3/20 George Town, Cayman Islands

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We have no plans for any activities on Grand Cayman. Not that there isn't anything to do. Some of the tours may be too strenuous for Karen and others too boring for me. I attempted to find something that met Karen's approval prior to leaving home to no avail so I guess we'll just check out the area around the port and call it good. Not too exciting. No crocodiles, no monster trucks, maybe some shopping. Sorry.

George Town is the capital of the Cayman Islands and one of the most popular cruise ship destinations in the Caribbean thanks to its year-round tropical weather, white sand beaches and clear blue waters. It serves as the capital of the Cayman Islands, in the British West Indies. George Town is the heart of the Cayman Islands financial services industry (there are close to 600 Bank and Trust companies in the Cayman Islands). George Town is a popular port of call for the Caribbean with cruise ships anchoring in George Town Harbor Tuesday through Friday. Cruise ships calling at George Town anchor offshore and ferry their passengers ashore by tenders. Passengers disembark in George Town, in the center of the Grand Cayman shopping district and usually remain anchored from early morning until mid-afternoon.

We are scheduled to arrive in Grand Cayman island at 8am where we will be anchored just offshore and our own tenders will be used to transport passengers and crew to the pier and back. Yesterday tender tickets were issued such as 1A, 1B, 2A and 6J. Those ticket numbers are called in order and only passengers holding those ticket numbers are allowed in the tender boarding area on Deck A. Of course, we're "Big Shots" so we can board a tender whenever we want. Well, it doesn't actually say "Big Shot" anywhere. They just know. Remember the special letter we received yesterday? It doesn't matter anyway since we won't bother getting off the ship until later.

We're up at 9am and have a leisurely breakfast while others are scurrying about, their day's activities dependent upon the announcement of their tender pass number. We will wait until the crowd clears out. Besides, we have an extra hour today as the ship's clock was turned back overnight as we move west. This is nice for everybody. The entire port will be busy today there are 4 other ships in the harbor. We join the Celebrity Reflection, Carnival Freedom, Disney Fantasy and a Norwegian Cruise Line ship, with all five ships adding about 15,000 guests to George Town for one day. After breakfast, we retreat to the peace and quiet offered by the Exploration Cafe up on Deck 11. The wrap-around full height windows offer spectacular views of our surroundings while we contemplate further the possible activities of the day.

Karen doesn't want to leave the ship but I feel we need to visit each stop, even if it's just for a brief look around. She agrees and we board a tender for shore. It's just a 15 minute ride to the pier at George Town and in no time we find ourselves at the local shops where Karen examines all the handmade souvenirs crafted in China. Finding nothing at the pier, we venture further into the city, like one more block. It's the same stuff but prices are a little better. I'm waiting for the t-shirt sale aboard the ship so I'll hold out for now. Karen finds a size 3 dress for Kaylyn. That's it. We return to the dock less the $300 for Kaylyn's dress. It might have been less than that. I don't remember. Another quick ride on the tender back to the ship and we return to the Explorer's Cafe to pick up where we left off.

We purchase a tea and a Coke before returning to our same seats overlooking the harbor. It was about an hour later than some guy's snoring woke me up from a nice nap. Oh, that was me snoring. Time to leave. I stopped at the Lido for some chips and a lemonade before returning to our room where Karen sat out on the balcony and I watched the news and did a little blogging. Before we knew it it was time for dinner.

Our reservations were for 5:15pm and we were seated with two other couples, one from Canada and one from Arizona. Apparently, they will be sitting at this table every night from now on and we just joined them. One couple had purchased a drink package which gives each one up to 15 drinks a day. That got us talking about packages, who has one and so on. We talked politics, life in California, in Canada, etc. it was fun and they invited us back to their table tomorrow night. We'll see but we like the spontaneity of new faces at every meal. Tonight is uneventful. We return to our room, meet the Arizona couple again, finding their room is five doors down from us and return to our room for the night. No shows. No music. No food. Tonight it's a movie, "The Commuter" right from our bed. Actually, there's tons of recent movies to watch but I'd rather save that for home. Tomorrow we will be in Cozumel, Mexico.

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