WELCOME TO GRAND CAYMAN - DAY 22

A Look At What Is Happening Today:

Grand Cayman ✔ 

Before dinner last evening we attended Captain Okland's welcome reception.  

Anne Marie with Crystal Society Hostess Jaque Brown who was the first to greet us as we entered the Palm Court where the reception was held.  We also were greeted by the Captain for the traditional photo, Cruise Director Gary, Hotel Director Josef and then several of the crew greeted us.

Anne Marie with fellow World Cruise Passenger Elaine.

Anne Marie with Japanese Hostess Urara Kakada.

We sat at the bar which we started to do last year.  It provides a nice opportunity to speak with crew, guests and to watch the bartenders work their magic.  Keith just had a little wine and Anne Marie had a wine spritzer.  


About mid-way through the reception Cruise Director Gary Hunter welcomed us and introduced Captain Okland.

(Cruise Director Gary Hunter)

Captain Okland spoke for a few minutes and welcomed everyone and then spoke about the itinerary of this leg of the World Cruise.  In general, this World Cruise will have a greater percentage of port days then previous cruises.

The Captain then introduced, one by one, his Senior Officers.  This included from Left to Right, the Cruise Director, Hotel Director, Vice Captain with the Captain with the microphone and the Chief Engineer and the Ships Doctor.  

These are last nights menus from the Crystal Dining Room.

The attire for last evening was formal and the first formal night of the cruise features the Gala Welcome Dinner featuring many favorites.

We began our meal with appetizers.  Anne Marie had jumbo shrimp and Keith had Tuna tartare which Head Waiter Augusto prepared at table-side.   

The Tuna Tartare was perfect for Keith.  It was a little on the spicy side which Keith enjoys.  The tuna is the same tuna that is served at Silk Road, the Nobu Japanese Specialty Restaurant.

We each enjoyed salads as the next course.  Keith went with his standing order salad and Anne Marie enjoyed the Captain's Salad. 
  

For our entree Anne Marie had the Broiled Fresh Maine Lobster which is one if not her favorite of the items offered in the Crystal Dining Room.

Anne Marie thought the lobster was very tender and tasty and as she says she "loves" lobster.

While Keith enjoys the Lobster he decided to go with the Broiled Fresh Alaskan Halibut.  They had two choices of it on the menus; pan fried or broiled and Keith went with the broiled  choice.  It was prepared very simply so he could taste the fish without the taste that comes when it is fried.

We also had the side order of steamed vegetables.

We enjoyed a wine which is not one of the inclusive wines but one that is on the connoisseurs wine list.   It was one of a few wines that our Sommelier Jiri recommended for us and is a 2008  Darioush Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. 

Jiri had decanted a portion of it for us.  When he came over to the table he took several minutes to describe the wine and to also speak about the background of the founder of the winery.  He had also printed out a two page sheet with lots of information about the wine.  Keith tried some and then they discussed the aroma, the fragrance and the color of the wine.  Keith was very pleased with this wine as was Anne Marie.

Later in the evening we discussed other wines and Jiri wrote out another recommendation for us for another evening.

For dessert Keith had mixed berries and Anne Marie had a sugar free cake.

After dinner, we spoke with some fellow guests and also some crew members and entertainers including entertainer Dave.

Dave has a great sense of humor.

Keith awoke very early and worked out in the Fitness Center on the Elliptical Machine and also lifted weights.  

He then went to the Lido Cafe for coffee.  When the Lido Cafe opens coffee, tea, and other early risers breakfast items are available while the Lido Deck Stewards set up the other items for the breakfast.  Keith spoke with Lido Deck Steward Clark.

One observation that Keith had is that many of us are a creature of habit.  Cruise Director Rick Spath will often say that at most times he know where certain guests will be on the ship and often he will take different routes on the ship at the same time each day so he can see many of the guests.  Today was the same.  You have Keith up early in the Fitness Center and about ten minutes before he leaves a fellow guest goes on one of the stationary bicycles as he has done since the start of the World Cruise.  About 20 minutes after Keith is in the Lido Cafe a couple on the World Cruise from Australia arrive as they have done regularly.  Then as Keith arrives back on our deck and is walking towards our room at the precise time and for the third consecutive day the pastor and his wife are walking towards Keith as they are making their way toward the back of the ship where the Lido Cafe is located.

We enjoyed breakfast in our room. We had Rao bring our breakfast at 7:30 AM today.

We have visited Grand Cayman several times in the past so we did not book any shore excursions for this port of call.

Grand Cayman is a very popular tourist destination and during the “Caribbean Season” it attracts lots of cruise ships.

The largest city in the Caymans is Georgetown, which is the tender port with a population of approximately 30,000 people and is the Capital of the Caymans.

The Cayman’s are known for tourism and also for off-shore banking.

Some of the major tourist attractions include beautiful 7-Mile Beach, snorkeling with the Stingrays, as well as scuba diving. Helicopter tours are also offered.

The economy remains strong and the Caymans do have one of the highest living standards in the world.

All ships visiting the Caymans anchor ashore and tenders take cruise ship passenger to/from the tender pier.

We were the only ship anchored off Grand Cayman today.  That is almost unheard of this time of the year.  This was very nice as the Island was not crowded as it can be when often five to seven ships are in port.  

When we went down for the tender we were the only two guests so we had our own private tender taking us to port and the same was true on the return trip.

As we arrived at the tender pier, Lido Deck Steward Raymond was right there asking us if we wanted water or iced tea.

We then began our walk and we tried to visit some familiar places.

The weather was wonderful with very sunny skies.

We walked over to a residential area.

During our walk we passed by several stores many selling designer jewelry.

We passed by some shopping malls.

Elmslie Memorial Church.  

1919 Peace Memorial

National Museum

While we walked around we could see the Crystal Serenity from different vantage points.

When we were ready to go back to the ship, we walked back over to the Tender Pier where a tender was waiting to take us back home.

We both enjoyed lunch in the Lido Cafe.

Anne Marie was able to sit out by the pool today.  Keith was able to play quite a bit of Paddle Tennis.  He teamed up with Cruise Director Gary Hunter who came out of "paddle tennis retirement" and they won a couple of times and upset a team that was the favorite to win.  Miracles do happen!  Keith also met up with friend Bob later in the afternoon.

This evening we will dine again in the Crystal Dining Room.  Before dinner, we will join some of our other guests and some of the senior officers for a reception at the Captain's Quarters and we will Blog all about this tomorrow.

TODAY'S THOUGHT FOR THE DAY............

“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception.  It is a prevailing attitude.” – General Colin Powell

Keith and Anne Marie