November Cruise – Day 4

Off the shuttle with two Carnival ships and our ship in the distance

I forgot to tell you about losing power yesterday. We were about 20 minutes from Jamaica and could still see the island when all power went out on the ship – including the engines!! After about a minute, the emergency lighting came on and at least we could see a little. We were on a floor where a number of repair staff came running through and we first thought it was just in the area we were in. It wasn’t until we went out on the deck did we find that it was the entire ship that was out – just a little disconcerting to say the least because we also didn’t know what was going on. The ship was literlly dead in the water.

Barb with a new pet!!

We walked up 6 flights of stairs to our room and then the Cruise Director came on the speaker system to assure everyone that they were fixing the problem and in about 20 the power came on and it gave everyone at dinner something to talk about.

Back to today. As we were up late last night we slept in and got up at 8am. This relaxing is really hard and is causing a severe lack of sleep. Oh well, we will be back to a normal life soon.

Anyway, went we got up, we were anchored outside the town of George Town on the island of Grand Cayman. George Town is the capital and it is famous for its tax haven and has hundreds of banks.

There are also lots and lots of shops as it is a very popular tourist destination.

Even though this is a major cruise ship stop, there are no cruise ship piers on the island so we had to use the ship’s tenders to go from the ship to shore. That’s fun but it is not very convenient to wait for a boat to pick up before you can go ashore.


Watch the teeth

After the boat trip to shore, we walked around looking at shops; however, we didn’t buy anything except a magnet and a Christmas ornament.

Then we walked a couple of blocks to the city bus station and for $2.50 a person, took a city bus straight up the coast to the Turtle Farm. The farm actually breeds turtles in captivity and releases them into the ocean when they are the right age. We saw literally hundreds of turtles, including a number of mature one who had their own beach to lay eggs in the sand. They were all in different size tanks depending on their age. The neat thing is that you could reach right into the tank and pet them or pick them up if you wanted to – that is all but the giant ones





That's our ship

We then walked up a little ways from the Turtle Farm to the Tortuga Rum Cake Bakery and Shop where we sampled the famous Tortuga Rum cake – it is really good.

Then it was back on the local bus for the ride back to the city center and to the pier where we caught the tender back to the ship.

It was now 1:30pm so we ate lunch at the poolside café and stayed out in the sun until 4:00pm and then went to the room to clean up for the rest of the day.


We left the room at 6:30pm to see the show in the lounge. The act tonight was a comedian named Jim McDonald who put on one of the best comedy acts we have ever seen – he was really, really funny.

After the show it was time to look at pictures that the staff had taken of us the night before and purchase the best one.

Dinner was in the regular dining room with the 6 or us. I forgot to mention that the two from Cuba moved to a different table to be with people who spoke Spanish. We are enjoying the company at dinner as we all have the casino in common.

Read for the evening

After dinner we all went to the casino and once again took over a $25 minimum table and played blackjack. We had a very good night in the casino and had a lot of fun with our table. Once again we had a table all to ourselves which is great because everyone knows how to play.

After a run, we left early at 12:30am.

Tomorrow is a day at sea and our last day of the cruise. It has been short but fun.