Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Sunday, November 10, 2019

Probably the most popular activity at the port of Ocho Rios is climbing Dunns River Falls. This was something we had done on our very first cruise way back in 2002. Now we are 17 years older and smart enough to know that climbing a waterfall may not end well for us at this stage of life.

For this visit, we decided to repeat the tour that we did on our last visit in 2005 when we cruised with our young adult kids...river tubing. Jamaica is one port where I feel more comfortable with a planned excursion and booking a tour through HAL seemed a good way to use up some of our onboard credits.

The morning was a little more relaxed since our tour wasn't to begin until 10:30 am. We had breakfast with Jon and Michelle and then walked down the very long dock to where all of the ship excursions were to meet.

There were about 20 of us altogether on the tour run by Chukka and the group filled a small bus. The drive to the river took us on steep and sometime one lane roads with hairpin turns...a little bit of a thrill ride in itself.

We were dropped off at a small gift shop where we were fitted with helmets and life jackets and encouraged to use the restroom so we wouldn't change the "flavor" of the water. Bob rented a small locker which the four of us shared for stuff like our wallets and phones.

From there we were bused a short distance to where we would begin tubing...at an old stone bridge built in the 1700's. There was a stairway leading down the steep hill to the river and it was pretty easy to just flop down into the tube as the guide held onto it.

1700's bridge.

The tubes had handles and had been fitted with plywood bottoms (so no worries about scraping rocks in shallow water). Most of the time we were allowed to float freely, but before each set of rapids there would was a cable strung across the river and we were instructed to grab hold and wait until the guides got there. They would then make sure that we were headed through the deeper parts of the fast, flowing water. A couple of times we got hung up on rocks or fallen trees, but the guides were quick to come and pull us free.

A Tubing Selfie

I enjoyed every minute of the time we were on the river and it was so much better than what I remembered from our tour 14 years ago with our kids. I think perhaps the last time I was in "nervous mom mode" and couldn't fully enjoy the experience.

A photo from 2005. Watching my boys cliff jumping did not make for a relaxing day.

But this time was different...the water was crystal clear and the current was swift enough that it carried us along without paddling. I just laid back in my tube and enjoyed the giant stands of bamboo and other flowers along the banks...all under a bright blue sky. The guides serenaded us with their songs as we floated along.

A section of rapids.

Banner across river.

Giant bamboo.

Our time on the river lasted about an hour and I believe we covered about 3 miles in distance. Towards the end we had people zip-lining above our heads!

Our tubing ended when we made it back to a path that lead to the gift shop where we started. After turning in our helmets and life jackets, there was enough time to shop in the store or purchase some food. There were photographers along the river while we were tubing and you could purchase a CD of the photographs if you wished.

Bobby in the bamboo on the path back back to the gift shop!

Suspension bridge leading over the river to the gift shop.

While others in the group were shopping, I wandered around the grounds taking photos of some of the colorful flowers. I made an effort to also take a mental picture that I could remember once we returned home to a long and cold winter.

It was 2:15 when we returned and walked back down the long dock to the ship. The Dive In was open so we could have gotten burgers there, but instead Jon suggested we do afternoon tea instead. We stopped by our cabin first to drop off stuff and do a very quick clean-up and then met at the dining room when it opened at 3 pm.

Interesting. This sign was posted right next to the gangplank!

Right away I noticed some changes from when we have done "tea time" in the past. Instead of being offered a selection of tea bags, we were given small pots with black tea already brewed. Then a 3-tiered stand was placed in the middle of the table with an assortment of small sandwiches and pastries for us all to share. I am not embarrassed to say that we finished off the first one and were brought a second stand which we also finished. I didn't feel too guilty because very few people had shown up for tea so I'm sure they had leftovers.

It wasn't much more than a snack, but we left the dining room with our immediate hunger satisfied but not so full that we couldn't enjoy our dinner in just a few hours.

I stopped by the Future Cruise Desk to see if they had any copies of the HAL Cruise Atlas, but they didn't. The consultant (who really didn't seem all that interested in selling cruises) said they were supposed to have received 20 cases of the booklets, but they hadn't arrived. I did pick up a form to order a couple more Future Cruise Deposits (FCD'S) for longer cruises. Maybe wishful thinking, but I enjoyed our last two longer cruises so much that I am hoping there will be more in our future.

While I had stopped at the future cruise desk, Bob had managed to disappear. I went back to the room by myself and realized that in the rush to get to tea, I had left my key card in the room. Ugghhh. I walked back to the front of the ship and up a flight of stairs to guest services to get another key made.

While I was waiting in line, a well-dressed couple was there complaining that SOMEONE had come into their cabin and turned down their thermostat and claimed it was so cold they couldn't stand to be in the room. The man was sure their room steward wouldn't have done it and was DEMANDING to know who else had been in the cabin while they were gone. The gal at guest services kept her cool and informed him that various people (such as the minibar guy, etc.) could have entered but they had no record of who it might be.

I was able to get my key made and the guy was still there having a fit when I left. This was only one of several instances where we overheard passengers complaining and making a big deal over something that was not really that important. I wanted to shout at them..."You are on a cruise!! Be happy and quit complaining!!" But of course I didn't. Instead I went out of my way to be nice and thank the crew as much as possible.

I got back to my room and just like the first day...the new key card didn't work. Back to guest services and got another card made. I'm sure the guy that made the card thought I was inept so he offered to come back to my room to "help" me. Unfortunately the second card didn't work either but I did feel a little better knowing that at least it wasn't just me! He was able to use his pass card to open the door, but when I tested my old card (the one I had forgotten in the room) it still worked even though he said it had been deactivated. I waited in the room while he went back and made a 3rd card which he tested and found it worked. Are you keeping track? This is now SIX cards that I have had made in five days. But stay tuned...this wasn't the end of the key card saga.

I stayed in the room and worked at backing up my photos onto my external hard drive using my Rav Power Filehub. Bob eventually returned. He had stopped to work on one of the jigsaw puzzles in the library.

An almost full moon over Ocho Rios as the ship pulled away from the dock.

Now that we had an assigned dining time and table, we just met up with Jon and Michelle in the dining room. Oka, our waiter, greeted us by name each night and after a couple of nights always knew that Jon wanted a cup of tea with dessert, Michelle wanted regular coffee and I wanted decaf. Bob kept him guessing...some nights he would also get tea and other times nothing.

With only four at our table, we were able to finish dinner in time to get to the theater at least 30 minutes before the evening entertainment at 7:30...some nights even earlier. I hated the seating in the theater. The bench seating was some of the most uncomfortable ever. The individual chairs in the front couple of rows were a little more comfortable and by getting there early we could usually get one of those seats. We (meaning me, Bob and Michelle) all had the game "Wordscapes" on our phones and we occupied ourselves with the app. When we would get stuck, we would just trade phones and hopefully someone could figure out the missing word.

Robbie Howard, a vocal impressionist, was on stage in the theater. He was a pretty good entertainer and was able to do a decent job impersonating some of the great singers. By the end, he had everyone in the theater up on their feet singing along to "Sweet Caroline!"

Sweet Caroline sing-a-long with Robbie Howard.

After the show we played a round of the Wizards card game which takes about an hour. The next day would be a sea day so it was nice to go to bed without setting an alarm.

Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Friday – Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Each morning I would flip on the cabin TV to check out the latest news on the impending Northwest Airlines mechanics’ strike. The strike was set for Saturday, August 20th and I was concerned how this was going to affect our flight home on Sunday, the 21st. On Friday it wasn’t the strike news that caught my attention however. The headline news that morning was that a tornado had struck Stoughton, Wisconsin…one person was killed and a large part of the city had been destroyed. My daughter-in-law is from that area and her parents, brother and sister live there.

I called the oldest son's cabin and told him to turn on the TV immediately. My daughter-in-law could tell from watching the news coverage that the damage was in the neighborhood where her parents lived and she was frantic. We were scheduled to meet up with Phil Lafayette for a tour a half an hour after the ship docked so I told her to wait and call from shore rather than trying to use a ship phone. A representative for Phil was waiting for us at the end of the dock and I explained our situation. She showed daughter-in-law where to buy a phone card and also the location of the pay phones. I’m sorry we held up the tour a bit that day, but I know that I would have understood if it had been someone else. The phone call home brought good news…no damage to her parent’s home, even though homes only a block away had been destroyed. Daughter-in-law was greatly relieved and able to enjoy the rest of her day in Ocho Rios.

Leaving the dock area at Ocho Rios we were loaded into one van and then transported a short distance to where we switched vans. This time we were with Phil Lafayette who was to be our guide for the day. Our tour started with Phil driving us around the Ocho Rios area showing us a school, an affluent area in the hills where we had a great view of the ship and also a small “kitchen garden” along side a country road. As we walked through the garden, Phil would stop and tell us stories about the different plants and let us smell some that had unique fragrances. 

Phil Lafayette, our guide for the day.

There was a woodcarver’s stand right next to the garden and a few people made purchases before getting back into the van to continue the tour. Three years ago we had done a tour of Ocho Rios with Peat Taylor and had visited the very same place.

Eventually we came to the place where we were to do the river tubing. Not all of the people on the tour chose to do the tubing…probably about half of 20 people or so. We walked down a set of rustic stairs to the river and got into our tubes. There were a couple of guides helping us since the river was flowing fairly swiftly at this point. My sister chose not to do the tubing so she and the others who didn’t take part left with Phil. She said he drove them around to see additional sites and then they met us at the take-out point for the tubing.

Tubing down the river gave you the feeling you were a million miles away from civilization. The forest provided a thick canopy that covered the river. The current was fast enough to provide a bit of excitement, but not so swift that it seemed scary. The tubes were fitted with a wooden “bottom” that provided some protection from rocks in the shallower waters. At times one of us would get carried over to the side of the river and get hung up on a branch or a rock. Within moments a guide would be there to help free us and send us on our way down the river.

After floating for some time, the guides motioned for us to go over to the side and get out of the water. We walked up to the top of a small cliff where some young boys were jumping into the river. My family wasn’t going to miss out on this opportunity so Bob and the kids all took their turn jumping off the cliff into the river below. This frightened me since there were rocks jutting out of the water nearby. My first thought was…” I wonder if there is a hospital nearby?” And if this didn’t cause enough worry, my oldest son did a flip off the cliff! Once the daredevils were finished, we climbed back into our tubes and floated down the river to where Phil and the others in our group were waiting.

There was no place to change out of our wet swimsuits, but Phil had plastic seat covers in his van so it wasn’t a big problem. Except for our family, all of the others in the van were going to climb Dunn’s River Falls next. We had done this previously and decided we would pass on it this time. Phil offered to take us to a beach to hang out until the others were done with the falls, but instead we opted to be dropped off at Island Village and then just walk back to the ship. My sister wasn’t feeling well so Phil took her directly to the ship.

Island Village near the cruise ship dock.

Shopping in the “Island Village” we felt very safe but it was also much more “touristy” than our shopping experience in the craft village on our last visit to Ocho Rios. We browsed through the shops and also stopped in at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. Prior to the cruise we had all found the “lost shakers of salt” on the Margaritaville website and had coupons for free margaritas. Besides the drinks we ordered some buffalo wings and nachos to share. It was relatively calm and quiet in the upstairs of Margaritaville where we sat…downstairs loud music played and guests danced through the building in conga lines. Margaritaville boasts a slide going from the second floor down to the pool below. After finally getting dry from our river tubing, we opted to not try the slide.

Island Village is just a short walk from the ship. Upon returning it was too late for lunch, but too early for dinner so middle son and I grabbed a hotdog from the grill on the Lido deck. It was good, but would have been better if some toppings were available…I had my heart set on grilled onions! I think they were in the process of closing up so nothing extra was set out. As I look back, I think I only remember getting hot food from the buffet in the Mediterranean Restaurant one time…at breakfast. Otherwise I just grabbed cold Danish for breakfast, a sandwich from the deli, the hotdog from the grill or pizza. Most of our lunches and dinners were eaten in the Pacific Dining room where we could relax and be waited on!

Ocho Rios

It is a long walk from the ship to shore in Ocho Rios.

Passengers returning to the ship at the end of the day.

Friday night was the second of the formal nights. Once again…it was a treat for me to see my family looking so spiffy and even better is that they enjoyed it too and didn’t whine and complain about getting dressed up! 

The show that night was “Vroom”…a montage of rock and roll songs throughout the years. It started with a movie about some guy on a motorcycle which I thought was strange, but the live show was pretty good.

The Grand Gala Buffet was also held on Friday night. On our Paradise cruises, the gala buffet was held in one of the formal dining rooms. On the Victory the buffet was set up in the buffet area of the Mediterranean Restaurant…not quite as classy in my opinion. Bob, sister and I sat and watched them assemble the large ice sculpture of the sea monster and arrange all of the food displays to perfection. 

Instead of standing in line to actually eat the food, Bob got a tuna sandwich at the deli and I got some pizza and then we finished with an ice cream cone.. By the end of the week we were starting to crave “common, down to earth” food!