Day 5 of the Disney Cruise: Grand Cayman & Sea Explorer

Because we decided we wouldn't be nut-cases (technical term) and snorkel in forecasted 60 degree weather, we decided to book a Disney excursion in Grand Cayman that takes you on a Sea Explorer/Submarine. Sounded like a good compromise.

It involved being tendered to Grand Cayman on a little ferry. And a wait. And then a short walk in Grand Cayman, to a bus. And then a wait to board. And then a wait for the bus to take us to the site of the excursion. And then a wait at the site to board another little ferry. And then a short trip to the actual sort-of submersible little ship.

We pulled up along the little ship, and a practically-a-teenager type person waited and waited until the two ships quit crashing into each other, before tying the two boats together. Then many grinning? happy? scared?. . .sea sick?. . .. people were off-loaded from the little vessel onto our ship, and we were allowed to board the little "Sea Explorer."

I wasn't sure exactly what was suppose to happen, but did ask one couple, as they lurched into a seat as the two boats continued to crash into one another, whether the child-lone-crewperson seemed to know what they were doing. They thought possibly. . . .
And then we prepared to descend. I particularly like to take photographs when I think they might possibly be the last photograph I might ever take in my life. . . . just in case. . . . .

And then, I finally figured out that this little boat actually WASN'T going to descend into the water, but WE just descended a small set of stairs, sat on benches, and looked through glass windows at the ocean around us:

I did really like looking at the schools of fish, and stingrays, and coral. . . and somewhere along the 45 minutes even remembered that my D300s could shoot video (not interesting enough to post.)



This made me wish I really could have gotten skillful at scuba diving. . . . but actually, I really would have just loved to go snorkeling in Mexico or the Grand Caymans, or Castaway Cay. Snorkeling takes me deep enough. . . .

Of course, we then had our return trips of waiting and a boat ride, waiting, and a bus ride, waiting and another boat ride.

All in all, I thought it was way too much "transport" for a very brief excursion. If you ever have a chance to go on a cruise to to the Grand Cayman's, there are much better ways to spend your time than standing or sitting and waiting. The one entertaining feature was a young couple with two little children. . . and the smallest child, about 3 years old, was practically feral!

I kid you not! He bit his mother, breaking the skin. . . . and her method of dealing with this was to try guilt-tripping him by telling him how painful it was "when you came out of me." Dad was just totally out to lunch and no help at all. It was weird. I expected someone to cue the "Jaws" music at any time.