Day 100(!): Grand Cayman

Sleep was a bit rough last night, at least in the early hours, when we had a momentarily exciting evening after I published my blog post. We were both asleep when we heard a single beep over the PA system at 11:22pm. That woke us up a little, but less than a minute later when Captain Forteeze came on and said there was a fire in the incendiary room (which left me perplexed. Isn't that what incendiary rooms are for?) and called the crew to their emergency stations, we really sat up and took notice. G put on some shorts and peeked out of our cabin door to see cabin steward Awesome Ambrish already standing in the hall, wearing his life vest over his jeans and hooded sweatshirt. I asked G if he thought I should get dressed and put in my contacts and his response was, "I kinda think you should". 

So I did. 

Captain Forteeze kept us well informed every few minutes about what was going on down on the ship's lower decks. The fire response team was dispatched. They reported there was a fire but no smoke. They put out the fire. And at 11:52pm, Captain Fabreeze told the crew to stand down. We waved goodbye and goodnight to Awesome Ambrish, and by the time I took out my contacts, G was already asleep. Oh, to be that lucky! I had been awakened in those critical early minutes of sleep when I don't easily fall back asleep. Instead, I read. And read. And read. 

Of course, I did eventually fall back asleep, but when the alarm went off this morning, I made repeated use of the snooze button. G got up and went to breakfast, but between my need for sleep and the fact that I was still full from last night's fantastic dinner in the Crown Grill, I decided to skip it today. Instead we met up with Suzan and Greg in the International Cafe at 9am and went down to Deck 3 to board a tender for the short ride to the town of George Town on Grand Cayman. 

Sunrise over Grand Cayman as seen on the ship's webcam

The weather was picture perfect. bright sun in a clear blue sky, so we immediately caught a taxi ($5pp) to the area around Calico Jack's beach bar on Grand Cayman's famous Seven Mile Beach. The beach is not wide, and it's very sloped, but the sand is like powdered sugar and the water was clear and blue. We rented chairs for $5 each and wasted no time getting in the water (82F!!).

Suzan and G floating...and talking

It's a narrow beach, but a nice one

We spent hours alternating between floating, swimming against the strong current, playing in the waves and sitting in our chairs, and after Suzan and Greg left around 2pm to do some shopping in town, I actually fell asleep sitting up in my lounge chair, lulled to sleep by the sound of the waves. 

I fell asleep sitting up in a chair. In public. I guess I was tired.

Around 3pm, G and I packed up and took a taxi (actually, a small bus, packed to the roof) back to the tender pier. While I returned to our cabin and quickly showered, G was a star and went up to the Calypso Pool area to find us seats for tonight's divisional playoff games. Two more seats freed up one deck below us, so the guys sat down there and Suzan and I happily sat and chatted while watching the Chiefs v. Patriots (we were all cheering for the Chiefs, and found the large number of very vocal Patriots fans slightly annoying). 

Meanwhile, we grazed in the Horizon Court Buffet, eating chips and salsa and guacamole followed by ice cream.  And spicy shrimp. And pavlova for dessert (that was a mistake after the spicy shrimp).  Any admirable eating habits go to hell in a hand basket as soon as there's football. (It's the same at home, too.) We also went a long way to clearing out our growing pile of minibar items. In fact, I learned that gin is really wonderful with lemonade on a hot day. Two of them are even better. ;-)

By the time the Cardinals vs. Packers game began, the area around the Calypso Pool had cleared out quite a bit. During both games, the housekeeping and deck departments kept all the dishes, glasses and trash that always accumulates when there are that many people gathered in one spot perfectly picked up. Really, I've never seen it so neat during these games. We were all very impressed (and appreciative). 

The weather remained perfect right to the end of the second game, making it a wonderful night for football. I left after the Green Bay TD, thinking the game was over, but turned on ESPN on our cabin TV for the post-game commentary only to find out that the game went into OT and the Cardinals won. Woohoo!  

And I keep forgetting to mention the quality of the new MUTS screen that was installed during the Emerald Princess' recent dry dock. It's amazing, and provides an excellent picture even in bright sunlight. After dark it's quite impressive.  I was really looking forward to watching the Broncos game on it tomorrow. However, tonight we received the devastating (really, that's the only word for it) news that tomorrow's Broncos game will not be shown on the MUTS screen, but in Club Fusion with its tiny TV screens, and in the Deck 6 conference room with its tiny TV screens (and about 30 chairs) and in the casino with its tiny TV screens (and with smoking), just to have a stupid movie shown twice, once at 7pm and once at 10pm. Seriously????? A stupid, stupid, stupid movie??

:-(