Thursday, 12/1/2011 – Grand Cayman
Happy December?! Well, my white rabbit didn’t work; Mark still had broken leg at ! We ordered room service for breakfast. (We had one issue with the room. The only phone is on the nightstand on the side of the bed closest to the bathroom. Unfortunately, the cord was not long enough to move it someplace else. It was a pain for me to crawl over the bed to get to the phone to use it. Okay, that was my big gripe with the room. I know I really need to stop complaining.)
We were in Georgetown Grand Cayman today. We had no excursions planned as we were going to do some gift shopping at the pier. We had to drop anchor on the south side of the island, due to major swells where we would normally ‘park’. Well, glad we were not getting off the ship! Apparently 2 other ships decided to just skip the stop and didn’t attempt to visit today. We saw one other ship turning away and leaving. Not sure what ship it was. Anyway, there is announcements about the tendering process and a shuttle to the downtown area (where we were supposed to be) and that it was a $5.00 charge per person each way. Now, that’s not a bad price, even unexpectedly – unless there are 6-8 in your group and you needed to take that to get to your scheduled tour. Lucky for us, we did not have that issue at all.
My chores for the day: Going to the excursion desk with the note from the Doctor to cancel our excursion in Cozumel tomorrow – and get a refund for that. Also go to the spa to get Mark’s pass refunded as there was no way for him to use it now. We got our invite to the Silver + Latittudes Party for this evening – probably will pass on that.
Mark said he had an ‘okay night, but could have slept better’, much as expected. We just hung out in the room all morning, keeping his leg elevated as much as possible. It was difficult for him to get up to go to the bathroom, without any crutches or cane or anything to use for support other than the wall. There is a step up into the bathroom, which was exceptionally difficult for him to manage. He did go take a shower, as the hot water on his calf seemed to help his Charlie horse.
By early afternoon, we were both ready to get out of this cabin for a bit. Perhaps having something else to do would get his mind off the pain he was in. So, we called for a wheelchair and driver. We went up to the Great Outdoors for lunch. Our driver (Garvin – who was our favorite and AWESOME!!) left us and said to call for a driver when we wanted to leave. I go to the outdoor buffet area and found empty space. I asked someone where the food was and was told that there was no food until about 3pm. Great. So, in I shelped to the inside buffet to carry plates back out to the Great Outdoors. Then back to get drinks, and then back again to get something for dessert. That’s a lot of Shelpping! LOL It WAS nice to get out of the room, tho! The weather was great and there was a nice breeze during the time we sat out there.
We called for driver – Garvin to the rescue - went to the medical center. Mark could not get rid of the Charlie horse pain. Unfortunately, the Doctor’s hours were tonight, so we obtained the ‘doctors excuse’ for canceling the shore excursion –but, that desk was closed until tonight and headed to the Spa.
Well, the spa manager could not have been nicer! She was awesome! She gave us no hassle to revoke & refund Mark’s spa pass, and mine as well! Even though I told her I had already been and used my pass, she just smiled and said I probably wouldn’t be using it much the rest of the cruise. She was correct; I just didn’t feel right about leaving Mark in the room alone for any length of time. We had a nice chat with her. There was an older couple there, disputing some charge and not being very happy about it. Hmm….we had no problems. Darn, I don’t remember the Spa Mgr’s name – but she said she’d see us tonight at the Silver+ Party.
Not much else we can accomplish at this point, so back to the room. We spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. We figured that we would go to see the Dr. before he closed at 6, then up to the Silver+ Party for a little bit. Then we’d go to dinner at Blue Lagoon and hit the excursion desk. Sounded like a busy evening.
We got back to the cabin and discovered the movie ‘The Help’ was on at I wanted to catch that, as I had not seen the whole thing. Nice that we were able to get out of the room for awhile. We had been feeling ‘stuck’ in there for about 20 hours. Not exactly much of a vacation at this point. Especially when Mark was so uncomfortable. We watched the movie and enjoyed it a lot.
We cleaned up a bit and changed clothes. I called for a driver and we headed back down to see the Doctor. Mark got more meds – and to take 2 of the muscle-relaxers now. He also got a B12 shot, which was supposed to help with muscle pain. He was also given some powdered Gatoraid drink mix and got the flex cast repositioned. Mark asked the Nurse (who was from Ohio
Well, we got Mark fixed up as good as we could. Received a new driver to go to Spinaker for upper level Latitudes Party. Only had to wait about 10 minutes before they opened the doors. Nice thing about wheelchairs and their drivers – they get to go to the head of the line. Officers were lined up to greet us on the way in. “M” (mgr from the SPA ) was there and I stopped and chatted with here for a few minutes. Found Mark was parked right down in front and I went to join him. Our Cruise Consultant, Lucy, welcomed everyone, and that was about it. There was music playing, and staff passing drinks and hors-de-vours. Garvin was passing cheese – and we had the chance to visit with him for a few minutes. Very nice guy – he definitely got a STYLE card!! (as did our room steward and M from the spa) We saw the Bavarian Chef again wandering around and hoped that he would come near us, so I could talk with him. He didn’t. We know we sailed with him before and can’t remember if it was on the Epic or Dawn. Oh well.
We ‘enjoyed’ a drink and a few nibbles, then we were ready to go to Blue Lagoon for dinner. Had yet again a different driver. He was great – NOT! He ran over my toes in the elevator!! Geesh! Then we weren’t down a hallway w/ cleaners carts out all over. We had to back down the hall the way we came to go to a different floor. Brother. Finally we arrived at the Blue Lagoon. Again – the place is EMPTY! So nice that everyone else seemed to think there was something wrong with this place. It was definitely our GEM on the ship! It certainly felt like it was our own private restaurant. More so even than the Epic Club – which was exclusive only to suite guests. This was MUCH better!! I asked our waiter if I could get a side salad (not on the menu) and he replied SURE, anything you want, we can get it for you!” how nice!
The Bavarian Chef was wandering through the restaurant and I called him over. It WAS on the Dawn that we sailed with him before. He joked that he KNEW he knew us from somewhere! – yeah right…after sailing with thousands of other cruisers since then, he remembered US?!? Okay. We had a real nice visit with him. We told him how much we LOVED this Blue Lagoon, and how the one on the Dawn sucked in comparison. Service at the one on the Dawn was the worst service in any place, ever. He’s very personable. He asked our cabin number, and wrote it in his notepad. Wondered what that was all about? Anyway, it was a nice chat.
I so do not understand about all the complaints on Cruise Critic about the staff & crew on the Pearl
We called for driver. While we were waiting, I went down to the excursion desk to cancel our Mexican cooking class in Cozumel . L So sad. The girl at the counter was great! No problem. So sorry you cannot make it, understandable. We had booked & paid for this online pre-cruise…so the refund was just put on our onboard account as a credit. If there was some unused, they would send us a check after the cruise. I laughed at that!
Back to Blue Lagoon to collect my husband and still waiting on driver. We got some pound cake to go to have later in the room. Mark needs something on his stomach to take his meds. Garvin arrived to drive us ‘home’!! We told him how awesome a driver he is! J
I got Mark all settled, and then I headed out to casino for an hour or so. Lost $$, nothing paying, but a nice little break for me. Back to cabin. Mark was just getting ready to crash, so we chatted a bit and then went to bed. It was .
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