3rd day on the cruise, visiting Grand Cayman Islands

On Monday, October 17th, the 3rd day on our cruise, we stopped at Grand Cayman Islands.  Ironically there wasn't an excursion for us to do w/ Hudson through Disney (since he's under 3), so we booked an external excursion instead.  We had to take a tender boat from our ship to the island.  Our excursion was at 9am, so we made sure to be one of the first in line to get off the ship, as we didn't want to miss it.  Thankfully it all worked out according to plan, we got clearance from the island, and were able to get off on time.

On the tender boat, riding over to the island.  Joann wasn't feeling the best, so she stayed back on the ship instead of going w/ us.  We missed her.

We found our excursion group right at the port, then got on a bus to take us to the boat.  We booked a 3 part excursion called "Starfish and Stingray City Adventure with Snorkeling."  The 3 parts were to snorkel over the Coral Garden's reefs, then go to Stingray City, then Starfish Beach.

Taking the tender boat over to Grand Cayman.

On the bus, waiting our adventure.

Then on another boat going to the Coral Reef.  Steve w/ Hudson and Nyles ready to snorkel. Amazingly the water was REALLY warm.  We saw lots of stingrays and tropical fish.  It was awesome!

Then over to Stingray City.  The water was waist deep, which was great for the kids.  

Nyles took a turn feeding a stingray, as did Diane.

Taking some pics w/ the stingrays.

The guides then allowed us to get closer to the stingrays and the stingray gave us a quick massage :)

We even got to kiss them!  They feel pretty interesting.

Lastly we went over to Starfish Beach.  

The starfish were all over the shorelines so we could pick them up.  It was awesome!

Cool starfish.

I've never held a starfish, let alone in it's natural habitat, so I really enjoyed it.  Funny there were more chickens/roosters on the shore by the beach we were at.

Back on the boat, they had soda and drinks.  Hudson had to try an orange soda, and of course he really liked it!  Shortly later, he crashed, as it was naptime ;)

Getting a picture in front of our boat.

Some pics of our boat, the Disney Dream.

A cool mural in Cabanas.  Getting some ice cream after lunch after our excursion.  Hudson back in the stateroom.  He liked to pick up the phone and pretend to call people.  We had to unplug it so he didn't call the front desk :)

Hudson saying Halloween and hello on the phone.

That night was Halloween night.  We all dressed up for it.  Carter was a Bokagon character, Nyles was an Army man, and Hudson was an Incredible.  They had a Trick-or-Treat activity throughout Cabanas.  They gave everyone a bag of candy and REALLY filled it up w/ candy.  It was awesome!

Our Halloween Costumes.

Yummy dessert.  Steve, Joann, Dave and Diane at dinner.  Hudson eating his rice and steak.  

Nyles was camouflaged in a wall going to dinner.

Hudson climbing in and out of his crib.

Cool pic from our verandah at night.  Our towel animals that night.

It was an awesome day at Grand Cayman, and fun day back on the ship.  Steve and I actually went to Grand Cayman on our honeymoon and we did snorkeling near Stingrays.  I should really say Steve did snorkeling while I watched, as I was too scared to move.  I had never snorkeled before, let alone in the HUGE OCEAN, and wasn't sure what to do.  Plus due to fright, and I'm not the best swimming, I thought I was sinking, so I asked for a life preserver.  I wanted to go back there again to redeem myself and also actually see the fish and stingrays in the wild while snorkeling.  I'm glad we went back and this time I was actually able to snorkel.  It was so incredible!  I loved it!!  

This was our snorkeling adventure on our Honeymoon.  Love my flotation device?  The guides were great and tried to get the Stingrays over to us.  Thankfully Steve still enjoyed it though I was scared.