Disney brings the “Magic” of cruise back to Cayman

Cayman officially welcomed the return of cruise tourism on Monday, rolling out the figurative red carpet for the Disney Magic, its first cruise ship in two years.

Grand Cayman was the first port of call for the 1,493 passengers on board the ship which elicited excitement not only for those gathered to welcome them, but from the cruise shippers themselves who arrived on-shore around 8am.

Caymankind welcome

“It feels great to be here. We’re excited to be here and I know you’re all excited for us to be here,” said the first passenger to step off the tender at the Royal Watler Cruise Terminal in George Town.

The passenger, from North Carolina, shared that it was not the first visit to Cayman for him and his wife, but it was their first on board the Disney Magic.

The couple both expressed excitement at being able to return here and they were headed to “swim with the dolphins first.”

With tender engines roaring and soca music blaring, the passengers, many with families in tow, waved and brandished their cameras and cellphones to catch shots of the live music and dance performances from Dream Chasers and take photos with the pirates on hand to welcome them.

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Leading the welcome party was Tourism Minister Kenneth Bryan, who said the return of cruise tourism was a significant milestone for the country to mark.

“We’re all excited. It’s not about me and my ministry or my government, it’s about the people in the Cayman Islands. It’s about our second pillar of our economy getting back on its feet. This is the first step. Just think about a baby trying to get back to walking, and traveling again and that’s what today [Monday] is about,” Bryan said.

Disney Magic was the first and only ship scheduled for Monday, which the minister said was a “good thing.”

“Being one ship, I think the passengers will get the real Caymankind and proper attention… we’ll learn from today, whatever little things we need to tweak. Wednesday we’ll have more ships, that we’ll be even more prepared. But we just shake off the rust and get back to what we have always delivered which is great tourism,” Bryan added.

There was no denying how happy the cruise shippers were to be on Grand Cayman.

We caught up with an Arkansas family who have been waiting a year-and-a-half for their Cayman Islands cruise.

“It’s really great to have the ships being able to come back and know that we can come enjoy the the beautiful place here. It’s awesome,” said the father, while his kids added they cannot wait to see the dolphins and get in the water.

Cargo and cruise synergy

It was an emotional moment for interim Port Authority Director Elizabeth McField as she said she and her team have been waiting for this moment.

“We just really have a product that we should be proud of today. This is a huge moment, and I feel really, really proud of the team at the Port Authority who worked very hard and everybody here today in tourism, but I’m very happy with everything that has occurred since we started preparing for this a few weeks ago,” she said.

McField said cruise and cargo will work in tandem, as has been the case previously.

“We moved day operations for the port over to the night operations, and then we’re going to concentrate on tourism in the day. You’ll see one or two cargo ships when we have a low amount of tourists coming in. So we have one ship today and about 2,500 tourists I think approximately and and so we would lower the amount of cargo that’s coming in and operate in the night,” she explained.

The Disney manager and her team were the first onshore at the terminal.

She said she it was an exciting and emotional moment.

“I think one of my girls just said she’s been so emotional. She just started crying when she went out there. It looks so beautiful. Everything looks so beautiful. The new updates to the terminal itself are just gorgeous. Thank you for having us,” she said.

Snow cone vendor Glenda Banegas was happy to be getting back to work after two years.

“I’m really happy to see the cruise ships come back because it’s been two years and, believe you me, it’s a blessing because being home for two years it’s not a good thing. If it wasn’t for our government we don’t know, our people would never know what would happen to us. On behalf of my people. I want to thank my government for helping us and still going to continue to help us because we’ve just begun now,” she said.

Tour operators also welcomed the return of the first cruise ship.

Waving her Stingray tour sign, one tour operator, said it was a good feeling to be back out to work.

“It’s great, really great. I’m glad to be back here today to welcome the people back to the beautiful Cayman Islands and hope that everything goes well for us,” she said.