Port Five: Grand cayman, cayman islands

2010-04-14 Grand Cayman Cayman Islands - Toms (118)  - Seven Mile BeachGrand Cayman is awesome.  Their little shopping area is safe and free of beggars or aggressive, in-your-face vendors.  The town lacks the architectural and city planning charm of some of the islands we have visited but once one leaves town one sees all that is missing in town.


2010-04-14 Grand Cayman Cayman Islands - Toms (137) - Margaritaville This has been our cruise to experiment with Royal Caribbean’s excursions instead of kicking around on our own.  The Seven Mle Beach with Transportation excursion was a rip.  For $5 per person, one can ride a taxi to the beach ($4-$6 depending on how far up the beach).  This avoids the long lines waiting to board tour buses and puts you on your own schedule.  The tour operators were lazy, rude, and not to be bothered with pesky tourists.  Better off catching your own cab and buying your own drink in my opinion.  But we had not gone to Seven Mile Beach the last time we were here and we thoroughly enjoyed the beach.


2010-04-14 Grand Cayman Cayman Islands - Joys (69) - stingray on sand The beach is pretty much just for sunbathing and snorkeling.  The coral comes almost to water’s edge.  Because of Grand Cayman’s famous (to snorkelers, infamous to sailors) reef the waves are small and currents are minimal.  This makes for excellent diving, or in our case snorkeling, conditions.  There isn’t a lot of work in just bobbing around on the surface with your face pointed down.


2010-04-14 Grand Cayman Cayman Islands - Toms (29) - school of fish flag coral I even did some diving with my snorkel because one doesn’t have to worry about wave slap when one comes up to clear one’s snorkel.  It is no fun to blow water out of one’s snorkel only to suck more in when one is going for some air.


2010-04-14 Grand Cayman Cayman Islands - Toms (83) - barracudaWe saw a decent variety of fish – pencil fish, yellow tangs, blue tangs, all sorts of tangs, barracuda, sting rays, and on and on.  There was also quite a variety of coral.  The way the sunlight refracted onto the coral through the water’s surface was a show in itself.


Moral of the story?  Grand Cayman, yes.   Excursion, NO!

2010-04-14 Grand Cayman Cayman Islands - Joys (132) - beach club view of the Jewel of the Seas

1 Comment »

  • ris says:

    Fantastic underwater shots! How did you take those? The stingray shot is the best!!! Although… had I seen that, there would have been no time to take a picture since I’d be high-tailing it out of there. I have an unreasonable fear of stingrays. 🙂 Glad you’re adding onto the good list with this stop! How fun. Snorkeling is really neat and relaxing and easy…. all things everyone can appreciate!

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