2022 Disney Cruise Report Day 4 - Grand Cayman
A new day begins as the 2022 Disney Cruise Trip Report continues. Today, we explore the port of George Town, Grand Cayman
Tuesday, June 7, 2022
We decided to stay with our 7:00 AM alarm for the day, even though we did not have any specific plans for the day. We were still on Central Time, which is what our West Tennessee bodies were used to anyway.
Good morning from the open sea!
I finally got around to taking a photo of the paper crafts that I made together at the same time. With the shelf bar in the way.
Our port for the day was to be George Town, Grand Cayman. If you are not aware, the Cayman Islands are a former British Colony made up of three islands, Grand Cayman, Little Cayman, and Cayman Brac. George Town, on the island of Grand Cayman, is the country’s capital. I did not know all of that beforehand. But I was excited as always to go somewhere new.
We could see that we were not quite at Grand Cayman yet. So we went to breakfast. Most of the Luttrells chose to sleep in, so only Jennifer joined us for breakfast. We went back to Cabanas as usual. And I got a Mickey waffle, a pastry, and fresh pineapple as usual, too. You know, the usual. I saw our head server Nolan and said, “Hey, Nolan!” He said, “Eat all you want, because breakfast is on me today!” So we did!
While we were eating, the ship arrived at Grand Cayman. However, the ship could not dock there because the dock was not large enough for the ship. So to get to shore, we would have to ride tender boats from the ship to the shore. Tendering! We had never done that on a cruise before, and it sounded like fun!
We made it to Grand Cayman, but another ship beat us there!
Flying the Cayman Islands flag today
This time, I had checked the schedule ahead of time, and the Aqua Duck was set to open at 9:00 AM. We still could not figure out why it had not opened until noon the previous day, but it is their ship to do what they want, right? So after breakfast, we got in line and did not have to wait too long. Laura rode with Jennifer, I rode with Jaylin, and Mom and Dad rode together. The water was not too cold, and it was fun as always. So much fun that we did it again. But not before we got our photos taken after getting off the Aqua Duck. I am not sure that dripping wet would be my first choice for having my photo taken, but it was all fun anyway. And then we rode the Aqua Duck the second time, although we skipped the photos after that trip.
One of the ship funnels, near the Aqua Duck. You can tell because of Donald’s feet sticking out.
Some of us after an Aqua Duck ride. I am not sure how Jaylin and Jennifer missed being in this photo.
Next, we headed to Quiet Cove, the adults-only pool. As you can guess by its name, it is pretty quiet, which was fine with us. Laura, Jennifer, Mom, and I got in the pool, which has three different levels. In the family pools, you can usually barely even move around, but here, we pretty much had the pool to ourselves for a while. And at other times, there weren’t many people there.
For a while, Laura had the Quiet Cove Pool all to herself, until a few of us joined her.
Interestingly, even though the ship was anchored, it still rocked side to side. I could tell by sitting in the pool and looking out the window across the way, seeing the shoreline go up and down. I could also tell by how the water in the shallow end of the pool would roll back and forth as the ship went side to side. It was not enough motion to bother any of us, especially after the tropical storm motion of the ship on the first night. But it was pretty cool to see the water go back and forth like that.
At different times, several of us went and got in the nearby hot tub, too. Jaylin went first, and a guy struck up a conversation with him about football. How does he find football people wherever he goes? Jennifer went for a while, too. And then Laura and I went. But the hot tub lived up to its name, and so we did not stay in the hot water all that long. While we were there, we could look down from the windows and see the tender boats coming and going, taking passengers to shore. Most of them were going for shore excursions, I believe, and we were letting them get on ahead of us.
By that time, we figured that many of the people who were going to leave the ship had already done so, so we thought it might be a good time for us 5 Burnses to go ashore. We went back to our rooms to change into our “going ashore” clothes and then met back out in the hall when we were all ready to go.
I was hoping that we had reached the time of open tendering, where you could just go down to Deck 1 and catch a boat, but none of us had heard any announcements about it. So we went to the Walt Disney Theatre, which was the waiting place for when there was a line. Once we got there, we ran into a crowd of people, so I knew that we were not the only ones wanting to go ashore, and I knew that we would have to wait in line. Interestingly, two of the people in charge of the line were the hosts from the game show and silent dance party from a couple of nights before. It was interesting to see that the entertainment staff was also responsible for that.
We followed the line into the Theatre, where we sat down front in a group of about 250 people, which was the capacity of a tender boat. Some of the newer Mickey Mouse cartoons (which aren’t my favorite, but I digress) were showing on the side screens in the Theatre, but without sound. You could still figure out what was going on, however. And besides, we did not have that long to wait.
Soon, they herded our group out of the Theatre and down the stairs to the loading area at the front of the ship. We scanned our cards and boarded our boat. We ended up sitting right at the front, behind the windshield. That gave us a great view as we sailed to the dock.
On a boat looking at our ship
Once we reached the shore, we decided to take a look around. This was not an elaborate “welcome” spot like we had encountered in Cozumel, but that was just fine. Simple worked for us. And there were restrooms, too! And then, we headed into George Town.
One of the first things we found was a small area that used to be a fort, Fort George. It was interesting to read a little bit about the history of the island for a few minutes. We really had no knowledge of Grand Cayman, and it is always good to learn a little history about where you are. For example, Fort George was originally built around 1790 to defend the islands from attacks by Spanish marauders!
The old Fort George location. Many people just walked right by it.
The old walls of old Fort George on Grand Cayman
As we ventured out into the town, we encountered a uniformed crossing guard who was very entertaining. He had the hand gestures, and he was very effective with his whistle, too. And in addition to putting on a show of sorts, he also made sure that everyone crossed the busy street safely. It was fun to watch him for a moment.
The crossing guard was fun to watch, but he was in complete control of everything
There were a few souvenir shops nearby, so we ducked in those to have a look around. But we did not find too much at the first few that we came to. We found a park with a few interesting statues and monuments, so we lingered for a few minutes there. And then we came to the library, but I was the only one who wanted to go in, so we skipped it.
Check out this interesting tree! I wish I knew more about it.
We found the House of Parliament on Grand Cayman. I feel so official now.
It was starting to get hot out, so we found another souvenir shop. Laura got a wooden flute, and we got something to drink there, although the Coke just had corn syrup instead of real sugar. Still, it was cold and wet, so it was good.
Just checking back in on our favorite crossing guard, still doing his thing.
25 might seem a little slow for a speed, until you realize that it is kilometers per hour, which is about 15 miles per hour. Then it seems really slow! But with all of the cars and people there, it makes sense.
Coming up, a beach on Grand Cayman and Pirate Night! Check back soon for more from our 2022 Disney Cruise!
