Booze board grants blanket extension for NYE

| 27/12/2018 | 47 Comments

Cayman News Service(CNS): The Liquor Licensing Board has approved a blanket extension for New Year’s Eve (Monday, 31 December) for all bars, night clubs, restaurant and hotel licensed premises. Officials said that retail, restaurant and hotel licence holders will be permitted to remain open until 4:00am on Tuesday, 1 January, but all alcohol sales must stop at 3:50am — ten minutes before closing — while music and dancing will be allowed to carry on until 4:00am. No customers are allowed to be on premises after permitted hours.

Meanwhile, the police are urging people not to drink and drive and, as they continue their clampdown on drunk drivers, warned of road blocks through the holiday season. The Designated Driver Campaign is ongoing, with local restaurants offering designated drivers complimentary soft drinks throughout the evening.

The Purple Ribbon Bus Service will provide a free bus service on New Year’s Eve from 9:00pm to 4:00am. The service runs between West Bay and Bodden Town every 15 minutes, with occasional service to East End and North Side.

For more information about the licensing hours, contact the Department of Commerce and Investment on 945-0943 or email info@dci.gov.ky.

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Comments (47)

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  1. Naya Boy says:

    The elixir of life for some who have turned up here on these shores.Unfortunately this poison creates death and havoc for local families and our young who use it to delude themselves of the harsh realities of Cayman.When our greedy leadership extends the hours of usage we extend the threat and carnage that comes with it. Have happy and safe new year Cayman.

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  2. Anonymous says:

    Cayman needs a properly regulated public bus service that utilises 50 plus seater buses, has regular circular routes around the island, has an affordable tariff and professional drivers. If Bermuda can do it, why can’t we?
    We need to encourage more people to use the bus instead of jamming up the roads with single occupant cars. We need to offer tourists an affordable, safe and reliable way of exploring the island and reduce the ridiculous numbers of rental vehicles adding to our straining traffic congestion.

    Then we need an efficient and regular water taxi across the NS for daily commuters and for those wishing to enjoy a night out on SMB without having to drive. Why on earth doesn’t the existing water taxi operate for Caymana Bay highlights, such as The Festival of Lights etc…. or run early and late for the benefit of customers and not its crew?
    Why isn’t it helping relieve the burden off the roads at peak commuter times?

    We need a joined up public transportation plan, not platitudes or self righteous indignation by those who don’t understand how a twenty first century country operates.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Great comment – thank you!

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    • Anonymous says:

      Totally agree..Most of these public bus drivers are Jamaican and drive like they are still there..So many times I have seen them cause or nearly cause accidents and their manners are absolutely terrible..not Caymankind at all.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Please spare us the anti-Jamaican sentiments and prejudices…the fare is $1.50 and moves all of those helpful people who can ill-afford any other transport…they keep the lights on in this place and deserve more respect. If you don’t like it, why doesn’t your holier-than-thou-ness apply selflessly to drive the public bus with all of your manners and accident-avoidance know-how?

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    • Anonymous says:

      Designated bus stops with their own refuge lane out of the flow of traffic would be good too.

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      • Anonymous says:

        8:04am

        Now that makes far too much sense!

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      • Anonymous says:

        In terms of road manners: I’d like our hardworking bus drivers to wait for a break in traffic like everyone else has to, instead of their collision-merge technique where they roll forward into the flow of traffic, until someone has to stop to avoid hitting them. Then they putter down the road and stop 200 feet from where they were just “allowed” in. It’s like they are riding a bike instead of driving a bus. Irritating.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Buses and Routes:

      There are several public buses that run throughout the different districts. The main bus terminal is on Edward Street, adjacent to the Public Library, in George Town. Daily services commence around 6 am and fares start at CI $1.50. Licensed buses have blue number plates and accept both US and Cayman Islands dollars. There are designated bus stops and shelters around the island, but buses can also be flagged down from anywhere from the side of the road.

      For further information about Grand Cayman’s bus service telephone 945-5100.

      Route Number Sticker Color Route
      1 Yellow George Town – West Bay/Seven Mile Beach
      2 Lime Green George Town – West Bay/Seven Mile Beach
      3 Blue George Town – Bodden Town
      4 Purple George Town – East End
      5 Red George Town – East End/North Side
      6&7 Dark Green Around George Town
      8 Orange George Town – North Side
      9 Blue (White Number) George Town – North Side – East End – Bodden Town

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      • Anonymous says:

        What time they running in New Years Eve?

        • Anonymous says:

          Just take one of the free corporate-sponsored Purple Ribbon buses and enjoy your night, without worrying about parking, traffic stops, or killing anyone.

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          • Anonymous says:

            Just answer the question. What time are the public buses running on New Years Eve? Or any eve for that matter.

      • Anonymous says:

        No thanks, I value my life too much to get on one of those death traps

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        • Anonymous says:

          Dear life-valuing commentator, who is too proud to ride a free purple ribbon, and too cheap to pay the peppercorn bus fare or hire one of our great taxi drivers: Everyone feels they deserve to be chauffeured in black limousines for less than time and gas, but that will not be happening. Really all of this is clumsy rationale to enable ongoing convenient, habitual, selfish, and reckless drunk driving; which, unopposed will one day sooner or later end very badly for themselves or someone else.

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        • Anonymous says:

          #irony

      • Anonymous says:

        And they have no set times, don’t run late at night, are often full when they pass you, detour to drop friends off closer to where they’re going, offer no monthly/yearly bus card for return users and often times are over crowded and lack a.c. There are many improvements that can be made.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Rotary has put up a lively bus shelter opposite Vela south sound, but why as no busses go through south sound….

    • Anonymous says:

      Expensive 24/7 socialized transport apparatus is not happening here, and certainly not for the greater convenience of drunks. You forget that the young white professionals complaining are still too proud to share a ride on existing buses for CI$1.50, or climb aboard a free Purple Ribbon bus after hours. Then they claim a black Suburban, with a capped driver in a navy suit with an earpiece would magically fix their personal finance and convenience problems; but really this is all smoke because they simply want to continue to run the gauntlet drunk and carefree until that ends…who’s gonna stop them?

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  3. Anonymous says:

    cheers!
    no let us as adults drink/dance on saturday night past midnight..

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  4. Anonymous says:

    Hope RCIPS are going to be up and about at that time of the morning because the drunks are for sure going to be out in force after that kind of drinking session. Personally, I’ve reached the point in life where spending the first day of a new year feeling like s*** has lost any of the dubious attractions it might have once had.

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  5. Anonymous says:

    Our bars and clubs are still not checking for ID at the doors. No establishments are being fined. Nobody is getting their liquor licenses pulled. They are taking everyone’s money. Police aren’t in the parking lots where bottles are being broken, people stabbed, and kids collapsing on the asphalt. These places are now the preferred Friday night evening gatherings for minor children aged 14-17 until 4am! This so-called Board needs to take action, or be replaced.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Yup, it could be a war zone over here as we go into 2019.

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    • Tom says:

      It also parents responsible to look after their own kids…police are not your nannies!

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      • Anonymous says:

        The liquor inspector’s full time job is to supervise compliance with the liquor law. Yet it hasn’t been happening for years. Whoever this person is, they XXXXX need to be replaced immediately by someone willing to discharge their responsibilities. XXXXX

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      • Anonymous says:

        Really? Nightclubs enriching themselves taking $25 door covers while failing to check ID (as required by law) is somehow the fault of the parents of the kids that try? Surely, at a minimum, the club owners should be getting fined by the full time (paid by us) liquor inspector not doing their job?!? It should not be possible for any kid under 18 to gain admission to these places.

  6. Anonymous says:

    Bravo.

    They would have deserved an extra round of applause if NYE fell on Sat like last year and they approved it for a Sunday.

    Just because your cult operates on that day, does not mean you can tell me I can’t have drink and dance to music because it’s YOUR holy day. Who are you?

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    • Anonymous says:

      I worked in the Israeli resort of Eilat in the mid-1990s and they had exclusions from most of the Shabbat and high holiday restrictions (and there are a lot of them!) for businesses run by non-Jews. It’s an example we could learn from.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Oh stop whining, nothing to stop you getting drunk and dancing all night long, just not in a public place. Who are you to demand it has to be public?

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    • Anonymous says:

      If you were aiming at CIMA with that cult reference, I fully agree.

      I hate how authoritarian they are with their beliefs. Their manifesto is entirely about persuading government to be completely attached to one specific religion and its doctrines. With a country so diverse and modern, how can democracy function?

      Attend your church meetings in peace, read your bibles, pray together, etc.. But stop forcing it onto everyone else. Stop saying you aren’t Caymanian if you aren’t Christian. Not everyone thinks Santa is real, either.

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      • Anonymous says:

        What! Santa isn’t real? I almost drove off the road when I read that!

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        • Anonymous says:

          The real question is why TF are you reading cns while driving ?

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          • Anonymous says:

            I believe that was the tongue in cheek point….
            You can drive drunk, texting, reading, chatting on the phone etc and no one is enforcing the laws. The result is evident in the number of crashes the last few days…

      • Anonymous says:

        Cayman islands monetary authority?

        No, pretty sure you mean Cayman islands ministers associated

        Experts at profiting 10% of your wage from you

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      • Anonymous says:

        Santa’s story is far more believable than that other guy.

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  7. Anonymous says:

    Now if only the government would approve Uber/Lyft/Flex to get all the drunks home. It’ll be a flippin’ demolition derby on Cayman roads come New Years morning.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Yes. Long overdue. I understand the framework for regulating an Uber Service is necessary, however I don’t recall having heard of anything in the works.

      Since hundreds (or thousands) of adults each year choose to not be responsible for themselves, we MUST provide a service that can get everyone home safely. Kudos to the Purple Ribbon Bus Service. I wish they could expand to cover the entire island, and a similar service for those on the Sister Islands.

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    • Anonymous says:

      If people are too cheap to make responsible transportation plans ahead of their long-scheduled benders, how does Uber change that? Do you not understand how unregulated surge pricing works and what that would do to fares after midnight? You think our 2x after midnight cab fares are bad…try 6x multipliers. Glad to see some cab drivers are finally taking major credit cards.

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    • Anonymous says:

      Ye who are too proud to take a free corporate-sponsored purple ribbon bus, or a public bus for $1.50 (during their hours of operation), too “cheap” to plan ahead or call a taxi, then pretend that a limousine app would be more affordable, or that believe their ongoing irresponsibility is in any way linked to personal finances, or is the fault of someone else: Please grow up and stop driving around drunk. Know yourself before you seriously injure or kill someone. Nobody thinks it will happen to them, and then it does. That you can bank on.

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      • Anonymous says:

        Thanks, taxi driver, for your input.

        Everyone is being lied to on a daily basis from these people acting like it wouldn’t be cheaper with meters or an app based service. Someone in government needs to be fired over the incompetence and the obvious back room deals with this mafia.

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        • Anonymous says:

          If you don’t know the reasonable rate to travel the well-beaten path from your regular drinking hole to your home, then take the time to figure it out – it sounds like it might be more than you think. Even though it’s a small island, if you’re going 20 miles each way, it would likely be (dollar for dollar) a similar metered fare in any major urban anywhere in the world, but unlike an city setting, your cabbie is unlikely to pick-up a return fare at 4am out past the airport after they drop you off. In any case, confirm the rate from PTU, Durk Banks [durk.banks@gov.ky] 946-1323, and know the rate, carry that cash ahead of your bender night and don’t be surprised when asked to pay it. Some cabs carry a card machine now which is much improved over hunting for bank machines late at night. From what I understand, 1-3 passengers starts at $7, 25% for more than 3, another 25% 12-6am. Agree the rate before you start rolling. Take the cards of the taxi drivers you like and make it a habit – transcribe them into your phone for future. If you get a bad driver, or have a bad experience – PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, REPORT THEM for the sake of all of us. Let’s get any and all bad actors off the road and away from the Cayman Islands transportation business. To achieve an acceptable level of personal responsibility, we need to end the permissive culture of driving around drunk.

        • Anonymous says:

          If the flat rate tables carried by taxis were to be digitized into district meters, the only pricing variable that would change, would be the addition of a clock to bill for time spent…including time spent waiting for dispatched fares to materialize at the designated location. How does that make fares cheaper?

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