We weren't getting into Grand Cayman until late morning. I was doing some stitching on my quilt on Deck 6 and who should walk by but Gary Lovini. We both happened to look at each other at the same time. He said "hi" and, of course, I took that as a sign that I should talk to him. I told him we enjoyed his music last night just as much as we did last year. He asked where we'd seen him and I told him. I also showed him my play list on my cell phone since I had bought two of his CD's. He was quite pleased about that. He asked if I had gotten a picture the night before but I told him I'd forgotten my cell phone and he asked if I wanted to take a picture right then. Well, duh! So, here we are!
Anyway, this is the day I've been waiting for the entire cruise! The reason I really only booked this cruise in the first place! To come to Grand Cayman so I could go to Tortuga and get their rum! It's the only place in the world you can get it. Grand Cayman is still as beautiful as I remembered it! Beautiful blue water, white sand 7 mile beach! We spent 2 weeks on vacation on Grand Cayman in 2007 and did everything there was to see and do so we really didn't need to do anything else - except buy rum!
Of course I'm 12ing my Seattle Seahawks!
We were the 5th ship in port today (3 Royal ships, 1 NCL ship, 1 Carnival ship; the Royal ships alone counted for 10,200 passengers; we figured the other 2 ships held at least 7500 passengers so Grand Cayman was very crowded).
Carnival ship; 2 Royal ships
NCL ship (with some behemoth thing on top in front)
We were anchored by about 10:45. Instead of using the lifeboats (as Royal Caribbean has done in the past at tender ports, especially Grand Cayman), they used a tender service in Grand Cayman. Those tenders held 340 passengers so tendering went very fast. We didn't bother getting in line to get tender tickets since we didn't have anything planned except to get off the ship and go buy rum!
We walked into the first Tortuga store we came to (it was too crowded) and walked right back out. There was a security guard outside the door. I asked him where the next Tortuga store was. He looked at me like I had rocks in my head and then looked at the store we just walked out of. I told him it was too crowded. He said the next store was at the end of the block. Well, duh, why wouldn't I walk one block to a less crowded store? There were only 4 people in that one. I had my 4 bottles of 140 proof Tortuga rum (duty free for 2 bottles each and each bottle is actually a liter not a fifth) bought and we were done and out the door in less than 5 minutes. The store packages it up and delivers it directly to the ship for you. Then I picked it up the morning we docked back in Tampa Bay.
I bought 4 bottles of rum but since we were visiting some friends after the cruise, I left one bottle with them as a thank you gift for having us as guests for a couple of days! Plus I showed them my favorite drink with this wonderful rum - Nellie's Punch! I got the recipe when we were on a Royal cruise back in 1995 and we stopped at their private island on the other end of Haiti. One of the areas was Nellie's Village so the ship's crew served Nellie's Punch. It's best made with this rum, but in a pinch Bacardi 150 proof rum will work. I use a 2 ounce shot glass as my measurer. Here's the recipe:
2 shots each of pineapple juice, orange juice, cream of coconut (found in the mixer aisle at the grocery store), rum (FYI, it has to be 150 rum, regular 80 proof doesn't have the right taste at all). Blend with ice to make a blender full. YUMMY!
After buying the rum, we wandered around a little but there were just too many people we decided we'd had enough and went back to the ship. We spent the rest of the day in the Solarium enjoying the empty pool and reading. We also took advantage of our Diamond status for free drinks again. We really weren't sure we'd take advantage of that particular perk but apparently we did!
We had one final towel animal! He wasn't hanging like the others so he had to hang out on the table!
My 3 bottles ATFER we got home. Since you can't carry more than 3 ounces on the airplane I had to check these. I wrapped and taped each bottle with cardboard. I wrapped and taped each bottle with bubble wrap. I put each bottle in a 2 gallon heavy duty zip lock bag. Finally I put each bottle in a big e-bag in between the clothes and prayed they wouldn't get broken in our checked luggage. We have soft-side luggage and with the way luggage gets thrown around in the airports you just never know! I put two bottles in my suitcase and Jim had one bottle in his.
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