Little Cayman Beach Resort
June 24 - July 1, 2006
It’s 4:30am and we’re making our way to the hotel shuttle to go to the airport for our 6:50am flight. We figure if we’re there by 5:30am, we’ll be good to go. But, you never know if there will be lines of people already waiting, so better early than late. This will prove to be a trip saving tip.
I am wheeling my luggage outside and I hear "Hi, I’m Mark, let me get the door for you!" It’s early. I’m thinking... "Mark.... is he with our group?" He must have read my mind because he said, "I’m DANA’S Mark!" Ah yes, the groom! This was Mark’s first trip with the Eels, as was his son Ty’s first trip as well. Dana and Mark would be getting married on the beach in Little Cayman! I already liked Mark cuz he was willing to help without being asked. Dana did good!
Next came Rod, Bernadette and Neil. Of course, although I had requested by e-mail, by phone, and in person, an accessible van, they sent one that was broken. So, they lifted Neil into the van and all of us headed off to the airport. As we were on our way, the cell phone rang and it was Kiran and Joe. They were looking for a parking place at the airport.
Our shuttle arrived at the airport and we unloaded our stuff and made our way to the check in line. There were a few people already in line, but there wasn’t a clerk at the American Airlines counter. So, we stood and waited. It was about 5:20am before a clerk showed up and checked Dana, Mark, Ty, Rod, Bernadette, Neil, Sherrie, Sophia and me in. About 5:50am I got a call from Patti and Teri saying they were just leaving the hotel. Apparently right before that, Patsy, Shelli and Robin took the shuttle to the hotel and since the shuttle was still not accessible, Patti decided to wait for an accessible shuttle, which supposedly was on the way. We realized we hadn’t heard from Kiran and Joe. We tried to call them, but just got voice mail.
We made our way to the gate to find Don, Robyn, Donna, Uncle Tommy and Corin. It was close to 6:30 by now, and they started to board Don and Neil. I realized we only had 17 of the 25 people that was scheduled to be on this flight. We’re missing: Patti, Teri, Kiran, Joe, Chad, Sonja, Judith and Clare. Where is the rest of our group?????? Since we talked to Kiran and Joe almost 90 minutes ago, and they were parking, where could THEY be? We all boarded the plane and headed for Miami. Once we arrived, we found out that everyone was in line, but they cut the line off. I still don’t know what all happened, but let’s just say that those of us who got up early and made it to the airport, EARLY, in line, at the ticket counter, made it on the plane without any problem.
Once we arrived in Grand Cayman, we soon discovered they had cancelled our reservations to Little Cayman. WRONG. We finally got that straightened out. Why do things have to be so complicated? Do people just TRY to screw things up? After almost 2 hours of dealing with that, most of us were on our way to Little Cayman. To make a long story short, it was another day before the rest of our group arrived. 2 days before the remainder of the luggage arrived. People were not happy! We were wearing each other’s clothes and making the best out of a crazy situation.
Some people were borrowing dive gear so they could at least dive while they waited for their gear to arrive. When you’re used to seeing people in certain gear, it just doesn’t look right when they’re in different wetsuits and BCs. But nobody complained, or if they did, nobody complained loud enough to matter! All we cared about was getting wet!
The highlight of the trip was the wedding of Mark & Dana! What a great time we all had! They were married on the sandy shores of Little Cayman, but not before having to go to Cayman Brac to obtain a marriage license. The owner of the resort’s son passed away right before we arrived, and they wanted the preacher to do the funeral, so that pushed the wedding up a day, which was fine, because we sure didn’t want Dana and Mark living in sin any longer than necessary! Dana was a beautiful bride, and Mark was the handsome groom! Ty, Mark’s son, looked dashing as well!
This was Ty & Mark’s first dive trip with the Eels, and they absolutely came through like champs! Both of them loved diving, and they looked great in the water. We had several other newbies on this trip: Chad’s family! Uncle Tommy brought his son, David; David’s wife, Kristy; Tommy’s daughter, Brandi; and Tommy’s granddaughter, Korin.
We dived the Bloody Bay Wall quite a bit. As usual, we did 2 dives in the morning, came back for lunch, then did another dive in the afternoon. Then we’d hang at the pool before cleaning up for dinner. All of our meals were at the resort, so we didn’t have far to go for food!!!
As usual, the week was over way too soon, and we all headed back to the airport for our staggered flights to Grand Cayman. I wanted to be on the first shift so I could do some Grand Cayman shopping. I think Don called ahead to make sure there would be no attendant at the American Airlines counter, because once we got to Grand Cayman, we had to wait 2 hours before an attendant showed up. That blew our shopping window. Ohhhh well, there’s always next year!
Moral of this trip: Be in line at the ticket counter at the airport at least 2 hours early, because you never know what rules will change!