November 25, 2017

      This morning we arrived at George Town, Grand Cayman.  Grand Cayman is the largest of the Cayman Islands, which are governed by United Kingdom.  The smaller islands are called Cayman Brac and Little Cayman.  Cuba is the closest country to the Cayman Islands at only 149 miles north and Jamaica is little further at 167 miles to the southeast. The Cayman Islands were discovered by Christopher Columbus on his third or fourth voyage to the Americas in 1503.

  The sky was mainly cloudy, temperature 78 F and a light breeze.

  The exchange rate here is one Canadian dollar is worth about 65.4 cents in Cayman dollars or if you wanted to by a t-shirt priced at $10 Cayman Dollars, to declare it for Canadian Customs the cost to show would be about $15.42 in Canadian currency.

   The Cayman Port is celebrating its 40^th anniversary this year. There was one other cruise ship anchored near us the Aida Luna.  Most cruise ships are too large to dock here so passengers must board a smaller craft known as a tender boat to get to shore.  The tender boats that were used here can hold up to 250 people. For the tender ride, we boarded onto the second deck and could go down to the first deck where we got off at the pier.  Since there was at least a one meter swell the boat bobbed in the water as passengers stepped carefully over the three-meter gangway.  A set of two stairs was all that was needed to exit the tender boat at the pier.  Waiting in the parking lot were dozens of 25 or 30 passenger minivans, the free shuttles to the city center of George Town.  From boarding the tender at the ship to arriving at the Bayshore Mall drop-off point took only about half an hour.

  People who had booked tours from the ship had transportation waiting in another few dozen minivans. The tours took people to the beaches for swimming of snorkeling; to the Cayman Turtle Center, where sea turtles are raised; to the Rum Cake shop; to the Botanical Park and Pedro St. James Castle; a short ride around George Town in an open-air trolley; Bowden Town’s old governor’s mansion or the town of Hell with its unusual limestone rock formation. There was also a tour to Stingray City in the North Sound. It is a sandbar where Southern Stingrays come to feed and people can enter the waist deep water to feed stingrays and touch them which was combined with a visit to Dolphin Cove to swim with the dolphins.

   We decided to shuttle into the city center to walk around and look at the Caribbean style two and three storey wooden buildings, painted in bright colours. There was an open-air Craft Market by the museum. Most of the buildings are jewelry shops, clothing stores, souvenir shops, cafés or restaurants. The final stop on the Hollywood watertaxi tour was Jimmy Buffet’s Margueritaville and there is another one of these bars on the main street of George Town. There is a local bus service of minibuses that go to different parts of the island, the fare ranges from two Cayman Dollars to 3.5 Cayman Dollars.  There are even free bicycles to borrow by checking in at the Mailbox Etc. store.

   As we wandered the perimeter of the town site before going to the retail stores, we noticed several pairs of chickens wandering around. They were near the harbor and right in the business area of the town. We found the ruins of Fort George which was built around 1790 but mostly demolished by developers in 1972. We were trying to find an historical site, but did not known what it was, until we were browsing in a cap and T-shirt store and noticed part of the floor was Plexiglas.  Under it there were stone stairs leading down and a plaque read that it was an original cellar of a provisioning store in Hog Stay, which was the area’s original name and the name of the bay.

    We also found Heroes Square, a memorial to the islands’ soldiers and statesmen. There is the black granite Wall of Honor with 500 names, the 1919 Peace Memorial Hall, the Memorial Tower Clock dedicated to King George V, the library, the law courts, built in the 1970s, and the legislative assembly surrounding the square. The white washed Post Office building was a block away. During World War 2, German U-boats routinely patrolled the Caribbean Sea and torpedoed a ship just off the coast of the islands.  Most of the crew were rescued.

   We were going to visit the National Museum which is in the old Court House building, but there was a ceremony being held for over an hour, before the museum would open with free admission, so we went to the Hard Rock café down the street for a Caybrew Mango Tango beer and frozen smoothie made with Mango purée, piña colada mix and pineapple juice.

   By noon the sky was looking like some rain might come and there was a tiny 2-minute shower as we boarded the tender boat. We returned to the ship catching a shuttle ready to leave the drop-off point and a tender was waiting to take people back to the ship. 8286 steps. Again, it was less than 30 minutes to return to our stateroom from George Town.

   We had lunch up on Deck 10 in the Oceanview Café.  There was a good variety of food at the different buffet stations.  We returned to the stateroom to write up the blog and read the Canadian newsletter, before returning to the Oceanview Café for afternoon ice cream.

   The ship was anchored near the Spotts Bay pier at the southern side of the island due to high swells on the north side, which would make the tendering process hazardous. We realized late in the afternoon that the colonial two storey house about one km along the coast from the pier was Pedro St. James Castle. It is the oldest surviving stone building in the Cayman Islands, built in 1780 using slave labour.  It was the site of many of the island’s historical events including the decision to form the Cayman Island’s first elected government assembly in 1831 and the announcement that slavery was to be abolished in the British Empire.  There are also gardens on the property.

   We joined Betty and Warren, Jan and Doug at table 342 and Betty had found Trish and Nick, whom they had met on a previous cruise.  While in line Shirley and John, from last night dinner group asked for the number of the table. We do not seem to be able to reserve a particular table more than one night in advance and even then it is not guaranteed if you will get that table. On the last Holland America cruise, we had been able to reserve each night for a week.

   Tonight’s dinner starters were scallop crudo – four paper-thin slices of scallop with finely chopped avocado, jalapeño pepper and celery and Waldorf chicken salad. The choices for dinner were roasted pork loin with vegetables, lemon pepper chicken with rotini pasta, caper, olives and tomato sauce.  By dessert time Betty and Warren and Jan and Doug were ready to leave to see the 7 pm show, but our waiter, Benjamin, promised express service, so they ordered desserts – chocolate cake, strawberry jubilee or New York cheesecake with Passion Fruit. They were delivered and eaten with three minutes to get to the magic show by Jay Mattoli. We left shortly after them and stopped to make tomorrow’s dinner reservation. The magic show was average and had more flash than content.  After the show, we climbed to Deck 10 for coffee in the Oceanview Café and met Jan and Doug who were not too impressed with the magic show either.  We may have seen Jay’s act on another ship.

  I forgot to mention that the entertainer last evening was a British singer pianist, Claire Maidin.  She sang and played beautifully. During the day yesterday, the Grand Foyer was decorated for Christmas. The grand staircase has garland on the railings of the fourth and fifth decks.  This morning we noticed that two meter high white menorah was included in the decorations.

   Final step count: 13,047

Our next port is three days away – Panama Canal transit before that.