Virtual Cruise; Day 5, Tuesday, December 6

Today is our first port of call and it is in Falmouth Jamaica. This is an old port that has recently been revitalized with the help of Royal Caribbean. The port is on the north side of Jamaica and is about half way between Montego Bay and Ocho Rios. The port itself is triangle in shape and is fenced in so the cruise passengers can shop and enjoy without tons of locals pawning their wares.

Falmouth Jamaica Port

8:00 am
Up and at it. We catch a peek of the port out of our cabin window and hurry to get ready to go up on deck to watch us dock.

8:30 am
We head to deck #12 to get a good view of the docking process. It is impressive to watch the ships officers back this huge ship right into place like it was a compact car. Kind of neat to watch the ship staff member hanging off the back of the ship guiding the ship in and throwing ropes to the dock workers who tie them to the dock.

This is called "Stud in Paradise"

9:00 am
After watching these dock workers, I have worked up an appetite. Must be time for breakfast. We head back to the buffet today but meander to the Island Grill as they have an omelette station and a fried eggs station. Why did it take us 3 days to discover this?!! Today we partake in the fried eggs because I don't want to wait for the omelette to cook. Lazy, I know but I am hungry. So, 2 over-easy fried eggs, bacon, corned beef hash (notice a pattern here?) and toast. That should hold me for a while.

10:30 am
We have not purchased a shore excursion today. There are a couple that we like but just wanted to see the port and try some things on the ship that we have not done yet. We exit the ship and just browse some of the shops that are in the port area. We are not looking to buy anything specific but just a couple trinkets for the kids.

11:45 am
Ship is very empty so we head back on and decide to check out the hot tubs to make sure they are functioning properly. Don’t even have to get out to get a drink as the waiters come right up to the hot tubs and bring you drinks. Life could be a lot worse than this.

1:30 pm
Now that I am as wrinkled as a raisin, it is time to get out and move on to something else. Lunch might be a good thing now.

2:30 pm
To my own shock, I do the unthinkable and visit the salad bar at a buffet. My #1 rule at a buffet is to never waste stomach space with salad. However, I have had some good food and figure a salad is not going to hurt me every now and again. Ok, 1 salad for the week will be enough!! I try the various lunch meats and make a nice sandwich and a salad.

3:00 pm
Just enough room for a chocolate ice cream cone!

3:15 pm
Time to rest now that I ate all that food and ice cream. Head to the top deck for some sun.

4:30 pm

Rock Climbing Wall on Deck #13

Ever since I reserved my space on this trip, I have been planning to try to climb the rock-climbing wall. I have been watching people do this all week and just have not attempted it with the strong winds we have had. Today is relatively calm and no one is climbing now so let’s go for it!! Horse was hoping that I would forget about climbing but here we are. We decide to go at different times so we can watch each other and take pictures. I go first and I ask the staff member about how far up I can go and still have some self respect if I have to quit. He simply replies, “the top of the wall and ring the bell.” Thanks buddy. So up I go and the climbing is pretty easy at first. You have to remember to use your legs to push yorself up and not use your arms to pull up. That is vital because I get about 8 feet from the top and my arms are now shaking because I pull up more than push up with my feet. I refuse to quit and keep pressing on and finally get to the top and ring the bell, twice!! I hang out up there for a couple seconds and yell, “ I am king of the world” much to the delight of the little old ladies sitting below watching me climb. This was a way cool thing to do and I am really glad I did it.

Spiderman, move over!

Now, it is Horse’s turn to climb. He starts up the wall and gets about 3 feet up and does not use one of the cleats on the wall for his foot but uses a “bump” in the wall. He attempts to push off and slips so down he goes. Hits the ground and backs up against the wall and comes to a stop. Head down, looks around to see if I noticed and the answer is yes as I am laughing really hard now. His second attempt is much better and he makes it up the wall and rings the bell a couple times. He does not stick his landing and stumbles again but we won’t make fun of him for that, will we? I am very proud of my dad and thrilled that he is willing to do some of these things with me and really enjoys them too.

Horse ringing the bell at the top!

6:00 pm
We got our showers and dressed and ready for the shows and dinner. But first we head back up on deck to watch us pull out of port.

7:00 pm
Tonight we have tickets to the Ice Odyssey Show which is in the ice skating rink on deck #2. This is an amazing thing to comprehend on a floating vessel at sea! Along with the regular cast of ship’s skaters from around the world, there is a special guest star from Russia who does a hula hoop routine. It was amazing with up to 8 or 10 hoops at one time and she moves them up and down her body without using her hands! So amazing that I forgot to take pictures!! The whole show is very enjoyable and the skaters are really good with some being past Olympians or World Champion skaters.

 Ice Odyssey Show

8:00 pm
Again, I worked up an appetite just watching other people doing things! Tonight’s dinner choice is Beef and veal ravioli for a starter, steak for the main entree, some birthday cake and strawberry ice cream for dessert. One of our fellow travel agents celebrated a birthday so we had some cake for him tonight. I have incriminating pictures of people partaking in the alcohol “shot of the day” in celebration of the birthday. The pictures might end up on our facebook page or they can disappear for the right fee. (You know who you are and how to get a hold of me)

Happy Birthday!

9:30 pm
Time to walk a couple laps around the deck to walk off the wonderful dinner. Boy, 4 days in and still have not had one single food item that I could complain about. The food has been tremendous.

10:00 pm
We are walking through the Promenade on deck #5 when we hear laughing and singing coming from a lounge on deck #4. We make our way down there and find the entertainer named Matt Yee doing his bit. He does an “adult themed sing along” show and really packs a crowd. He will sing anything from tv show theme songs to popular hits and really gets the crowd involved. You should not attend his show and not want to participate in the act. He will stop in the middle of a song and call you out, all in good fun of course.

11:00 pm
We make our way just steps across the hall to the main theater to watch another comedian named Matt Bruner. He has some really funny and entertaining stories and the crowd really enjoys his show.

12 Midnight
Had a really fun filled day but it is now time to hit the sack as we have a big day planned for Grand Cayman tomorrow!!

Ice Cream Cone-a-thon update: 1 more cone today! This is just sad! The total is now 3 cones through 4 days so it looks like the record of 25 cones in a week is not going to fall.