Jan 7, 2013 - Finally underway

It’s great to be on board and underway. We found two of our favorite crew people on board – the ship’s hostess (culinary and other events) and the Cellar Master (always a good friend to have). Yesterday was a typical day at sea. We started by going to a short welcome discussion with the Cruise director. That was followed by a Bridge lesson – not the road kind, but the card kind… In the afternoon we played bridge for the first time and did so-so. Oh well, we’ll have more chances to sharpen up. Later today we dock at Georgetown, Cayman...

Mar 6, 2012 - Georgetown

Last night the dour Norwegian captain got on the PA and fretted about the high winds and consequent waves that lay ahead. Grand Cayman the next port, has no dock facilities and all ships that visit drop anchors and send their passengers to shore in smaller boats. This is called tendering and can take forever. And if the waves are high enough, it will not happen at all. Our latest experience in Grand Cayman told us that we would probably be able to visit the island, but our snorkeling excursion would be cancelled. We were sorry we were...

Feb 3, 2011 - at sea and grand cayman, cayman islands

After another great night of food and sleep, we were ready for a fun day at sea. Dave and Dick are early risers so they would go to the Lido deck each morning and put towels on the lounge chairs for our group. The ladies wanted a chair with the most sun while the men wanted a chair with the best view, and not of the ocean! The Liberty has an outside water slide that was super fast and most of our group made at least one trip down the slide. So with riding the slide, catching the rays, watching the people, watching the mega screen TV and...

Oct 12, 2010 - Grand Cayman Islands

Tendered off the ship for our morning ‘Island Tour & Turtle Farm’ - Grand Caymans. We wound our way through the charming town of George Town; along the famous seven mile beach; a stop at ‘Hell’ to see the unusual rock formations; sampling at the Rum Cake Factory; and then on to the Turtle Farm. This was the highlight of the tour for me – turtles of all sizes, from the monsters down to the little hatchlings. I got to hold a turtle, tickling it under it’s chin to calm it when it decided to start flapping away. The afternoon – shopping, tax...

Mar 1, 2010 - Grand Cayman

This little gem of an island still under British rule was our first port of call. Known as an offshore banking haven there are more companies registered here than resident. The weather has warmed up nicely and we hired a car to get around the island. Really weird cos they retain the British system of driving on the left yet most of the cars are left hand drive from the USA! Took some getting use to and how strange to see British road signs, telephone boxes and roundabouts. Anyway, I was here 20 years ago so I was interested to see the...

Dec 17, 2009 - Hell

Day 5 - Georgetown, Grand Cayman - Today we went on a really cool tour. We saw 7 mile beach (very nice beach - great sand), then we went to Hell! I have to tell you I had a hell of a good time! The town is called Hell because of the rocks...they look like vulcano rocks but not really. They're pointy, black and greyish. I sent postcards from Hell...guess what, I was in Hell for a whole 20 minutes. Then we went to the rum cake factory, I didn't try any rum cake but lots of adults did includind mom and dad. Next, we went to the turtle farm. It...

Dec 17, 2009 - turtles, turtles, and more turtles

hello everybody, today was an awesome day. we went on a tour of grand cayman (witch is one of three cayman islands), and then i got to hold a turtle (more about that later). so on our tour we went to a really awesome cool place called HELL!!!! (oooh-ghost sounds). i sent postcards from hell. (did you know it's called hell because they have like really really old like black spiky rocks they are like a 1 000 000 years old or older). then we saw some more fun stuff (NOT-it was just a lot of hotels and other stuff like that). then came the most...

Oct 8, 2009 - Cayman

We docked at the Cayman Island early in the morning. Sauncee and I got off the ship rather quickly because of the dive trip we had planned. We had to ride a taxi boat from the cruise ship to the shore. The taxi boat held about a hundred people and there were several of them operating so, it didn't take long to get everyone onto shore. We had a bus waiting on us to take us a couple of miles away to Foster's dive shop. We filled out the proper paperwork and recieved a safety brief and were on our way! We purchased an underwater camera but...

Feb 24, 2009 - Day 6 (Grand Cayman)

A very memorable stop. We admired the coastline as we pulled into the habour at Georgetown for a good hour or so. No pier so we had to Tender to shore. We made it in early enough to pick out the things we wanted to buy after our tour that was booked for a little later. We did not realize we would be able to bring things with us, including cameras, oops. We went out to West Bay and mounted our bikes for the ride to "Hell" before visiting the Sea Turtle Farm. Very neat, love those turles, so cute. We then rode back to our tour start location...

Feb 11, 2009 - Georgetown, Cayman Islands

Silverheels II was able to squeak in a 360-mile passage between Roatan, Honduras and Georgetown, Cayman Islands within a small weather window between windy and really windy. The winds laid down long enough to make the overnight passage, but increased steadily throughout the following morning, making the final few hours of the passage a rolly and wind-whipped mess, with constant 30-knot winds. The sea conditions were particularly problematic when, in order to clear Cayman customs, we were told to tie up to the concrete municipal pier, a...

Jan 22, 2009 - Grand Cayman

It was nice to set feet on solid ground! Its windy and overcast today, so we made the best of it and went to lunch beachside at the new Ritz Carlton and then to the hardware store! Many tours were cancelled today due to weather. Still unable to load photos through satellite hookup, please check back to entries when photos get posted. Tonight we pulled out of Georgetown at 5, and will be at sea until we reach the Panama Canal. We have a following sea tonight and are getting a fairly smooth ride. John Lucas is lining up chess partners left...

Dec 9, 2008 - Grand Cayman

Grand Cayman is favored by divers, because it is surrounded by reef. This makes it impossible for a cruise ship dock to be built without destroying the reef. Apparently this doesn’t greatly bother the cruise ship industry which schedules stops here enthusiastically. We arrived along with four other behemoths who floated off shore and tendered their passengers into town. Our tour to feed the sting rays on the reef left at 8am and we had to board the small boat which would take us to the pier at 7:15am. Only on vacation do we arise so...