MITSUGIRLYS JEWEL OF A CRUISE review and pictorial

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

I was getting super worried about Sakari out in the ocean and the waves even though she was sticking right there at the boat and with the guide, she was also hanging onto the rope as well, but I was just worried. I made her get up on the boat with daddy to sit for awhile. She was not happy with me. She would sit as far on the edge of the boat that she could while trying to dip her toes in the water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I seriously hate that this picture turned out so bad. There were fish everywhere with the stingray in the middle and would have made for a great picture had it focuses.

 

 

 

Maybe the sun went behind a cloud at the time that I snapped the picture or something...I'm not sure what was going on this time.

 

So that was our snorkeling adventure. It lasted maybe a little over an hour. They didn't leave until we were ready to leave. It did seem like a lot longer than that though. It was a great experience and we were so happy we actually got to swim with a few rays and hold one even though the sandbar was closed....we still got our stingray swim!!! :D

[mitsugirly]

It was time to head to Rum Point. I had been looking forward to this because we didn't get to go there last time with the other company. I had seen pictures of the place that others had posted on here and it looked like a neat place to hang out at.

 

They started passing out menu's for everyone to order from. They took your order and called it into the restaurant at Rum Point and the food would be ready when we arrived.

 

 

 

I ordered the jerk pork sandwich. The guide said they were pretty big sandwiches. The hubby ordered chicken fingers and Sakari order a cheeseburger.

 

We pulled away from the reef...

 

 

Before you knew it, we were at Rum Point

 

 

 

 

 

When we arrived, there was another boat sitting at the dock. We kinda stopped for a moment and the other boat driver looked at us, put his boat in reverse and backed up to give us room. Our guide took one look at him and gave him the hand/arm swoope get outta here motion and the other boat put it in gear and left. I'm not sure what type of set up they have here or if Rum Point is owned by Nativeways or what agreed they may have. I know that people can go to Rum Point other ways than just using Nativeways...so I'm not sure what that was all about. ???

 

We docked and I did see a Private Dock sign, but this was the only picture I got and I wasn't close enough to see what it said.

 

 

Walking down the beautiful dock.

 

[mitsugirly]

I was walking and snapping as I always do.

 

 

Sakari insisted on me taking a picture of the iguana with her on it. I wanted one also without her, but it didn't happen.

 

 

 

 

 

They have nets over the tables to help block the sun. Great idea.

 

 

Beautiful to stare at while eating

 

[mitsugirly]

You know me...I had to go off exploring (yes, everyone else was sitting down to eat).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This hammock guy must have thought I was stalking him

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

Do you see this tricycle? Gosh I remember riding those in the Caribbean back in the 80's at NCL's private island, Great Stirrup Cay. It was about the only thing to do back then. I don't think I have seen one of those since back then.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

Now I had seen someone else post pictures of a coconut on the table here, but I didn't get it. I mean I liked the picture, but thought they had put the coconut on there just to take a picture. Then when I got here, I noticed that coconuts were on every table. I did not realize until NOW after looking at the picture that the menu is attached to it! HAHA I'm a little slow at times, but who would have thought to look under the table?

 

 

 

 

 

I finally made it back to the table and of course our food was already there.

 

 

 

 

 

Now I have to say this isn't the sandwich I expected. It was like a full piece of pork chop or something put on bread. It had a lot of fat in it. I'm not a big meat eater to begin with and anything with fat will make me vomit. I don't like steak for this reason or anything that is too chewy. I tried a few bites of this and just couldn't stomach it. So I ate the fries and the bread. The guide ask me if everything was ok and I just told him I didn't like it because it was too fatty for me. It also supposed to have some type of mayo sauce, but this sauce was hot and I don't like hot sauces or anything spicy.

 

Since everyone was done eating, it was time for a little bit of swimming before it was time to leave. We knew our time was limited here to begin with and I at least wanted to get in the water.

 

[mitsugirly]

Now getting into the water was a bit of a challenge. There were shells and rocks everywhere that kinda hurt your feet. But when challenged, we (Sakari and I) are up for the challenge and will win every time.

 

 

 

 

She learn to do her first handstand in the water here. She was so excited.

 

Here is our MUST Christmas Santa hat pose for this place.

 

 

 

 

 

There were some darker areas in the water and I needed to swim to them to see what they were. It was nothing but a little grass and not much of it, so no fish to be found here. Darn. But it was ok.

 

I NEED MY SUNGLASSES RIGHT NOW!!! HERE'S MR MITSUGIRLY. I'm thoroughly convinced that boy needed a little more time in the sun!!!

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

 

I got out and started wondering around again taking more pictures. Even though I was on vacation, I knew I was also still at work for my fine people of cruise critic who expected me to come back with pictures of a lifetime. So off to work I went before it was time to leave.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

This is a shot that I was trying to show that the ships are off in a distance. I did not realize that you could see the ships from this place and I had never seen anyone mention it before.

 

 

 

 

 

Before we left, the guide came up to me and ask me if I wanted a sandwich to go since I didn't like mine. I told him it was ok and he insisted on me picking something else. I ordered a chicken wrap and he brought it to me before heading back to the boat. How nice that was of him to do.

 

 

So it was time to leave and getting Sakari out of the water was a challenge...as it always is. We threatened, we walked away, we went after her. It.was.terrible....double....period..... She is the worse. We told her that our boat was leaving and she was going to get left behind. She didn't care.

 

She pouted all the way down the dock and stayed way behind us and any time I turned around to check on her, she would moved to the side so I couldn't see her. It really scared me because the dock did not have any handrails on it. She was being very difficult and by the end of the dock she was having a temper tantrum and truth be known, I was too at this behavior. It gets old after awhile. It happens at every beach or pool. I tried grabbing her because she refused it get in the boat and she pulled from me several times and I ended up scratching her and then she was not only pissed but pouting and crying. Oh just great. I tried to explain to her that we were going to see more stingrays and I should know better by now that she has caught on to my bribery attempts as a way to get her to leave.

 

After struggling for awhile and finally getting her on the boat, we were off.

 

Off to the sandbar to "see" if it would be ok to visit with the rays. The guide said that he would go there and check out the water situation and test it out first to see if it was safe enough. If it was, we could possibly spend some time there. If not, we would head back early.

 

 

This is what we got out of Sakari the rest of the ride over to the sandbar

 

 

 

Chris (the guide) tried to console her. He was so great. But she is stubborn and didn't give in but hugged him after awhile.

 

[mitsugirly]

Well I was going to continue with our adventures once we arrived at the sandbar, but I just discovered that I didn't download all of my pictures onto the web yet. So I'm going to have to stop for the night and leave you all in suspense with a crabby child pouting on the boat.

 

I will be back in tomorrow to finish our Grand Cayman day.

 

Hope you all are still enjoying the pictures.

 

Have a good night. :)

[Chelleum]

Great detailed review and I'm enjoying your pics. Sakari has gotten so big, I read your other reviews and I enjoy them all.

 

My friend's first cruise was on NCL Star in September, and she said she do not know how she was invited to the Captain's dinner and sat at the table with the officers. She also said she received other perks and do not know how she had gotten them. I have to tell her about your review she wants to do this itinerary next year.

 

The resort in Jamaica was beautiful loved that pool area.

 

Sent from my GT-P5113 using Forums mobile app

Edited December 30, 2013 by Chelleum

[Laszlo]

Excellent review and photo's. What kind of camera did you use for your underwater shots? Hard to believe you have a 27 year old

[NayRN]

Well I was going to continue with our adventures once we arrived at the sandbar, but I just discovered that I didn't download all of my pictures onto the web yet. So I'm going to have to stop for the night and leave you all in suspense with a crabby child pouting on the boat.

 

I will be back in tomorrow to finish our Grand Cayman day.

 

Hope you all are still enjoying the pictures.

 

Have a good night. :)

 

I've honestly never had any desire to visit here.....now you're killing me!!!:eek:

I'll be waiting.....impatiently!!;)

[bacardi1224]

Loving this review! Quick camera question. I read a few of your reviews and see you use the Olympus tough over the cannon d10 now. Any reason or just switching it up? May want to splurge on a real underwater camera for my upcoming cruise vs the dicapac I use now over my regular p&s. I don't *think* I'll ever stop lugging around my DSLR for most things, but I would love to have another option, especially for certain excursions.

[Barb Nahoumi]

Thank you so much for sharing your pictures.

[mitsugirly]

Great detailed review and I'm enjoying your pics. Sakari has gotten so big, I read your other reviews and I enjoy them all.

 

My friend's first cruise was on NCL Star in September, and she said she do not know how she was invited to the Captain's dinner and sat at the table with the officers. She also said she received other perks and do not know how she had gotten them. I have to tell her about your review she wants to do this itinerary next year.

 

The resort in Jamaica was beautiful loved that pool area.

 

Sent from my GT-P5113 using Forums mobile app

 

Thanks. The Hilton Rose Hall in Jamaica is very pretty. I just wish we had more time there. That was the only drawback. It would be an awesome place to vacation at.

 

Excellent review and photo's. What kind of camera did you use for your underwater shots? Hard to believe you have a 27 year old

 

I used a Olympus Tough point and shoot camera for about 90% of all my pictures. I also have a Canon D10 for back up when the battery dies on the Olympus. :)

 

 

I've honestly never had any desire to visit here.....now you're killing me!!!:eek:

I'll be waiting.....impatiently!!;)

Oh my gosh, Grand Cayman is a beautiful place to go. We love it here and hope to return. The guide was telling us how there's a "rick" American that came here and loved it so much that he offered a lot of $$ to the Island (he purchased half the land there) and gave up his US citizenship just to spend the rest of his life there. The place is just gorgeous. Wait until you see the houses there on our trip back to the boat dock.

 

Loving this review! Quick camera question. I read a few of your reviews and see you use the Olympus tough over the cannon d10 now. Any reason or just switching it up? May want to splurge on a real underwater camera for my upcoming cruise vs the dicapac I use now over my regular p&s. I don't *think* I'll ever stop lugging around my DSLR for most things, but I would love to have another option, especially for certain excursions.

 

The Olympus just has more neat settings on it than the Canon does. It's also thinner and compact. You can also just hit a button on the camera for video versus the Canon you have to go into the settings to change it to video and then back to the settings to change it back to camera. I also think it takes better quality pictures. You can tell the difference when I switch cameras. The Canon is just not as vivid and clear like the Olympus. Now I do have to say that I loved my Canon so much when I bought it and was very pleased with the pictures so much that I purchased a second Canon D10. Shortly after (about 2 years of having the 1st one), it stopped working. The one I still have seems like the quality has declined. I really don't think it takes the pictures it use to. Maybe they only have a 2 year life span??? :confused:

 

 

Thank you so much for sharing your pictures.

 

You are very welcome.

[mitsugirly]

Here we are pulling up the sandbar. There were only 2 other boats there and they were in the water with the stingrays. This could turn out to be an even better day. We might just get to swim with the rays.

 

 

The guide jumped in and told us to come on. WOO HOO. We were swimming with the rays after all.

 

Immediately after we anchored, you could see the rays coming in and headed for our boat. They know when you pull in and they know food has arrived. It was amazing to see all of them coming in from every direction.

 

 

 

Even the birds knew we were there LOL

 

 

 

We all jumped in and they were everywhere. They are so huge and so beautiful and graceful.

 

 

 

This little guy hung out with all day too. He was really big.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

Sakari couldn't wait to get in with the rays.

 

 

 

The rays are very friendly and come right up to you.

 

 

 

Sakari's frown turned upside down really fast that day. No more pouting

 

 

 

 

 

 

They spent a lot of time catering to Sakari (as you probably are all well aware that she gets catered too a lot by being the baby of the family and this was no exception). She insisted on wanting to hold the baby stingrays. Well, they were "babies" to her. But in reality, the very huge rays are the females and the small rays are the males. She didn't understand this concept and just decided they were babies...period. Now the males are not as friendly as the females. They do not normally like to be held. But they were bound and determined to make her happy by getting her a "baby" ray....and they did and she squeeled with excitement.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

They say kissing a stingray gives you 7 years of good luck. I think she's pretty much stocked up on her luck at this point over the last 2 years of kissing stingrays.

 

 

 

 

I whip my tail back and forth, I whip my tail back and forth....

 

 

 

 

Well hello there!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

They were so funny. They would come up to you and flap you up your stomach or back when they went by to let you know they were there. They were not shy at all.

 

 

 

Hey, you got any food???

 

 

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

 

 

Yep, big guy is still hanging out.

 

 

 

Now this was hiarious. They would lift the ray out of the water and they would spit at you.

 

 

 

I caught it on video of it spitting at Sakari and my husband on the boat (he had no idea what was coming) and then I got them to turn around and do it for my video.

 

 

 

 

I was so busy taking pictures and video that I almost forgot I didn't get to hold one yet. So now it was my turn.

 

 

 

I have no idea what everyone on the boat was looking at, but you notice Sakari is not paying attention to anything but the rays.

 

 

[mickev99]

So are their stingers removed (is that the correct terminology)?

[mitsugirly]

More "me" time with the rays

 

 

 

 

Sakari had to get back in. She couldn't get enough of them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Darn water spots on the camera. I was having such a good time that I forgot to shake it off before taking pictures this time around.

 

 

 

[mitsugirly]

It was an awesome day and Nativeway made it awesome. We spent a lot of time here and this is a must do when in Cayman.

 

As much as we didn't want to leave, it was time to head back.

 

 

The hubby reflecting on the awesome day we had.

 

 

 

It was nothing but smiles after this.

 

 

One super happy kid!

 

 

Now it was time for more Rum Punch to finish out the day.

 

 

 

CHEERS!!!

 

[mitsugirly]

She talked about today (and still is) for the rest of the time and she was just so excited. I had a small little heart to heart (at least what you can with a 5 year old) about how she should listen and I told her we were leaving the beach to have more fun. She said "I'm so excited and I love stingrays". So I think I may have reinstalled her trust in me that mom knows best.

 

 

 

We come along the channel to head back to the boat dock, but we went a different way this time. They took us to show us the VERY nice houses along the channel.

 

 

 

 

 

I thought this was a hotel being built...until they informed me it was someone's house...oh my

 

 

 

 

 

Iguana hiding in the bushes along the way.