Stompin' 'Round George Town

Monday, May 13th  

First stop on the cruise: George Town, Grand Cayman! Jess and I really had no plans for this stop because it wasn’t the purpose of the cruise, but we would get off the ship and have a look around to see the sights and whatnot anyway! It was a good thing, however, that we were in no hurry to get to Grand Cayman though as they ship was doing tendering to land and there was a whole process for getting up early to get tickets for tendering slots and then getting to the tendering boats when they called your number, it just seemed like a mess. Instead, Jess and I were happy to wait until the proposed 12:30pmish time when tender tickets would no longer be required and I got to sleep in until 10:05am when I got up for breakfast. We’d been through a time change overnight, going back an hour, and my phone hadn’t updated (as it had no date or wifi) but I was concerned nevertheless that it had updated and I was going to miss breakfast...somehow. So, anyway, I panicked when I got up at what my phone said was 11:05am even though I knew it was actually 10:05am, but, like... what if? 

So, up I got in a hurry to get dressed and up to breakfast at the Windjammer (which was, of course, still open). I got 6 hashbrowns, 3 chocolate donuts, and some water and coffee, as usual, balancing the cups on one plate and the food on another. Back in the room Jess was up, as expected, and we both decided to hit the Promenade Cafe to get her some tea and just have a look about. Everyone in the halls was super confused about the ticketing system, with some people just standing around the elevator waiting to hear their ticket number get called. Like, why? There’s plenty to do and the speaker system announces stuff everywhere except your room, go have fun? But whatever, not my life or my vacation, y’all do what you like. Tea in hand, our next stop was the Spa! 

With the Cruise Compass, our room attendant had included a coupon for $50 off a spa treatment on a port day, with language in it that said “One companion can also receive this $50 off offer”, so we were like “Sweet, $50 off a treatment for both of us!” and we decided to treat ourselves and see what they had! At the spa the woman we spoke to initially thought the coupon only applied to one treatment, but the man beside her told her that it could be applied to both of us, and she accepted that and took us to the desk to get our treatment times set up. I do beleive the language is meant to be confusing enough that people don’t think it applies to a second person too but also that the man beside the woman knew if we weren’t both getting $50 off we would either not get any treatments, or only get one, which still means they’re losing at least $100 in money they could have had all for the sake of a $50 discount. 

We both selected the 50 minute Swedish massage, the cheapest on offer for $150ish, so about $100ish each, for 5:45pm. The All Aboard for the ship was 5:30pm and we figured we’d be back before that but even if we weren’t, a 15 minute buffer felt like enough time. With that sorted, off we went back to the room to continue drinking our coffee and tea and make a plan for the day. Then, of course, it was back to the Windjammer for the lunch menu! We got mac and cheese and another sandwich and Jess told me a story about how she saw a kid on the mini golf course find an abandoned drink which he promptly threw back in it’s entirety before returning to his game. Like, yeah, that’s kinda what happens when you leave drinks around the deck! Sure, most adults won’t touch someone’s used drink, but a 9 or 19 year old kid who’s been left unattended by his parents? If he wants to find a drink, he’ll find one! Bet lots of kids and teens get blasted on these cruises cause adults just aren’t watching them and half-finished drinks are everywhere! 

As we ate our lunch the All Clear for everyone was called to use the tendering so we headed off to 1 to hop on one of the boats. We got on right away but the boat waited for a while until it had some people, then moved up to the second boarding spot on the boat to get those people, and then we were off! The ride was estimated to be about 15 minutes, but most of that was actually spent boarding and docking, cause it was a less than 5 minute ride over! At the pier everyone was taking pictures in front of the Welcome to Grand Cayman sign and Jess and I skipped that to start looking around. We first checked out a small Craft Market we saw set up to have a look, but nothing really spoke to us so we headed back to where we saw a sign for a bar called the Sandbar that promised wifi with purchase and decided that sounded good! 

We ordered a drink recommended to be shared between two people, called the Sandbar Cider, and enjoyed that as we connected our phones and got caught up a little on the world. Mostly we looked for funny internet stories to screenshot to read to each other later in case we wanted a ha-ha at some point, but we also checked messages and sent some, particularly to our mother to show her where we are and what we had done so far. When our drink was finished and we were mostly done with our phone stuff, off we popped to take a stroll about the area. To the left was a little patch of beach that we decided to visit after we were done looking around. On the left side were a few bars and restaurants, we poked into a souvenir shop but, once again, nothing spoke to us, so out we went. We walked a little further down then decided there was nothing of interest further and turned around to check out the right side of the little port town. 

On the right side were more of the shops that gave Grand Caymon the nickname “Brand Caymon”, expensive, name brand shops with jewelry and clothes and whatnot. We weren’t into that, but we did see a sign outside of Effy’s that said something about a free charm and Jess got bold enough to ask about it. Technically, the charm was for people who had been to some seminar on the ship and had some paper, but the woman was so nice and didn’t mind that we didn’t have anything and gave us the charms anyways and actually they were necklaces! Two turtle necklaces! So cute and fun! And free! After that we checked out a discount shop that was right behind and I found a necklace I’d sort of been looking at elsewhere for $5 where the other place had been asking $10 and decided to get it!

With that, it was back to the little beach we’d seen for some frolicking! Both of us had worn our bathing suit bottoms under our clothes as we expected to find somewhere to splash around, and splash around we did! It was a nice little place for that! Quiet enough, just a few other people there too, close to the boat for when we wanted to head back, and also close enough to the Sandbar that we could still get wifi! So when we’d finished enjoying the water we did a little more cyberloafing on our phones while we dried off, then back to the little dock area to return to our ship sometime around 4:30pm-ish and it seems everyone else had the idea to head back around the same time as the line turned enormous behind us and we counted ourselves very lucky we just missed all of that! 

The ride was as long as it had been the first time, with time for people to get on and off, and Jess and I weren’t inclined to stand up once the boat reached the ship so we just sat until everyone else was getting off then headed up. Like, why stand when I could sit? We’re in no hurry. As we came up from below a guy on the ship went “Ah, loveliest ladies last off the boat!” which was nice. Then it was through some quick security and we were back onto the ship! We went to 5 to check out the Promenade but as the Windjammer was closed until 5pm, the line was pretty wild. We decided to skip that and just head back to have some of the snacks still in our room. I showered first, then while Jess showered I decided I had time to wait in line for some pizza, as we’d want something hearty in us before our spa treatments! So, I stood in line and got 4 slices of cheese pizza and two glasses of water before returning to the room. Jess finished her shower at 5:20pm-ish so we basically just hustled to eat some pizza, get dressed, and head up to the spa to be early enough to check into our appointments. 

When we checked in we realized we’d forgotten cash for a tip, but I asked the woman at the front about it and she said it would be included so we didn’t have to run back to the room, we could just relax in the waiting area! As we waited our masseuses came out and gave us each tablets to fill out some information about ourselves, like what hurt, what we wanted worked on the most, that sort of thing, and very shortly after finishing we were directed to our rooms for our massages. Ah, I love a massage! I do, however, always have to warn the masseuse in advance that 1: I am very ticklish, if I start shaking, just ignore it, it’s me trying not to laugh and 2: My back is WACK and I WANT those kinks worked out, so don’t be afraid to really get up in there. I’ll let you know if it hurts too much, but if I don’t say anything, don’t worry, just keep going! And my masseuse did a great job and I felt rejuvenated and like slightly less gnarly in my upper back (the result of poor posture and 6 years of a manual labor job). 

I was done a little bit before Jess was so I waited outside in this little 4-seat area for her, while the other chairs became occupied with people who were basically just looking for somewhere to sit and found 3 empty chairs aha! Jess eventually emerged and off we went to, of course, the Windjammer! Got some veggie and beef fajitas, some fries covered in cheese, 2 slices of watermelon, and some more tea. Then it was back to our room for a good, well earned nap! The Cruise Compass for the following day was dropped off eventually and I took a brief interlude from napping to go up to 5 to get the map of Jamaica as I had done the following day for the map of Grand Cayman, but then it was back to mostly napping. Eventually we dragged ourselves out of bed to get dressed for dinner, just resort casual for the day. We were a little late getting ourselves there, but not too bad considering how tired we were from our day of sun and spa. 

Jess was SO full and had to take her desert of apply cobbler back to the room with her, though she did finish all of her corn cakes and butter chicken curry. I finished all of my tortilla soup, pulled pork enchilada, and coconut cake because I am a human machine! It felt like a good idea to get a little walk in us following our large meal (after a day of eating), so we hit the Promenade to look around and check out guest services. Jess wanted to ask about getting to a place listed on the Cruise Compass called Good Hope Estate in Jamaica so she asked someone there and she... didn’t have any idea what Jess was talking about. She got a Cruise Compass to see what it said and punched the place into her computer to look it up and could just tell us that it was a 20 minute drive from the port so we’d likely need a taxi and that was all she really knew about it. So, not super helpful, but at least we knew now that we couldn’t walk to it? 

We elected to take the stairs down to our room as we were still in the mood for some walking and also because the elevator landing on the side we were going was clogged up with a bunch of morons standing around. Like, the cafe is RIGHT there, just go into it to chat? But again, people wanna be stupid and uncomfortable than they can be, not my call. Back in the room it was only 9:30pm but we were determined to be up early for the 8pm docking at Jamaica! So, on Jammin in Jamaica went on the DVD player as we selected our outfits, got everything ready to go, then changed into our pajamas and were ready for bed by 10pm so we would be rested and refreshed for the fun filled day that was waiting for us in Jamaica!