Green Harbor MA Captain’s Log

Our second stop aboard the Carnival Cruise ship Liberty was Grand Cayman Island. We arrived early morning on November 16th, 2005 after a day and night at sea. We saw some rough seas during this leg of the trip. Many people were sea sick. Without getting to graphic lets just say there was plenty of evidence of it around the boat during those conditions. Rough ocean conditions forced the cruise ship to dock on the opposite side of the island. Instead of docking the ship we are now forced to anchor off the coast and tender on and off the vessel. This is a significant change in plans that we would not fully appreciate until later.
We had a pre-arranged day ahead of us that would include a bus tour through Grand Cayman with stops at Hell (basically a town named Hell with a gift shop), the Turtle Farm, and Stingray City. We arranged our day through the cruise ship and as a result we were given tender priority over those who had not planned excursions. We did not realize at the time how important this was. We were off the ship and starting our adventure pretty quickly. If you were not part of the planned excursion priority exit then you were part of the mass ciaos waiting for hours in lines just to get off the boat. Thankfully we were not part of that mess.
I quick trip on the tender and we are standing on Grand Cayman Island. I had been here before and I was instantly struck by the vegetation devastation. The Island was hit hard by hurricane Ivan on September 12, 2004. The wake of destruction it left behind was still clearly visible. They lost almost all the vegetation on the island, many building were completely destroyed or badly damaged, 70 percent of all vehicles were a total loss, and many people lost love ones and everything they owned. They are on the rebound but it will take more than a decade for the vegetation to return.

We arrived in Freeport Harbor aboard the Carnival Cruise Ship Liberty early morning November 14th, 2005. The view from the upper deck of the harbor and surroundings was not impressive. Freeport Harbor’s appearance is basically a shipping port and there was very little around the Harbor for tourists. From the upper decks of the ship you could still see much of the destruction left behind from Hurricane Wilma (October 05). One of the downside to cruising is the short amount of time you get to spend at each port. Wanting to make the most of our visit we disembarked the moment we were cleared.

..I’ll also go into detail about the Carnival Cruise ship accommodations, staff, and management. I’ll give you the pros and cons of cruise ships from our most recent experience traveling as a family with Carnival combined with our past experiences…