This recounts my version of the recent family cruise on the Norwegian Prima cruise ship to the Caribbean. Like usual there is a mix of present / past tense mostly except this is more of a long short story than a blog. Hope you enjoy!
Day 0 (Travel Day)
I woke up today at a 8am and we left the house at around 9:30am in an Uber. This time my bag was a relatively heavy carry-on because of the extra shoes for the cruise. I apparently need nice shoes for the restaurant. As you may know by now, I dress casually everywhere. Mom on the other hand had a massive very heavy bag as usual, but she has a lot of really cool clothes that absolutely had to come. I’m sure she will look great!
It didn’t take too long to get to the airport today at 9:30am because traffic wasn’t as bad as usual. Mom checked her bag, which went by pretty fast all things considered. Then we went through TSA Pre-check, which took a stellar 20 minutes (still much faster than regular security). Once through we made the obligatory stop at the Terminal A Dunkin Donuts then headed down the escalator to the gate. On the way we received a 30 minute delay notification.
The gate we were in is the one that you have to walk half a mile under the airport to get to. I usually climb the flight of 100 stairs rather than take the escalator because it’s a good morning wake up. (Compared to the 800 steps in West Virginia this is nothing). Once at the gate Mom felt the need to explore the terminal so I just stayed with the bags for an hour. When the plane got close it was announced that there wasn’t enough room for all the overhead luggage and you could come check a bag for free (on delta it costs $40). So assuming I’d be out of luck sitting in the way back of the plane, I checked my bag. Once I sat back down we were notified of yet another 30 minute delay.
Boarding was slow with all the kids. They were going on a Disney cruise. Anyways, I got to board early because I hate checked my bag. That was cool. Once just about everyone was on the plane, the pilot announced that we had to wait at the gate with the door open for 45 more minutes because of air traffic in Boston and poor weather in Orlando. I was less than pleased as you can imagine. What should’ve been a routine 12pm departure is now a 2pm one and that means we will miss the shuttle.
I think now is a good time to practice some mindfulness so I don’t get drowned out in negative thoughts.
Alrighty! After a pleasant hour of gaming we are finally moving at 1:30pm. Looking forward to Florida.
We are here!!! Almost. We are landing in 5 minutes after 5 hours of airports and flying. Wew! Philip arrived about an hour ago and he is going to try to have the shuttle wait for us. Not really sure how that is going to go, but I fully support! I estimate it will take us at least 45 minutes from the time the plane door opens to get to the shuttle. If we miss the shuttle it’s a cool 1 hour really expensive Uber to the hotel!
We made the shuttle!! Took 30 minutes to get here from the plane. I timed it. Phil is already here! After waiting a few more minutes for the rest of the passengers we headed to the hotel. The hotel we were in was nice, but you can’t find dinner there so we left to try the Gator’s Dockside (Port Canaveral). It is a well known ‘sports bar’. The original plan was to walk about 15 minutes to the restaurant, but it was raining so we took an Uber instead. The Uber driver was really cool! He had some sort of disability which made it impossible to drive the car like you usually would. Instead he used a cool hands only control system while he was sitting in an electric wheel chair that was strapped securely to the car floor. The whole set up cost $150k and according to him most of it was paid for by the state.
Once at the bar we were all instantly disappointed because we were expecting a New England style sports bar with college basketball on the TV’s. Instead we got America’s favorite sport: wrestling! I’m saying that there were probably 30 TV’s here and half of them were the exact same wrestling match. Phil / Mom are both doing March Madness brackets and wanted to watch the basketball games. Meanwhile I was sort of a hostage…I don’t really care for basketball, but I really wanted a burger and the alligator bites so I had to come anyways. Kind of a meh experience, would not recommend. (The alligator bites were amazing though!) After dinner we went back to the hotel and prepared for tomorrow.
Day 1 (Arrival At The Ship)
We left the hotel at the reasonable time of 10:45am. I decided to get breakfast before at the firm suggestion of Mom. This turned out to be a fantastic decision! Once we checked out of the hotel, we went to the coach bus that would take us to the cruise ship. The driver turned out to be more of a tour guide style driver and had clocked 1.3 million drive miles! That’s more than the trucker I met at a bar in Chattanooga!
Most people on the bus had gone on between 2-4 cruises so we were the only first timers. It was a short ride to the terminal and wow the cruise ships lined up were big. There were about 10 of them grouped all together awaiting passengers. Over half the buss was going to Royal Caribbean, while most of the rest were Norwegian Cruise Lines like us. When we got to our ship, the Prima, we had to first wait on the bus while the porters got our bags all organized, then we were allowed to get off and go to the security line.
Once through security we got our ship card. This card is arguably the most important thing you have on the ship next to your wallet and passport. It is what I need to go to any restaurant, bar, event, or even play at the casino (although I could also use cash). The ship doesn’t take cash (unless you are tipping) or credit cards. You need it to get off and on the ship when it reaches port. Lastly, it was vital to get in your room and use anything. There’s a slot by the door and if you don’t put your ship card in the slot then none of the electronics will work in the room. Having the key in the slot also allows the ship room stewards to know if you are in your room or not.
Mom really wanted to check out the guest services desk first thing and that was good because it meant that we could sign me up for the Jet Ski shore excursion. (It was full online). Next we waited in a one hour line for the restaurant desk. It just so happened that the woman in front of us was a cruise expert and had been on about a hundred cruises. Her daughter has been going 2-3 times a year for 20 years. That’s nuts, but really cool! We talked to her while waiting in line and when we got to the front we booked reservations at some really fancy restaurants. These are known as ‘specialty restaurants’. Regular restaurants are called complimentary because they are free! (Except you have to pay a hidden fee every time you go).
Then we went to the Prima Speedway to sign up for go carts and then we got some drinks at a bar. I can only go so long watching others drink before I want a beer for myself. After that we got a bite to eat at the international food hall. Philip and I got pulled pork sandwiches while Mom got 2 bacon wrapped dates. I also got another cocktail. That ended up making me really really tired so we went back to the room. Lastly we hit the casino to check out the poker sign up. (Phil is big into poker). It was either a $80 or $100 sign up to play. He’s still deciding on what to do.
At about 3:15pm we got to our stateroom on deck 15 and relaxed for a bit before our mandatory muster drill. Basically a practice drill in case of an emergency. There were several announcements and then we were off to deck 6 for the drill! We took the stairs with just about everyone else on board. The drill consisted of listening to an officer and watching a crew member put on a life jacket. All very informative, however I kind of doubted my ability to find the right muster station if I was busy somewhere else. Since I didn’t plan this trip I didn’t really have every minute of the trip memorized like usual, that has made it really easy for me to get lost.
After the drill Mom wanted to go to guest services to try to reorganize tomorrow. We had accidentally booked a musical too close to dinner and it would be wise to fix that earlier rather than later. The line for guest services proved to be super long, which was a bummer. Mom & Phil decided to go to the spa to do their massage early. Since the elevators were really popular we instead all walked up the stairs…6 flights. I wasn’t interested in a spa visit since it’s a bit out of my comfort zone so I made my way back to the room and they went to deck 16 for the spa. Here I am finishing up what we’ve been doing so far today in the blog! I’m all done for now and it’s time to relax. 🙂
I was on the balcony as the ship left port and wow was it cool! I got to see a Space X landing platform + the blackened Falcon 9 rocket from whenever they last launched. Waaay in the distance was the giant NASA spacecraft assembly building. I waved goodbye to the crew on the ship from Hong Kong that was in port and then headed back inside to get ready for the casino. I didn’t come on this cruise to stay in my room all day after all. See you later!
Ok so I went to the casino after hitting another bar, but couldn’t figure out how to use the machine so I left. Not really knowing where to go without any friends I went up to deck 17 to try the food buffet. Instead of food I got a rosé slush! Then I jammed to the DJ for about 30 minutes before heading back to the room. Gotta say that the DJ was pretty decent at mixing tunes, but seemed like the most boring DJ in the world haha. I’m used to EDM DJ’s like Armin Van Buuren and Hardwell (David Guetta is one for you radio folks).
Phil walked in 5 minutes after I got back and soon we will go play darts! I know how to throw a dart pretty well, but I don’t know the game. I’m up to 5 cocktails today so that’s cool. We have an unlimited open bar pass so I want to make it worth it!!!
Ok so 5 cocktails + a beer was too much. I could only play one game of darts before I was exhausted again. Not drunk mind you, exhausted. Weird. Anyways, after a short rest I went down to deck 7, joined Philip at a bar (no drink for me no worries), and then promptly lost Mom. We don’t have internet on this trip so no texting. It costs a lot of money for WiFi so it’s just better to wilt away like a flower without rain.
Next up is Deal or No Deal. I haven’t seen the show in years, but it should be cool. Ok so there were 2 random people called from the audience and they had to choose a number on a case. The goal was to eliminate all the small cases (such as $.25, $1, $5…) in order to get:
- A better bank deal.
- A chance at winning the $1000
I know my explanation might be confusing, but you can look up the actual NCL rules on google. It seemed very tough to win the $1000 let alone the free 5 night cruise or the $5k. If you in the audience matched your boxes with the contestant as they opened theirs you had a chance to win a set of separate prizes such as a scratch ticket, some free photos, $50, $200, a free 5 night cruise, or $5k. I was actually kind of excited to win 2 scratch card lottery tickets at the end. One guy won $153 as a contestant and the other got around $236. No one got over $300. Overall really cool!
Next we hit guest services since the line was rather short then after that we went to dinner. I’ll be bummed if I changed out of my comfy shorts and a sweatshirt for these nice clothes if I don’t need them.
Turns out we didn’t really need nice clothes. I got a prime rib, which was really good! (It would be tragic if it was a not great popular item). For desert I had a cheesecake! Now it’s about 10:30pm and time for clubbing maybe. Then bed? Ah I decided to just come back and chill. I’m actually more tired than I initially thought. See you tomorrow!
Day 2 (At Sea)
Today we got up and out of the room by 9am. I know I know, a little late, but hey it’s vacation! So first thing was to go get breakfast. I had an American Breakfast: 2 eggs however you like, bacon or sausage, and hash browns. (Plus toast / jam / butter). It’s the least risky item on any breakfast menu. They also had a full English breakfast, but I’ve never found the beans on toast to be appealing.
After breakfast we decided on a quick round of golf, but right before that Philip and I stopped at the bar for mimosas! Mom went ahead. Mini golf was kind of terrible: the course was wet (not good for golf balls), a few annoying kids, and the waves were rather rough so the ball rolled around a lot. On hole 2 one of the kids had the audacity to ask me if I’d give him my ball because he had lost his. My response was “Absolutely not, I’m still playing.” :/ Mom never showed up so we figured that she went walking around the ship.
After mini golf we saw the ‘drop slide’ which was a slide that dropped about 10 decks. Pretty neat! The line went rather quick and pretty soon it was our turn. Basically you stand in a tube in a rug sort of thing and when the attendant presses a button a small trapdoor opens under your feet and you drop into the slide. I’d say it really wasn’t that scary and about halfway everyone got stuck.
I went pretty fast on the metal portions, but on the plexiglass part I stopped and had to shimmy forwards. It was funny when Philip did that and unfortunately one poor woman couldn’t slide forwards on her own and she got stuck in the slide. I’m not sure what happened to her because Philip and I headed back upstairs to get ice cream from the buffet.
After ice cream the plan was to head to the Commodore room for the art auction and champagne. I was more interested in the champagne. Before the live auction you got to walk around and ‘tag’ the stuff you wanted. They would bring it out of the collection to the bidding platform. Right off the bat the auctioneer started saying the bidding could go as high as $500k on the boat I knew I was out of luck. My personal limit was waaaaay less than any of the Michael Godard could sell for. Philip wasn’t interested and soon after Mom and I got champagne we ended up leaving too.
Next we split up. Mom and I headed back to deck 17 for ice cream and Philip went to rest in our room for a bit. After Mom and I got cones we joined him in the room. In about 15 minutes it will be time for go-karts! Last time I did go karts was on the St. Louis trip with my Philmont roommate Sam. We went on go-karts that could get up to 65mph at the Six Flags in St. Louis. I will definitely beat Philip, but I’ll make sure to let you know the results either way.
It turns out I’m not that great at go karts at sea. I came in 6th at 57.700 seconds a lap. I got in 6 laps though so that was cool. After racing we decided to get a bite to eat at the buffet then we went to the virtual reality place. On the way, Mom lost her ship card, but luckily she found it by retracing her steps.
The VR place was cool! I raced Philip in a racing game. The car was rather difficult to control at first, but I soon got the hang of it. At one point I slammed into a wall and couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to reverse. After my epic defeat behind the wheel we all kind of split up. I went off to find a drink, Philip went to go read his book somewhere quiet, and Mom finally went to the infinity pool. After finding a drink I went back to the room to chill. Walking around is fun and all, but occasionally I need time to myself to recharge.
***Spoilers next paragraph on the Donna Summers musical. You have been warned.***
At about 6:20pm we headed to Donna Summers: The Musical. I’m not one for musicals, but it was really good! I have no idea who Donna Summers was going into this, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect. (Mom’s high school friends slammed me and Phil for this…). Basically the musical is about her life growing up into the Queen of Disco. The singing was incredible and was done by 3 different actresses who played her throughout her life: young Donna, teenage Donna, and adult Donna. The disco music was interesting. I love bass music and the stuff that was played had plenty of synthesized stuff so I kind of liked it. The problem is that she is known for her excessive use of moaning when singing, which I’m not interested in. Overall I’d say this is worth a watch especially since you can only see it on the cruise.
After the musical we went to the specialty restaurant Los Lobos. It is a Mexican place and I had some killer tacos. Our server (Akash) was super passionate in the history of the restaurant, the modern feel of the (Prima) cruise ship, was hugely invested in the lore of all the dishes, and was immensely enjoyable as a person. I don’t meet many waiters like that! For desert I got a nice caramel flan. After dinner I think we went back to the room and got ready before bed.
Day 3 (Cozumel, Mexico)
Today we got up at around 8am and went to the first stop on land of the trip: Cozumel, Mexico! Getting off the boat was rather easy. It was kind of like getting off an airplane after an international flight.
To start off the adventure we first had to find our group called the Barefoot Fish Cookout excursion. There was about 20 people in the group total and we took taxis to the activity point. On the way to the taxi we passed a lot of touristy gift stores, many unsafe looking motorcycles, and even a Mexican styled Hooters!
After a rather quick 10 minute drive by taxi we arrived at the Barracuda Beach Club and proceeded to a small hut with some lockers. There we met a native Cozumellian that went by literally anything you wanted to call him. (His real name was Adrian.)
Danny was in charge of handing out margaritas and making sure we had all the ingredients we needed. He used to be a security guard, but now he is training to become a tour guide as well. Gotta mention that the margaritas were unlimited and excellent. *sips margarita* Who would turn down excellent free margaritas??
The fish was pre-filleted before we started so all we had to do was make the marinade and wrap it up! The marinade was easy to make since all the ingredients were prepared beforehand and all the tools needed were there in front of us. W had different colored bell peppers, our choice of a white or red onion, a special fruit thing, salt/pepper, and a blood orange. The first step was to chop up the peppers and onions. *sips margarita* Adrain reminded us to only prepare food we will actually eat so that there is no waste. After cutting up the onion we then had to destroy the red fruit thing in the pestle and add the juice of the blood orange. This paste (without the orange juice) is the same substance that the Mayans used as body paint in their rituals, battles, and sacrifices. Adrain told us to wear gloves when handling it or it would stain our hands for a few days. *Quick note that this fruit thing is not the same as the insect that google says it is.*
The next step was to assemble the fish dish. Danny handed out long pieces of tin foil with some banana leaves on top. We were to cover the banana leaves with a drizzle of an olive oil that had a special blend of spices in it. *sips margarita* After the leaves were covered in oil we put all of the vegetables on top. We then laid the fish filet on top of the vegetables and sprinkled salt/pepper onto both sides. Adrian said the more pepper you added the spicier it would be because of the unique steaming process. The next thing to do was cover every inch of the fish in the red mixture that we made earlier and after that we wrapped the edges of the banana leaves over the top of the fish.
The final step was to wrap the fish with the other side of the tin foil. To do this I had to incrementally fold the foil about a centimeter at a time until it was right up against the fish and then add another half fold to make sure it was right up against the fish. We did that on all four sides and the goal was to create an air tight pocket that would help steam the fish. Adrian said that if it leaked at all then we might be eating sushi for lunch!
After the fish was collected by Danny and brought to the grilling area we continued the day by hand making tortillas. The dough balls for the tortillas were already made, all we had to do was form the tortilla. It was pretty easy and before long Danny brought out some sort of pico de gallo mix and tortilla chips with a habanero sauce to snack on. The sauce was spicy, but not as hot as The End Flatline (2nd hottest sauce in the world I had at Philmont this past summer). As we snacked on the chips Adrian said that to know if you were sitting at a real Mexican table you needed three things on it: corn tortilla chips, chili (salsa), and a coke (coca cola). *sips margarita* He told us not to eat all the onion/pepper/vinegary mix because we would need it later.
It didn’t take long to grill the tortillas we made and we used them right away to finish the rest of the pico de onion mix. It was delicious on the tortillas! The fish would be grilled on a very old hand carved stone. Adrian said that because it wasn’t covered with (melted) hand crushed glass (to create a protective coating), the stone was cracking and needed to be replaced soonish. We got about a 20 minute break by the pool while we waited for the fish to finish. The pool was rather small, but we couldn’t swim in the ocean right next to us because of the strong currents. (The staff was pretty vague on why we couldn’t swim so I googled it.)
Nobody went fully into the water because it was really cold, but there were quite a few legs in it. I grabbed a screwdriver from the on-site pool bar. *It should be noted that all water at this place had been made into trustworthy fresh water because regular Mexican tap water can be a bit sketchy and the cruise line didn’t want to risk anything. After a bit of time passed by it was time to eat!
The table we would be sitting at was very long and well laid out. The fish looked lovely and tasted amazing! The correct way to eat this is to take a tortilla, line it with white rice, put the fish/vegetable mix on top, and eat it taco style. Now I’m not a fan of rice, but this tasted pretty good! *sips margarita* For desert we had a unique coconut ice cream. I dislike anything to do coconuts, but this tasted alright. Adrian said it was an acquired taste. After desert it was about time to leave so we all packed up our gear and headed back to the bus.
Back in the main town we went to some souvenir stores so I could get something for the souvenir drawer! It has all my national park patches and stuff. I got a mini Mayan temple sculpture. Usually the smaller the better. Most of the stores in town had very boring touristy things, but I didn’t have time to explore inland Cozumel, plus it would’ve been a bit nerve-racking given the recent state of Mexico (crime wise).
Before boarding the cruise we had a few more tasks. Philip really wanted a shirt from Mexico so we looped around and got one right next to the pier. The second thing to do was take a killer picture with the Prima in the background.
Once back on board we got to see the Norwegian Dawn up close before we departed. It is a different cruise ship that is a little smaller than the Prima. It had a half basketball court + shuffleboard on top, as well as what looked like a huge outdoor theater on the top deck.
The entertainment of the night was going to be comedy, but it was sold out so early that by the time we got there at 9pm when it opened it had already started. Right next door there was going to be a performance at the Sid Norman bar so we got in line for that instead. The bar was packed and the songs were all about Sid Norman by a very energetic crew staff. I got a Moscow mule and about 45 minutes in I decided I didn’t really like the genre of music so I headed back to our stateroom. Once Philip and Mom were back we all watched “A Ticket To Paradise”. I gave it a nice 6/10 on my movie ranking scale. After that we went to bed!
Day 4 (St. George, Cayman Islands)
Today we got up around 8am and had breakfast at the local bar and grill. I normally don’t eat breakfast, but we figured since we wouldn’t have lunch then this would be a good idea. I had a simple all American breakfast again and an orange juice. After breakfast we gathered our swimming gear from the room and headed to the atrium to wait for our tender.
Waiting for the tenders was kind of stressful since we picked the last tender and it was really really close to the time that the excursion started. “Tender 6 & 7 you can now head to deck 4!” Mom, Phil, and I patiently wait…“Tender 8 & 9 you can now head to deck 4!” Mom, Phil, and I patiently wait…As we waited for tender 11 an officer came over and asked if we were ready to go and after replying with a “yes!” we were all escorted to the tender by the officer who let us get on tender 9! That was really nice of him.
The tender ride itself was very exciting since I had never done it before. Here I was in a small boat bobbing in the water next to a huge cruise ship. My family was one of the last on board so there wasn’t enough room for us all on one bench and thus I had a seat a few rows away from them. Things kind of worked out for the best since the people at the back (where I was) got the best picture shots.
Finding the meeting point was tricky because at the same time we were getting off the Prima there was a literal boat load of people going back onto one of the Carnival of the Seas ships. The entire square was mayhem! Eventually we found out there was a Carnival tent and a Norwegian tent. After making our way over there Phil and I played some Pokemon Go while we waited for the excursion to start.
It turned out that the excursion was just a short walk to the left. We got right onto the boat and listened to a short safety briefing + learning about all the gear. Since I had been before I was only paying semi attention and more-so looking forward to testing out my new prescription snorkel. Without it I can’t see anything underwater because my eyes suck/the salt water burns them. The first spot we went to was called Cheeseburger Reef. The dive guide said that naming a reef in the Cayman Islands went something like this: you go snorkeling / diving somewhere, come out of the water, and name it after whatever you see nearby. So in this case the person must’ve come out of the water, looked towards the shore, and spotted the local cheeseburger restaurant and tada it became known as Cheeseburger Reef!
There was another urban legend that says that the local fisherman would throw cheeseburgers into the water to attract the fish. So the dive guide said that when we jumped in a bunch of big fish might come to check us out and when they discovered we aren’t cheeseburgers they would swim away. Philip was excited to discover this first hand since he had never been snorkeling before. He loved swimming all over the reef!
The second dive site was the famous shipwreck really close to the coast. The story here is that there was a group of fisherman that had a boat in 1910. The captain wanted a faster boat because that would mean he could transport cargo a lot faster. The problem was his boat was made using rivets instead of welding so when he put the big heavy diesel engine in the boat it stressed the boat out. One night after a long journey bringing a shipment of rice to the St. George, Cayman Islands, the crew decided to celebrate at a local bar. While they were at the bar the rivets gave up and let a bunch of water in and the rice onboard soaked it all up. This made the boat really really heavy and so it sank. When the fisherman came back all drunk they saw what happened and went right back to the bar.
The wreck stayed there for around 40 years, but eventually it became a shipping hazard so the British navy came in and blew it up with dynamite. When we went and saw the wreck it was still really well preserved so we could see the hull, the rice, and most intriguingly: the engine! Just kidding about the rice. Around the ship there was supposed to be puffer fish, but the dive guide told us not to make them puff up because it wasn’t great for the fish. You see, a recent study proved that puffer fish can only puff up up to 5 times in their lives so us puffing them up would be a waste. Overall the 2 wrecks were really really cool and I got to test out my new dive mask and snorkel.
After snorkeling we went to a local restaurant on the water to have a snack. Phil and I got local island beers and some chicken wings to share. It was then that I learned Phil doesn’t like celery. Kinda amusing to watch him it one. We headed back to the main square when we were done. On the way we went to a souvenir store so I could get something to take home.
To get there we had to cross a street with what must’ve been the most energetic policeman directing traffic I’ve ever seen. He waved his arms windmill style to let people know it was their turn and constantly blew a silver whistle. I ended up getting a keychain since I couldn’t find a patch. Getting back to the boat was rather easy. We waited in a long, but quickly moving line to the tender boats. While in line a crew member handed out cold and damp mini towels to help refresh ourselves. There was also a guy with a tray of water cups.
The boat took us back relatively quick, which was good because I felt kind of gross with all the dried salt water on me from snorkeling. I had the first shower, which felt amazing. Turns out I did get quite the sunburn on my back, but I didn’t really feel it back on board the ship so it doesn’t concern me. About an hour later we all went to dinner. Despite it being a fancy Italian restaurant I still managed to get a steak and Negroni (type of cocktail). It was very good! For desert I had a tiramisu. Now I’m no fan of coffee, but I prefer the flavor over pistachio gelato any day.
After dinner the plan was to go to a bar, but I felt like I needed a short break so Mom and Philip went to the bar early, while I went to the room to chill for a bit. Maybe thirty minutes later I got back in time to join them on their way into the Prima Theater for the improv comedy show by Dillon Comic. (That’s what he called himself). He was hilarious and sadly I can’t repeat any of the jokes because I’d get banned from WordPress. It was a +18 year old event.
After that we chilled near the Primrose bar while listening to the Friendly Strangers. They were more of an oldies / classic song band. Not really my style, but eventually the three of us made our way back to the Prima Theater for the ‘Beach Ball Spring Break White Party with DJ Fly’. Basically it was kind of a let down.
When I think of a club I think of either an EDM sort of rave or a bunch of people tightly packed into a room, alcohol, and lots of dancing to heavy beats. This had all the bass, but wow was there a lot of awkward standing around. I’d say half the crowd was the older generation and they really had no idea what to do. The younger half was mostly college kids with a few 5-7 year olds mixed in. The beach balls were a bit chaotic and there were a few people who got slammed with one, (completely unaware of it), and spilled their drink. It was fun to hit the beach balls around myself though!
We left the club at 11:59pm because we have an early wake up tomorrow. Stayed up a bit later to write today’s portion of the blog. Is it better to wait until tomorrow to write today’s entry or do it now while the memories are fresh and stay up really late? I always debate this question on my trips. Anyways, be back tomorrow!
Day 5 (Ocho Rios, Jamaica)
So we had to get up a bit earlier to make the official meeting time of 9:30am work. No tenders this day because the cruise line has their own pier. It took no time at all to get to the meeting point, which turned out to be a big hot tent. A terms and conditions waver on an iPad got passed around while we waited for everyone to get there. It took about 45 minutes to get going. Philip and I were a bit miffed that we were the last group to head to the busses.
The port of Ocho Rios really really nice. Sort of like Cozumel and St. George. A lot of Jamaica is very poor, but you don’t really get a sense of that in immediate vicinity of the cruise ship. Up on the mountain nearby you can see apartments, which I later learned aren’t quite as nice as the ones right next to the bus parking lot. I heard from the bus driver that the cruise lines basically bought out the port here so that is why it is so clean. Anyways, that’s all I’ll say about this.
The bus ride was sort of like any American airport bus except this one was smaller. Our driver was Jean (not sure on the spelling, might be Gene as well). He was super nice and explained a bunch of interesting facts about Jamaica. Such as the capital city has changed 6 times (it’s currently Kingston). The yellow leaved trees are called ‘yellow poui’ and they are kind of a big deal according to Jean. The local Jamaicans have a bit of reverence for the leaves. Any driver that tried to get into Dunn River falls through the back entrance gets their bus license revoked and he also mentioned a few times that KFC chicken is amazing.
It took about 15 minutes to get to the excursion point: ATVs! I had been repeatedly told by pretty much anyone that knew of the ATV excursion that it would be dusty while on the trails and therefore it was insisted that I should bring a bandana. I had earlier decided that this was all speculation so I didn’t bring one and was constantly reminded that this was a huge mistake. Doubting my supremely intelligent choice I caved in and bought one anyway. It was pretty stylish I’ll admit.
There was a really short demonstration on how to operate the machine. Basically you hold the brake, turn the key, and presto: it’s on. Some of the main rules when riding was no overtaking people, always have your visor down, and not using your camera unless you were stopped. All the ATVs were grouped together into 3 columns. I happened to be kind of in the middle of the group. They sent us on a short loop around the staging area to get used to the quad. Gotta say, it was a bit tricky to keep a steady pace with all the bumps.
After the guides were satisfied nobody would flip over when riding they sent us off into the woods. It seemed like most of the 20 riders were husbands trying to get away from their wives for a few hours lol. Also, it was reeeeeally muddy on all the trails so I was a bit upset when my entire right foot got splashed with mud. It smelled awful in places too. Imagine the smell of sulphur. So yeah, I didn’t want it on me or my clothes.
One place we spent a fair amount of time at was on the beach. The cruise excursion guide promised a visit to the ‘Blue Hole’ of Jamaica, but that was a lie! We just got a really beautiful ocean instead. It was really cool to race down the beach on the ATV. At some point I got behind Phil so from then on we got a bunch of really epic pictures.
After the beach we went to a smaller beach. I thought we were stopping because someone had rear ended someone. They said at the beginning if you did that you would break the bike because it would crack the radiator. Turns out we were stopping for personal pictures!
It gave me a chance to wash off my shoes, not that I had much of a choice. Philip wanted to go swimming, but there was nowhere to put his wallet / cell phone so he reluctantly didn’t. Pretty soon we had all gotten back onto our ATVs and headed back into the woods.
Some of the trails had HUGE mud puddles, which was fun to drive through. I wasn’t worried about getting hurt flipping since I was more concerned with flipping and getting covered in stinky mud. That would be a day ruiner I think.
We kept going back between the mud puddles and the long beach for the next hour or so which got kind of boring after a while. On the beach was the horse riding excursion and it looked incredibly lame. All you do is sit on the horse and go up and down the beach. There is a guide walking the horse next to you the whole time so you don’t even get to go fast. The horses didn’t care one bit about 20 ATVs rushing past them within an arms reach. I bet they have seen it often.
On the way back to the original staging area we got some cool single shots of us riding through one of the mud puddles. Once we got back, parked, and took off our helmets all of us met with the leader of the group for one last thank you talk. Phil and I cut a deal for the pictures taken and then we waited for the bus. It was about a 10 minute wait and during this time Phil and I shared a bottle of water.
Soon Jean arrived cheerful as ever and we were on our way back. He recommended that if you go into town from the port that you should either walk or take a bus as the taxis can be a bit reckless. Not soon after that we saw a person fly through a red light and another person skip an entire line of traffic from the breakdown lane. Not even Boston has traffic that bad. Oh, it should also be of note that one long honk + yelling means someone hates you while two short honks means thank you.
While Philip and I were exploring Jamaica on ATVs Mom was busy doing a mildly dangerous waterfall climb. The Dunn River Falls is exceptionally well known for it’s smooth fast flowing series of waterfalls. Mom first took a catamaran to the place where the falls are and then -without safety gear- formed a human chain up the waterfall. The story goes that few years ago an American tourist saw the falls and said something like “Ha! I can do that by myself.” He then proceeded up the falls, slipped, broke his back, and is now paralyzed for life. So now you need to follow a carefully planned route up the falls behind a guide. Pretty exciting stuff! I don’t really have a good way to transition this back to what I have written already so….
Once back at the port Philip was all about heading straight back to the ship. True, we did have speckles of mud on our legs / arms / clothes. The problem was that I hadn’t gotten something for the souvenir drawer yet. I was also interested in going into town, but I was nervous I’d get lost or have Bank Of America decline my credit card, which in itself wasn’t an issue since I could just report it was me via text. Except I didn’t have any cell service because I turned it off to avoid roaming charges. So we stayed near the ship and I got two small frogs for a cool $10. (It was $15 until I managed to barter it down to $10 *I was very pleased with myself*).
Back aboard the ship I scrubbed all the mud off then changed into new clothes and eventually we met Mom in the international food hall for a quick dinner. I had Texas style bbq. The brisket was very good. After dinner I think Phil headed off to play in the poker tournament. During this time Mom and I wandered the ship and then went back to the food hall for ice cream. By the time we got back to the room Phil had finished poker. He lost, but only because he didn’t want to waste a ton of money trying to get to the top. (It was kind of a cash grab by the ship). Later we went to bed.
Day 6 (At Sea)
Today I woke up with a really sore throat and since we were at sea for the day I thought it would be better to just rest. I was worried I had covid or some other sickness so I decided to use my get well fast strategy from Philmont. All I did for Day 6 was lay in bed and drink water. Lots of water. We are talking 1 liter every 2 hours for the whole day. I streamed movies almost the whole day on the TV and if I was too tired to watch I would just sleep. I had a climate controlled room, a balcony, a carpeted floor, no bugs, a bed with a mattress, electricity, internet, and unlimited tasty water. These are all things that I didn’t have at Philmont when I was sick last year.
At Philmont I had no TV so I would just sit in bed and do nothing for 12 hours in the 90F tent and wait to get tired. If I went outside I would get sunburned so it was best to suffer in the tent. Overall an awful experience, but looking back I can’t think of any other way to do it.
By the time lunch rolled around I decided I was well enough to try to eat some food out of the buffet. I needed food to kick out the congestion so this was a necessary trip. After lunch I went right back to the room and continued to chug water. The most terrifying thought was that the boat would kick me off and I’d have to figure out what to do on a nearby island, so I decided to keep my thoughts to myself. What would you have done?
For dinner we went to the Local Bar and Grill and I had a burger. It was a great dinner and after I just went back to the room to continue the same routine as before. By the time I fell asleep I was confident I’d be much better by morning.
Day 7 (Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas)
Long story short we forgot to sign up for a tender boat to go ashore so we got up early to try to get onto the first one. It conveniently turned out that the first one was a special one for people who forgot to sign up so we lucked out. See the activity we had signed up for was the jet ski one and it was at a time that meant missing the first tender would mean missing jet skiing (potentially).
It turns out that this island in the Bahamas is the NCL private island: Great Stirrup Cay. It is probably a similar size as the island Jack Sparrow was marooned on in the Pirates of the Caribbean movie if not bigger. This was the perfect place to go to the beach and have a cocktail, but more on that later. First came jet ski time!
We had to watch a 1 minute safety video to watch. It was all about don’t be an idiot and be polite to ships with the right of way. Blah blah blah! The basic controls are a throttle lever, a start button, and a shut off button. I won’t bore you with the function of each. It was a bit like using the ATV in Jamaica. If the throttle wasn’t engaged then the jet ski wouldn’t run. The only major rules that the guides had for us was no overtaking each other and follow all the command signals.
They asked who would like to drive fast and picked out the order of the line. Faster in front. I should’ve raised my hand first because I hesitated and that forced me into the slow group with Mom. The last time I rode a jet ski was 10 years ago at Possum Kingdom Lake so I wasn’t sure what it was like.
It was a bit tough at first since I was #6 in line behind a slow driver and the constant bouncing on the water made me start/stop a bunch while trying to match their speed. That feeling of unsureness went away relatively quickly and after a few minutes it was fairly obvious that I should be in the lead of the slow group. Once things were settled I was in front whipping along the water at 55kph (~35mph). It seemed fast when going around turns, but according to the internet you can go up to 90mph on a finely tuned jet ski. (I think these purposely maxed at 40mph).
About halfway we all stopped to take a break and there was the option to jump into the water for a swim, but only Phil and I did that. It was a bit risky for me because I knew that after I jumped in I wouldn’t have anything dry to wipe the salt water off of my glasses. That proved to be a bit of an issue later because it glared up my glasses. (I had to figure out what each hand signal was with critical thinking and prayer). Totally worth going in though since the water was only around 5ft deep. Before we set off again we had the chance to get our picture while holding a massive starfish.
Next I got to go in the fast group as rider #3! This was a big leap and I floored it for the rest of the session. I got the ski up to 42mph and couldn’t get it any higher, which was a bit of a disappointment. Probably for the best as it would suck to get thrown off in 4-6ft water at a speed faster than that. After pulling back into the dock we decided to hit the beach next.
We had a few hours until the zipline, which made the beach time more enjoyable. Can’t rush a good tan on a chair. To make the time sweeter I picked up a Bacardi Mojito at the bar nearby. The plan here was that the extra ice would be a welcome surprise after snorkeling. Usually when I finish snorkeling my mouth tastes like the ocean so by having a cup of water nearby I can rinse all that away.
After finishing my drink I went to the beach with my new mask. The water was so salty here that I had no trouble staying on the surface and there wasn’t a current, which made it easy to not get brought out to sea. Most swimmers were within 20ft of the beach, but most of the cool fish were farther than that so I swam farther out. I watched the fish for maybe 30 minutes before heading back to grab lunch at the island buffet. It was a bigger setup with a smaller food selection than the ship. Mainly hamburgers / hotdogs / pizza / salad. After a quick lunch it was time to zipline!
Since we bought the deluxe pack we got to do two runs. After gearing up and a safety video we went up an elevator to the top of the tower. (It was similar to the mining elevator I took at Strataca in Kansas.) The first zipline descent was a very long 120ft drop and the cable brought me over the beach / ocean. Very cool! After that we had to walk over a series of rope bridges and up a rope column thing. The climbing was actually a lot of effort as I’m tall and it was made for shorter people I think. The rules for the ziplining were very strict. That was good I suppose, but annoying because I’m more of a reckless adventurer so… more danger equals more fun!
We took two more ziplines back to the base of the tower before taking the elevator back to the top. At the top we learned that there was no climbing on the 2nd run! This run consisted of about four ziplines. This had a bit more of a relaxed pace because not that many people picked the two run package. At the bottom of this course we had our pictures taken again by the NCL photographer. Overall a very awesome experience and one I’d do again.
After the zipline I suggested to Mom and Philip that they could rent snorkeling gear and come with me to do some more exploring. The farther you went out the more there was to see. I saw a few medium sized sting rays, a bunch of sea turtles, a barracuda, many annoying seagulls, and a lot of fish. It was super great to not get stung by a jelly fish like I did in Florida at Biscayne. Next time I will totally have a Go-Pro so I can show you readers all the cool underwater pictures. A $600 camera for a few dives just didn’t seem worth the investment at the time. At around 3pm we had decided to make our way back to the cruise ship and as we left the water we heard someone yell “Will you shut the hell up!!” to the seagulls, which was very satisfying for literally everyone at the beach. The tender back to the boat went as planned and soon we had showered, changed into nice clothes, and left the room to adventure again.
Mom really really wanted to get professional pictures the past few days and the place they were taking them at was in the deck 6 atrium on the stairs. It was a sort of lame location compared to a balcony or outdoor sculpture, but who am I to complain? The pictures went by pretty fast and that’s when Mom announced that the Prima had it’s own gift shop. You know what that means…something for the souvenir drawer! I ended up getting a Christmas ornament.
I love a good steak so you could say I was very excited to have some at the specialty restaurant Cagney’s Steakhouse onboard the Norwegian Prima. It has been awhile since I went to New York City and had the most magnificent steak ever at Quality Meats and I can never just pass up a good steak dinner.
Philip got a tomahawk steak, which was the same thing he got at Quality Meats. The waiter was astounded at the order and gave a gasp of surprise! (This actually happened… I’m not chalking this up). He was initially doubtful he could finish the 32oz steak, but was very proud at his accomplishment. I had a porterhouse and Mom had a petite mignon. Philip was talking incessantly about wanting the seven layer chocolate cake and wanting to save some room for it, but by the time desert rolled around he was full! Haha! He didn’t even try a single bite. Mmmmm it was good. I got a caramel and butterscotch cheesecake. It was very good!
After dinner we headed to the atrium to look into the NCL rewards program, but it proved to be a huge investment, so we decided to go back to the room and watch some tv or something since it was getting late. We also had to check into the airline flights for tomorrow. We watched about a 3rd of the Top Gun Maverick movie, which was already playing on the tv when we got there, but I switched it to Lightyear and everyone except me fell asleep to that. It was an awesome last day!
Day 8 (Travel home)
This morning was the final morning on the ship and wow was it intense. I have the ability to pack a bag for the airport out of a hotel in less than 15 minutes (from the time I wake up to the time I need to be out of the door) if you need me to. Mom, on the other hand, had her work cut out for her this morning. She brought a massive bag remember. So it usually takes a fair amount of time to get it ready. Jowe, our lead room steward, came to check on us twice and that was frankly a bit embarrassing, but finally we were ready to go just as the ‘I’ve called everyone but you’ announcement came on the speakers.
I thought we were the last one off deck 15, but it turns out quite a few others are slow to wake up. By the time we got off the ship into the cruise terminal there was a truly massive line waiting for the US and Border Protection scanners. It took another hour before we made it into the humid Port Canaveral air.
Getting on the bus took a few minutes as it was a bit confusing which way to go since we didn’t book with the NCL people. The second I stepped onto the almost full bus I asked the group of dead faces “who needs a friend” as in who doesn’t care if I take the empty seat next to someone. Not even a twitch of a smile…tough crowd.
It took 45 minutes to get to the Orlando airport and about an hour after that we made to the other side of the TSA line. We had lunch at the Bahama Breeze Island Grill (in Terminal B). I kid you not, the ‘jerk chicken sandwich w/ French fries and an ultimate margarita were awesome and I’d highly recommend this restaurant. At 3pm we board for Boston with Philip boarding nearby a few minutes after for NYC. Whelp, it turns out that Mom and I are delayed so Philip gets to go first. Overall it’s been a great trip! See you next time!
Trip Stats
- Total cocktails: 5-7 a day
- Total water consumption while sick: ~3 gallons
- Islands visited: 3
- Disappointment: missed Miami Ultra 2023 even though I had a 3 day pass 🙁
- Favorite crew member: Jowe (Joey)
- Free minutes of internet on the ship: 150 minutes
- Worst sunburn location: Top of both feet
- Best food appetizer: Alligator bites
- Total dolphins seen: 0
- Total sharks seen:0
- First 4000 words of this blog were typed on my iPhone
Blog Site News as of 3/31/2023:
I will attempt to write a blog at least one Friday a month until I run out. I’m a bit behind and I need a new hobby at the moment. I’ve decided that anything that is over two weeks old will become part of my From The Vault posts, which is partly why I pushed this one so hard this week. I played around with ads on the website and I’m not a fan of how they look on my site so I will continue forward for free for the distant future.
That’s it for now!
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