Penelepy

Spent 3 weeks in November on Cayman Island with 2 children at the Reef Resort. had a fabulous time. The Reef was so clean, very fun for kids, we had the best housekeeping service, and Lindsey, the concierge was wonderful! We will be going back every year. Snorkeling was incredible right off the beach in front of our condo. Saw Eagle rays, Southern Stingrays, Moray Eels, octopus, Cuttlefish, seahorses, reef sharks, nurse sharks, tarpon, red snapper, needle fish and squirrelfish. My 5 year old snorkeled with us every day right in front of the resort back and forth between Morritts pier and The Reef's pier. It was very safe and great! We did buy reef shoes, but not really for that spot there, but for other snorkeling spots that we loved like Smiths Cove and Cemetery Beach....Rum point was mostly sandy bottom. We loved the food at Over The Edge (North Side) and ate there probably 3 times a week. Incredible local food and very freindly locals serving it! Loved Cracked Conch too. Was not impressed with The Lobster Pot at all. We did buy groceries and cook our own meals many times, but the cost of groceries is almost double or triple what they cost in the States.
Used Red Sail through The Reef to go snorkeling and visit Stingray City. Only suggestion I have with that is that if you plan on going bring your own snorkel gear. Their snorkel gear was horrible to the point were we just held our breath and went without. I really wish we had taken our own. Skip Hell. Good thing was we saw it for free. The Turtle Farm was great for the kids, made me sad. Oh, we went to the Buccaneers Feast at Solange at the Marriott....it was incredible!! Pirates fighting and a firebreather doing a dance...great entertainment and so much fun. best sushi bar ever. We loved it.
Visit Pedro St james Castle...very interesting to get the islands history and really cool and beautiful.
And lastly, but most important...we rented a car from McCurleys for the whole 3 weeks and we felt like that was the best deal on the island. They pick you up at the airport and drive you to your resort/hotel the whole time giving you mass amounts of incredibly useful information that we felt very lucky to get. They were great, and we have already booked next years vacation car rental with them.
Oh, loved the botanical park too. Fun for the boys to hunt down where the elusive blue iguanas were. We had an incredible time, loved the island and the people and the culture and can't wait to go back. Hope this helps anyone who is on the fence about where to go....Cayman Island was the best vacation ever!

virginia

glad you had such a good time. i love the islands in nov. we rented a house just before you get to rum point a couple yrs ago and were sooo glad we choose that end of the island over seven mile. we too loved the gardens (did you see the parrots?) & over the edge. and i thought the turtle farm was just depressing! we used andy's but think we'll try mccurley's next time.
questions about the reef - how is their restaurant - quality, variety? how is the sound proofing in the condos? how big are the balconies? do any of the buildings have elevators?

Penelepy

We did see parrots, but mostly just flying across the street when making that right turn to go down towards the Reef instead of veering left to go to Rum Point. A pair that flew across the street at night with each other...saw them many times.
The Reef's restaurant was good for breakfast, ok for lunch, and we only ate there for dinner when they had their Cayman Welcome Buffett, which was incredibly yummy...we could smell the jerk chicken cooking outside all the way up to our balcony...YUM! We mostly ate at Over The Edge. That was delicious. Sound proofing in the condos was great, and we had 2 kids bouncing off the walls during Tomas and Richard. The only noise we heard was when our neighbors that had the studio lock off came in and out since we shared a main outside door. I would say that was loud. But not a problem. Balconies were large enough that they had a table that sat 4 and 2 lounge chairs- that's in a one bedroom suite. If you had a 2 bedroom then you had double the balcony space and that included 4 lounge chairs. We watched people getting married every weekend from the best spot- our balcony. Very romantic. We were in 204 so close to the food, overlooking the pool and right in front of the pier. PERFECT. We actually went ahead and got a time share there we liked it so much. I loved being away from Seven Mile. We didn't mind the drive into town at all and liked being away from all the crowds. Besides we had the best live reef right in front of our balcony. It was great! And yes, there was elevators, almost forgot that one...On the 1st week we were there only 2 cruise ships docked in a day, by the 2nd week it was 5 ships, and by week 3 we were looking at close to 7 cruise ships unloading all those people into Georgetown so we were happy to escape all that back to our little paradise.

coolbluewater

Thank you for the information on mccurley's. I will look them up for our upcoming vacation.

Penelepy

They were really great! She was such a huge help and just full of really helpful information. Glad to have met her and her husband, and look forward to renting from them again.