We had booked a private excursion with Stingray Sailing to take us out to the Stingray City sand bar. We got off the boat as early as possible as we needed to be at the pick up point for the sailing at 8:30 sharp. We got there with plenty of time to spare and met a few of the people who were joining us on the trip. Chip, the captain of the sailing, took us by bus over to the dock we were leaving from. In addition to Chip there were 3 other crew members, including Chips father and a childhood friend. They were very knowledgeable of the island and the stingrays...and as they said on the tour anything they didn't know they'd make up! There were probably 20 people maximum on the boat with us that day plus the 4 crew members. The sail out to the sand bar took about 35 minutes with a bit of choppy seas but the boat was large enough that everyone was able to spread out and enjoy the sunshine if they chose to. We arrived at Sting Ray City where there were already about a half dozen boats. The sting rays are smart though, new boat = fresh food so they instantly swam up the back of our boat. I will admit, they were intimidating at first. They are much bigger than I expected, at least 3 feet wide and I didn't realize that their stingers would not sting you. We got into the water and I clung to my BF for dear life fearing that I was going to be stung. It took until one of the crew members demonstrating pressing his hand against the barb for me to relax and realize that they were not going to hurt me. From that point on we all took turns feeding the sting ray fish and holding them. They are quite adorable once you're no longer scared! Some even leapt out of the water like dogs. They were very smooth and soft to the touch and by the end of the excursion I found myself talking to them as if they were puppies and enjoying when they rubbed up against my back. After swimming with the sting rays the boat took us over to a reef for some snorkeling. We were unsure if we were going to be able to snorkel at all as the seas were on the rough side. As a result we used up the entire under water disposable camera on the sting ray portion of the day. This ended up being ok since we only saw a few decent fish while snorkeling. Afterwards the boat returned us to the dock and we took the bus back to the cruise terminal area. At this point we were pretty hungry and stopped into a local bar/restaurant, the Paradise Cafe (just South of the South Terminal) for some fried conch. The fried conch in Grand Cayman was much better than what we had in Arawak Cay in the Bahamas. We sipped on some local beer (CayBrew) and enjoyed the scenery with the cruise ships docked off in the distance. The negative aspect of our snack was when the bill came and the price difference between Cayman and American dollars appeared to be completely out of whack. $1 cayman island dollar (KYD) is worth about $1.25 US dollar (USD), yet the cost in USD was about 20% more than KYD. When paying with a credit card you couldn't elect to pay the Cayman amount and then let your credit card company worry about the conversion, they stated since it was an American card (which they have no way of knowing upon first look) they needed to charge the American amount...and you still need to pay a % to the credit card company. What a farse! After lunch we went back aboard the ship. Grand Cayman was beautiful and clean. Stingray City is a must see and we definitely recommend Stingray Sailing as a company to go with. I would love to go back and spend time on the island itself as I'm sure it has other enchanting spots to offer. 


Grand Cayman (Georgetown)

We took our time getting off the boat in Roatan. We could tell from our balcony that morning and by the announcements made by the captain that it was hot, hot, hot and even more humid, humid, humid. We hit the gym in the morning which was nice and quiet with the majority of people off the ship. The boat docks in Mahogany Bay which is similar to Grand Turk (both owned by Carnival). The cruise line created a man made beach area with tons of lounge chairs lining the beach with bars and shopping scattered about. We walked around the shopping area and skipped over Fat Tuesday as I was instantly turned off by the young "locals" dancing on the bar. No thanks. The beach area was nice but pretty deserted likely due to the heat. We probably only stayed on the island for a little over an hour before it was just to oppressive to be enjoyable. If we had the chance to go back again, on a cooler day haha, we'd probably rent a vehicle of some kind and head over to the Western part of the Island to see more of the local atmosphere. It looked pretty lush and green from afar and I'm sure the rain forest environment would be neat to experience. 


Roatan

We woke up Wednesday morning to clouds, dark ones. The forecast was calling for cloudy weather which was a huge bummer for us as we had booked a day at the Nacchi Cocom beach club ($49/person all inclusive). The clouds proceeded to get darker and opened up on us as soon as we arrived at the beach club. Fortunately we had cover from our tiki tent. So we just ordered muchas cervezas and rode out the storm. The rain eventually stopped (about an hour later) and the clouds broke away and it turned out to be a gorgeous afternoon. The water was warm yet refreshing, the open bar was flowing and the food from our 3 course included meal was scrumptious. The club also had a swim up bar, hooray, which we of course had to utilize. The club allows only up to 100 guests per day but I would guess there was somewhere between 30 and 40 people there that day. Perhaps the weather deterred a lot of people from making the trip. We didn't mind the lack of guests because it provided for a relaxing and quiet afternoon in the sun. We had our own personal waiter, Josef, who was extremely nice and prompt with bringing us our cervezas, very important haha. The cab fare to and from the beach club was $15 US. On the way back to the cruise ship we hooked up with another couple on the beach with us and split the fare $10 each (including tip). I originally wasn't overly excited about going to Cozumel as I'd heard from other people that it was dirty, ridden with pushy Mexicans trying to sell you stuff and heavily guarded by the military. I didn't notice any of these issues and would love to back to Nacchi Cocom again...totally worth it! 


Cozumel

After the 3rd night one of the couples elected to switch their dining choice to the anytime dining so the remainder of the cruise was just the 6 of us.We were assigned table #73 which originally was set for 10 people but one of the couples had to cancel the cruise at the last minute.

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