Monday and Tuesday were port days.  Again we were up early each of these days (one day Emily skipped the gym and one day I did).  We had breakfast in the Coral Dining room every day of our trip but the last.  Here, the hostess grew to recognize us and knew we were not up to sharing a table at that hour of the morning.  [For those of you who have never cruised, you possibly don’t know that table sharing is not only offered, it is pretty much expected; although that trend seems to be waning some in the cruise industry.  We DID enjoy our dinner companions at the table for six we signed up for when booking the cruise.  I will share more about that in the dining post.  For breakfast, however, we eschewed the idea as for the most part, we were in post-work out condition.]

Monday we visited Georgetown, Grand Cayman. 

This is a “Tender Port.”  No, that doesn’t mean it is soft and gentle and cries during commercials.  It means the ship doesn’t dock in any sense of the word.  It sort of parks itself out in the ocean and you use boats to get ashore.  Some people loathe this type of shuttle, and for folks with mobility issues it’s a legitimate barrier.  It was the first time I had ever tendered ashore, and it worked out well for me. 

An orange life boat was acting as the tender.  See if next to the cruise ship in the 4th picture.  That cruise ship is a MONSTER!
 

We lolled around in a commerce/port area for about an hour tapping into the free Wi-Fi.  Free = glitchy.  But still, we got to touch base with our families and I was encouraged to hear Sunday had gone so well for them.  (It was set up to be a crazy day for them all.)

After some time we boarded an air conditioned shuttle bus and drove to a section of the island’s Seven Mile Beach for our afternoon. 

This excursion was rather inexpensive, and didn’t include much.  But it was exactly what we were after and perfect all the way around.  The excursion included round-trip transportation, a lounge chair, and umbrella, and one non-alcoholic drink.  Our beach area was in front of a dive place called Calico Jack’s, which also served food if you wanted to.  Their beach house wasn’t any yuckier than any public beach house in the US I’ve been to.  And the beach was magnificent. 

(this above one is a photo I found online)

Can you see the cruise ships in the distance?  There were only two ships in port this day.  We were told by our shuttle driver that some days there are seven ships in port and that touring/beaching going can be far less enjoyable on those days. 

The water was almost as warm as the air, and I think it was about 84-86 degrees out. 

I spent more time in the water than any other beach I have ever been to.  I think you can see why.  Smooth sand, no grass, and level for a long distance.  There was a small group of tiny fishies that hung out near where we would enter and exit the water.  I failed to take a photo. 

At 2:00 P.M. or so we headed back to our ship and finished out the day by the pool, and then began our nightly preening ritual.  😉

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Tuesday found us in port in Ocho Rios, Jamaica.  It was slightly overcast and rain was threatened.

For reasons we still have yet to figure out we somehow got off the ship at 7:36 A.M.  It was sprinkling, and our excursion didn’t start until 9:15 A.M.  Ocho Rios is NOT known for it’s gentle welcome of tourists, so we did an about-face and got back on the ship for a lesiurely second breakfast in the Coral dining room.  (We had previously grabbed something in the not-so-delicious Caribe Cafe buffet line.)

We disembarked again around 8:40 A.M. and proceeded to bus loop where we checked in with our tour operator.  But not before taking some photos. 

↑↑ *Sister ship, Coral Princess*

We booked our excursion though resortforaday, a broker for island resorts throughout the Caribbean.  It allowed us a day-pass (but not a day room) in a well-reviewed local all-inclusive resort.  I’m not sure how it got the glowing reviews it got, although it was far from hideous.  It DID cost about twice as much as the Grand Cayman excursion, but there were no other beach excursions we could find that sounded good.  And neither of us wanted to swim with sea creatures (just WHY is that so popular??), nor zip-line through the jungle.  This area is also not great for self-guided tours for people like Emily and I.  So – this really WAS a good idea, and it wasn’t horrible.  It just didn’t warrant the grand reviews you find online.

The beach was gross.  While the sand was flour-soft, it had gobs of small rocks imbedded in it, and the water was so sandy.  There was zero chance of us sitting in the surf as we had enjoyed the day before.  The customer service was also seriously lacking.  And while we were welcome to have all the alcohol we wanted (um, I guess technically we did have all that we wanted – which was none), the mocktails that were available were more or less slushies like you get at Target. 

What DID hugely rock was their buffet.  The food was better than anything we found on the ship’s buffets, and rivaled the dining room, as well.  It was just excellent.

It helped redeem the resort a bit, honestly.

At 2 P.M. we headed back to the ship (Emily and I steadfastly refused the opportunity to shop that the driver so earnestly offered us.)
And we took more photos.

We headed back onboard and soaked up one last hour of sun before starting the evening routine.

The first day on the ship found us doing some light exploration, but mostly we just hurried to the sun deck (where I whacked my head…)

The first full day at sea, Sunday, was almost exclusively committed to sun-deck time.  We found seats on Deck 16 and settled in for some reading.  I had brought my Bible and a few books to read.  I also had my iPhone with downloaded Adventures in Odyssey and sermons by Chuck Swindoll and John MacArthur. 

After an hour or so, we moved to a more mid-ship location near the Calypso Pool.  This turned out to be a very wise move as it steadily became obvious that the Neptune Pool was the more wild-and-silly pool (although not ever THAT wild nor silly). 

We not only moved aft, but also moved UP, as in up two flights of stairs to what I guess would be labeled Deck 18… or at least 17½.  It was a smallish area way-way-up with outstanding views of the ocean, and a great breeze.

This picture was around 4PM on Sunday.  While it had never been overfull, the other guests had started to bail when the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up.  Emily and I waited until a sprinkle started and then headed off our perch.

She found some popcorn and I grabbed a milkshake. 

And although the sun came back out, we headed to our cabin to get ready for formal night.

If you are keeping track you might notice I’m not mentioning much about evening activities.  That is because they stunk.  We missed even seeing any shows the first two nights because the productions were at 7:30PM and 10PM.  The 7:30 shows were too early as our dinner barely finished by then, and the 10 P.M. shows were after we were in bed.  Really.  The first night we were in bed at 8:46 P.M.  I’m not making that up.  We read for a while and called it a night.  The second night was much the same.  The third night we TRIED to watch the 8 P.M. show, but ended up walking out.  It was horrible beyond description.  Off-key, tawdry, LOUD.  This is us before the show started trying to take a good selfie…

If only the show had been as much fun…  We were in bed by 9 and read until about 10.

The fourth night we did see a comedian.  His act was probably about 75 minutes, and I’d fairly say 73 minutes were completely family friendly.  Some families may even have been okay with the two minutes I count out, too.  I wish I could remember his name.  We were laughing so hard we were crying.

The fifth night Emily went to bed early, after we had packed up most of our stuff, and I headed out to the deck to watch Maleficent.  I genuinely enjoyed the movie.  I wish it hadn’t been slated for 10 P.M. (I missed the 7:30 show with dinner.) 

The ship was really rocking and rolling that night.  As I waited for the movie to begin, many of the uninhabited lounge chairs lurched back and forth across the deck, and the water sloshed out of the Calypso Pool.  All the chairs were filled by the time the movie started.

That’s not to say the rest of the ship didn’t have stuff to offer, but we aren’t bar or casino people.  We are dessert people, though.  We did manage to head there once or twice before bed.