DAY 4: JAMAICA

So here we are, Day 4 and it's time for Jamaica Mon. I set the wake up call for 6am. This is what I woke up to from our balcony.

Off to the normal breakfast we went to battle with the others to fight for our right to eat. Once breakfast was done, we sat around waiting for them to clear customs. I have to say this ship is a little on the "S-L-O-W" side on everything they did (and not just serving food).

While we waited, the hubby and Sakari decided to play ping pong. This seems to be a ritual with them while waiting to get off the ship. Sakari happily wins ever match there will probably never be a day that daddy will able to hit her balls. wink wink.

They finally said we were clear to start leaving the ship around 8:15. I look out toward the port and this is what you see...

Um not very appealing right? It looks like some warehouse district with commercial buildings. Definitely not the look of paradise and a very ugly view. There is a poster HERE that had pictures of the port and it didn't look that bad. Much nicer than our view for sure. I almost thought we had docked in the wrong part of Jamaica.

We got off of the ship to a black topped fenced area and went into a building there. People would stop you in the building and ask what you were doing today and if you had a sponsored tour. If you didn't, they told you to go in one line, if you did, they told you to go in another area. We stood there and stood there and I was beginning to wonder if we were in a line that was for people that were just going to hang out in Jamaica. We had an excursion, it just wasn't with NCL. After waiting a good 20 minutes, I finally got out of line to confirm that we were in the correct line to begin with. All the other lines were moving and leaving and getting into buses outside the building. They would leave, more would fill up, they would leave...and here we are standing in a pointless line still.

Of course the minute that I got out of line to inquire about things, our line moved and I lost my place. When I jumped back in line with the hubby and daughter, who was letting people ahead of them waiting on me, they closed the rope off again and stopped the crowd. I was pretty frustrated with myself after this. We waited some more while others went ahead of us from the other lines.

Finally our line moved again and into a bus we all piled. We went around the buildings and in a gravel area for a short 2 minute drive if that. Here they would drop us off at the "other" port where the Carnival ship was docked. Um ok. The driver along the way would ask for "tips" for a service we were pretty much forced to take in order to get out of the port area we were in.

Here you walk through another building that has little stores with things for sale.

You exit out on the other side and into grassy area with the street in the middle and vans coming in and out of the fenced gate. When we ask about our tour, we were told to cross the street and wait over on the other side where the excursion people were standing.

Once we crossed the street area, we found our excursion person and we were told to wait some more in the grassy area.

Of course while we are standing there, my husband and another guy strikes up a conversation only to find out that they are in the same line of business and then it was nothing but business talk the rest of the time. We waited for awhile before it was finally time for us to leave.

We were told to make sure that we are one of the first ones off the boat so that they could leave by 9:15am, but we actually ended up pulling away at 9:00am. I hope we didn't leave anyone.

We had about a 30 minute ride to our place of destination.

Along the way I was taking pictures of course (the best I could in a moving vehicle). 

Would you get a load of the prices of gas over there? (and we complain about the gas prices here...pffff). Just kidding, everyone knows this is Jamaican $$ 

The airport located right by the water was beautiful. I caught a plane coming in.

There were openings here and there along the way showing the beautiful Caribbean water

There were all kinds of signs warning you about different things.

Well I guess we were in Montego Bay after all.

Finally we arrived at our destination......drum roll please: Hilton Rose Hall Resort. Yes, it lived up to its "Hilton" name.

To read my full review of this place and our day there...go to the tab below and click.

This is the ugly view of the port to the left.

We made it back to our port and Spongebob was there to great us back to the port. Spongbob makes everything all better. I completely forgot about my day......or not.

I snapped a few pictures on the way back to the ship hoping to figure out which opening was our balcony.

I was walking along and snapped this picture (since it's something that I do on all of the cruises) so I'll throw it in here.

We made it back to the room and decided to make good use of our balcony...where we would decide to all hang out on the balcony in our undies. :eek: Yes, all of us. Yes, we were on the port side. Yes, there were some people standing on the roof painting the side of the building. Living life on the edge this cruise I tell you.

People were late coming back to the ship. The officers were standing in the overhang window with their hand crossed, then on their hips and if the glass went all the way to the floor, I can guarantee they were tapping their foot as well.

There were buses coming back a few people here and there and NONE of them were witnessed running or seeming to be in too much of a hurry. Then a bus load of people would show up. You could see an employee (someone in a white uniform) standing on our side of the fence and another guy with a list on the other side of the fence. They seem to be waiting for others. Then a lady in a people mover showed up. They had to take her scooter out of the van and put it together, then get her into it. Once she made it to the landing to roll up to get on the ship, she got stuck. I mean STUCK! They were trying everything to get her unstuck and fit on the ramp. Then more people came. Then more. I finally gave up and said I was getting in the shower. It didn't seem like we were leaving any time soon.

The skies were getting interesting so I entertained myself with taking more pictures while we waited. I loved the way the sun fell in certain areas while the clouds covered others in the distance.

Finally they closed the gate and it was time to leave.

We watched one of the dock workers go over to a tree and pick some fruit to throw over to the other worker of the port area. 

Off we go...a little late at everything we do just like I said.

Yes I know the date is wrong on my watch. When they had us turn our clocks up, it changed my date.

We watched several pelicans dive for fish while we were sailing away.

We went to go grab a bite to eat after the ship sailed away. I absolutely love their pasta station where they make it right there in front of you and you pick the type of noodles and sauce wanted. I always have to get this a few times during the cruise.

We watched the sunset from our balcony after we got our belly full. We were waiting until 6pm because Dora was hosting a Dance Party in the Fyzz lounge and Sakari didn't want to miss it. Dora is such a good host to invite us.

We arrived at Dora's party and Sakari met up with her cruising friends from our Star cruise and she had a blast.

They did a lot of interactive kids songs like: The wheels on the bus, Old McDonald, BINGO and so on. They had moves for everyone of their songs and crowd went wild. (Remember, these are kids, they are REALLY wild). We had a lady sitting behind us that probably sang the songs louder than any of the kids put together. She was hilarious. I told her "Sing it girl!" She informed me that she use to teach preschool with kids from ages 3-5 and she knew them all.

Then after the dance party, the kids could stay and have a Nick craft party. We had no idea what this was, but Sakari wanted to stay. I knew we wanted to catch the 7:15pm show tonight because it was the ventriloquist and I love those shows. We knew this was going to be a hectic next few hours with Sakari. After this craft event, we would have to rush her to the kids club, then rush back to the Stardust to "try" to find a seat...which we knew most times if you didn't get there soon enough, you would be sitting on strangers laps.

The Nick members passed out tee shirts to all of the kids and a bundled up batch of markers to each child. They were told to color their tee shirt as fast as they can and they were going to have (what I heard) was a tee shirt parade at the end. What the hubby heard was a judging contest with prizes. :confused: Um, ok. I'll let you be the judge of who was right....

So Sakari colored away

So the kids were done with their tee shirts and it was already 7pm. I knew there was no way that were would have time to take Sakari to the kids club AND make it to the show. I kept urging my husband to "Let's go" and he kept saying we were staying for the judging contest.

Well...here you go...this is what they did:

They all posed for a picture with their shirts. They posed smiling. They posed with funny faces. They paraded around. That was the end. Yep, I'm a winner just like always, but I didn't rub it in with the hubby of course. (Insert big smiley grinning I told ya so here).

So it was time for the show to begin and we grabbed Sakari and off to the Stardust we went. She was not happy about this and kept saying she didn't want to go to the show. She wanted to go to the kids club to see her friends. But, we didn't have a choice. I told her it was going to be a funny show with a puppet.

Of course, like everything else on the ship, the show started a little later than the scheduled time. Yes, this was a pattern during the entire cruise.

The guy was Kenny Byrd. Here is the history of him according to his site:

Kenny Byrd and Friends create entertainment for audiences of all ages. His characters are so life-like, audiences forget that they are an extension of Kenny Byrd's energy. Performing for television, clubs, corporate events, colleges, resorts and charitable organizations.

Kenny Byrd uniquely creates from the moment. Audiences are drawn into an intimate family to share sidesplitting laughter. Refreshing involvement, followed by praise long after the stage is empty, has earned Kenny Byrd his reputation for being the catalyst for fun.

So the show began and I'm a huge Jeff Dunham fan. I go to his shows every time he's in town and I just love him. Well, I'm sorry, but this guy doesn't hold a candle to Jeff and I have to say that I really didn't find "too" much of his material that great. Even the hubby didn't care for it. He does have a character that is an elderly man (kinda looks like Jeff's character Walter), but the rest of the characters just wasn't appealing TO ME. But, at the end of the show, he brought up a lady and a man from the audience and made it seem as if their voices had changed and it was hilarious to watch. So, I'm glad it picked up a little toward the end and we chalked it up to a decent show.

So after the show, Sakari was still complaining about wanting to head to the kids club. When we got there, the door was shut and locked. Um, ok that was strange. We knew they were having a Nick deck party, but the Nick team and the kids club are 2 different things that don't interact. But, we figured we would check it out just to see.

It was another "Slime" event where the kids participated in games and got slimed and a pie in the face. We watched from a distance.

Then we headed back to the kids club and the door was still locked. We noticed that "smaller" children were going to the 6-9 year old check in, so we decided to find out why. Well, that's where all the kids were that night. Now mind you, you have to pass that in order to go down the long hall to the other kids club. They could at least put a sign out there letting you know to check them in there instead on certain nights (yes, this would become a habit several nights of checking them into the older kids club).

After dropping her off, we headed to the Casino for "our" time.

Then at 10:30pm we picked the munchkin back up and headed to the room. Along the way they had a display of fruits out on the pool deck. I'm not sure what it was for. It was just a display and there wasn't anyone around or things to eat from there since it was roped off. Maybe there was going to be more to it later in the evening and we were just early.

Tonight our towel animal was a dog? He had my sunglasses on this time and thought he was just as cool as they come. Sakari got a kick out of it.

Trixie must be scared of dogs and we found her hanging by the smoke detector tonight above the dog. Someone needs to tell her this is not lady like. We could see up her skirt.

Tonight's VIP plate was strawberry covered in chocolate. Sakari loved her little snack and ate them up.

We sat out on the balcony and enjoyed the moonlight. It was real cloudy that night and it gave off a really eery feeling. However, the stars were EXTREMELY bright tonight and a few of them really sparkling. I tried and tried to capture some of them, but this is where I need my DSLR with the 100-300 lens. Oh well. You can see one of them to the left of the moon in this one.

We sat the wake up call for 6am for tomorrow. We knew that our day in Grand Cayman was (fingers crossed) going to be an exciting day. We were in bed by 11pm....light out. 

***I almost forgot, tonight we would also come back to find our balcony door unlocked...I made note of it****