While the Galavanting Gals were on a trip with Princess Cruises on their very first Twitter Press Trip, we had a one-day visit to Grand Cayman Island. It’s in the middle of gorgeous water and lovely whether, and therefore a regular stop for most Caribbean cruise lines.

Since three of us Galavanting ladies each had our own take on each of the ports of call visited, we thought we’d share our impressions of each location in our own words:

Grand Cayman 4×4 Adventure Shore Excursion Review

Kim: Honestly, I’m more of an indie traveler, so being on a cruise was a big experiment for me. When our helmet-diving tour in Grand Cayman was canceled, I went with the next best thing that would allow us a little freedom to explore the island. Meh, it wasn’t super independent, but I dedided to spice it up a bit by challenging fellow travel writer Shannon Hurst Lane to a dirt-road race. That was a lot of fun, and we did end up on a really gorgeous secluded beach.

The other gals summarize most of my other impressions of Grand Cayman Island, so I’ll let them expound:

Courtney: Jumpin’ in the seat of our rugged 4×4, ready to take off and see Grand Cayman brought a wave of excitement! Then the wave crashed when we realized that this was simply a slow moving caravan of Jeeps. We did however get to see a couple of really beautiful beaches, and sample a few little areas around town. My favorite stop was at a little shop where we got to try samples of some bomb.com rum cake, and all the rum you could stomach. The next few stops were gift shops that I had little interest in but thankfully, the tour moved from stop to stop rather quickly to pack the most punch.

When we got to the 4×4 course I have to admit I was a little disappointed. The guide made it sound like we would be let loose on this fun course to get a little crazy. This was definitely not the case. Luckily, Galavanting Gal, Kim Mance took control of the sitch and got “lost” so we got to really tear up the course a bit. THAT was fun.

Shanna: As a traveler, I get it – sometimes we walk around all awkward with our noses stuffed in a map, confused about where and what to do next. But the “alternative” of having thousands of people descend upon an island is almost obscene.  It felt like a mall overrun with teenagers who after pillaging the stores all have to meet their mom outside the food court to be driven home.  Our 4×4 excursion was fun but it didn’t feel unique to the island — I was disappointed to have not gone on our hard-helmet dive, that would have felt more unique and frankly something I wouldn’t do everyday.  Maybe it was all the tourists, maybe not but overall  the island felt unkempt and kitschy.