Day 9 - October 10 - Ocho Rios
Jamaica. Our last port day. The excursion we booked today was the Dolphin Cove mini-boats to Dunn’s River Falls. Our tour started a little later than usual so we had a later breakfast. But, we didn’t realize that we weren’t meeting in the theater like we did for all the other excursions. We were meeting at the dock. And, we didn’t realize that the pier to the dock was a mile long. So, we had a little jog after breakfast and just made it to the group on time.
We took the bus over to the Dolphin Cove which has some sea-creature shows, snorkeling, shopping, pet the dolphins and sting rays, dancing, eating, etc. We were escorted through the property to the mini-boat area. We boarded the boat with our guide and zoomed through the ocean to the Falls. The guide was very friendly and pointed out all the sights to see. Of course, in Jamaica, they are not shy about requesting tips. Their motto is ‘I treat you nice, you treat me nice. Ok, mon?” So, we tipped the mini-boat guide.
The Falls was a lot of fun. I had walked up the Falls several years ago with my family, but this was a little different since we were with a very small group. I think there was only about eight of us total. To compare it, other tour groups on the Falls had at least forty people. The small group really made the difference. We didn’t have to wait on a bunch of people to catch up, we got to ‘cut’ in front of the big groups for photo ops, and had some personal attention with the tour guide and the DVD maker.
The tour guide had collected our camera at the very beginning and snapped several great pics of us going up the falls. He treated us nice, so we treated him nice, mon.
After the walk up the Falls, we had to walk back down the adjoining stairs to collect our stuff. The gal at the bottom of the falls that watched our bags – yup, she treated us nice, and expected us to treat her nice too, mon.
When we walked back up, we went in search of the DVD booth. Guess what? A kind Jamaican merchant treated us nice and escorted us to the DVD booth. After that, he escorted us over to his shopping booth and presented us with a wooden turtle and carved Carissa’s name in it. Dude wouldn’t let us leave his shop without buying anything. He kept trying to talk Travis into buying a lime green shirt with the Jamaican flag prominently displayed or a neon orange T-shirt with palm trees. (Can you imagine? Totally not Travis at all.) We finally settled on a dolphin shirt for C… for $15. Travis gave the guy a twenty, and Dude threw in another turtle in lieu of our change. Oh well, we were happy with our purchases and more than ready to get out of there!
We took the bus back to Dolphin Cove, took some pictures, did a little shopping, and then rode the bus back towards the pier. The pier area in Ocho Rios has a nice shopping area attached to it. I think next time we dock there, we would be ok just hanging out there rather than another excursion. We spent some money in Del Sol, had Margaritaville for lunch and drinks, bought some cut-rate liquor, and headed back to the ship.
The show tonight was another production by the ship’s singers and dancers. The bad thing tonight was that it was in the Universe Lounge. This lounge was not very conducive to this show. We left early because we just couldn’t see anything.
The good thing about this though was that we found a great little trio band playing in the Wheelhouse Bar. I really wish we would have found them earlier. It was a piano guy, a guy on a cello, and a singer that sounded just like Norah Jones. They were really good and their show was just perfect. Laid back and romantic. Travis had a couple of Guinness beers and I had some gin and tonics while enjoying their sets. .
It turned out to be one of the best nights on board! We'll remember the side shows from now on when we cruise.
Day 10 - October 11 - At sea
Our last day at sea. So sad. Our trip is almost over.
Today, we went to see the culinary demonstration put on by the head chef and maitre d. They prepared a couple of dishes and desserts.
The highlight though was the tour of the galley that followed. It was really cool seeing the huge soup tureens, the salad set-ups, the wine cellar, and all the neat facts and figures they had set up for us to see.
We then had some lunch out by the pool – pizza and hot dogs. Also out by the pool this afternoon was the final scrapheap challenge. At the beginning of the trip, teams were created to see who could gather items around the ship that would allow a case of coke to ‘sail’ across the pool. The teams had gathered up buffet trays, string, balloons, all kinds of junk.
The final snowball bingo was this afternoon. I think we were two numbers away from a pot of $2500. Next time will be our turn to finally win at bingo! Right?
We had to get all of our bags packed up this evening for the room stewards to collect. Booo….
We went to have our last dinner and then enjoyed the Afternoon in Paris Trio and the piano guy in lieu of the formal show.
Ahhh... enjoyment of living the high life!
Day 11 - October 12 - Disembarkation
Time to go home! I could totally understand how that old lady decided to live on a cruise ship rather than a retirement home. True story, google it. That will be me.
Although we were both really sad that our trip was over, we were really excited to get home to our little girl! That was truly the only down side - not being able to see our Carissa Ann everyday. She is certainly first and foremost in our minds. Every port we went to, every time we went to the gift shop - it was always - what would Carissa like?
We had an early bus ride over to the airport for our flight at noon. We even had a little bit of drama at the airport. Some guy was being really rude and nasty to another lady, and this other guy stood up for her. Just a crazy scene where security had to come and everyone had on opinion and was sharing it to security, the Southwest staff, etc.
Very interesting - and I have been on A LOT of flights these past few years! For me to say it was 'interesting' means something!
Anyways... We boarded and flew home. Gathered our luggage. And... Met my mom and dad and... our Carissa Ann.
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What a wonderful trip! This was something we will always remember. It was indeed the perfect mix of history, entertainment, food, sports, theater, relaxation, and education.
Next up.... a another cruise to Cozumel - but this time with Carissa, courtesy of Grandma and Pa!
This next trip will also include Uncle Ryan, Aunt Valerie, Grammy, and Pawpaw! Plus extended family too - Aunt Diane, Uncle David, etc! It should be a great time!
This will be our first time on Carnival. We'll see how it goes. I have gotten just a tad spoiled with the Captain's receptions and all! Hopefully, there will be enough of us to tag along with for the free drinks!
And then.... DISNEY WORLD!! My absolute favorite vacation destination is coming your way mid-June! I can't wait for this one! Disney has some fantastic deals! And, Carissa is all about Mickey Mouse these days!
Just wait 'til I tell you what we have been up to these past few weeks! But, if you've checked out MyPics, you already have a pretty good idea!
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Day 7 - October 8 - Puerto Limon
Limon Costa Rica. We had selected a ‘canopy tour’ for our excursion which means zip-lining through the rainforest! We disembarked and waited for our bus to pick us up.
We went on a half-hour tour of Limon and the surrounding area. The city of Limon itself was kind of dirty and dusty with people everywhere. You could definitely tell it was a port-town – cargo container places were on every corner! But, once we got out of the port area, the country-side was beautiful. You could tell it was rainforest. Everything had a sheen of water on it and was very green!
The road up to the zip-lining tour was pretty bumpy. All the villages in between had a school, a church, and a soccer field. The school in Costa Rica is free to its citizens through college and all students learn up to four languages. Wow!
Once we got to the canopy tour and were outfitted in our helmets and straps, we were both pretty excited. We listened to our instructions and got strapped in and hooked up to go.
Travis did really well. I did… um, not so good.
Here is a quick breakdown of the instruction – You get your safety harness hooked up to the zipline. Then, they hook the other part of your harness to the silver-bracket thing on the line. This is the part that has the rope that you can hang on to. You are supposed to hang on with one hand to this part of the rope, and the other hand you are supposed to have behind you almost resting on the zipline. The zipline hand is supposed to help you stay straight and also act as your brake. When you want to brake, you should begin to gently rest your hand on the line to begin slowing you down.
Sounds simple enough, right? Yeah, I thought so too. Here was my problem: I couldn’t ‘do’ the hand on the zipline thing. I would either get it too close and start to brake, or I wouldn’t get it close enough and start going backwards which would stress me out because we were instructed to not go backwards. And, when I did brake, it was not a slow, gentle stop. Oh no, my arm was almost pulled out of socket. Think of going 30 mph and coming to an abrupt stop. It hurt. It really hurt. And then, when you stop in the middle of the line, there is no going back and the ‘zipping’ will not start up again. You have to literally turn yourself around and pull yourself arm-over-arm to the next landing. All while a tour of people are watching you. And, tapping their feet with impatience. And, thinking ‘Why can’t this girl figure it out? It isn’t hard. People do this on the Amazing Race all the time! There are OLD people out doing this.’
Now, on some of the traverses, you didn’t have to brake at the end. The leader, figuring out that I wasn’t getting it, said that I could just hold onto the harness rope and not worry about the brake hand. Perfect! Loved it after that. As long as I didn’t have to worry about braking, I was fine. I didn’t mind going backwards at all – I was more worried that I was doing it wrong and messing something up.
I think I should have just made up my own rules and gone backwards and not braked at all the whole way through. That hand-eye coordination is not so good for me apparently. I just could not get it and was really embarrassed.
Oh well, I can at least say that I have zip-lined through the rainforest. And, I don’t have to do to again. Ever.
After the ziplining, we took a bus back into town. Limon has a really good flea-market set up right next to the cruise ship dock so we went shopping. We got Carissa a couple of small things, some shot glasses for our collection, a rosary for my mom, more coffee, and a really pretty wooden vase. We scored nicely in Limon on the shopping!
The show tonight was a magician/comedian. He was good, not the best, but ok. The best part of the show though was the newest star – Travis! Yup, even though we were seated about five rows from the back of the theater, the comedian picked him out along with about four other men. He had them put on Village People hats and do YMCA. Then, they had to do the old camp trick where you have to lean on each other and make a table. (Very bad description, but it is all I got!) I tried to take some photos but they didn’t come out very well.
Travis played in the lowball slot tournament tonight where the lowest score wins. He was on the finalist board… for a few minutes. I guess he must have spent some time in the casino because the host knew Travis by name and several of the bar staff knew what he liked to drink! It was nice though actually coming home with what you planned to spend in the casino for once! I found a slot machine that consistently paid off and Travis did really well at three-card poker.
Day 8 - October 9 - At Sea
Finally – a very welcome lazy day at sea. We had done so much the past few days, we were definitely ready for a ‘day off’!
We had scheduled today as our ‘spa’ day. On our embarkation day, our very first stop was to the spa to make our reservation. The spa packages on a cruise ship are ridiculously overpriced, but this was something we both wanted to do and budgeted the cost into our vacation accordingly. Thus, we booked the full Couples Massage package.
We had the first part scheduled this morning at 9am. And, it was fabulous. We were both well-relaxed afterwards and took a break from the spa for lunch. We decided to have lunch in the formal dining room since we hadn’t done that yet. It was very well worth it. I had a wonderful pasta dish and salad while Travis had a bacon cheeseburger. Like a ‘real’ burger, not the frozen, premade patty type that the Lido deck boasts. Yummy.
We went back to the spa for the second part of our package – a Rasul. I’m not going to go into many details on this, we’ll just say it involves lots of mud and lotions and steam.
After the Rasul, it was back to the room for an afternoon nap before getting dressed for another formal dinner. Tonight was lobster night so we both indulged. Overly-indulged is more like it. We each had two full plates of lobster and tiger prawns. Plus appetizer and soup and salad and desserts and wine and coffee. I have no idea how we didn’t gain weight on this trip!
The show tonight starred the Coral Princess Singers and Dancers. It wasn’t bad, but wasn’t spectacular either. We also enjoyed the fabulous piano guy in Crooners Lounge for a little bit and went to bed.
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Day 6 - October 7 - Panama
Panama Canal day! Our alarm was set super early – before the sun even came out! We turned the TV on to wait for the guide to begin giving us the ‘tour’. Once he started and we could see the first lock from our TV screen, we headed up to the ‘secret’ deck on the front of the boat. We got through with no problem and joined the over twenty people or so that knew about it.
It was really neat watching how the locks work and hearing the guide’s descriptions of each step of the process. We went through the three locks of Gatun in the cruise ship and then took anchor in Gatun Lake. We then tendered to the shore for our excursion.
We chose to take a boat through the other two sets of locks – San Felipe and Mira Flores. When will we ever get another chance to go through the whole canal, right? We also had about a 90 minute drive to board the other boat so we got to see the countryside and how the people of Panama live.
The poor people of Panama seem to live a little ‘better’ than the people of Cartagena. They have a good school system and public transportation that uses what we see as school buses. The drive through the town was very interesting and makes you appreciate the roadways of the US!
Before the US relinquished control of the canal to Panama, they had a very strong military presence in the country. We drove through the old military bases and they looked just like the ones here at home. In fact, the port where we picked up the other boat was on one of the bases.
We boarded up and away we went. They had lunch for us on board (not very good), but they did have a bar. We sampled three different types of Panama beer. All were decent, but nothing I need to look for stateside.
Anyway, when we went through the first set of locks, we were ‘docked’ to the side of the canal. It is supposedly ‘good luck’ to touch the sides of the canal. We made the attempt, but couldn’t quite reach the side from the boat! It was quite a different experience being on a smaller boat going through the locks. Very neat indeed to see how the gates close and how the water is let in and out to raise/lower the vessels.
When we approached the last set, we were delayed for what seemed like a very long time. We were waiting on another boat that was docked to make its way in the line. Very mismanaged and inefficient – I can’t imagine how much money was lost!
The other boat finally made its way over to the lock. We tied up to their boat rather than the canal this time which made for another different experience.
We finally made it through the last set of locks and were in the Pacific Ocean. We passed under the Bridge of the Americas, and we had a great view of Panama City which has a really pretty skyline. The port area seemed very wealthy just judging by the boats docked and also the high-end restaurants and boutique shops.
We had another 90 minute drive back to the boat. Since the third lock took so much longer than expected, the tour guides were very anxious about getting us back to the boat on time. They even coordinated a police escort for us! It was surreal. We were cutting people off, honking, and being just very rude tourists!
We did get to the boat in just enough time though to rush through a few shops that they had on the pier and buy a few disappointing mementos.
The internet on the ship was finally working so we were able to check email for a Carissa update. It sounded like she was having a great time with her Pa and Grandma.
For dinner, I had a yummy salmon steak and Travis had a rib-eye. We had a late dinner so we skipped out on the show, played in the casino for a little bit, and came on back to the room. We were exhausted after a very full day!
Travis fell asleep during the game, but I found the Sex and the City Movie on the TV! Great ending to a fun and interesting (but busy) day!
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Day 5 - October 6 - Cartagena
Cartagena, Colombia is a city of over one million people. And, neither Travis nor I had ever heard of it before. Bogota, the country’s capital in the mountains has over eight million people! We took a city tour excursion today to learn more about the town and the country.
When we woke up this morning, we could see a lush, green land outside our balcony. The ships apparently take an inland cut similar to our intercoastal canal to dock in Cartagena. It was really cool to be lying in bed watching a gorgeous coastline go by out your window!
We off-loaded the ship and away we went with Jose our guide. We learned that the Spanish began construction on a military wall and multiple fortresses along the coast to protect the city from other European nations and pirates. Our first stop on the tour was Fort San Felipe. Construction began on the Fort in 1536 and lasted over one hundred years! It is amazing to think that we walked along the same paths that have been there for almost five hundred years.
After Fort San Felipe, we were dropped off at a flea market that was actually the former military barracks for some shopping. We got some little trinkets and some coffee. The vendors in Colombia are pretty bad – very “in your face”. You could generally tell them no thank you, though and they would leave you alone.
We continued on to the monastery La Popa. La Popa is on the highest hill in Catagena. We could actually see the building from our boat and throughout the city. La Popa is also still an active monestary and church and, once a year, the people of the city go on a pilgrimage up the hill to La Popa to give their respects. According to the guide, it ends up being more of a party than a pilgrimage though!
The view from La Popa was gorgeous. We could see the newer, metropolitan areas of the city, the fortress that we had just visited, the sea, and the ‘Old City’.
We then had a stop where we walked through the ‘Old City’. Gorgeous Spanish-influenced architecture. Lots of restoration happening too which is always nice to see. We went to the Church of San Pedro Calver for a short tour. We saw the Simon Bolivar Square and the Inquisition Palace. We stopped for a display of Colombian traditional songs and dances where we got to sample Colombian beer!
We then went to the central shopping area, Bocogrande, where the emeralds were. The guide said that everything would be priced in Colombia pesos and the conversion was about 2000 pesos to one American dollar. I tried on a pretty bracelet that was priced at what I thought was 2800 pesos. Oh no, it was 2800 dollars! I literally laughed at the saleslady! It looked like something I could get at Kohl's for $50! Off it went right away. Travis did buy some cigars at this market which turned out to be his new favorite – too bad he can’t find them in the States!
This was the last stop of the tour, and we headed back the ship. Cartagena was a very neat town. Very poor in some areas, but you could see the wealth in others and even a middle-class. The guide and bus-driver were very proud of their country. It was interesting to hear about their politics and what they thought of neighboring Venezuela! I really enjoyed Cartagena.
It was Italian night in the dining room. I had a delicious veal and Travis had something he can’t remember. I also stuck with having my cold fruity soup. It is almost like having an ‘umbrella’ drink! I should have asked for a shot of rum alongside it!
We saw a tribute to Frank Sinatra this evening that was good, but could really have used some more work. The guy that did the show has a lounge act every night where he is just excellent so I’m not sure why his ‘head-line’ show wasn’t very good. Maybe the ‘big’ stage was too much for just a guy on a piano? Maybe part of what makes the ‘lounge-act’ so good is the interaction with the people?
We headed back to the room so Travis could watch Monday Night Football. We wanted to get to bed early because we were supposed to pick up our Panama Canal pilot by 5:15am and hit the first lock by 6:30am!
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Day 3 - October 4 - At sea
Another wonderful day at sea. This morning, I went up to the buffet and brought breakfast back to the room. Frosted Flakes and oatmeal again. (We are nothing if not predictable!)
We played a game a Scrabble with a lovely lady from Indiana. I really enjoyed playing with her because she liked using the dictionary like I do when I play! (Heehee!) But, the best thing about this lady is that she give me the trick on how to ‘fix’ the buffet’s coffee. The coffee in the buffet is not brewed – it is actually syrup based. I know, ew. It is very strong and tar-like in color. She suggested half coffee/half hot water. Perfect! The only problem in my cruise was solved!
We ended up spending the rest of the day out by the pool. Travis did some water volleyball while I enjoyed the hot tub and cold beer. We forewent the fancy dinner and show tonight and ended up having pizza and hot dogs out by the pool. We then capped off our day with some crown and cigars on our balcony.
It was a great way to finish off a great day at sea!
Day 4 - October 5 - Aruba
This was our first stop – Aruba. I honestly wasn’t too impressed. Maybe I had it hyped up in my mind too much or something, but I was disappointed in Aruba.
We got off the boat right away at about 8am, but the shops didn’t open until 9:30. If I were a merchant right off the pier, I would be sure to be open whenever there was a boat in port!
Right off the dock is a strip of stores that reminded me of Cozumel. High-end boutiques, purse stores, diamond stores, leather, etc. Again, nothing open.
There was one flea-market type shop open, and I bought a pretty little carved wooden vase for myself and a T-shirt for Carissa. The lady wouldn’t negotiate though which I guess is her prerogative when she is the only one with a shop open!
We went ahead and came back on the boat and had some breakfast overlooking the harbor. Omelets for both of us today. And, I’m surprised we didn’t have them again because they were delicious! Neither of us are big breakfast eaters though so I guess that had something to do with it.
We came back to the room and waited for the time to be right to meet up for our excursion. Travis selected the Atlantis submarine and it was a great choice. We rode on a transfer boat called the SubSeeker over to the sub and boarded up on the Atlantis submarine.
The Aruban reef descends very rapidly. So rapidly that only one side of the sub could see it at a time. It was wild. We saw all different types of colorful fish, coral, a sea turtle, a barracuda, and an eel. They also had two sunken boats that we saw before descending to the bottom of the ocean floor at a depth of 134 feet.
It was crazy watching the reef change the further down you went. The reef needs sunlight and warm water so the deeper it gets, the less activity you see. The ocean also ‘sucks’ out the color as evidenced by some demonstrations the crew did by turning our cabin lights on and off.
It was a great excursion and I would recommend it. Carissa would really have liked it.
The Aruban port was only a half-day off the boat so we were back on board by about noon. We had a lite lunch of chips and salsa and guacamole from the Mexican-themed buffet and watched a movie called Jumper on the ship’s TV that afternoon. (It was really terrible – don’t waste your time.)
After the movie, I took a nap while Travis went to the casino. He apparently likes three card poker now, and has actually won money playing it.
We had an early dinner reservation at 5:30pm. The menu selection tonight was not very good-sounding. I think they try to make it sound way too fancy. Anyway, tonight I had swordfish and Travis had shrimp. My favorite tonight was the peach bellini soup and Trav’s was likely the tiramisu and gelato.
We went to see the singer this evening followed by a gameshow called Majority Rules. We also really enjoyed the ‘pre-gameshow’ entertainment – a piano player and violin player from the Ukraine. They were awesome, probably one of the better acts on board.
Back to the casino we went and played some slots. We still walked away with some money but not as much as we wanted to!
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