2015 Nov. 8-15 Western Caribbean Cruise on the Eurodam: Key West; Grand Cayman; Jamaica; HMC

When we "temporarily" moved to South Florida (as my husband likes to put it), I figured this might be a good time to try and get some good deals on last minute cruises.  Don't know how good of a deal we really ended up getting, but I managed to keep from accepting the up sell offer to a suite.  I had already upgraded us for $100@ to a balcony from the $499 OV room I had originally booked.  The first up sell offer arrived about 3 weeks before our trip and was $499 for a signature suite and $699 for a Neptune suite.  About a week later I got another up sell offer for the same super high price.  When we finally got our Verandah guarantee room assignment, I noticed we were in a less desirable room near the front of the ship with metal half walls on the veranda and no tub.  I called and requested a different room.
About 4 days before our cruise, we got an email with a new cabin number---mid ship, tub, and with a super deep veranda with Plexiglas walls and even 2 lounge chairs on the deck as well as the 2 other chairs, ottoman, and little side table.   About a day or 2 before the cruise, I called again because I noticed a couple suites opened up and I wanted to see if I could get an up sell for really cheap, like we did a couple years ago.  This time they quoted me $250 for a signature suite and $350 for the Neptune.  I was tempted, but also curious about the VA room we were reassigned.   Apparently there are 4 of these rooms---1 on either side of the lifeboats, so they're a little deeper then the boats are wide (about 14').  I read a lot of mixed reviews about those rooms.  Some people liked the extra space, others didn't because most of the veranda wasn't covered and, therefore, didn't have privacy.   I wonder if that's how we ended up with it.   I don't know for sure, just that there were no veranda rooms showing available for the last week or so before the cruise.
I'd say the actual covered area of our veranda was about what the regular verandas have.  We were on the sunrise side of the ship most of the time, so only got to watch sunset from our veranda 2 nights.  But I did spend a lot of time out there enjoying just gazing at the water.

This was my 2nd time on a Western Caribbean cruise.  Our ports were Key West, Grand Cayman, Jamaica (Falmouth), and HAL's private island in the Bahamas---Half Moon Cay.  

 2015-11-8 Embarkation day!

2015-11-9 Key West:

2015-11-10 Sea Day

2015-11-11 Grand Cayman:

2015-11-12 Falmouth, Jamaica:

2015-11-13 another sea day:

2015-11-14 Half Moon Cay:

2015-11-15 disembarkation day:

This was my 16th cruise.  Considering how my 1st one was, being evacuated back to Ft. Lauderdale with my Dad, I'm happy to say they've all been great since then.  

2015-11-11 Grand Cayman:

 Wed. was Grand Cayman day!  Every since I went here with the kids for a land based trip back in 2001, I've been anxious to go back.  The snorkeling was great and I knew there was a great place to snorkel right by where the ships tender into.  I finally got back to Grand Cayman last Dec. on our girls' cruise, but we were unable to tender into Georgetown due to rough seas, so our plans for snorkeling there were foiled.  But not today!  It was a great day!!!
Walking from the tender dock to Paradise cafe (Marine Park).

 Our ship was the one you can barely see the nose of behind the one on the left.

2014-12-10 Grand Cayman:


I really looked forward to going here again.  Angie, my son Tim and his wife (then girlfriend) Faith and I spent a week here back in 2001 and had a great time.  Possibly the best snorkeling I'd ever done.  We had done the stingray adventure, turtle farm, and Hell back then.  We also had snorkeled by a dive shop right in Georgetown.  So planning our day here was easy---Angie and I were going to snorkel and Jane and Carolyn were going to shop right around the port.  Unfortunately, for some reason we couldn't tender there, so we went to another side of the island and tendered in.  I did find it interesting that the Disney ship did tender into Georgetown.  Anyway---there wasn't much where we tendered, so we decided to take a bus to 7 Mile Beach.  Carolyn elected to stay on board the ship.  Such a shame with such a neat island.  The bus ride was $7@ (about $1/mile).   They made sure the bus was totally packed---including middle jump seats!
Where we tendered into.  

Jam packed bus! Note the happy people in the jump seats.

Lots of banks.

the Public Park at 7 Mile Beach.

 Snorkeling there wasn't good at all.

the typical beach floor.

The surf was a little high, too.

Plus the land area got VERY crowded very quickly.  

So after about an hour, we took a selfie and headed back to the bus.

 Jane posing with her new pirate friend.

driving through Georgetown---all the necessities of life.

 typical downtown.

 Margaritaville

David Yurman!

 government building

 scenery away from town.

We noticed some people were snorkeling by the tender area.  So Angie and I decided to give it a try.  Not bad!

 huge needle fish

 fair amount of fish and the water was really calm and clear --- unlike at 7 mile.

no beach, though.

 could have swam back to the ship.

but we didn't.

 another surgeonfish

some nice coral

Flamingo Tongue Snail on a fan coral.

more coral 

 ring tail surgeonfish and a hogfish.

 looking at the area we snorkeled from the tender boat.

 the incredibly clear beautiful water.

Back to our ship.

back on board, we got ready for dinner and headed to the restaurant.  We had to wait a little while for Andrews team, but that just gave us more time to listen to the two-tones, again, in the Atrium.   

 After dinner we headed to the main theatre and participated in the Game Show Wee Jimmie was directing.  Here's Carolyn incorrectly answering how many checkers on each side of a checker board.

Here's Angie correctly answering the name of Calvin's stuffed tiger---Hobs.

That made her the captain of her team.

 Angie's team.  They didn't win, but they did each get a cute little portable Yahtzee game.

 Later it was time for more refreshments.

 Not what I had planned for today, but it still turned out great.  And I got to see some of Grand Cayman that the kids and I didn't see on our land trip.