I feel your pain- and I know it is much worse for the residents there- how awful and sad- my wedding of 60+ all had flights for my Nov 6th wedding in GC- and the airlines are still making thing so difficult for them, knowing we have to change the venue (country!)- and they will not waive the $100 fee to change unless the flight actually gets canceled, which no one will know for weeks. :( Such a beautiful place I wanted to share with my family and friends. I think an anniversary trip will be in the cards in a year or two!

Message: Good news from The Reef resort on the East End! (Check out their website, www.thereef.com.ky)
According to their website:

Grand Cayman will be back in business
no later than the end of October !

Staff at The Reef Resort are alive and okay in the aftermath of Hurricane Ivan.
All guests were evacuated safely before Ivan struck the island.

Hurricane Ivan came calling... there is sand in the swimming pool... the resort was fortunate to have sustained little serious damage. The Reef will be partially operational within days and will reopen within 6 weeks.

Damage/Progress Report :
- 36 units were basically untouched.
- 8 units and the first floor of the main building sustained significant damage.
- Restaurant was virtually unscathed.
- A reservations system will be online by September 25th.

Check the latest addition of the local newspaper. www.caymannetnews.com and updates to www.stormcarib.com

Grand Cayman is much worse then what is being reported. Read some first hand stories of US Citizens. It is all very sad.

Anonxx, I think the Reef is being a little optimistic. Have you looked at any of the sites that are posting photos and first hand accounts? Perhaps the Reef was not seriously damaged, but it seems areas of West Bay, SMB, Bodden Town and East End sustained major major damage.

The Reef (my place) has professional construction project managers controlling the whole operation, so we know what we are doing.

As for Seven Mile Beach, I am personally co-ordinating status reports from all hotels and condos (I am a Board Director of the Cayman Islands Tourism Association)... will have concrete info on all properties soon, but a brief update :
- West Bay Road will have power and water back within a week
- All hotels and condos sustained some damage, but all (or almost all, some older condos got a lot of damage) will be up and running prior to January 1st

For now, wait and see, but don't worry about any bookings, Cayman will be back in plenty of time for January 1st... New Year, new Cayman

Oh, and Seven Mile Beach itself is gorgeous.... lots of lovely new sand !