I LOVE Comedians with Guitars......You didn't tell me that part...

[jenseib]

I got the Ice-Cream Sundae, Cookies and Cream ice cream, served with a fudge brownie bar, Whipped Cream and Chocolate sauce.

 

 

Yum Yum Yum!!!!!

 

I didn’t have any complaints about dinner at all, though I think a few got something that they weren’t too happy with.

Julie had tried the crab dip too. I know she had said something about it not being her thing, but she wanted the chips. Well she loved it and I am pretty sure she ate the plate clean.

 

After dinner I took a few random shots as we left.

 

 

 

 

 

[jenseib]

And then back to our room.

Where we found this guy waiting for us.

Some of the girls were going to go to David Williamson’s adult show tonight. I wanted to go, but I made the mistake of going back to the room. It was just so comfy there and before I knew it, I threw that idea out the window and just got ready for bed. We had an early excursion tomorrow, so I decided sleep was best for now. I did leave out the room service tag for us. I just checked all sorts of things off. If it sounded good, I checked it. LOL

I think this ended up being my earliest bedtime during the trip.

[jenseib]

Sept 25, 2012, Day 5

The Navigators for today.

This one scanned weird and would only scan half a page at a time for some weird reason.

Today I woke with a phone call. UGH! It was room service at 5:45 letting me know our food was on its way. Why did they call so dang early? I think I had it set for somewhere around 6:15 – 6:30. I had my alarm set to wake up accordingly, but I guess they want you to know it’s coming. So we got up and didn’t do much, expecting food to be here at any minute.

I went out to the balcony and took some pictures. Ok, A LOT of pictures of the sunrise.

[jenseib]

[jenseib]

Still no breakfast, so we started to get dressed and ready.

Look there is land in sight.

Finally we got a knock at the door. The guy was very friendly and apologized for running behind. He said it was a crazy morning for room service. It arrived pretty much at the time we had it scheduled for, so no complaints about that.

We dug in and ate and then I went up top to watch us get closer to port. Of course I took more pictures.

As we got closer, I also took some more pictures around the ship.

[jenseib]

[jenseib]

I just love watching us pull closer to port from the top of the ship. I am always amazed how empty it is too. Sure there are others up there, but not many.

I can just make out a Carnival ship in the distance.

[jenseib]

 

My land shots are not that great, but it didn’t stop me from taking them.

 

 

 

 

And while walking by the basketball court I felt the need to get a shot of that.

 

 

Playing around with the camera now.

 

[jenseib]

More shots while walking around.

These comfy chairs were just outside of the Quiet Cove. Mary’s girls loved this area and usually snatched some chairs here each day. They would never leave them either. It was funny. They would take turns eating and going to the bathroom so they wouldn’t lose the beloved seats.

[jenseib]

The hair braiding station. I’m gonna let you in on a secret…..I LOVE hair braiding. Now not the full head look, but the headband look. I have loved it for years and I had it down when I was in the Bahamas many years ago. I also used to have 2 different friends who could do this and I would often have them do my hair. I think it’s long out of style, but I still love it.

Lisa and I were often confused with the trash cans. We weren’t sure if some things were paper or plastic, or a bit of both. We often just threw things in one or the other. I wonder if they sort this trash out later? I can’t imagine we were the only ones confused.

Here was a restroom I had not spotted earlier.

[jenseib]

I did a little more exploring, making my way back towards our room.

Lisa and I packed what we needed and headed off to our meeting place for our excursion, which if memory serves me right was Rockin’ Bar D.

As we walked down I got a quick shot out the port hole.

[jenseib]

We found some seats and settled in.

Not long after we got there, Brook showed up as well. It was just the 3 of us going on this Port Adventure. We checked in and they announced that they were selling water bottles out in the hallway, so I ran out and got the 3 of us each 1. Of course I was trying to hurry and the guy in front of me was slow as can be, pulling out his phone to calculate a tip as this was all done on paper and not the computer. I’m sorry, but if they can’t have it automated, they don’t need a tip for water …but I will tell you I never left one, but one was calculated in on my bill when I checked it later.

Soon we were heading off the ship. In Grand Cayman you have to tender to port. They don’t allow the ship to get too close because of their coral reefs. If you had an excursion planned, you were taken right to a tender. If you did not, they had a meeting spot set up to get tickets to tender off till a certain time in the morning. I don’t think they want a mad rush of people trying to get off at the same time. We were the “Minnie” group, so we followed the Minnie sign out to the tender.

Brook wanted a picture with the ship behind her.

Seeing the ship out here in the middle of the ocean really makes you realize just how big she is.

Without seeing her compared next to the Dream, I didn’t think she looked very small at all.

We found some seats and soon we were off.

I really tried to take pictures of the ship as we pulled away, but it was impossible. Too many heads or poles in the way.

[jenseib]

We saw the Carnival ship parked not too far from us.

Good bye Magic.

Hello Grand Cayman.

This could’ve been a cool shot if there weren’t poles and people in it.

[jenseib]

It didn’t take long and soon we were at the dock.

We were told to gather at the wall with our Minnie sign guy.

While we waited, I took a few more pictures….imagine that.

And then we started a walk through town.

Look how tall that guy in the blue is…Wow!

[Shmoo here]

 

Lisa and I packed what we needed and headed off to our meeting place for our excursion, which if memory serves me right was Rockin’ Bar D.

 

 

We found some seats and settled in.

 

 

 

 

This actually looks like Diversions, not Rockin' Bar D.

 

:)

[jenseib]

This actually looks like Diversions, not Rockin' Bar D.

 

:)

 

You are very right. I got confused there. We met there for the next excursion, this one was diversions

[jenseib]

We had to walk through a bit of a vendor area and then out some gates.

Even though it was early, they were already trying to get us to buy their goods and direct us to shuttles and taxies that would take us to the beach, but we had our own plans and kept walking. I don’t get why they try to sell things to people who are obviously in a group with an excursion. Do they seriously think we are going to stop and leave the group to buy their things at that moment?

[jenseib]

The walk wasn’t too far, but for those who have trouble it might be a little bit far for you. There was actually a guy that had braces on his legs and he seemed to have a bit of trouble keeping up and took a break once or twice, but he never complained one bit.

 

 

 

Of course the whole time we were walking I was taking pictures to the left and right. Not much thought in framing or how they would turn out, just pointing and clicking.

 

 

 

We saw this ship and a little boy told his parents that he could tell that was a “real” pirate ship.

 

 

[jenseib]

Looking back from where we came.

[jenseib]

So, where are we going you may ask? Our excursion is the Shipwreck and Reef Snorkeling. When we found out that Grand Cayman was one of our stops, many people told us that snorkeling there is a must. I approached Lisa with the idea and she wasn’t too keen on it. She had never done it before, and it made her nervous. Once Brook booked the same cruise, we kind of talked about it and she said she would go with me as it is something she has always wanted to do. I told Lisa that I was going to do it with Brook and would she like to come and she decided to give it a try. That being said, I think she was still nervous about doing it.

We chose this particular one for one reason; it was pretty cheap compared to other things on the island. I think this port adventure cost $39 per person.

Our walk that we had been taking was leading us to the boat that would take us snorkeling.

And I must admit, we had some “pleasant” scenery awaiting us on the boat as well.

Remember that little patch of sand we had just past?

Those small steps there at the other end, …..That’s where we went down to get on the boat.

As we walked down the steps there was quite a bit of stones and shells there so I took a picture.

Or two

They told us to take off our shoes as they could easily fall off as we got on the boat and they weren’t about to go chasing after shoes. One other note, the sandy beach area was not even ground when you came down the steps, so that could be an issue for some people.

We loaded up and found a seat and waited. I took a few pictures while we waited. (like you are surprised by that)

[jenseib]

Our captain.

And his mates.

I honestly can’t remember a single one of their names now, but they were all super nice and fun, but professional too. I think they all, or at least 2 of them had come from Australia. They had a passion for diving and sea life.

While sitting there I was finally able to get that picture I wanted.

We had to sign waivers and then got instructions.

By this time we were already on our way out to where we would snorkel. I was still in picture taking mode.

[jenseib]

This guy gave us the basics and though he was serious and gave us good info, he also joked a little bit.

The seats that we sat on did open for storage. Not all could be used by us as they had ship supplies in them, but they had a couple that we could use and we threw our bags inside of that.

We were handed our snorkeling gear and then went over to get our fins. I had to get the extra big feet size. LOL! They handed me a pair at first that was supposed to fit like a 9/10 for ladies. I could tell right away that I wasn’t going to like those…and when I couldn’t squeeze my foot in it, I knew for sure they wouldn’t work, but they did have a bigger, so all was good.

So I am all set, and please take a picture of me looking at my absolute worst…I really want to post this for the world to see. The picture wouldn’t be so bad if I hadn’t scrunched back and added about 12 chins to my face.

Yeah, I’m all sexy like that.

One of the guys came over and took a picture of the 3 of us.

[jenseib]

 

Don’t we all look fabulous!!

 

Time to get in. Now we were told to put our fins on right at the edge so we didn’t trip when we walked, but I seemed to have forgotten that and put them on right at the bench. LOL. But I was fine. I did the fin walk to the edge and got nervous. Not many people had gone in yet. We all were nervous about jumping in with the gear, but I decided what the heck and made a very ungraceful jump right in.

 

Brook and Lisa were not far behind.

 

 

 

 

 

And my first look under the sea.

 

[jenseib]

This excursion was so much fun. My tip to you is that if you plan to snorkel, you NEED a underwater camera. It was so fun to be able to click away.

It took a little bit to get our breathing down and to be sure our masks were on our face right, but soon we were doing well, even if it looks like we are dying.

Brook wanted a shot of her with the ship behind her.

Lisa getting the hang of it.

[jenseib]

Our guides had told us that there might be some very large fish down towards the bottom and they were NOT sharks and please do not holler shark as it will send everyone in a panic. We didn’t see any yet . We did see some Dory’s though.

 

 

 

 

Hi Lisa!

 

 

Hi Brook!