Most international carriers treat the Cayman Islands as a premium roaming zone — your home network will charge a daily pass fee, and many cap you at 2G speeds after the first 500MB or 1GB.
Hotspot is often blocked or costs extra, which is frustrating when you are traveling with a partner or need to tether a laptop. Some roaming bundles throttle video and map tiles after a soft cap, so Google Maps can take 10 seconds to render a turn-by-turn route.
The eSIM gives you a flat data allowance at full LTE speed with no throttling and no daily surprises on your bill. You pay once, use what you need, and hotspot works from day one.
For a week-long trip splitting time between Grand Cayman and the Sister Islands, the cost difference is significant — roaming can run two to three times the price of a prepaid eSIM, and you avoid the uncertainty of per-MB overage fees if you stream a dive video or upload photos to cloud storage.