest stretches of beach in the Caribbean.

If you want to just flop in a lounger on some sand, have some food & drink handy, with a view of the ocean & be where you can still see your ship, Mahogany will work fine. If you want to see the island, meet some locals, spend the day on a spectacular beach & maybe walk around & try some local dishes, go to Bananarama.

I've not done a cruise dive with AKR, but have stayed there a couple of times (including a few weeks ago). It's a first class operation; if you dive with them you'll be taken care of nicely, the dive sites will be good, the boats nice, the gear in good shape if you're using rental gear. When we were there a few weeks ago, the cruise guests seemed to enjoy their dives & their time there.

Only concern I might have is that the excursion seemed pretty popular, there were quite a few people on the boat (not at all to the point of being dangerous, just to the point where there were quite a few people all hitting the water at the same time). I prefer smaller groups, where I don't have to worry about getting kicked by someone who isn't paying attention & I have a little freedom to go my own pace).

If you go with AKR, I'm certain you'd enjoy it & have a nice day. But I'm also confident you could go to one of the many dive shops in West End and have an equally great day, along with maybe seeing a bit more of the island.

Just got back from an 11 day stay on Roatan; spent the last 4 days at Half Moon Bay, which is located in the West End community. This is slow season for cruises there, but there was one day that a ship was in while we were there; it may well meet your desires. The snorkeling is very good from there, and none of the vendors seemed to be using the property as "home base" for groups (there were a couple of groups that stopped in for a short time, just to enjoy the view & have a drink). There were also two snorkel groups who hit the area, but they were both only there for a short time - one coming by boat, one by bus. They did a snorkel stop, then moved on to other sites.

There's a fresh water shower at the exit from the water, the food at the restaurant is very, very good, and they have cold beer & a full bar.

thinking about doing snuba this summer. has anyone booked a non cruise excursion though?

There's a place just to the left of the cruise terminal area that offers it, easily within walking distance. If you exit the terminal & turn left along the street (walking so that the water's to your left) it is the first building you come to on the water side of the road.

I did not snuba there, just snorkeled - but it was a decent area. Had some reef, a decent amount of fish life, and a small shipwreck. The attached/adjacent restaurant was pretty good, and their beer was cold.

I don't recall the name of the place.

I've been to Gran Cayman twice on Carnival, procedure for tenders was the same both times.

*First off are those on official ship tours

*After that, they do a "ticket" system. They hand out priority tickets (they'll announce where to go get them, this past December it was up by the main pool). Must have your entire party there, ready to exit, to get tickets for them. Tickets are in "groups" (i.e., they hand out maybe 20 "1"tickets, 20 "2" tickets...)

*After ship tour folks leave, they start calling the ticket groups in order. As soon as a tender is full, it leaves & another comes shipside.

At some point, they'll be down to where you no longer require a ticket because there is no longer a crowd waiting to exit; at that point, they'll announce "open boarding for tenders" and the tenders will start leaving incrementally (every 15 minutes or whatever).

If your tour isn't until noon, most likely you'll be able to just wait until open tendering (unless you want to get ashore & look around prior to your tour). When we were there a couple of months ago they started with the ship tours around 9, it was open tender by around 10:30.

I had read about Cemetery Beach as another one which was quieter, but chose Governors as I read that it was right next to Public/Calico's and all the amenities. Truly, we had the best of two worlds that day - quiet ambiance with just a half doz families or so, all spread out, no umbrellas obstructing the view (although a couple of the families on land holidays were there with chairs/umbrellas, they did not detract at all from the view), and then moved on to where the kids could do the jet ski and get food. It was about a 15 walk down the beach (head right if you're facing the water) toward the big inflatable toys of Public Beach which are VERY easily visible from Governor's. If you choose this option, definitely do Governor's first while you're not quite needing bathrooms/food, etc. There is some shade at G.B toward the back of the beach with some trees, closer to the parking lot. We were there around 10:00, so the heat/sun wasn't too bad. I believe it was $20 for two chairs and an umbrella at Public, but might have been $15 at 5 a piece...

 

Wish we'd enjoyed some of the jerk chicken from Seymour's grill which was set up just at the back of Public beach close to the parking lot. Smelled and looked delicious, but we had reservations at the Crown Grill on Regal at 5:30, so were eating light that day. I believe I heard him tell a customer that jerk ch only was $8 and the full meal deal was $10. There was also a hamburger truck next to him, grilling an assorted variety of burgers on a very small grill. They had other snacks and drinks as well. Calico's has a full bar and restaurant and seemed to be a very lively place. It was all a very family friendly atmosphere, but amazes me that two totally different worlds can exist within 15 min of each other!

 

And now that I've discovered the public bus system in Grand Cayman with incredibly easy access to 7 Mile Beach, I can't wait to repeat this day again!

When we were there in December we had a couple of plates of jerk pork from the guy with the grill. It was fantastic. In fact, my 10 y/o son said it was the best meat he'd ever eaten.

If you're there, I highly recommend it (as does my 10 year old) :D)

Another alternative would be to just bring your own snorkel & use the rental mask/fins. I've done that a few times when I didn't want to haul my dive gear, but also didn't want to use a well-used snorkel.

I have no answer to the OP question, just wanted to chime in that I also really like that virtual view link.

As others have mentioned, it will be cheaper in SC than other places. It will be a little more expensive in GA than SC, and it'll bump up again when you cross the Florida border.

We spent part of the day at 7 mile beach, then came back near the port. Ended up at a waterside bar/restaurant very near the tender terminal area. I don't know the name, but if you were to exit the terminal to the street, turn left. It's maybe 50 yards down; you'll first pass a local "fish market" that consists of a few shade tents/booths where local fisherman come in & sell their catch. The place we went was right next to it (there is also a shop there that rents snorkel gear & has SNUBA setups if you want to do something along those lines.

Also, the signs indicated that you could buy fresh fish at the market & bring it to the restaurant, and they'd cook it for you (I'm sure they charge for cooking it, don't know the price).

I did not eat there as I'd already had lunch at 7 Mile Beach; a few in my group did eat there & said the food was quite good (one had ceviche, not sure what the others had as I was out in the water).

When we were there a few weeks ago, this is what we did:

*Tender boat will take you from the ship to the island, dropping you off at a dock where there are a handful of little shops (it's a secured area, with fencing and a gate). Exit this area to the street. At the street, there will be a bunch of people selling various excursions; some will simply be offering a ride to the beach. Cost for that will be around $4 per person. We simply hopped on with one of them. They'll probably first stop at Royal Palms; it looked a little fancier than what we wanted so we continued a bit further down, to Calico Jacks. Nice beach area with loungers & umbrellas for rent; bar & restaurant. We had a couple of beers but no food there.

We did get a plate of jerk pork from a guy who had a grill set up by the parking lot; it was outstanding.

When ready to leave, there will be buses & taxis waiting by the entrance to Calico Jacks. Ride back is same price. Note, they'll likely wait until the bus is full before leaving.

I usually play it safe & drink only bottled water that has been processed into either beer, tequila, or both. I've never had any problems.

IIRC there is a little waterside bar right at the terminal. I didn't go over (when we got back it was pretty much time to get in line to get on the tender).

does anyone know if Calico Jacks has wifi available? I could care less but DW and DD are asking!

Yes, they have free wifi. The password is posted on a sign above the bar.

We were there between Christmas & New Years; spent part of our day at Calico Jacks & enjoyed it.

Didn't have much at CJs, just a couple of beers & a couple of sodas for my kids (two beers, two sodas). Think it was around $15 for that, so probably $5 or $6 per beer + a buck or two per soda. Not unreasonable for bar prices, especially if the bar is in a prime location such as that.

We got lunch from a guy who had a grill set up in the shade near the adjacent parking lot, cooking jerk chicken & jerk pork. Had the pork, it was fantastic. It was about $10 for a plate that had enough to feed two people.

We ended the day back at a waterfront place next to the cruise terminal, called Cayman Cabana or something like that (outside the gate, to the left when you hit the street). Their drink prices were similar, around $6 for a beer.

We were just there between right before New Years Day. I don't know if we were on the "public bus" or in what would be classified as a taxi. We walked out of the terminal to the street, turned left & went about 20 yards. There were a few vans there asking if we wanted a ride to the beach, we loaded up (four in my group, and there were two other couples looking to go, too).

Driver first stopped at Royal Palms, one couple got out there. The rest of us continued down to Calico Jacks (the driver had indicated that it was a little more laid back down further, which was what we wanted). We paid $4 pp for the trip there.

There was a good sized parking lot down near Calico Jacks, along with a little kid playground, a soccer field, and a few sheltered picnic tables that seemed to be first come first serve. Beside them was a guy with a big grill, cooking jerk chicken, jerk pork; the pork was outstanding.

We hung out by (and in) Calico Jacks; had a couple of beers there. Nice, comfortable, casual place.

Casa Denis, faces the back side of the town square in the downtown area.

We were on Grand Cayman a few weeks ago; snorkeled at a place almost right next to the cruise tender dock, called Cayman Cabana. Exit the terminal area; at the street turn left, walking along the shore line. It's the first real, permanent structure on the water side of the road (you'll see a floating dock thirty or so yards out in the water, in front of the place).

Snorkeling was pretty good - some huge tarpon, some sandy bottom, some coral, decent amount of fish life. The floating dock is by the remains of a small shipwreck that's 20 to 30 feet deep.

Gear is available for rent if you don't have your own. I didn't eat there but some of my family did & said it was very good. There's also a "fish market" next door (basically a few tents where locals bring their catch & sell it) - menu indicated that if you so choose you can go buy fresh fish from there & bring it back, and they'll cook it for you.

I enjoyed it & it was very easy; nervous family was comfortable there since it's right by the terminal dock & they didn't have to sweat missing the last tender. I'd go again.

We just hopped on a bus & went down to the area by Calico Jacks. It's a nice little beach bar - good drinks, food looked good. Loungers & umbrellas available for rent.

We didn't eat there so can't comment on the food. We did get some jerk pork from a guy who had a grill set up by the parking lot. It was very, very good (in fact, my extremely fussy 10 yo said "this is the best meat I've ever eaten").