We did a tour of the old city and it was beautiful! Our guide was very knowledgeable and spoke English every well. Walked all over and stopped at important places such as the church, etc. It poured rain and our guide tried to keep us under porches or overhangs. It was a lovely walk. The only complaint I had was stopping at an Emerald store and 1 lade taking way too long to decide about what pair of earrings she would buy. Held up the tour....very inconsiderate! We did stop at the "old jail cells" which are now shops and had a bit of time there before boarding and heading back to the ship. A good tour though.
We took the tour on the small boat through the rest of the Panama Canal and really enjoyed seeing the locks from a "small boat" perspective after going through on the first couple on the big ship. It was a long day but was an excellent tour. We really enjoyed seeing how the canal worked and hearing all the history.
We got off the ship and went into the Vendors stalls that are right at the port. There are quite a few of them and they have some nice crafts and jewelry for very nice prices. The vendors were friendly but not pushy and we really liked that. We spoke to one lady and told her how we do not like to be "jumped at" by vendors and how pleasant it was to shop there as they weren't pushy or aggressive. We ended up buying quite a bit there as it was an enjoyable experience.
My rating is for the "Town of Hell" not really for Grand Cayman as a whole. We grabbed a cab at the port and asked to be taken to Hell and back. There were 4 of us and he charged $12 each return. We did not bargain....did not know if we could....did not bother. He was a neat driver and took us to Hell, took us to the coral and explained some of the history of the Island and how they live, etc. A very nice man. He gave us lots of time to shop at the "2 store" and mail our postcards at the post office. Yes folks that is all Hell is....2 shops and a post office lol. He then took us a different way back and even stopped at an observation tower in a mall which we went up to the top and could see a lot of the island all the way to the ocean. He was a really nice guide to have and it was worth the trip just to hear his knowledge of Grand Cayman.