Valor 1/22-1/29 Wester review Part III

Continued –

Valor 1/22-1/29 western review part I:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=289441

Valor 1/22-1/29 western review Part II

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=289476

Grand Cayman

Diving with Casey at Neptune divers @ Sea Grape Beach

2 Tank = $80US

Rentals = $30US

http://www.neptunesdivers.com

I prearranged our dive with Casey almost 8 months out from the cruise. There are 5 divers in my group and I did this for each port we dove. It turned out that the other 2 people booked on our dive were also cruisecritic members. I met up with Augie on our Valor Roll call – and it turned out we both picked all the same operators!

So the morning of Grand Cayman we were up bright and early to get tender tickets! We wanted to be off on the first non-carnival tender. What we should have done was hook up with Augie that morning and he could have gotten us off with his platinum status….but we didn’t realize this till later in the cruise. No matter the 5 of us all got #1 tender tickets and met up with Augie on the pier. Now Augie’s beautiful wife decided not to dive with us this trip so there were only 6 divers.

Off the 6 of us went to locate the bus depot. We asked for directions and found it easily. The Bus is 2.50$ per person US and is cheaper and faster than a taxi. If you want to locate the bus go right from the North pier and make your first Left, with Columbia Emeralds on your left. Head up that St. to the post office and major intersection then Hang a left and the depot will be across the street on your right. It is just a little hut and then the busses are more like vans.

We took the public bus over to Sea Grape Beach and the proceeded to drag all our gear over to Casey’s boat which she had pulled up to the beach. On to the boat we went and were greeted by Casey – who is originally from Connecticut my home state. This woman is FANTASTIC! She has everything you could need right on her boat! She first asked if we needed any gear (we didn’t) and then showed us where there was oxygen and water etc. She then gave us the run down on the tanks and how to mark when they were empty. We busily got to work setting up our gear. She also offered to do this for us but the 6 of us were happy to do it ourselves.

Onwards to our first dive site – Augie recommended we check out Trinity caves so that is where we headed. Once we got there Casey briefed us on the dive and went over hand signals. She was very thorough! and left nothing out. Over the side we went – back rolls – and then down the ancor line. She then lead us through an amazing series of swim thru’s! This was my first experience with Swim thru’s and I had a blast! We all went single file with enough space so that we didn’t bunch up and be in danger of hitting the reef. The visibility was about 80 feet and the water temp was in the 80’s.

Unfortunately it was over cast for our first dive so the colors of the coral were not lit up. However upon exiting one of the last swim thru’s we came across a good size turtle who hung out with us for a few minutes. It was very cool because this guy didn’t seem afraid of us we all hung there and let him swim around and at one point I thought he was going to swim right in to me!

For the 2nd dive we picked up another diver over on sea grape beach. This diver needed to rent some gear and so we got to see Caseys rental gear – she had top of the line stuff! After a surface interval – where I promptly drank one of the Prieas I appropriated from the ship – we were off to Public Beach Reef. Once again we were briefed by Casey and then into the water for a max depth dive of 50 ft. So said Casey – heh she said to get any deeper we would need a shovel. The visibility was much better on this dive! And the water slightly warmer as we were shallower.

Public beach reef was alive with life and there were lots of nooks and crannies to explore. Also Casey gave some attention to our new diver – as she hadn’t logged a dive in over a year. It was great to know that Casey could be both attentive to one diver and still point out lots of cool stuff for the rest of us!

Over-all Neptune Divers is a GREAT outfit! Tight, well equipped and above all SAFE!

Native Way Tours in Grand Cayman: **written by Poetru here on CC

$50US per person.

Our group signed up for two tours back to back - Stingray Sandbar and Coral Gardens tour & the Island Tour. Native Way worked with us on getting a slightly reduced combined tour price. They also worked out all the transportation details involved with getting to the tour, switching to the next tour, and getting back to the pier within the amount of time we were allotted.

Overall I found working with them to be very easy! A credit card number was required in order to hold our spots, but I was able to adjust the amount of people coming on the tour from my group with no problems.

Stingray City was a lot of fun! Our group was taken out to the sandbar and the guides lured stingrays to us with food. We then got a great demonstration of how to hold a stingray, as well as try this ourselves. Everyone in our group who wanted to was able to hold and kiss the stingrays for good luck. Then we were all given bait and had fun feeding and swimming with the stingrays.

The snorkeling portion of the tour was not the best I’ve experienced, but still a good time. There were plenty of coral formations, plant-life, stingrays, and a few fish to see. The water was nice and calm and easy to swim around in. Snorkel gear is provided for this portion of the tour.

For our second tour we were shown the countryside and visited the turtle sanctuary, the rum cake factory, and Hell. Overall it was a nice trip, the guides were knowledgeable and friendly and always answered all our questions. The turtle sanctuary was really neat b/c we were able to see huge older turtles down to baby turtles only a few months old. We were able to pet the turtles in the pool and pick up and hold some of the smaller turtles. From there we went to the rum cake “factory”. My group was slightly disappointed in this stop as we all expected to see where they make the rum cakes, however that was not the case. We were brought to a regular store where we were able to try 8 different types of rum cakes and rum. That part was good and there was no limit to what you wanted to try. At the store we were also able to purchase rum cakes and alcohol for decent prices. From there we went to Hell, Grand Cayman where we were given the story behind the name of the town and were able to see the old coral gardens that are part of the basis of the name. There was also a neat little shop where you can buy post cards and send them out, in addition to t-shirt, hats, shot glasses, and the like.

Overall I found the tour a great experience!

I am loving reading your reviews of the Valor! We sail on her in 17 days!!

We're looking for quiet spots to lay in the sun, and hopefully we'll find some!

Thanks again, Terry

there are lots of quiet spots to lie in the sun :) and you can get out on to the bow and there are never people there. but so long as you are ok being away from the main pool you won't have a problem find a chair.

I am working on our roatan review - need some input from the rest of our gang and then that will be next!

Thanks for the reviews... enjoyed reading them. Please keep 'em coming!

Wystiria

On that day in grand cayman why was the Valor so late in leaving ? She moved and the horn was lown many times.. And then we were able to see some tenders head out to the Valor ??

Just curious

thanks

I have no idea - I remember the horn being blown but I was too busy rinsing off our dive gear in the little bathroom and handing it out to the husband to deposit on our balcony...