Floating bar at Stingray City?!?

[Testudo]

Anyone know when this travesty is scheduled to begin? We're going in March.

My understanding is that the plan is to have the bar in place in January.

 

[Testudo]

Spot on! Excellent post. Cuba is going to steal Cayman's lunch and happily devour it at a hugely discounted rate. The stay over tourist on GC will become a thing of the past very shortly with the current mindset on GC. The cruisers don't stick around, they are all gone by mid to late afternoon. Those pesky stay over tourists stay ALL NIGHT. We absolutely can't have that. I have yet to talk to one cruiser who enjoyed Cayman and would consider coming back for a stay over holiday. They don't like the drink prices, long tender lines coupled with no easy access to the ship, congestion in G'town, over priced excursions, no topography, etc, etc, etc...

These people then go out and become ambassadors for the island and do you think they recommend GC as a vacation destination? Highly unlikely.

The Caymanian business model is based on hitting home runs every time you step up to the plate. Big profit all the time. I would love to be able to do that with my business but competition and reality seem to constantly get in the way. This same thinking affects real estate pricing. Some rube will come off the boat, fall in love with the place and plunk down $$$ for an overpriced condo is the mentality that has persevered for some time now. I looked at a home on the Brac two years ago and passed due to location. That same home is still on the market with a considerably higher price tag. I asked the realtor "what gives?" She said the home came thru Hurricane Paloma with little damage so the owner decided it was worth more, irregardless of the fact that the home had not sold at the lower price. I'm sure people are beating a path to his front door and offer more now that the house has sat on the market for almost three years. Incredible!!

My hope and prayer has always been that the Brac does not go down the same path as GC. If so, my family and I will be forced to move on and that is a decision we do not want to make.

Having recently purchased a property on GC, all I can say is that I think unfortunately it will take things getting much worse in regards to tourism and the destruction of the environment before the Caymanian people (as represented by their elected leaders) get their collective heads on straight and figure out where the $$$ that keeps them afloat really come from.

Maybe Cuba opening up will send Cayman back into the '80's in regards to tourism; with basically divers, beach bums and drug runners as the only regular guests. It will be interesting since the current typical overnight tourist for Cuba doesn't really overlap with the target GC overnight tourist. But markets have a way of developing very quickly to meet an actual or perceived demand. Once the novelty of Cuba wears off maybe then they will have a second chance at getting it right.

In reference to the real estate market, it truly is a wonder that for a capitalist country the elements of supply and demand really do not come into play for real estate. With such an overabundance of supply and little demand prices barely move. Once the tourism dollars evaporate maybe things will change.

 

[Testudo]

Based on all the positive publicity surrounding the floating Sting Ray City Sand BAR; the Cayman Islands Department of Tourism has decided to sponsor a contest for the best floating bar concept, prior to granting final approval for the "permanent" floating bar. Four finalists have been chosen to operate their concepts on a 1 week rotational basis. The concept that brings in the most revenue and receives the highest ratings from surveys of tourists and Caymanians alike will be declared the winner. Below is the upcoming marketing campaign featuring each of the floating bar concepts.

1) Floating Picnic Table

2) Floating Tent
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt358/testudo92/StingRaySandBARTentBar.jpg

3) Floating Water Slide
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt358/testudo92/StingRaySandBARWaterslideBar.jpg

4) Floating Life Preservers
http://i627.photobucket.com/albums/tt358/testudo92/StingRaySandBARLifePreservers.jpg

 

[Deac in the Wake]

Fear the turtle indeed.

Excellent work there, Testudo. That's some hilarity. Unfortunately, I can see some CI government types getting ideas from those.

 

[-hh]

Spot on! Excellent post. Cuba is going to steal Cayman's lunch and happily devour it at a hugely discounted rate. The stay over tourist on GC will become a thing of the past very shortly with the current mindset on GC. The cruisers don't stick around, they are all gone by mid to late afternoon. Those pesky stay over tourists stay ALL NIGHT. We absolutely can't have that. I have yet to talk to one cruiser who enjoyed Cayman and would consider coming back for a stay over holiday. They don't like the drink prices, long tender lines coupled with no easy access to the ship, congestion in G'town, over priced excursions, no topography, etc, etc, etc...

These people then go out and become ambassadors for the island and do you think they recommend GC as a vacation destination? Highly unlikely.

And its not like Cayman hasn't had report after report giving warning: the current report is a 10-15% decline.

The Caymanian business model is based on hitting home runs every time you step up to the plate. Big profit all the time. I would love to be able to do that with my business but competition and reality seem to constantly get in the way.

That's a good way to express it.

This same thinking affects real estate pricing. Some rube will come off the boat, fall in love with the place and plunk down $$$ for an overpriced condo is the mentality that has persevered for some time now. I looked at a home on the Brac two years ago and passed due to location. That same home is still on the market with a considerably higher price tag. I asked the realtor "what gives?" She said the home came thru Hurricane Paloma with little damage so the owner decided it was worth more, irregardless of the fact that the home had not sold at the lower price. I'm sure people are beating a path to his front door and offer more now that the house has sat on the market for almost three years. Incredible!!

Sounds like you looked at the Breakers. What's as incredible is that I've seen undeveloped properties that have sat for sale on the Brac for 20+ years: it pretty much is a "Hit the Lottery because of a dumb Visiting Rube" type of real estate market.

BTW, if you look into the situation a bit closer, what you'll quickly find is that there's a lot of hidden costs to home ownership.

For example, ...dangit, I don't have a photo of it online... do you know the tiny one-room waterfront "shack" that's on the Northside right off of Snapper Reef mooring? That property was purchased for $75,000 to buy circa 1995, and most of this is for the value of the waterfront lot.

The owner researched the cost of hurricane insurance to protect that shack from catastrophic loss, but decided to pass, because the proposed premium was a whopping $10,000 per year. Yes, I said ten grand, and per year. For what was roughly a 24x20ft building that didn't even have interior sheetrock, let alone amenities such as Air Conditioning.

When I get home tonight, I'll try to remember to upload an exterior photo of this place, so that people can appreciate just how small, simple & rustic it is. Heaven forbid how much the insurance would be on a house that actually costs more than $20K to completely replace.

Plus there's also no such thing as Title Insurance. A local friend's father lost a property sold to them by Tranquil Reality because the seller's sister came forward with a claim. To add insult to injury, this didn't occur until after they had paid for a new well to be drilled, so not only did the seller get the property back, but they got it with a brand new well for free. The advice that I received unsolicited was "Don't ever buy property from Mr. Scott", which was something that I had already figured out on my own.


-hh

 

[nipi]

From today's Compass - Cayman Islands - Cay Compass News Online - Stingray City bar protest planned

[QUOTE Plus there's also no such thing as Title Insurance. A local friend's father lost a property sold to them by Tranquil Reality because the seller's sister came forward with a claim. To add insult to injury, this didn't occur until after they had paid for a new well to be drilled, so not only did the seller get the property back, but they got it with a brand new well for free. The advice that I received unsolicited was "Don't ever buy property from Mr. Scott", which was something that I had already figured out on my own. [/QUOTE]

I don't think they bought a property from Tranquil or Mr. Scott (who are realtors). They bought a property from the property owners who listed the property for sale with Tranquil. Did they use an attorney to properly investigate the title as they should have done?

 

[Indepth Watersports]

Come to Cayman Brac.. Its still like Grand was 50 Years ago..

HH, I do agree with you but the real truth is, that pond many many years ago used to be a dump, If you dig down under the muck that is in it you would find old cars, trucks, trash, just about anything.. The funny part is too.. I never used to see Whistling Ducks before they stated feeding them. All of a sudden there are like 50 of them. Hmmmm how eco is that..

You know I believe if they cut a hundred foot channel to the sea there, we will just have 6 foot waves breaking at the Alexander Bar. At the end of the day, Cayman Brac is a quiet island that has some of the best wall and reef diving in the world. for sure some of the best visability water in the world and we are lucky enough to have a pretty healthy reef system. Not to mention world class sport climbing.... Were just happy some people have found this little piece of paradise..

Happy New year out there.. Ill also drop a recent pic from Cayman Brac..
Cheers !

[

 

[caymaniac]

Come to Cayman Brac.. Its still like Grand was 50 Years ago..

HH, I do agree with you but the real truth is, that pond many many years ago used to be a dump, If you dig down under the muck that is in it you would find old cars, trucks, trash, just about anything.. The funny part is too.. I never used to see Whistling Ducks before they stated feeding them. All of a sudden there are like 50 of them. Hmmmm how eco is that..

You know I believe if they cut a hundred foot channel to the sea there, we will just have 6 foot waves breaking at the Alexander Bar. At the end of the day, Cayman Brac is a quiet island that has some of the best wall and reef diving in the world. for sure some of the best visability water in the world and we are lucky enough to have a pretty healthy reef system. Not to mention world class sport climbing.... Were just happy some people have found this little piece of paradise..


Happy New year out there.. Ill also drop a recent pic from Cayman Brac..
Cheers !

[

This pic does not open, can you re-write it?

 

[-hh]

Come to Cayman Brac.. Its still like Grand was 50 Years ago..

HH, I do agree with you but the real truth is, that pond many many years ago used to be a dump, If you dig down under the muck that is in it you would find old cars, trucks, trash, just about anything.. The funny part is too.. I never used to see Whistling Ducks before they stated feeding them. All of a sudden there are like 50 of them. Hmmmm how eco is that..

But there's been trash dumped all over on the Brac. The airplane wreck on the north side was finally visible again after Paloma ... and Winston has let the Electron sit there and rot for ~30 years. What's sad is how there's such good talk about protecting the environment on the one hand, but then the dive site where the Wreck of the Kissamme is gets a load of gravel dumped onto living reef - - yes, inside the official marine park - - and no one is fined. Yes, it very much is like Grand Cayman, just as they started to fill in their mangrove.


In any case, here's the photo of the house that I had mentioned: hurricane insurance would have been $10K/year for this huge property:

And, unfortunately, here it is, "after" Paloma:

-hh

 

[nipi]

From today's Compass - http://www.caymannewsservice.com/headline-news/2010/01/04/sandbar-demo-wins-support