Rockapella Cruise
Day 5 -- Grand Cayman
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
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| Tender to Port |
When the alarm rang in the morning, I did not feel like going to Sunrise Stretch, so Liz went without me. It must have been the vodka in that mango martini from the night before. Jenn and I met up for breakfast at Red Sail, which was ehh. Then we went to the Ebony Cabaret Lounge to gather for the different excursions to go on the tenders. The "tenders" are the transportation from the boat to the island, as there are some places where the boats can't actually dock. The reason that we didn't go to Belize was that there was a problem with the tenders at the time.
Liz, Jenn and I were on the excursion titled "Discover Cayman -- Stingrays, Hell and Turtle Farm". Turtles will hereon be called "Tortugas" because I can't say that word enough. Gerald was our van driver. I sat in a little middle seat that made me feel shorter than I already am. He gave us a lot of information about the Caymans, and was quite entertaining. The national bird is the African Parrot. The national flower is the Cayman Banana Orchid. The national seal includes a pineapple, a tortuga, a part of the British flag, and blue stripes that signify the ocean. If you do not have car insurance and get caught, you spend a year in jail. If you are caught for illegal gun possession, you serve a 10-year prison sentence plus 1 year for each bullet.
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| Gerald and Tortuga |
Our first stop was the Cayman Turtle Farm, where Green Sea Turtles have a safe home. Gerald picked up a tortuga and showed us how to handle it, and then we got to have some time to touch the tortugas, pick them up, and walk around the farm. The ones that we got to pick up were small, of course, and still young, but there were really big ones around the farm as well. I picked up a tortuga, posed with it, and gave it a kiss.
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| Sher Kissing Tortuga |
We all did, actually, although Jenn had a bit of a difficult time trying to get hers. We then went to the gift shop and Jenn saw a sign in the lobby showing that her company, DeLoitte, was one of the sponsors of the farm. So she posed by the sign with the big coconut that she bought for coconut juice. She realized that she didn't have an underwater camera for later that day, so she went back to the gift shop to buy one and I held her coconut. A lady saw me and told me not to hold it against my clothes or it would make a stain that resembles blood. So I made sure to hold it away from my clothing.
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| Big Green Sea Tortugas |
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| Bananaman and Sher at Hell |
The next stop was at Hell. They call it Hell because of the limestone formation which is black, and what some imagine that Hell would look like. You can see the formation from viewing areas, but you can't walk around it, so the stop was a short one. Some people bought postcards to send from Hell, but I didn't really like the ones I saw, so I bought a ring for myself instead. They also had some really pretty black coral jewelry that I didn't buy.
We then had a 30-minute boat ride to Stingray City, during which time we ate the snacks that we had packed on the boat. We were already wearing our bathing suits underneath our clothes, so we didn't really need the changing room/bathroom, but there was one available. The view from the boat was beautiful, with that really, really blue water for miles. We stopped at a sandbar, which they call Stingray City because of all the rays. There were other boats there with tourists playing with the rays. Liz actually went into the water for a few minutes, touched a stingray, then got back into the boat. The rest of the time, she took pictures. The water was a little bit cold for Liz, but I thought that it was perfect once I was in it for a minute. We were told that kissing a stingray brings 7 years of good luck, but I did not partake in that activity, nor did I partake in feeding squid to the rays. I just kind of bent down and touched them as they swam by me. The rays have a rough back and a soft underbelly, and they eat from the bottom with suction. The big ones are female, and the little ones are male. We thought that they were just mothers and their babies, but we were wrong. The guide said, "The females are dominant in Stingray City, and in our culture, the females are also dominant." Jenn did some snorkeling away from all of the people and took her underwater pictures. Before that, though, as she was wading, she said to me, "Sher, stop touching me!" I was 10 feet away from her, and was confused. She realized that it was a stingray swimming next to her. My black swimsuit has a skirt on it, so I think that's why she thought it was me. It was not.
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| Female Stingray By Our Boat |
Then it was time for our group to take the boat back to Grand Cayman. Gerald was still there, but he had another van driver take us back to town. We went to the Diamonds International to get our charms, and we also went to Effy to get our free garnet pendant, and I also bought earrings to go with it, because that's my birthstone. Then we got into the very, very long line to take tenders back to our ship.
Back on the ship, the 3 of us were very hungry, so we got in line for burgers at Red Sail. Some blond guy wearing just white shorts and no shirt walked toward us and in my head I thought, "Who is THAT?!" Then I realized that it was Scott and I waved to him with my effed-up hair. He walked up to us and said "Hi, ladies!" and I asked if he was coming to dinner that night. He said, "Maybe." I'm pretty sure that I demanded that he join us at dinner, but I don't know, because in my head, I was screaming, "AAAAH! He's so...AAAAH!" Ever since that moment, I have referred to CSL4 as "Adonis". No, not to his face. I swear that the 3 of us held our collective breath during that exchange, except when we were talking. Jenn is surprised that none of us fainted. Yeah, it was that amazing. SWOOOONNNN!!!
We went back to our rooms after not really eating all of our food despite the hunger because of our Adonis Sighting, and got dressed for the second Rockapella show. Yup, 2 days in a row! Again, the show will be a separate post, but to sum up, we sat closer to the stage this time, and the guys did songs that were most requested on the board that we had tallied while waiting in line to get in.
After the show, we went to the gallery to look at some pictures, but couldn't find our pictures with our formal wear. I ordered pics of JT with bags of money, as well as our group photo from Cruise Elegant night by looking through the thumbnail shots. I don't know why the other staff person told a customer to just check with their friends to see if they have pictures, as it's really easy to just go through the book with the thumbnails. Whatevs.
We went back to the Platinum Dining Room for dinner. Adonis actually showed up and we asked if he could sit with us since June was finally moving Fred to another table. Not that he wouldn't have been welcome, but Fred and Tim should be able to rotate, too. Adonis was about to take the seat next to Liz, but she pointed to the empty chair next to me. I told him that he makes Liz nervous, so he should come sit by me. So he did. We told him stories about our excursions so far. Jenn arrived late because she kept stopping for all of the photographers, then she told her drowning story and cracked up our entire table, making people at the other tables stare at us with jealousy. Or annoyance. I prefer to think it was jealousy. Anyway, Adonis had left the boat in Grand Cayman and walked around for a little bit. He was really attentive to everyone's stories, and it was way sweet. We talked about "Back to the Future" and I said that I saw it at the Puente Hills mall, where they filmed part of it. He said that was cool. He wanted to know when we would get our hoverboards and flying cars. I told him that it would be in 2025 (but that's wrong because it's in 2015). We told Adonis about our suggestions to market the cruise for next year. When it came tiem for dessert, Adonis said that cake with ice cream is always good, even chocolate covered Oreos with the cream. At one point, I took a picture with Karla and Adonis. Then I said to Karla, "OK, now get out." Sorry for the sass, KP. I also sassed about people not moving on from past Pella members. I'm feisty like that. Yeah, I sassed about that in front of Adonis.
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| Sher & Adonis |
So after dinner as we were leaving, and after all of the sassing, I confessed to Adonis that I thought to myself this afternoon, "Ooh! Who is THAT?!"
Adonis: "Really?"
Sher: "Yeah."
Adonis: "That's what I do on the ship: I'm a gigolo."
Sher: "Does Lisa know?"
Adonis: "That's actually how I met her."
How can anyone not love him?!
I was tired from all of the activities of the day and all of the swooning, so I went back to the cabin, where a Frog made of towel greeted me.
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| Bananaman, Big Frog, and Gloria |
Next up after the set list: Isla Roatan
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