DAY TWELVE: Big day for Grand Cayman. In addition to Rhapsody, the Voyager of the Seas and the Carnival Conquest was in port. Being cruise ship fans, we took lots of pictures.
LOOOONG day for us today. We signed up for two shore excursions: the Grand Cayman Highlights and Turtle Farm tour, and the Sting Ray City Swim and Snorkel tour. We got up about 6:00, got cleaned up and dressed, and got some coffee. We were in the Broadway Melody lounge at 7:45, where we got our tour sticker for the Highlights tour. Grand Cayman is a tender port (no pier, they take you in by boat), but unlike Carnival, Royal Caribbean has their act together. Also unlike Carnival, Rhapsody lowered two of it's own boats to help take people ashore - sped things up, which I liked a lot.
We went to the tender about 8:15, and was ashore by 8:30. We found our tour guide, and boarded a small bus. Our tour guide was Lester, a nice and knowledgeable guy but seemed to be having a bad day. Unless, of course, he just naturally looked and acted harried.
The highlight tour was quick but informational. Lester took us by most of the major hotels and historical buildings, a gift shop, but the main point of the tour was the Turtle Farm. The Turtle Farm is run by the government here, and is a combination conservation effort and food source. They had one area with several large tanks FULL of turtles.and I mean BIG turtles. The first part of the tour went by the turtles that were about 3-5 years old, and they were huge. We got some really good pics (one was so good, I made it the wallpaper for my laptop).
Then we crossed the street and saw the baby turtles. A hurricane had come through several years ago, and wiped out most of the Turtle Farm. They were still rebuilding and restocking the Farm when we came through. The baby turtle area still had quite a few turtles, though. At the end of the tour, we got the chance to hold a turtle for pictures. Lester showed us the proper way to hold the turtle - pick it up and gently stroke the underside if it's neck, which keeps it calm. If it's not calm, it does it's best to get out of your hands, and those flippers can slap the hell out of your arms if you're not holding it right. Trust, me, I know...if you ever see the picture of me holding the turtle you might be able to see the red marks on my forearms. I know you'll be able to see the water all over my shirt. We picked up some souvenirs for us and the kids.
After the Turtle Farm, we went to Hell. Literally. The town of Hell was a short drive from the Turtle Farm. Not much there - there's a post office and a few gift shops that are the highlights of the town, and the rock formations behind them that gave the town it's name. We picked up some post cards to send to friends, and I went to the post office to mail them. I had left my wallet on the ship, since I was worried that it would get lost, and all the addresses were in there, so I was addressing them all to work. I had gotten one addressed to one of my coworkers, when Lester came into the post office and told us we had about 5 more minutes before it was time to leave. I managed to get one addressed to "Everyone" at my work, "Everyone" at Terry's work, and "The Kids" at home before I ran out of time. Kind of disgruntled me.I had promised everyone "postcards from Hell", and didn't have the time to do it.
We took the bus back to the pier, and managed to walk off the Highlights tour bus and straight onto the Sting Ray City tour bus. It was that close-literally off one bus and onto another. Next time, we'll cut back on the number of shore tours since we could have easily missed Sting Ray City if the Highlights tour had been 5 minutes late. We took the bus to a catamaran that made the 45 minute trip to the sand bar they called "Sting Ray City".
It was an enjoyable trip out there by itself, but the swim with the rays was the major attraction. I'm fairly sure that you've seen the Royal Caribbean commercial where the kid says "Sting Rays!" and yeah, it IS that cool. They're gentle creatures, unless you step on them. They have a "stinger" in their tail that they use to defend themselves (against people stepping on them, among other things), but there were probably 100-200 people in the water and I didn't hear anyone screaming in pain...a tribute to either the ray's gentle nature, or the safety briefing that everyone got before getting in the water with them.
The water was only about chest deep, and everyone had masks and snorkels (no swim fins, though - it clouded up the water). There were 8-10 other boats there, defining a rough circle around the sand bar that everyone was interacting with the rays. The rays aren't shy, they swim right up to you, against you, between your legs, and occasionally seem to try to crawl on your back. In fact, one of the catamaran's crew holds a ray and the boat's photographer took a picture of us with the ray. The boats use squid to attract them, and you can take a piece out of the bucket and feed them - it's like putting your hand against a vacuum cleaner hose (according to Terry - I didn't try it, I was too busy taking pictures).
We swam with the rays for about 30-40 minutes before getting out. We wanted to get some pictures with the digital camera from the boat, and they turned out very well. After the swim, the boat headed back to the island. The bar opened, and we enjoyed a leisurely cruise back. We bought the picture of us with the ray and a couple of beers.
After the catamaran dropped us off at the pier, the bus took us back to the main street. We walked over to Hard Rock to get a pilsner glass from Grand Cayman. It was very conveniently located, about a two minute walk from where we got back on the tenders to the ship. Terry bought a t-shirt from a little shop right next to the pier, and then we went back to the Rhapsody.
We were starved, so we went to the Solarium Cafe and got some food even before dropping everything off at the room. After that, headed to the room and dropped our stuff off, got cleaned up, and changed. I hit the casino later that evening, but it was about as friendly as before - walked away $20 lighter.