ceilidh1

Drinks on the pool deck, not so much! There are NO servers out here. Either go to the bar (where there is one bartender) or order on the app and never get it! I ordered 20 minutes ago…

I also forgot to update you on the fact that we tried room service again last night. This time we had success! The key lime pie was NOT the key lime pie we know and love! The banana crème pie was delicious!

Just posting this as it confuses me! I don’t have premiere package this trip, but the “inclusions” have wines by the bottle, which I don’t understand! Also, some places on the ship are starting to run out of things… no apple juice at breakfast this morning, no Blue Moon in Explorers this evening. No biggie, but FYi

We had no real plans for cayman but we’re thinking of making our way to the beach. We had priority tender as elite so headed to explorers lounge at 9am. By this time there was no line and we walked straight on. The ride was only about 5 minutes. There were lots of vendors in the port area pushing tours, taxis, etc so we just kept walking until we were out of the gates. At this point, my kids said they weren’t keen on another beach day and would prefer to go to the turtle centre and Hell. We made our way to the bus station - an easy walk up Fort Street to the public library. The buses on Cayman are great - 14 seater vans that you just flag down and get off as you please for $2.50 per person. We easily found a bus that was going in the right direction - if you plan on doing both the turtle centre and Hell, don’t make the rookie mistake we did and visit Hell first as that is the opposite way of the bus route and you will have to double back! We mailed the obligatory postcards from Hell and took a few pictures, but that’s really all it is. Good as a “been there, seen that” thing but not worth the trek otherwise. From here, we flagged down a bus and discovered our mistake with the route. Luckily, the driver was great and took us to a connection point for free - I still paid him though! Then we were on our way to the turtle centre. The turtle centre was a very pleasant surprise. I wasn’t expecting much and almost didn’t do it when I saw the price (just over $75usd for three of us). I’m glad I did. It was amazing to see the turtles, as well as all the other delights there. I highly recommend it. We had lunch there, which was good but overpriced as you would expect! Heading back, the bus had room only for four. We had three in our group and were there first. There was another family of three behind us. We got on and as we were taking our seats, the other family pushed in front of us and took the seats! So rude! The tender ride back took forever to load and unload but we are now back on the ship, exhausted!

Breakfast

Grand Cayman today! One downside to having an obstructed oceanview is being woken at the crack of dawn by the tenders being lowered! We have nothing arranged for this port - hoping to cab to the beach.

Coconut mousse. It was amazing

I would say this was the best meal of the cruise so far…

Dinner

I’m really not sure what the problem is on Ruby with ordering through the app. It works maybe 1 out of 5 times. The order either gets hung up on preparing or it says it’s delivered. It’s not just me - I’ve tried ordering through the kids apps, my friends have tried on theirs, and others we have spoken to have said the same. My guess is that there are too many people trying to order and not enough staff to fulfil them.

We had a private tour booked through Ultimate Excursions. It was Montego Bay highlights and beach and was $50 per person. It was a little disorganized when we got off the ship as we were told to let the dispatcher know we were there. We did that, but the dispatcher never let the driver know! Thankfully, he wandered down and we connected and were soon on our way. Our first stop was a lookout that gave us views of the bay and our ship. Of course, there was an obligatory gift shop attached and my teen bought some souvenirs. Our driver then asked if we preferred to sightsee first or go to the beach first - we opted for the beach before it got too hot and too busy. This was a wise move! The private beach we went to was called Tropical Bliss. It was $6 per person to get in and $5 for beach chairs. There was a limited food menu, but plenty of drinks! There was also a DJ who ran drinking games and a fire dancer. The beach and water were beautiful and no one bothered us. This wasn’t the place to go if you are looking for quiet but we had a great time. We had a minor panic when my youngest lost his medallion in the ocean but with the help of goggles and a snorkel we were able to find it! We left around 1pm as the beach was starting to get busy and we were hungry. We asked our driver to take us to an authentic Jamaican place to eat and he took us to Scotchies. There were lots of locals there and menu was in Jamaican dollars, so we took that to be a good sign. We had jerk chicken, jerk pork, rice, wraps, sausage, it was all amazing. I forgot to take pictures but if you ever go to Montego Bay it’s well worth the visit! By the time we were done eating it was 2:45 and we were worried about the traffic on the way back. We opted to head straight back instead of more sightseeing. It took us over half hour and the line to get on the ship was pretty long! Back on board now after a long, hot, tiring day!

We were not able to use the drink package until we were 7(?) miles from port, so at 7pm they allowed it. Prior to that, you paid for any alcoholic drinks and there was a limited list available. There was never any formal communication that we received and many of the staff had no idea either. We did receive $25 obc but weren’t told why (I only knew about it from our roll call group with folks that had been on the previous voyage and did get communications). This was the first sailing from Galveston so maybe subsequent ones will be different

Welcome to Montego Bay

Breakfast

It’s manufactured by 3birdsdesign.com

Tomorrow we are in Jamaica! Patter:

The lobster Mac and cheese was bland and the lobster very rubbery. The poutine was ok but had way too much salt. The grilled cheese was good but the soup was strange - weird taste and consistency. The burgers were all inconsistent- some had cheese, some didn’t, one had spicy kimchi, the others had no spicyness. They tasted ok - but not upcharge good. The lemon dessert had the oddest texture but did taste good, as did the strawberries and cream and the coffee and donuts. Overall , there was nothing “wrong” with the meal but it was “meh”. I wouldn’t pay an upcharge for this place again.

We decided to skip the dining room and went to Salty Dog instead. We have never eaten there before and likely never will again. So far, this has been the only “miss” in terms of food - ironic since this is the first upcharge restaurant. The server told us there was no reduction for kids, which is weird as we have always had 50% discount for the youngest in crown grill. No big deal.

They have been on the menu every night but just not tonight! Maybe because it’s formal night?

Gingerbread house decorating

Gift…

Weather changed today and it’s sunny and humid but pretty windy! Walked around and enjoyed the ship!

Formal night this evening