EXCURSION DAYS!

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. 😉

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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.