Today we arrived at Grand Cayman. The ship had to anchor offshore as Grand Cayman doesn't have any cruise ship docks. Once the all-clear was given we tendered ashore for our private bear-only stingray excursion. We were bused to a dock a few miles away where we boarded a large two-level boat. The boat took us out to the sandbar off the coast on the other side of the island. On our way out there a dolphin swam along side us for part of the way. Once we arrived at the sandbar and after a brief tutorial on interacting with the sting rays we were permitted into the water. There were sting rays everywhere! I could feel them brush my legs, much as a cat would. At one point there were a half dozen sting rays crowding around me and even trying to swim up me; they mistook my camera for food, I think. This was also the first time I was able to use my new underwater camera. After the stingray encounter we motored over to an area where we could snorkel for a while. After that we arrived at a beach area and restaurant where we could get some food and drink. Once we got back to the ship it was pool time!

That night we had premium cocktails in the elegant Adagio bar, and then dinner in Sabatini’s Italian restaurant, one of two specialty restaurants aboard. This restaurant features several appetizer courses, one main course, and one dessert course. Unfortunately a power failure occurred in the kitchen just before our main course, so we ended up skipping directly to dessert. The ship's staff apologized profusely and waved the normal upcharge. A few days later we came back to our cabin to discover a letter of apology and a very nice bottle of wine; the two couples that dined with us also received the same. We drained two of the bottles at dinner the following night.