Day 19 – Swimming with stingrays

Today we had an early start. It was everyone up and out of the cabins by 7.30am so we could have breakfast in Windjammers before taking a tender to shore – Georgetown, Grand Cayman. We managed to get on one of the first few tenders and arrive at Captain Marvin’s in plenty of time for our 9am tour.

After getting checked in and waiting for everyone to arrive, we were finally on our way to Hell. Yep, today we visited hell.

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Hell is actually a coral formation turned into tourist trap.

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But we got to mail some postcards from Hell, which was fun. And we can now say we’ve been hell and back :-).

 

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Our next stop was the turtle farm where we got see some amazing green sea turtles. The farm is mainly for conservation and breeding but they do use some for meat.

 

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They were so cute. We were able to hold some of the babies and their flippers were so soft.

 

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We were then dropped off at their wharf ready for the next part of the tour. We boarded the boat and headed about 30mins off shore to Stingray City.

 

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We have been here before but wanted to bring the girls again. This was an amazing experience. The rays were so friendly and tame. Happy to be held, and fed. We all loved our time here.

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After hanging with the rays for about half and hour we got back on the boat and moved to another location nearby where we were able to snorkel over some of the reef. Lots of fish to see and the water is so warm it’s a pleasure to be in it.

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We spent about another half and hour here then headed back to the shore. Isn’t the water an amazing colour?

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Before the boat docked we got to see this awesome iguana hanging out in a tree. Such stunning colour.

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There are chickens all over the island and Christy managed to capture this hen with her chicks. How cute!

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Then it was back on the bus to the port. We just quickly checked out a few shops – but it’s so hard to shop when carrying around a heap of wet towels – before we caught the tender back to the ship. We still hadn’t had lunch so quickly went to our cabin to change then to Windjammers for lunch at 3pm.

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In our cabin we had found a note to say our excursion tomorrow had been cancelled. We were not impressed as it’s too late to research another good option.

After our late lunch we headed to the ice skating rink. No-one was out too long though. Amy only did one lap before her feet were hurting (always my complaint when ice skating). But she’s been so adventurous this trip trying lots of new things like ice skating and the flow-rider. I’m so proud of her. She’s much braver than I am.

After our short ice skating endeavour, there was a stop at Ben & Jerry’s…

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where Kevin and Amy shared this….

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I had tea :-).

Christy then went to the pool and the rest of hung out in the cabin reading. I went outside on the verandah and actually feel asleep for a bit. Being awakened when Christy and friends plus Gerard who payed a visit to our room. The girls wanted to join us for dinner in Windjammers (we didn’t want to get dressed up for formal night tonight) so we got that organised and everyone went to get ready. There is an amazing gingerbread house display just as you enter Windjammers (it went up last night).

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We had a nice dinner. Alexandra and Alannah are lovely girls and the four get on very well together. Amy & I found a lot more vegetarian options as well. Not sure quite why the main dining room can’t deliver them (or maybe they did tonight).

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After dinner the girls all headed off and Kevin & I went to book something for tomorrow. We decided on a short 3 hour tour to some Mayan village, so at least we’ll learn some history and culture and see some of the island of Cozumel.
Then it was back to our room. The busy days are catching up with us so lighter day and then a sea day will be good before we hit Universal Studios back in Orlando.

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4 thoughts on “Day 19 – Swimming with stingrays

  1. Wow Libby that water does look amazing. What a beautiful place. I love the photos of you all with the stingrays. I never realised they were so tame.

  2. Paradise one day, Hell the next, this is a very diverse cruise, Libby.

    Love the mother hen and her chicks, so cute.

    The sea colour is amazing. I had no idea about any of this part of the world and I am loving seeing all the photos.

  3. That water looks devine and I just want to launch myself through the screen for a swim…have fun tomorrow. It’s awesome when you make great new friends.

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