Thread: Grand Cayman question

I have been on a few cruises and it seems that every time we are supposed to stop in Grand Cayman, the boat can't let us tender to Grand Cayman because of Weather or high seas (or whatever - WHY ON EARTH WON'T THEY JUST BUILD A DOCK THERE!?!)

Anyway, wondering if anyone can answer what criteria or weather conditions may cause a cruise ship to cancel the shore trip in Cayman?

The weather shows 3-foot seas and then on Wednesday, it shows a small craft advisory. I am wondering if there is such a thing as cruise ship weather expectations out there somewhere on the net (hey - a new idea ?!?)

I would hate to miss Grand Cayman once again....

Thanks for any and all information!

KM

I don't know of any posted weather criteria for cruise ships. It is usualy the wind that makes tendering dangerous. Hopefully, you will have perfect conditions for your call at Georgetown.

They don't build a dock because of the coral reef. The ship doesn't put down an anchor, either...but must hold the ship steady using the engines and thrusters.

We are cruising to Grand Cayman in may. I have talked to one other person who talked about not being able to dock. Hopefully the ship is a fun place to hang out!

I sure hope you are able to get ashore. It's a wonderful island and so much to see and do while there. Good luck

There's a big battle going on about building a pier in Grand Cayman for the big ships so they don't have to tender. The problem, as was related by Char, is that in order to build the pier, they would have to destroy some of the fragile coral reef. Obviously, the environmentalist are against it and the business people are for it. It's the same battle that has been going on in several places around the world; ecology versus economy.

Being an avid scuba diver, I know how fragile and delicate the ecosystem is and how easy it is to destroy it. The reef takes hundreds of years to grow and very little time to kill it. And once it's killed off, it will not grow back. We are loosing miles of coral reef around the world every year and we can't afford to loose more. In fact, there is an organization called REEF that works to conserve these marine ecosystems; Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) | Diving That Counts

So naturally, I'm for saving the reef and those who are inconvenience by not being able to visit Grand Cayman when the seas are rough just need to understand and accept it.

Grand Cayman is a lovely island and I hope you get to visit it. But if you don't, understand that sometimes it's more important to do what's right than to do what's popular.

Pete

I think three of my cruises in the past have not let us tender ashore. I think one morning, as the wind was blowing really hard, I saw land at 6 am and thought "finally, we get to cayman" and then about 30 minutes later, they announced that the weather was preventing us from going ashore. I thought they weren't building a dock because they had some political reason not to do it. Saving the reef is a good reason not to....

thanks!

Thanks kmonkey for asking this question! Feel certain others have wondered the same thing!

Most of us do agree that saving the reef is most important!

Does seem we miss that port stop about half the time!

Worse than missing the port is being tendered over and having having a problem tendering back. This happened to us once. The ship had one heck of a time tending many terrified folks back in extremely rough seas.