Morritt's Grand: what a view....

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

<SIGH>

It sounds like you are all enjoying Morritts and the Grand Cayman Island. I love it's low unemployment rate and the fact that you don't ever get approached by vendors on those magnificient beaches.

Thanks so much for the unit pictures. I like that they didn't change anything when they restored the resort.

There is a reason the "entry fee" to retire there is so high...

I hope you, Mrs Bum and the little bums have another fabulous day and look forward to your next installment with a twinge of longing.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

We just finished our sales presentation with Kim Parker. She doubled as our concierge and is excellent. Her timeshare sales skills are outstanding. She had me wanting that new 3 bedroom unit in the Tortuga Seaside building going up next year. I kept having to tell myself that I will be able to get this for a lot less in a couple of years. She did an excellent job at selling the property along with all the benefits and the offers.

Does anyone here own at Morritt's? I really liked the Golden Turtle club. You get the bonus time week for the cost of the maintenance fees for reservations booked less than 30-days out. Good deal if you live in Florida. And, you get 20% discount on water sports, daily rentals and 10% on food. If you do a lot of diving, this could add up to a ton of savings.

It appears that Morritt's has its own internal exchange department as Global Resort Management offers $75 request first domestic US exchanges and $100 request first international exchanges. No membership fee is required. This is definitely consistent with the trend I have been proposing regarding internal exchange programs. They have a thing called a "wholesale" week which is supposed to be develper inventory at II and RCI resorts. It's probably just II getaways and RCI extra vacations. That's my guess.

The price of a 3 bedroom, 3 bath unit in Tortuga Seaside is $35k. It is 1738 sqft including the 211 sqft balcony. The 2 bedroom penthouse Grand units are $27,600 from the developer. Not sure what the resale prices are yet. I need to look them up.

I can definitely see myself buying a 3 bedroom unit in a few years when my kids are older so that we can do dive trips to the Cayman islands.

[Tinkerbell Member Find all posts View Profile Close Tinkerbell]

Wonderful pictures! Thanks for posting them! Everything looks so beautiful there. We really enjoyed Grand Cayman when we were there a few years ago. Now I want to go back!

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

Does anyone here own at Morritt's? I really liked the Golden Turtle club. You get the bonus time week for the cost of the maintenance fees for reservations booked less than 30-days out. Good deal if you live in Florida. And, you get 20% discount on water sports, daily rentals and 10% on food. If you do a lot of diving, this could add up to a ton of savings.

I do remember there being a lot of bad feelings and communications problems after Ivan. I don't remember the details but there were a lot of unhappy owners and weeks could be bought for a song on ebay. Possible assesment fees, etc.

You might want to search TUG archives for those threads.

I believe the Morritts owners also have their own yahoo group.

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

Forum for Morritt's owners

I believe the Morritts owners also have their own yahoo group.

http://morritts.17.forumer.com/

they have just moved from here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MorrittsGrandCayman/

and here:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Morrit...ugaClubOwners/

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

The 2 bedroom penthouse Grand units are $27,600 from the developer. Not sure what the resale prices are yet. I need to look them up.

About 10 to 12k. Not sure if below is Penthouse but to save $17k I wouldn't require a Penthouse.

http://www.grandcaymantimeshare.com/MGR_resale.htm

Morritt's Grand Resort
2006 Usage


Price: $10,000 Week #: Floating
Unit Size: Two Bedroom Deluxe Ocean Front Years Remaining: 90

Maintenance fee: $620

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

About 10 to 12k. Not sure if below is Penthouse but to save $17k I wouldn't require a Penthouse.

http://www.grandcaymantimeshare.com/MGR_resale.htm

Morritt's Grand Resort
2006 Usage


Price: $10,000 Week #: Floating
Unit Size: Two Bedroom Deluxe Ocean Front Years Remaining: 90

Maintenance fee: $620

Lawren,

Thanks for the links and the pricing info. If that unit can rent for $1500 or more per week, it would be worth $10k. I'm thinking....

[lawren2 Malibu Beach Barbie & A Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close lawren2]

Lawren,

Thanks for the links and the pricing info. If that unit can rent for $1500 or more per week, it would be worth $10k. I'm thinking....

I was seriously considering buying there 2 years ago...they got very very cheap after Ivan but there was a HELL of a lot of uncertainty about the Insurance from Lloyds of London, assesment fees and MF hikes. So I passed and decided once every 4 years ain't so bad for my measly costs of $600 to $700.

The floating weeks are 1-50 with the Xmas to New Years as fixed weeks ( at a premium above that cost).

If you can get a Presidents week or Easter week reserved you would probably get about $1500/week for it on the rental market.

The MF is not bad considering how pricey Grand Cayman is.

In comparison a 2 BDRM Oceanfront at The Reef next door goes for about $15k on the resale market with MF of $800.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Diving summary... the best I've done

Well, I finished my last 2 dives today and I must admit that this is the single best dive location I've ever experienced. When I come back next, I'm going to pre-book all my dives and do 3 or 4 dives per day.

I did 6 dives and 1 family snorkle. I did a shore dive from Eden Rock and 5 boat dives with Tortuga Divers. The dive sites we dove were Black Rock, McCurley's Wall, The Fish Tank, The Maze and Grouper's Grotto.

McCurley's Wall was my favorite dive since it was my first wall dive and the visiblity was the best that day. Diving on that wall literally felt like I was flying since the wall looks like a mountain side. The second best dive was Grouper's Grotto since it is Silverside season and there were millions of little silversides and dozens of tarpon in a coral grotto with tons of swim threws. This was an unbelievable dive since we were literally surrounded by these little silversides. Evidently, they are only here in June.

The coral is spectacular here. Lots of variety and very pristine. The north side of the island has great diving locations.

Here are a list of reasons why I rate this my favorite dive location:

1) Boat rides are 10-20 minutes max due to promixity of dive sites. No wasting of time getting to your dive location. Given the close proximity, it's possible to do 3-5 dives per day if you have the energy (and the money). And, the shallow dives are all about 50-60 feet deep which is great for getting lots of bottom time. The dive plans were always 100 ft/35 min (with computer), 3 minute safety stop at 15 feet, 50 minute surface interval, 60 ft/35 min. We were always able to get an extra 5-10 minutes of bottom time by doing extended safety stops at 15 feet.

2) Great combination of beautiful, multi-colored coral, big animals and micro-ecosystems for the small fish and wildlife. Great diversity in terms of what you will see.

I saw Grouper, baracuda, tarpon, eels, sting rays, spiny lobsters, lettuce slugs, sea turtles, giant parrot fish and more.

3) Great service from Tortuga Divers. They carry your bags, switch your tanks and help you into and out of the water. The dive boats are docked just off the beach at the resort. Diving staff is extremely knowlegable of the dive sites and let the divers pick the sites based on where they've already been. When the new dock is finished, they will have lockers and fresh water dunks so that you don't even need to carry your equipment back to your room.

4) Almost no current. Very easy dives. So, you don't need to exert too much energy and you can maximize bottom time. The water temperatures were in the mid-80's. Several people had thermometers and confirmed two readings of 84 degrees. On McCurley's Wall, the temperature reading on two different thermometers read 90 and 91 degress at 90 feet!! That makes it possible to dive with a t-shirt or shorty. I didn't get cold once.

5) The divers on the boats are all experienced, so it makes it easier to do deeper dives of around 100 feet and swim throughs threw very tight caverns. And, they separate table divers from computer divers. So, on the deep dives, computer divers got 35 minutes of bottom time vs. 20 minutes for the table divers. Sometimes, when you have inexperienced divers, you need to surface prematurely. It sucks when you finish a dive with over 1000 PSI left in your tank. That only happened to me once on my second dive and I followed the dive plan to the minute and everyone else was still underwater.

The only thing that was missing was food and drink for between dives. That's always a nice thing to have on dive boats.

The family snorkle to Stingray City was also very memorable. Next time, I'd like to dive. I think it will be easier to feed the sting rays. We took a glass bottom boat to one of the sand bars. It was great to be there with the family. My 4 year old was very scared and was on my back or my wifes back the whole time screaming. That was only beat by my 9 year old screaming, "it touched me, aaah, aaah. Oh no, there's another one. Get away from me...." My wife, my oldest and I loved it. My 12 year old is ready to start diving now. Time to get him certified.

In any event, for those divers who have never been here, I would highly recommend it. I liked it so much, I am trying to figure out how best to get here more often.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

Night Kayak from Kaibo Dock: bioluminescence.

Our Concierge mentioned to us a new activity on the island that really intrigued my wife. That activity is Kayaking from Kaibo dock to see bioluminescence. She did such a good job describing it that we had to sign up for it.

So, what is bioluminescence? Bioluminescence is a chemical reaction caused by a disturbance in certain types of algae and other lifeforms that results in the emission of light. In this case, there is a special type of Algae near
Kaibo point that grows continuously that exhibits these properties. And, there is so much of it there that everything that touches it glows in the dark. Everything glows green. It's just like those glow sticks you buy at DisneyWorld. Really cool.

The kayaking part of the trip is fairly strenuous. It takes about 35 minutes to get to the location where bioluminescence is the greatest. When you get there, you instantly know it because every time you put your paddle in the water, it glows. You see fish darting through the water resulting in a green line. As the kayaks hit the water, it glows. You put your hand in the water and it glows. One of the guides got into the water and he was literally surrounded by a halo of light. This was the single best example of a person's aura I have ever witnessed.

This kayak trip is very popular now. They do not do the trip every day since it must be dark. So, the activity depends on when the moon rises and sets. The guys operating this tour just started it in January. I think you will be reading a lot more about this activity in the future. If you have a trip planned, make sure you call ahead to find out when it will happen and book a slot before it fully books up.

It was cool. Really, really cool.

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

I'm going to see if I can get my wife to post her activities. She opted to do other activities while I was diving since she didn't feel like diving this trip.

She did the botanical gardens, the turtle farm, shopping in Georgetown, the sunset kayak trip and sending post cards from Hell.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I missed the Barefoot Man because our bioluminescence trip got delayed from Wed to Thurs night due to wind.

I must admit. I am exhausted. I am ready to go home. Next time, I just need to dive.

[urple2 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close urple2]

Boca:

I appreciated your posts very much ! You're a natural for vacation reviews. I'm looking forward to my trip there next sept 07.

Glad you enjoyed your trip.

___

Bill

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Sounds like you had a wonderful vacation and are going home tomorrow. Thanks for sharing it with us and I love to see your pictures too. Nice to know that the diving is very good and not too hard to do.

Do they get often hurricanes there?

[ArtsieAng Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close ArtsieAng]

BB,

You certainly had a fun filled week. Seems that the diving was great, and the bio luminescence kayaking really sounds intriguing. I would love to give that a try one day. Enjoy the rest of your stay, and have a safe trip home.

Thanks for sharing.....

[BocaBum99 Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close BocaBum99]

A message from Boca Bumette

Hello Folks!

This is Boca's wife, Bumette, doing my first post here. While Jim was off diving, I took the boys out doing the 'land' activities here.

Atlantis Submarine ride: The sub takes us down to 100 feet and we get to check out the 'wall' in air conditioned comfort. The crew was very nice and made the ride fun. We loaded up on a boat in Georgetown which took us out to the sub a little ways out. Of course there were lots of fish! One thing that I always loved about diving was realizing how much the third dimension of height was something we normally don't think of. But here, underwater, it is amazing to me to see fish at all levels above and below me.

It was also amazing to see the colorful fish and coral through the windows on one side of the sub, then turn around and see the abyss - a drop of 4.5miles on the other side of the sub. The sighting list goes on, parrot fish, French Angel fish, Honey-comb trunkfish, trigger fish of all colors, turtles,...

Blue Iguanas at Queen Elizabeth's II Botanical Garden: Blue Iguanas are only found on Grand Cayman. They turn bluer the longer they are in the sun. My son and I were literally watching one turn bluer in front of our eyes. It was slow, but perceptible. There only 25 or so left in the wild, and the Iguana Conservation Foundation (ICF) has a spot at the QE II BG to breed and increase the population. There are a couple of Blues running wild at the park, and there are some held in pens to make for easy viewing for us tourists. They are way cool looking, with all black feet. It's wild. They are fairly used to us tourists, my son and I got real close to one (pic is posted already) and we got to really appreciate the bumps and spines on them. It's easy to realize why people thought dragons existed.

The ICF also runs a separate tour from one of the hotels that bring you up close and personal with the young dragonlets. They also have a conservation program where one can sponsor and name a baby blue. www.BlueIguana.ky

Stingray City with RedSail Sports: A must do for anyone visiting Grand Cayman. It was one of our most memorable times. A quick 15 minute ride from Rum Point out to the sandbar where the water is only waist high landed us in the middle of a bunch of tourists and other boats. I was a bit worried about what kind of experience one can get surrounded by close to a hundred other people, but it was great!

My eldest son was quick to go underwater, with a dead squid in hand, trying to feed them. My second son quickly realized the 'sting' part in 'stingray' and wanted NOTHING to do with them. It made for a memorable moment with him screaming rapidly "It touched me! It-touched-me! It-touched-me!!!!" I had my four year old piggy back on me, and the second one was totally wrapped around my waist with his feet doing all it could do to NOT touch the sand. I barely could stand up with all the extra struggling weight on me and I was laughing so hard to my poor son's reactions. The other people on the boat were so helpful, but he was already in place that was hard to get back from.

The rays swim quickly, coming up unexpectantly on the people standing in the water. There was a lot of screaming (from both sexes, from all ages) and laughing going on. The larger rays also know the deal - I had a few literally swim up my thigh trying to get the squid I was holding. They are very gentle, soft, and fun to watch. It is always very special to be able to connect in some way with the wildlife, and feeding them was a great experience.

BTW, the grilled Mahi sandwich at the bar on Rum Point was just so fresh and good to eat! Mmmm....

Cayman Kayak tours: www.caymankayaks.com I went on two of their tours. They depart next to Kaibo Yacht Club, 2 kilometers from Rum Point on the North side of the island. The Sunset tour is easy enough that they allow 6 year olds on it, one adult and one kid per kayak. It was easy going, but still strenuous enough to warrant some thought before one does it. It was really cool going out, and our guides, Luca and Bob, were great! They also lent us dry bags to keep our stuff dry (duh...). The group went into the mangroves, which is all salt water. Because of the mangrove roots, it is the nursery for small fish, baby lobster, crab, rays, etc. It also has upside-down jellyfish! They are non-stinging as they are vegetarian, growing algae on their tentacles exposed to the sunshine. It was wild holding one - it felt like warm jelly! (Go figure why they call them "jelly"fish...) One can readily guess that my second son who wanted nothing to do with stingrays wanted nothing to do with holding jellyfish that are normally known to sting.

I also went on their Bio-bay tour. BB normally would not go on something like this, but he is really glad he did. No kids allowed as we are paddling out in the dark, with only a weeny red flashlight to guide us. It is just so cool to watch things glow with that chem-lume green. This ride is a lot more strenuous than the mangrove tour, but everybody made it sooner or later. Bob and Luca are real cool, take good care of their clients, and enjoy what they do. Everybody had a blast.

I'll post more later, going to take advantage of my fully equipped kitchen to make dinner.