We were up around 6:30 in anticipation of our shore day in Grand Cayman. The night before we had gotten a “tender ticket” to get off the ship. The port in Grand Cayman is too shallow for the cruise ship to dock so the ship anchors off the coast and smaller boats “tender” passengers from ship to shore. To better organize everyone getting off ship, Carnival offers tender tickets to get off the ship in the morning. There is no charge, they give you a sticker with a number and when your number is called you can make your way to the gangway to get off the ship. This is especially helpful if you have an early excursion booked and need to get off the ship early as they let off those with tickets before everyone else. We had #7 so we were off the ship and on a tender boat between 7:30-7:45.We didn’t book an excursion with Carnival. Instead we booked through Chris (aka Dr.Evil on the BNL Ships & Dip message board). Chris posted about a month earlier that he and his friends wanted to charter a boat on their own to Stingray City and to do some snorkeling. They had been there before and used Capt'n Bryans charter and had enjoyed it. He needed at least 25 people to reserve the boat and it would be $35 per person. (This was much less than carnival was charging for a similar itenery) He got more of a response than he expected… 90 people signed up and he ended up getting 2 boats! We needed to be off the boat early to meet up at Capt’n Bryans at 8:30 for a 9:00 departure. Since we didn’t know who Chris was or what he looked like,(or anyone else who was signed up for that matter), we wanted to be early. To make matters worse we didn't bring the directions to Capt'n Bryans and we had no idea where to go. Lucky for us there was a couple on the tender boat sitting in front of that did bring their directions so we follwed them. It was only a short walk to the office from the port and we were there by 8:15 as were most of our group. Everyone showed up on time which we thought was pretty impressive for such a large group. Chris introduced himself (he seemed like a nice guy, maybe around 40, overheard someone say he used to be in the military) He lined us all up to sign everyone in and collect money. He also told us that the boats were a little behind schedule and we wouldn’t be leaving till closer to 9:30. Once we checked in with him we went to get breakfast at a local bakery next door since we had not eaten before getting off the ship. When it was finally time to load the busses to get to the boat we were ready. Since there were so many people we had two boats, Capt’n Bob and Capt’n Bob 2 and since some expressed interest in beer on the boat we were separated into the “drinking” boat and the “dry” boat. No surprise but we chose the dry boat and were on the bus heading to it. Once on the bus we were told it would be about a 10 min. ride to the boat and once there, another half hour to Stingray City. So we sat back and enjoyed the ride and the scenery. The water in the Caribbean is so pretty and aqua blue that it looks fake.
We finally got off the bus and got on our dry boat to go to Stingray City. This is a very popular attraction in the Caymans and from what we heard is THE thing to do. Stingray City is a sandbar in the middle of the Caribbean. It is about 4-5 feet deep and the stingrays are very docile in this area. They are used to the constant flow of people around them and it doesn’t hurt that everyone brings them their favorite treat, squid. When we arrived, there were already a bunch of groups here. (I forgot to mention that 7 other cruise ships were docked in Grand Cayman that day)
Our boat dropped anchor and all were ready to get in the water. Our guide told us that we wouldn’t be able to touch bottom where our boat was but a few feet away you could on the sandbar and that’s where he would show us the stingray up close. Wait, hold up, you can’t touch bottom?? The guides didn't offer any life vests before jumping in the water. This is when Amy starts to get a little nervous. See, Amy is not a strong swimmer – okay so she can doggypaddle but can’t get her head underwater. When everyone gets off, Stan goes out to test the conditions. He can’t touch and it’s a little ways till you can and is nervous for Amy. It takes a few minutes to muster up the nerve, then sets her mind to going in. "I didn't come all this way to sit on the boat and watch! I want to see the stingrays! I'm just gonna doggypaddle like hell, and tell me when I can touch bottom." In she goes and with Stans help pushing her along, makes it to the guides holding the stingrays. Once there, she asks him if there are vests for the snorkeling stops, he says "yeah" and then places the singray right in Amy's arms! It was a female, the guide says they're the larger ones and the smaller ones were the males and they usually stayed toward the bottom. She was kinda slimy, jelly-like and was pretty heavy. The guide man shows us her eyes, gills, mouth and stinger. When we see her mouth he takes her out of the water and she "spits"water at us! We didn't feed them although some people did and they said it was like a vaccuum taking the squid out of their hands! We stayed in this area about 20 more minutes with various stingrays swimming right past, into and under us. It was pretty cool being out there and kinda scary.We were called back to the boat and went to our next stop, a snorkeling area called "the aquarium". With life vests on, we were both more relaxed getting into the water. Life vest and snorkeling gear on (which we brought our own) we were ready to do this. This was our first time snorkeling. Stan got the hang of it pretty quickly, Amy took a little longer to relax her head under the water without closing her eyes! Boy! It was beautiful out there. We didn't see a ton of fishies but what a beautiful expierence. The water was so clear! We were called back to the boat for our last stop, "the coral reef". This time we got off the boat more quickly to maximize our time there. They gave us about 20 min. at each stop. Again this stop was beautiful. Then we were done and heading back to the dock. Once there, it was back on a bus taking us back to the port. This bus ride back had some true Caribbean music. None of us aboard that bus will ever forget the classic, "I don't want to be a conch" song!!!
When we got to the port we took a little walk around the main street of Grand Cayman. It was very tourist-y with all the pirate shops and other caribbean souvenirs. There was a Hard Rock cafe and also a Margaritaville resort which we had to go in and take a few pictures after a 15-20 min walk we made our way to the port to get a tender boat back to our ship.
We got back on the ship around 2:45 and went straight up to the lido deck for a late lunch as we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. After eating we went to our cabin and washed up and got ready for the evening starting with the Sail away show with Great Big Sea at 4:30. Great Big Sea is a band from St John’s Newfoundland that we didn’t really know. However when they were announced to be on the cruise there were a lot of people really excited they were coming. It turns out they are really good and we liked them a lot, so much so we made an effort to catch another of their s
hows later in the week. They are a fun folk-rock band and a lot of their music is based on traditional Newfoundland folk songs. Not only were the songs really good but the banter in between the songs was equally enjoyable. During the energetic set it was a “The Captain’s Party” where waiters were walking around the Lido deck with free hor’dourves and free drinks. It was during this show that Ed was standing near us. Someone asked him for a picture and he obliged, so Amy thought why not and asked for a picture.
After the show we headed to the Ionian Bar to see The Brothers Creeggan again. We didn’t know was that the Ionian Bar is not really a drinking bar as it is a cigar bar. There were not a lot of people smoking but there was a thick cloud of smoke just sitting in the middle of the room. Once you got used to the smell it was another great show. I really enjoy seeing the Creeggan brothers as they are so very talented and they look to enjoy playing with each other.
Next we went to the Atrium to see Brian MacMillian play. He is a guitarist in Thinbuckle, Kevin from BNLs side band. I enjoyed his set but it was just him and a guitar and it was a little too mellow for Amy. We stayed about a half hour and then went to the lido to see Carbon Leaf. Carbon Leaf is another band we hadn’t heard of before the cruise but a lot of people were really excited to have them on. They were okay, not as high energy as we had hoped. They left no impression on Stan as he cannot even remember seeing them!(and no …he wasn’t drinking!) At 10:30 we ended up back at the Atrium to see Sean Nelson from Harvey Danger play. This set was just him singing and playing piano. Once again Stan really enjoyed this but it was not Amy’s favorite. (Amy note: I like Sean but his songs were too mellow and sad for me at this hour and were putting me to sleep) Sean is a little eccentric and so is his humor and song choices. Most of the songs he played I didn’t know including 2 Kinks songs that I couldn’t recall. It sounded great nonetheless. The set ended around 11:30 and at 11 was the 1st BNL headline show of the cruise.
When we booked the cruise we had a choice of the 1st or 2nd BNL shows to attend. We chose the 2nd because last year we thought the 2nd was better and hopefully it would be the same this year. Since we chose the 2nd show we did not have wristbands to get in the 1st show and we were figuring that , like last year, they would broadcast the BNL shows on the in-cabin TVs. We did not hear anything this year so we thought we would hang out in front of the doors to the show and hear a little and maybe get a peek inside. When we got there, there were 3 other people there doing the same thing we were. They were a little more ambitious as they were trying to get in the show as well. We figured if they were going to try, we might as well try too. After standing to the side for a little bit we saw Andy from Sixthman come by with an “angry fan”. Andy is the co-founder and CEO of Sixthman who is very hands on and tries to make everyone happy. Apparently the angry fan had floor tickets and didn’t realize the floor would be packed and everyone would be standing up. I guess she has a younger child that couldn’t see and the family was upset. Whatever their problem was Andy was taking care of it. While he was handling that he saw the 5 of us standing to the side and asked us what was wrong. Someone said we are hoping to get in the show. Andy then told us to wait off to the side and after he took care of his current situation he would check in with us. While we were standing off to the side the security guard at the front door to the lounge said that since we were waiting for Andy we might as well stand by the door so we could all watch a little bit of the show, which we did. We could see and hear pretty good from the door that I was content to stand there the rest of the show. But Andy wouldn’t have that. He came back in about 5 minutes and told us to follow him. He walked us up stairs to the upper balcony and told us we could watch the show from the back of the balcony. That was very cool! We really like that since we were in the back and standing up we could dance and enjoy the show as much as we wanted. We ended up missing only the 1st 3 songs. Not too bad for not having tickets to the 1st show. The show was pretty good. It was pretty much a basic BNL setlist. BNL always plans a 1-2 song encore and like always they did the same for this show. However when the encore was done the crowd was still cheering like mad. The house lights came up and the crew started unplugging everything but the crowd stayed at it. After a few minutes the band came back out. Ed said this was the first “real” encore the guys did in over 15 years. It was fantastic. They played 1 more song and then they finally were done.
It was after 1am and we decided to grab a drink and a snack from the lido deck before going to bed. Up on the lido deck stage the New Odds were playing so we checked them out for a little bit. They are real fun and I wish they didn’t play so late. Another long day comes to a close and we are getting excited for our Jamaica Canopy tour tomorrow.
We got back on the ship around 2:45 and went straight up to the lido deck for a late lunch as we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. After eating we went to our cabin and washed up and got ready for the evening starting with the Sail away show with Great Big Sea at 4:30. Great Big Sea is a band from St John’s Newfoundland that we didn’t really know. However when they were announced to be on the cruise there were a lot of people really excited they were coming. It turns out they are really good and we liked them a lot, so much so we made an effort to catch another of their s
hows later in the week. They are a fun folk-rock band and a lot of their music is based on traditional Newfoundland folk songs. Not only were the songs really good but the banter in between the songs was equally enjoyable. During the energetic set it was a “The Captain’s Party” where waiters were walking around the Lido deck with free hor’dourves and free drinks. It was during this show that Ed was standing near us. Someone asked him for a picture and he obliged, so Amy thought why not and asked for a picture.After the show we headed to the Ionian Bar to see The Brothers Creeggan again. We didn’t know was that the Ionian Bar is not really a drinking bar as it is a cigar bar. There were not a lot of people smoking but there was a thick cloud of smoke just sitting in the middle of the room. Once you got used to the smell it was another great show. I really enjoy seeing the Creeggan brothers as they are so very talented and they look to enjoy playing with each other.
Next we went to the Atrium to see Brian MacMillian play. He is a guitarist in Thinbuckle, Kevin from BNLs side band. I enjoyed his set but it was just him and a guitar and it was a little too mellow for Amy. We stayed about a half hour and then went to the lido to see Carbon Leaf. Carbon Leaf is another band we hadn’t heard of before the cruise but a lot of people were really excited to have them on. They were okay, not as high energy as we had hoped. They left no impression on Stan as he cannot even remember seeing them!(and no …he wasn’t drinking!) At 10:30 we ended up back at the Atrium to see Sean Nelson from Harvey Danger play. This set was just him singing and playing piano. Once again Stan really enjoyed this but it was not Amy’s favorite. (Amy note: I like Sean but his songs were too mellow and sad for me at this hour and were putting me to sleep) Sean is a little eccentric and so is his humor and song choices. Most of the songs he played I didn’t know including 2 Kinks songs that I couldn’t recall. It sounded great nonetheless. The set ended around 11:30 and at 11 was the 1st BNL headline show of the cruise.
When we booked the cruise we had a choice of the 1st or 2nd BNL shows to attend. We chose the 2nd because last year we thought the 2nd was better and hopefully it would be the same this year. Since we chose the 2nd show we did not have wristbands to get in the 1st show and we were figuring that , like last year, they would broadcast the BNL shows on the in-cabin TVs. We did not hear anything this year so we thought we would hang out in front of the doors to the show and hear a little and maybe get a peek inside. When we got there, there were 3 other people there doing the same thing we were. They were a little more ambitious as they were trying to get in the show as well. We figured if they were going to try, we might as well try too. After standing to the side for a little bit we saw Andy from Sixthman come by with an “angry fan”. Andy is the co-founder and CEO of Sixthman who is very hands on and tries to make everyone happy. Apparently the angry fan had floor tickets and didn’t realize the floor would be packed and everyone would be standing up. I guess she has a younger child that couldn’t see and the family was upset. Whatever their problem was Andy was taking care of it. While he was handling that he saw the 5 of us standing to the side and asked us what was wrong. Someone said we are hoping to get in the show. Andy then told us to wait off to the side and after he took care of his current situation he would check in with us. While we were standing off to the side the security guard at the front door to the lounge said that since we were waiting for Andy we might as well stand by the door so we could all watch a little bit of the show, which we did. We could see and hear pretty good from the door that I was content to stand there the rest of the show. But Andy wouldn’t have that. He came back in about 5 minutes and told us to follow him. He walked us up stairs to the upper balcony and told us we could watch the show from the back of the balcony. That was very cool! We really like that since we were in the back and standing up we could dance and enjoy the show as much as we wanted. We ended up missing only the 1st 3 songs. Not too bad for not having tickets to the 1st show. The show was pretty good. It was pretty much a basic BNL setlist. BNL always plans a 1-2 song encore and like always they did the same for this show. However when the encore was done the crowd was still cheering like mad. The house lights came up and the crew started unplugging everything but the crowd stayed at it. After a few minutes the band came back out. Ed said this was the first “real” encore the guys did in over 15 years. It was fantastic. They played 1 more song and then they finally were done.
It was after 1am and we decided to grab a drink and a snack from the lido deck before going to bed. Up on the lido deck stage the New Odds were playing so we checked them out for a little bit. They are real fun and I wish they didn’t play so late. Another long day comes to a close and we are getting excited for our Jamaica Canopy tour tomorrow.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment