Our first port on the Carnival Miracle was Grand Cayman. I couldn’t say that I was very excited about this stop. When I picked out our original cruise, I purposely chose an itinerary that did not stop at Grand Cayman. I’ve been on 2 cruises that have stopped here before, and I’ve never been a fan. I’ve wandered the over priced city, and I’ve been to the overrated and overcrowded stingray city. But I was determined to enjoy it this time. After a bunch of research, I finally settled on spending the day at the Seven Mile Beach.
To get to the Seven Mile Beach, you first have to make your way to the island. This isn’t a port were you can step right off the boat, but instead, you have to take a tender. Basically it is just a small boat that goes back and forth between the cruise ship and the dock. From past experience, I knew there would be a huge line right when the tenders started running. So, we had a leisurely breakfast before heading down to the gangway. Zero line! We walked right on to the tender and were immediately whisked away to Grand Cayman.
Once we got to the island, we went in search of a taxi. And they were super easy to find. The drivers will be shouting at everyone leaving the dock area to take their taxi. The taxis are more like mini shuttle vans, so we had to wait a few minutes before they could fill it up with other tourists heading the same direction. And then we were on our way!
Seven Mile Beach is a rather long beach (approximately 6.3 miles), so you’ll need to determine where along the beach you want to spend your day. We decided on Governor’s Beach because it is less touristy, has decent snorkeling just off the shore, and most importantly, it has trees with lots of shade. Plus, being in front of the governor’s house likely meant that it was a pretty decent beach. Of course, since it is a bit more remote, that means it doesn’t have very nice facilities. It had a port-a-potty in the sandy parking lot, and grocery store across the street. Perfect for us, but if you are looking for a beach bar and a flush toilet, then I suggest you go to one of the resorts instead. The lack of facilities is well worth it though. There were a couple of off-duty city workers taking a break under the trees, but we had the entire beach to ourselves.
After a short walk across the parking lot, Nisheet got his first glimpse of what Caribbean beaches are all about. Perfect crystal white sand. Beautiful turquois water. Zero seaweed. And fluffy clouds dotting a blue sunny sky. I couldn’t wait to jump into the water. I threw down the beach bag and splashed in.
In the picture below, you can see the water changes to a deeper blue just a short swim off the beach. That’s where the snorkeling is. It is more of a grassy area rather than coral, but there were tons of beautiful little fish nonetheless. Nisheet spent a good hour experiencing his first snorkel in the Caribbean. He was smiling ear to ear at the sight of little yellow striped fish that kept nibbling on his toes and that just how clear and filtered the water looked.
We spent several hours just taking it all in at this beautiful beach before begrudgingly acknowledging that we must head back to the ship before it departed without us. Heading back to the parking lot, a giant iguana ran right beside me and up a tree. I jumped and shouted “iguana”! Nisheet gave me a crazy look thinking I was overly excited about an iguana statue nearby. LOL
When we were dropped off, our taxi driver informed us that it would be more difficult to take a taxi back to the ship. No one would want to pick up only 2 people and have the rest of the van empty. So, we were in search of a bus. Turns our the bus stop was right across the street, and some locals kindly waved the bus down for us. And the bus is the exact same mini shuttle van that the taxis are but a bit cheaper!
This was a great day, and I must say I’m glad we stopped at Grand Cayman. I guess 3rd time is the charm?
