THURSDAY 09 March – Georgetown, Cayman Islands
[ This post consists of some narrative and 12 photos with captions. ]
Our approach to Georgetown, Cayman Islands at first light. (This image is 1920×862 pixels. Clicking on the image might allow it to be viewed at full resolution on a device with sufficient resolution.)
Center frame; the tender dock and Port of Entry station at the heart of Georgetown, Cayman Islands as sunrise approaches.
Our penultimate port of call was Georgetown, Cayman Islands. The port lacks a deep-water marina, so cruise ships “anchor out” and the guests “tender in.” There are quite a few things to do on the island, and there were numerous shore excursions from which to choose. This was not our first visit to Georgetown, however, and we were content to just go ashore and stroll around for a bit. As port towns go it’s not very interesting. Most of the things to see and do are elsewhere on the island(s).
Cloud figures; a horse plays with a hippopotamus on its back.
One of the tenders (shuttle boats) tied up alongside the NCL Joy. Cruise ships are BIG; tender boats are small.
The NCL Joy is joined by the Carnival Glory cruise ship in the harbor.
Welcome to the Cayman Islands: Nancy, Linda, and Paul.
Welcome to the Cayman Islands; Bruce, Nancy, and Paul.
The Cayman Islands in general, and Georgetown in particular, is known for its (offshore) banking industry. We were here as part of our 2nd Holistic Holiday at Sea cruise in 2013, so we knew the town itself is relatively small, without too much high-rise architecture, and is very walkable, but without very much to see and do. It seemed unchanged to us since our last visit. The two most novel things about our time here were: 1) an actual police officer directing traffic, and; 2) the number of cruise ships in the harbor; four at one time (as best I recall). The Joy departed at 5 PM for the final leg of our journey.
The Cayman Islands Parliament building and part of the plaza that it faces. A lot of the buildings in Georgetown are white or light colored, so Paul is wearing his favorite tie-die shirt to add a splash of color.
When in Georgetown there isn’t any doubt as to its history and affiliation with England. Even they way they post “NO PARKING” signs is very polite.
The Celebrity APEX cruise ship (left) has joined the NCL Joy (right) and Carnival Glory (center) in the Georgetown anchorage. There’s a 4th cruise ship anchored here as well, but not visible in this photo.
In larger ports that can handle multiple cruise ships simultaneously, it’s a bit mind-boggling how many people they can disgorge into a waiting community. Equally amazing, are the number of businesses (and people) that are in place at each port to service, and indeed depend on, these large number of visitors. Cruise ships have their purpose, however, and we had thoroughly enjoyed our time on the NCL Joy and the places it stopped. Perhaps someday we will return to some of these locations on our own, as well as others that our cruise skipped, and stay long enough to get a better sense of what they are really like. But if not, at least we have experienced them, however briefly, and been keenly aware that we were in places that were very different from where we have spent most of our lives.
The NCL Joy puts its port side bow thruster to work to spin the ship 180 degrees around its mid-point. Not shown (not visible from our port-side suite baloney) is that the starboard side stern thruster is also being used.
The Celebrity APEX has already completed it’s 180 degree turn and is headed out to sea as our ship completes its turn to do the same.
FRIDAY 10 March – At Sea
We sailed all evening on the 9th, all day on the 10th, and into the early morning of the 11th. We had our last dinner meal aboard in the Haven restaurant on the 10th. After dinner, we gave gratuities to the key crew who had made our trip extra special, namely: Isidro (our Butler), Harold (our Stateroom Attendant), Patrick (the head Haven concierge), and Melody (the Assistant Concierge in charge of the Haven restaurant). These gratuities were in addition to the ones that all guests pre-pay and are (presumably) divided up (in some equitable way) between the entire crew (except for the butlers and the Haven concierges, as we understood it). These four people, however, had made our time onboard memorable in the best possible way.
Over the course of the day, I developed an irritated throat that got worse with time and eventually moved to my sinuses. Not the way I wanted to end the cruise, but there wasn’t anything I could do about it except for symptomatic treatments, until we got ashore in Miami, Florida and back to Paul and Nancy’s place at MOSN in Polk City, Florida.
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