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Old 17 Feb 19, 06:34 PM  
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Scruffette
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Newlyweds in the Caribbean: Curse of the DLXDDP - Day 7 - Jamaica

Newlyweds in the Caribbean: Curse of the DLXDDP - Day 7

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Wednesday 5th September

Jamaica

This morning was an early get up – 5.45am to be precise! Had to be done when you have a 7.15am excursion meet and like food too much to skip breakfast.

We got ready for the day, applied copious amounts of sun cream and headed for an early breakfast in Cabanas.

Ollie tucked into his plate before the photo…



My plate – I might have started eating before the photo as well!



And some sweet bits and pieces to share –



View from breakfast –



Our tour group was meeting this morning in Enchanted Garden. As change from the last couple of days, we wouldn’t be snorkelling today. When I was researching Jamaica, lots of people recommend going to Dunn River Falls, a series of small waterfalls which you climb. We settled on this tour -

(Disney description)

Sky Explorer and Dunn's River Falls (FA11) -
Climb the famed waterfalls, ride a chairlift over the forest canopy and take a dip in an infinity-edge pool at the top.

Amazing north shore views, enchanting hummingbirds and butterflies, and a Jamaican-style lunch are also yours to enjoy.
On this adventure, you will ...
• Board an air-conditioned minibus and travel approximately one hour to Dunn’s River Falls. After a brief comfort stop, meet your guide, who will provide a safety orientation. Then begin your optional 600-foot climb up the cascading falls. This portion of the tour will last approximately one hour.
• Exit the craft market and reboard your minibus for the short drive to Mystic Mountain. Upon arrival, ride the Sky Explorer chairlift through dense tropical forest overlooking the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea. This 15-minute ride traverses the forest canopy, offering views of emerald treetops and the cliff-lined North Shore.
• Arrive at the top and spend approximately 45 minutes exploring Mystic Pavilion, featuring educational, interactive Jamaican history exhibits. Next, you’ll visit the mesmerizing hummingbird and butterfly garden.
• Savor a delicious Jamaican-inspired lunch at your leisure, included in the tour. There is also a restaurant featuring a full bar on site.
• Ascend the observation tower for spectacular views of the North Shore, including the town of Ocho Rios and the harbor. Enjoy the infinity pool and waterslide, if you wish. When it’s time to depart, simply ride the Sky Explorer back to the base of the mountain, then board your bus for your return trip to Falmouth.

We checked in for our tour and were given our stickers, today we were the Jasmine Group. After we were all checked in we were escorted down to the pier. The port area was purpose built back in 2011, partly funded by Royal Caribbean. It really was very beautiful and well kept, if not representative of the ‘real’ Jamaica.

Our guide was there to meet us and take us to our bus. Our group was on a series of minibuses (seating 17) rather than large coaches.

When planning our excursions, we were put off by trips at the other ports than had really long coach journeys. However, we decided to put up with the journey in Jamaica as we really wanted to visit the falls.

Our tour guide gave us a commentary on the journey to the falls, which took about 1 hr 15 minutes.

I enjoyed it when she said that in Jamaica they drive on the left hand side of the road – the left side is the right side, and the right side is suicide. She also got us to speak in Jamaican slang and introduce ourselves to the group, say where we were from and tell them something we loved.

Also, we found some of the Jamaican stereotypes to be true. We had to respond to her questions with an enthusiastic ‘yeah man’!

I did almost doze off at one point, but she picked on me! She also learnt all of our names which was impressive.

Once we arrived, we disembarked and were handed our wristbands. Again, we signed a disclaimer signing our lives away!

Whilst waiting we got chatting to an American family and their teenage daughters seemed so excited that we were on honeymoon and said we had to get the wedding mouse ears when we got to Disney World.



This also gave us the opportunity to have a look at the falls before we started our climb. We had a guide to take us up the falls who introduced himself (again, he asked us to respond with ‘yeah man’!) There was also a videographer with us, not that we had any interest in buying the video and managed to take some shots with our waterproof camera instead. One couple asked us to take a photo of them, which we sent them when we got home (although about 2 months after as we initially forgot…)

On viewing the falls, two ladies in the group decided not to climb and watch from the side instead.







Again, excuse the really incorrect date and time stamp on the photos.

We started the climb and the guide said you all had to join hands and climb in a chain to help each other up. This was fine in principle, but there were a few issues. The guy in front of me had no interest in holding my hand (I didn’t think my hands were that bad), but that didn’t bother me too much.



There was a family behind Ollie who really shouldn’t have been on the tour. The tour was all ages, but minimum age recommended was 6 and up. The family had a young boy who could only have been about two. This was far too young for the tour in my opinion as he was just far too small. I thought some of the rocks were quite high, so there is no way a two year old could manage. Dad carried the child up. The mum seemed too preoccupied with keeping her rather small bikini in place. Definitely not appropriate attire for a tour where you will be bending a lot and climbing up rocks. They also had a teenage son and two young girls, maybe 7 and 8. The son helped one of the daughters, but Ollie ended up helping one of the girls up each rock. The girl was very polite and thankful, and of course Ollie didn’t mind. However, the parents didn’t acknowledge this at all.

Anyway, I really enjoyed climbing up the falls. We didn’t find the climb too much of a challenge physically – I’m very accident prone so was a bit concerned, but I was just fine! Some of the rocks were quite a high step up, but I’m not very tall. We bought water shoes before we left home to wear, which was useful as the rocks were slippery as they had been worn away by the water, which did flow at quite a pace. The water was colder than I expected. I had been use to the warm Caribbean sea, but this fresh water was a bit chilly!



At various points on the climb up the guide would push you into the water or get you to slide down a mini ‘water slide’. It was a really good fun climb.

The guide got the ladies who decided not to climb to join us to sit in one of the higher pools and was really good and patient with them.



We made it to the top!

After climbing the falls we exited via a bazar and quickly changed in the toilets (although you weren’t meant to) before heading back to the bus. It was then about a 5 minute journey over to the Mystic Mountain.

Here we were given more wristbands and took a 20 minute chairlift to the top.

There were some beautiful views over some really dense forest.















Once at the top, our first priority was lunch – it had been a while since breakfast.

Lunch was authentic jerk chicken with rice and peas.



I am a spice wimp, so this was a bit spicy for me. Ollie, who has a far more normal spice tolerance, enjoyed this and went up for seconds. There were also hot dogs available for kids. We were also served a non alcoholic punch. A Jamaican band was playing and dancers were performing as well, which made for a really fun atmosphere.

We had some free time, so admired the view and dipped our toes into the infinity pool at the top.





They also have a bobsled which goes from up here.



I got a bit creeped out by this large spider -



They had a hummingbird garden. We sat and waited patiently and along they came.







It was then time to take the 20 minute chair lift journey back down and the one hour 15 minute drive back to the port.



Obviously, I took this opportunity for a nap.

Overall, we loved the climbing the Dunn River Falls and would recommend this. The trip up Mystic Mountain was nice, but the falls were the real highlight of the tour.

Back in the port area, we spent some time looking round.







We bought the obligatory magnet -



I bought my brother some jerk seasoning (he’s particular about his spices, for example his paprika has to be Hungarian. So I thought he’d enjoy some authentic Jamaican seasoning, although I’m sure it’s the same as you get anywhere). This was a few dollars and they charged me less than it said on the sticker on the bottom of the jar

We stopped off here to try some rum cake…



We ended up purchasing a 6 pack of rum cakes here which we took home as gifts. We kept one for us but haven’t tried it yet. We’ve had good feedback – both Ollie’s brother and Gran finished their cakes the day after getting them!

In the duty free shop we bought some coconut rum (proper strength rum, not like Malibu). We sampled a few in other shops, but the alcohol was much cheaper in here. I don’t have the cost written down, but it was something super cheap like $12 for a litre. This was to put up for when we got to Disney to enjoy a drink in the evenings mixed with the various fizzy pop flavours from the coke freestyle machines. They take spirits off you when you get on board and you collect on disembarkation. One of our table mates didn’t realise they took the drinks off you and ended up with a litre bottle to drink before flying home 24 hours after getting of the ship.





Once back on board we went back to our stateroom to shower and get ready for our mojito class.

The view from our verandah –

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Old 17 Feb 19, 06:36 PM  
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Scruffette
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The class was booked through the facebook group on our cruise and was $20 per person.

The venue for this class was the Skyline Lounge and there was a delay in starting as some of the group was late and some were no shows. You don’t get reminders for privately booked tastings, so I’m not surprised that people forgot, particularly after a long port day. Also, we had some people turn up for martini tasting, only to be told there was a mix up and their class was actually in Meridian, up on deck 12 instead of on deck 3!



I can’t remember the name of the guy leading our class, but he was from Serbia and very knowledgeable.

During the class we’d each take it in turns to make up 5 or so drinks to share out. Even though some people didn’t turn up, all the planned drinks were made up so we were offered extras. This is maybe part of the reason that things turned out like they did…

First up was a classic mojito -



What’s not to like about a classic mojito?

We did notice that our class host would top up some of the drinks with extra alcohol.

Ollie volunteered to make the second drink and made a raspberry mojito -



Expertly muddled.

I went next and made a caprianha – kind of like a mojito but with no soda water.



The hardest bit was getting the ice into each of the glasses – I did get ice all over the place

Ollie went up for the fourth drink as no one else volunteered. This was a berry-oshka, actually made with vodka instead of rum! A very tenuous link to a mojito.



Again, no mixer in this one. But look how full the glass looks! The guy running the class did top up each drink again with additional vodka, to make sure the glasses were full. He did also come round with sprite if anyone needed to water down their drink a bit. I added some, as it was far too strong and vodka-y for me!

For the drinks we got, this class was excellent value.

We sat finishing our drinks chatting to an American couple. You know how after a few drinks you start getting really chat and suddenly can be anyone’s best friend? I was at that point. I learnt all about their family, we also got onto politics and their opinions on different cruise lines (they don’t rate Carnival but like Royal Caribbean, but Disney is best. They call Carnival the spring break cruise line). I think we even got invited to their ranch in Texas!

They had to go and pick up their daughter from the kids club (not sure they were in the best state to supervise a young child), so we went to sit at the bar and chat to the guy who was running the class (nope, still can’t remember his name). We were still finishing our drinks and he gave us some crackers to snack on. We must have seemed like we needed them!

Tonight’s show was actually the Christopher Robin movie in the cinema. We realised we missed this, but weren’t too fussed.

Anyway, we eventually left skyline. Via a quick stop in the toilets in this adult area, which have really cool ceilings. Ollie felt the need to photograph the mirror on the ceiling.

I was starving (probably something to do with multiple drinks and a small lunch). We went up to the pool deck to grab some snacks of chicken tenders and pizza and lots of water. En route we got chatting to the cast member who was in the specialty ice cream shop and tried a few samples. Our food was taken back to our stateroom and we ate on our verandah. Ollie actually has no memory of me forcing us to get food…

We were both feeling really sleepy, Ollie lay down on the bed and fell straight asleep.

We had about an hour until dinner, and feeling like there was a risk of oversleeping, I set both of the alarms on our phone, one for 8pm and one for 8.05pm.

I woke up, but somehow managed to turn my alarm off completely and slept through Ollie’s completely. Not sure how!

I then woke at 9.30pm and was pretty upset that we’d missed both the pirate night fireworks (which were on before dinner) and dinner, particularly as it was the pirate night menu that we haven’t tried before. I tried to talk to Ollie at this point, but got little to no response.

I then fell asleep again and we woke at 3.15am. We were both still fully clothed and both a bit dazed when we woke up. We dragged ourselves to the bathroom to do our teeth and drank copious amounts of water. I was starving and contemplated ordering room service, but was so tired I didn’t think I would still be awake when it arrived.

So we settled down again and slept through until morning! Clearly we needed the sleep!

So, a great time in Jamaica, a really fun class but then a slightly disappointing evening. No dinner photos and no towel animal (we didn’t even get a navigator left outside our room!) Don’t worry, normal service will resume tomorrow.

Day 8 – Day at Sea

Edited at 09:38 PM.
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Old 17 Feb 19, 08:47 PM  
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mick
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You must have been exhausted by the sound of it

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Old 18 Feb 19, 12:20 AM  
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It is a pity you missed the fireworks but I suppose cruises should be relaxing and you have done so much.
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Old 24 Feb 19, 09:29 PM  
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Scruffette
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Originally Posted by mick View Post
You must have been exhausted by the sound of it

Joan
Too many fun things planned! Thanks for reading

Originally Posted by collybird View Post
It is a pity you missed the fireworks but I suppose cruises should be relaxing and you have done so much.
We're often not very good at relaxing as we're trying to cram everything in, so it probably did us good to have a quiet evening. Thanks for reading
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Old 28 Jul 19, 02:46 PM  
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yellowrose78
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Great day, we are just back from a cruise and did Dunns River Falls, totally agree with you it was great, but why would anyone take a 2 year old, it's tricky at parts. We also went to Mystic Mountain but we did the bobsled, Jamaica is beautiful. Love all your cocktails, they look fab!
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Old 29 Jul 19, 07:28 PM  
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Scruffette
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Originally Posted by yellowrose78 View Post
Great day, we are just back from a cruise and did Dunns River Falls, totally agree with you it was great, but why would anyone take a 2 year old, it's tricky at parts. We also went to Mystic Mountain but we did the bobsled, Jamaica is beautiful. Love all your cocktails, they look fab!
I wish we had done the bobsled! Glad you enjoyed Jamaica, we had a great day there. Thanks for reading
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