DAY 11 – JULY 4th
One note on yesterday. The ship did not leave Key West until 1 AM (it historically leaves much earlier). Wonder if this is a permanent change.
Today was our busiest day. Two excursions – one booked through Disney and one on our own. The first through Disney was the Stingray City Tour (G08). I had heard good things about this, but was worried for a couple of reasons. One, the water on the sandbar was usually waist deep, but could go up to six feet. Second, I was worried about getting from the boat to the sandbar, as we are not the best swimmers.
Both fears were unfounded. Te water was only about 2.5 feet deep and the boat (a double decker catamaran) was parked directly above, so you climb down the ladder onto the sand. We had you remove our water shoes (I think to give better sensation to avoid accidentally stepping on a ray.
We were the first tour of the day (at 7:30), so we had breakfast in the room (ordered the night before by hanging a card on our doorknob). Not being in a suite, our choices were just continental fare, but it was good enough to get us going. We met in Rocking D Bar and headed to the tender deck. We sat on the top deck of the tender, at first not realizing there was a lower deck.
After the short trip (passing the rusted hulk of a Cuban vessel in port), we were lead to a small
We arrived at the Catamaran (Emerald Eyes), crewed by a really nice group of 20-somethings. It had small bathrooms (for “number 1” only), a snack bar, and seating on 2 decks. The trip took about 45 minutes, during which time they review the proper handling of a ray and so on.
As I said, getting onto the sandbar is easy – the ladder itself is the hardest part. Disney requires all to wear life vests when leaving the boat. They are inflatable, so you need not blow them up if they get in the way. Snorkels and masks are optional.
J7 and I really enjoyed it. J4* and J11 were a bit creeped out by the huge rays gliding past. J11 went back on the boat after a few minutes, but said she enjoyed it anyway from afar. The rays came quickly to the food they gave us at first, sucking it out of my hand with the force of a vacuum cleaner. It did seem that after the first 15 minutes or so that they were not as interested in the food. There were only a handful of boats there, so it wasn’t crowded at all. I hear at times there can be 1500 people on the sandbar.
We had a group photo taken, and J7 and I had a picture taken holding a ray. The photos are $15 for 4×6 ($20 and $25 for 5×7 and 8×10) and are mailed to you after the cruise. The photo service only takes cash.
J7 also bought a stuffed toy ray for $5 when we got snacks for the trip back (they do take charge with a $15 or $20 minimum, depending who you talk to).
Arriving back at port, we could see it was raining back by town and the Magic. We took the bus back (although if we wanted, we could have walked to
Back in town, it was raining, but there were ample awnings to walk under. We looked at the stores with items a bit over our budget (Lladro Cinderella scene $25,000 CI). I’m told if you have the budgets for things like Rolexes and such, that there are good buys here.
We went to Hard Rock Café for lunch (got a pin too). My All Access card got us a 10% discount, as this is only a franchise store. The prices are similar to American HRC’s, but the exchange rate hurts. With 15% gratuity automatically added, the bill was about $58 CI, which was $75 US. The bill shows both US and CI, but note that it appears they add the gratuity, so the final slip just shows the total US price with an additional line for tip (so you’d be tipping over 15% if you add a tip there).
We did a little shopping and checked in for our next excursion, the Atlantis Seaworld Explorer, a “semi-submarine” (a.k.a. glass bottom boat). We had booked this on our own. Disney does offer it (at a slightly higher price), but not at a time that corresponded with our earlier excursion. I was afraid we’d be rushed, but the
The Seaworld Explorer was great. You climb down a ladder into the lower level, which has a long carpeted bench between walls of windows. On our excursion, a lot of stuff was on the port side (left), so I’d suggest if you are a group sitting as we did, with some on the port and some on the starboard, back to back. That way, you can turn and look out the other side without annoying a stranger.
It was very relaxing and a lot of fun. You see a couple of shipwrecks and a lot of Cheeseburger Reef. A diver feeds fish outside, which is quite entertaining. I highly recommend this tour.
We then bought some rum cakes and headed back to the boat. Don’t buy liquor in the Caymans, as they will only send it back to the boat, and Disney does not accept those shipments.
We relaxed for a bit (greatly needed, as J7 was in one of her moods most of the day – prompting at one point J4* to say, “Stop it or I’ll beat you and in this country I’ll probably get away with it” – no offense meant to the child abuse laws of the Cayman Islands, of which we (and most importaly J7) have no knowledge!
We went to the pool where soon there was a 4th of July party going on. It was pretty fun actually.
We had dinner at Parrot Cay. Finally finished our wine! They had a special 4th of July menu (fried chicken and ribs) in addition to the normal menu. We all got souvenir champagne flutes and the Captain made a toast (a Dutchman toasting American Independence on a ship registered in the
After dinner, we stopped to wait in the atrium for the balloon drop (red, white and blue balloons had been hanging there all trip). J4* went to take the glasses and souvenir menus back to the room. When she returned, there was no getting back to us, as a horde of people had formed all around us. J11 was a bit annoyed, especially as they sang “American Pie,” which she says some boys back at school sing repeatedly to her chagrin. We also sang “Born in the
As soon as he balloons hit the floor, I was off with the girls to get into line for the show that night. J4* joined us, and we got great seats, having beaten the crowd to the theatre.
The show was “Twice Charmed,” in which Lady Tremain and her daughters turn back time to keep Cinderella from having a happy ending. I thought it was really well written with Broadway quality songs. The talent was a little uneven (what do you expect on a cruise?), but Cinderella and Lady Tremain had great voices. J7 especially loved it. I could easily see it being expanded into an actual Broadway show.
After that big day, sleep came fairly easily.
