Blogs from George Town , Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, Central America Caribbean

As we had to be off the boat early this morning, we decided to try the room service breakfast. There is no extra cost for this and they will deliver as much food and drink as you ask them to. It arrived exactly as ordered at 6.15 am. We should have ordered more. The ship docked in Grand Cayman at 7.30am this morning. The dock here is not big enough for these huge cruise ships, so we docked out to sea and got tenders to transport everyone onto the island. We have a trip booked to a turtle farm this morning that starts at 8.00am so are some of the first people off the ship. Those with booked trips through Carnival, always disembark from the ship first. They are very strict about this. With so many ... read more

We arrived to a grand Costco Travel sign awaiting us at the exit of customs. It was then declared by A that we weren't traveling any other way from now on. It was pretty nice to have someone waiting there and not having to fight with the taxis (yes, Manda I am looking at you) and we were the only people in the nice bus. We had to stop and wait for a giant lizard to cross the road. Ugh, I forgot about those nasty things. Then again a tiny one scared me while I was standing around outside so... Westin is right on the beach so that is great. it was a little overcast after we finally got out to the beach but the water is clear and pretty. Dinner was at the Sunshine Grill, ... read more

Last summer Cruise Specialists asked us if we would like to try out a new ship in December. We had heard rave reviews about Oceania’s two recently launched ships and we were eager to give it a go. Since we would embark the Oceania Riviera in Miami, we decided to spend some time in Florida prior to the cruise. Once the Giants brought home the World Series Trophy and the Presidential election was over, we took off like snow birds for the warmth of Ft Myers, Florida. We lucked out with perfect weather for our month long visit and watched a series of winter storms pound the San Francisco Bay area in our absence. We met up with friends and spent time walking and biking the long stretches of white sand beaches on the barrier islands. ... read more

Grand Cayman - 2012 Day 6 After breakfast today, we decided to go to the Bodden Town festival. We had heard from one of the vendors downtown, that there was going to be festival at the Bodden Grounds. We had to find it first, but we waned to go since lots of vendors and chefs were going to be there letting the visitors and guests taste the various local food. Some of the chefs were from the 7 Mile Beach main international hotels. After that, a trip downtown to check on t-shirts for those folks back home. Along the way, we stopped to take a few pictures of all the beautiful flowers on the trees. We did see an iguana in the Bayshore Mall parking lot, but he slipped away before we could capture it on ... read more

Day 4 - Encourage the Economy Today, we had breakfast, and began our trip to Georgetown, to help encourage the local street vendors, cafes, souvinier shops and just about everyone with their hand out. We had free parking (worth less than $4) at the Bayshore Mall because we had an Andy's rent-a-car. There were two boats in the harbor, so lots of folks were ashore. A visit with Launa, the jeweler that we met in September, recognized us and said today the people were very rude. She didn't know where the boats were from, but I did see the Carnival Magic from Galveston in port. The other Carnival was a smaller ship. We visited with her, and went to the shop where we had bought some stuff last trip, and it had moved, wasn't the same ... read more