​We woke up to our room service we ordered last night of continental breakfast consisting of bagels, yogurts, and bananas.

Before leaving the ship for the day, w went to top of ship to see Cayman Islands in distance . The first thing we noticed was the beautiful blue water. It was just after 7:00 at this time so we were rising with the sun. There was a warm summer's breeze in the air.

We had an excursion planned through Carnival, so we went to the theater to wait for our timeslot to be called. There is no port in Grand Cayman so we had to take tender ships from the ship to the island.

Sadly, the tender process did not go as smooth as expected. We waited in the hallway and stairs for what seemed like forever to exit the ship. We were at the Amber Palace (theater) at 7:15am and didn't get to Cayman soil until about 8:30am. We had later learned that the lady managing the tender boats said the excursion people were supposed to get off the ship first, and since we just missed the first ship (since we sat in the wrong spot and weren't near the front of line), we were waiting for the second ship. However, the second ship never came to us because the local tenders went to a different ship instead . Apparently, they switched directions because the other ship was just docking? Bummer, but the process was definitely improved in the future and wasn't totally Carnival's fault.

The island is very sandy which makes for beautiful water. Several hurricanes have rocked the coast in the past several years. They also drive on left hand side. We took a van to a dock where we hopped on a relatively small-sized boat into the sea on the other side of the island as our cruise ship. We took that boat and about 15-20 minutes to the stingray sandbar aka Stingray City. It is so ingrained for these stingrays that when they hear a new motor approach they all swim over as they realize food is coming. Our tour guide said the legend is that stingrays have always come here as a father fed stingray here hundreds of years ago, and the stingrays have been returning ever since.

Interacting with the stingrays was a lot of fun. I would have touched one of them before in Florida at SeaWorld, but experiencing them in the wild was something else . These beautiful creatures are so smooth to touch and behave a little like our cat, Leo. We would notice sometimes that they would come up from behind you and rub against your legs catching you totally off guard. Some would let you touch the tops of their bodies. We were told to walk in the 3-4 feet of water by doing the stingray shuffle, simply sliding your feet against the stand as to not step on one.

Our tour guides would pick up the stingray and pet it in such a way that would relax them; right on the nose. We all got to feed the stingray some seafood, too. As you place the food near its underside where its mouth is, the stingray would literally vacuum in the food. Alicia and I both had him kind of bite our fingers - they don't have any teeth so it didn't hurt but it totally felt weird!

We all got to take pictures with the cooperating stingray. We got to hold her and even kiss her! They say that kissing a stingray is seven years’ good luck . They also loved to get up on your back - they must love the smooth surface against their belly. It felt so cool, slimy but massage like! We enjoyed the pictures very much and had the option to buy them (we did). Pretty much once in a lifetime pictures with these guys! Surprisingly, they actually get to be pretty heavy, averaging about 150 lbs at the sandbar where we were at.

Our guide was saying that when a stingray strikes you with its stinger, it injects it directly into bloodstream. Like a 10/10 pain for 8 hours. The stingray we were holding didn't have a stinger – maybe this one had it removed?

After that, we boated to a different spot to try snorkeling. It was a little more difficult than I thought it would be at first. I was fine at first until a big wave came and sent salt water straight into my mouth. Once I put a life jacket on so I didn't have to worry about staying afloat I really enjoyed it. I started to really get the hang of it, looking in awe at the sea creatures and vegetation below the water . We saw tons of tropical fish. They mentioned there was an eel nearby but we didn't venture over there :). The ways were a little bumpy such that it was really easy to get far away from the ship but semi difficult to swim back. The flippers obviously helped but still wasn't very used to them. They told us to keep your head at a 45-degree angle and not to look straight down as to not get water straight into your mouth. Still, the water was crystal clear and staring at the fish was an incredible experience. While snorkeling, Alicia saw a stingray, we saw an underwater brain, several different schools of fish, a "sea iguana", purple lettuce things flapping in the sea, broken shells, and a ton of rocks / coral. We also saw needlefish.

After about 45 minutes of snorkeling, we took the boat another 15-20 minutes back to the dock. On the way back, our boat stopped and we weren’t really sure why. One of the guides just jumps in the water and glides through like a fish. He came up with a starfish for us to hold and pass around – very cool! I definitely have never seen a starfish in the wild before . He jumped in again and pulled up a second one too; incredible vision. Alicia thought it was pretty neat (and I agree) that she got to put it back in the water, just gently dropping it behind our moving boat.

We next met our family friends Dave and Colleen for lunch at Hard Rock Cafe. We had a prearranged time and location we were meeting at, and it worked out great! It was nice to see them and it was nice to have everything work out well even though our excursion started late.

After saying our goodbyes to Dave and Colleen, we wondered through some shops. The island is very commercialized; not scary at all. We were even outside of the secured zone (everything was). The chickens and roosters running around was pretty funny, though. We found this liquor shop that gave you five minutes free Wi-Fi. Also, waiting in line back to ship had free Wi-Fi. Just before entering back the secured zone, I purchased an authentic coconut water served in an actual coconut from a local . He had a machete and hacked off the top for me and served it to me with a straw. Super delicious on a warm afternoon, especially with the salt water still stinging my mouth!

Back to the ship - struggle fest 2.0. The queueing method wasn't very efficient or fair in the least. We were definitely waiting in line for a long time again and the way their lines and tender process worked was in a way such that we got passed by a ton of people who got there after us who got to start a new line with a brand new tender boat waiting. Bummer – at least we didn’t have any immediate plans or time constraints this time.

After getting back on the ship and waiving the Cayman Islands and their beautiful white sand goodbye, we got some showers in to get rid of all the salt water on our bodies and in our hair. Also, we were super thirsty from the influx of salt water into our mouths (okay maybe it was just me). We downed a few glasses of lemonade.

All this was a bit exhausting so we napped for a bit . We’re on vacation, right? It felt great. Afterwards, we decided to get some ice cream and walk the jogging track for a bit. We were feeling ambitious so we decided to hit up the gym to get our exercise on. We both ran on the elliptical for a half hour and I did some weights afterwards.

Unfortunately, my room key fell out of my smaller-pocketed gym shoes. I had to go to guest services to get a new one made and the old one canceled. Oddly enough, we went to the hot tub that's in the fitness center immediately after. While we were just relaxing in the water, I looked over and saw someone's room key sitting on a table. I got out of the tub just to see whose it was. Of course, it was mine. I think it fell off when doing one of the weight machines as the machine has you leaning forward.

It was getting pretty late and next up was dinner. Alicia had American Navy soup, lamb shank, and coconut lime cake. I had flat bread with mozzarella and shrimp (Viktor’s recommendation), oyster with spinach, parmesan veal, and coconut lime cake as well . 1 of the 2 other couples that were supposed to also be at our table joined us tonight. Yesterday they had reservations at the (overpriced) steakhouse. I mean, why order from there when you have such a fancy multi-course dinner available for free.

It still a little bumpy at dinner but definitely not as bad as last night's dinner. I have truly been looking forward to dinners as it was a time to kind of be fancy and engage in interesting conversation with Jake and Elizabeth. After dinner, we decided on the piano bar. The pianist was good but the piano bar in Madison definitely had more energy. We probably spent a good half hour or so here, and we even requested a song for him to play.

Later, we went to the mega deck party that was on the lido deck at the top of the deck and outside. This was a great excuse to go out on the deck late and watch people embarrass themselves with their dancing moves. We also went to the serenity nights (18+) afterparty with Jake and Elizabeth . Funnily enough, both Elizabeth and I were carded so we had to go back and get our ID's. While at the "afterparty", we hung out some more, enjoyed the stars and moon, and had a few drinks (I had a blue moon with Jake and Alicia had a gin and tonic). We previously had taken shots of fireball with Jake and Elizabeth during the deck party – that’ll warm you up!

After some high-quality outdoor time under the moon, stars, and sea wind, we decided to call it a night and head to bed. I think we earned it: I had an Apple Watch record of 1,077 calories burned and 132 minutes of exercise. 24.5k steps was the count for the day. Big day tomorrow in Isla Roatan, Honduras: scuba diving.

Tonight’s towel animal was a frog.