Grand Cayman Custom Advise

[Doctorfish]

I was there last month. Sunday 1 pm arrival. With the kiosks, it was a sail through Customs and Immigration. 15 minute wait for bags.

By the way, the meet and greet service is run by Owen Roberts Airport Authority and is advertised on their website as $50 pp. I have used this service only if arriving on a Saturday and having a tight connection to CB or LC.

Your hotel seems to be padding things unless their service also includes transportation to your hotel as well.

On GC, you might want to consider renting a car, rather than relying on cabs, which are expensive and can be unreliable.

 

[gratefulmjc]

@Testudo has produced a great snorkeling guide:

Available Guides

Above embedded map is interactive Click the link to view the shore snorkel locations and other sites on Grand Cayman in a larger interactive map. (Click Guide to View or follow to Download locatio…

www.tumblr.com

(it seems some links are currently broken but you can still get to the descriptions of the various sites)

If you have transportation and find yourselves over on the North Side, try the Rum Point Barrier Reef snorkel...my favorite. As noted in the guide, the staghorn coral is amazing. Enter at Sea Lodges if you want a little more time in the water. On your way there or back, for a local's lunch, try The Caboose (nee Kurt's Corner) on Frank Sound Road a little south of the intersection with Old Robin Road.

 

[gratefulmjc]

Deleted this post as it was an unintended duplicate of the above post.

 

[tridacna]

Important: Get your mindset ready for the 20% surcharge on everything. I’ve been there many times and that 20% still pisses me off every time I go.

 

[-JD-]

Important: Get your mindset ready for the 20% surcharge on everything. I’ve been there many times and that 20% still pisses me off every time I go.

No surcharge if you pay in the local currency

Can't help it if you see $ and subconsciously expect the cost to be US dollars. They are even so kind as to exchange it for you essentially everywhere for free. US$1.20 for every CI$1.00. OK, yea, feels like an intentional bait and switch to soak the silly Americans ...

 

[Damselfish]

Would you still consider it a surcharge if it were called the Cayman Dingle rather than the Cayman Dollar?

Its an exchange rate, not a surcharge.

 

[tridacna]

Would you still consider it a surcharge if it were called the Cayman Dingle rather than the Cayman Dollar?

Its an exchange rate, not a surcharge.

It’s fixed - it doesn’t float. Hardly an “exchange rate”. It’s just a consistent rip off.

 

[Damselfish]

A fixed exchange rate is a thing. Are these all surcharges and discounts?

List of circulating fixed exchange rate currencies - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[bonedoc18]

We were there in May.

We did the meet and greet service. Seemed to save a lot of time, especially on the way out (Saturday), but as others have said, YMMV.

We dove with Living the Dream. FANTASTIC experience. Everyone there was wonderful. We finished certification while there so our dive boat experience is limited, but the boats were great. The service was some of the best we've had in any industry. Talk to Liz and see if you can arrange a Kittiwake dive on one of your mornings... we did one while there and it was a great experience, both the superstructure and swimming through the decks.

We did Stingray City with Captain Marvin. This crew was great as well and the experience was fantastic, would certainly do again. We did the 3 event thing with snorkeling, Stingray City and Starfish Point... Stingray City was the highlight (of that day) by a large margin. There is a place online where you can check the cruise ship schedules for Grand Cayman... see if you can book Stingray City on a day with few or no cruise boats in port... it gets very congested.

We rented a car. Would certainly suggest this as others have said. Had a somewhat bad experience with AVIS, and the Immigration guide said he thinks they are the worst of the group. If you do rent, a drive out to Rum Point was fun, and you can do Starfish Point while you're there if you want.

The Turtle Farm was nice for a short trip... We did not do the snorkeling while there but if you like sea turtles, there are a lot to see. The rest of it was not great.

Supposedly the dolphin encounter by the turtle farm is pretty good, as long as you are not bothered by the ethics of captive dolphins or the ridiculously overpriced (optional) photo packages.

Hibiscus Spa at the Westin was fantastic.

As for restaurants, we went to Macabuca on BBQ night (Mondays), which was a nice buffet style dinner and probably the best value of our meals there. It is right next door to Cracked Conch. Our favorite restaurant was Calypso Grill... will certainly go back next time.

While we didn't do it this time, Living the Dream (and others) offer guided night shore dives from Macabuca. Something you could do if your wife wanted to wait at the Tiki Bar, and you could have dinner right after.

Have fun! We really enjoyed our time there and can't wait to go back.

 

[tridacna]

A fixed exchange rate is a thing. Are these all surcharges and discounts?

List of circulating fixed exchange rate currencies - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

They have an enormously strong currency. More bank accounts than people in the Caymans. > 600 banks! It's a vast storage country of illegal and secret funds for despots, dictators and tax avoiders. No capital gains tax, no corporate taxes, no withholding taxes and utmost secrecy. The $1.22 exchange rate has been in place for years (1972) gouging tourists by the boatload.