drewsmom123

By 10:45 we were on deck 4 waiting for a tender, one had just pulled in, but we had to wait for those on it to unload.

We went to Margaritaville to check wi-fi, and to people watch. Then we headed to the right from the ship to Eden Rock Dive Center. For $14, I rented gear and went snorkelling. DH decided to save his $14- what for I’m not sure, but he did get some good pictures of me in the water. There were lots of fish, I could have just laid out there for hours. About 50 yards away, 2 excursion boats pulled in and people got off and snorkeled with me.

I have decided that next time I will bring my own snorkel gear. There was a good place at GSC and on Grand Caymen there was a Marine Park right next to the place that I paid to rent. There were lockers and no entrance fee.

I rode too but apparently we didn't get pics of me.

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We had decided the day before that we would not get in a hurry catching a tender, so we had buffet breakfast and then when the slides opened at 10 we rode those until we got tired. There were just about 10 of riding so there wasn’t any wait time.

Every morning there was evidence of constant maintenance and repair. The ship was extremely clean and I never noticed anything that looked like it could use some attention.

On our walk we visited the sports deck. You could play basketball or soccer (the had tournaments. There was a jumpy thing and a spider slide but I forgot to get pics.

There is also giant chess and ping pong. We always enjoy a good ping pong game but we never did play.

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Emergency drills.

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Day 5 Grand Cayman

We were both awake by 6:00, so we decided to get some walking in. This time we just walked around the upper decks, then back to Spice, several times. There were hardly any people out yet so could walk around between the chairs. The crew was conducting an emergency drill in the pool. They had an inflatable life raft that was turned upside down and the crew member had to climb on top of it and turn it over. It was very interesting to watch.

Waiting on your review...can't wait to read about your trip. We sail in May on Carnival's Elation, but we will be visiting Dollywood this weekend!! We are just north fo K-town!

Enjoy Dollywood. I can make dinner suggestions if you need them. We haven't been on the Elation. Give us a review of your trip.

Lunch view

Pina colada in honor of being in Jamaica

Views during sail away

Dessert and a movie.

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Back on board for lunch at the buffet around 1:30. Then we found chairs on the upper deck around the pool- there was a nice breeze and I took a little nap. We stayed until sail away and then went to the hot tub in Spice.

Buffet again for dinner- Carribean Night. We took our desserts to Spice and watched Dunkirk. DH wanted to play some pool so we went down to check out the tables, but I was just exhausted so I convinced him to call it a night (it was like 9:30). There was a puppy waiting for me.

Yummy

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On our way back to town O’Neal talked about the animals on the island. He said the only native predator was a yellow python, but mongoose had been introduced and had killed most of the snakes and were working on the chicken population (which just run wild, everywhere). He suggested that everyone go to the Ocho Rios Jerk Center and try authentic food, however, the food on the ship is free so we wouldn’t be going there. He dropped us off in a shopping center within the “walk zone”. We spent a little while looking around- most shops had free rum samples. The shops seemed a little high for hats, t-shirts, and magnets. We did buy a hat for our son and then decided to find some free wi-fi. Very close to the ship is a taco stand called Rasta Taco, they would give you the wi-fi password without a purchase. They had a very nice little porch in the shade so we checked our emails and sent a few texts. Margaritaville was close by too, some people from the ship said they went there.

We walked back to the ship- about a half a mile, nice wide sidewalk. Along the road on the way back we saw a fella selling fish.

Pretty impressive.

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Along the road there was a huge pipeline. O’Neal said that it was water diverted to the hydroelectric plant to make power for the city. He said when they close the pipe you can’t be in the river we were just playing in because there was just too much water. The pipe was made entirely of wood, the only metal was in the straps holding it in place. It was pretty incredible.

The bus on the right is coming in, the blue car and the bus in front of it are going out.

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We returned to our van and tried to leave the parking lot, however, there were huge busses coming in and blocking the road. Men appeared out of nowhere and began to work a crazy automobile puzzle to get everyone moving. There were times that the cars were only inches about- one side pressed against a mountain- the other on the edge of the hill.

Blue Hole

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Our first stop was for Tubing on the Calipso river. We stopped in the middle of a residential area at a small building with a bathroom and a counter. We were given big black tire inner tubes with seats added to the bottom, then Leon and Jerome led us to the river. It was cold and said to be so full of minerals that you would come out looking 10 years younger. We all got in and floated away. Our guides kept us together and away from the banks. They sang songs and answered our questions. It was a beautiful area. The water was swift, but not scary, there were a couple of very small rapids. My waterproof camera decided that it no longer wanted to work so we have no pictures. We learned about breadfruit, jackfruit, and ackee (which is deadly if eaten before it is ripe). We floated by the Bob Marley reggae concert hall (really just a small shed in a clearing). After about 30 minutes we stopped at a riverside stand- souvenirs, hammocks, a rope swing, and red stripe. We hung out there for just a few minutes, no one bought anything even though the old man there said he would have it delivered right to our ship- he could even wait on payment until then. The last 20 minutes was filled with song and relaxing floating. Then back in the van and off on a wild ride.

We headed into the rainforest. O’Neal explained that the further we got from the city, the smaller the roads became. They were not much more that one lane trails in which cars, vans, and full sized busses had to maneuver around each other perched precariously on the edge of a cliff. It was quite the adventure. Our destination was the Blue Hole. It was an unbelievable area of river with waterfalls and deep holes. Once we arrived and squeezed our van into the parking lot, we signed waivers and were given wristbands. We were assigned Tony as our guide. Now I really have a hard time explaining what happened next. It was a sort of organized chaos of a couple thousand people climbing up swift waterways, swinging on rope swings, scaling waterfalls, and jumping off cliffs. The liability insurance in the states would have made it too expensive to visit. It was somewhat crazy, but one of the most beautiful and exciting places I have been. I climbed and jumped with the best of them. One cliff was about 25 feet high, I almost chickened out. Tony did a great job of keeping our little group together and even cut line a couple of times so we didn’t have to wait as long. The guides were fearless and very helpful, they encouraged everyone to participate and even jumped with little people if they were afraid. I think our group really enjoyed themselves!!

Oco Rios, Jamaica

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We were scheduled to meet Peat Taylor of Peat Taylor tours 30 minutes after our ship docked. They were calling excursion guests by 7:30. I had arranged to meet my friends at 8 outside of the Manhattan so we could go off together. They let us walk off by 8:10. We walked all the way to the end of the pier and there was Peat waiting right where he said he would. A couple of other families joined us in the van and then we were headed off into town. Peat wasn’t very talkative, he only told us that we would be stopping to change vans according to where we were going. After a short 5 minute drive, the 4 of us and a father and 2 teenage boys from Michigan loaded up in O’Neal’s van and headed out (on the wrong side of the road) into the city. Ocho Rios is a small town of about 6K people, it receives around 76 inches of rain a year and is almost consistently 85 degrees. We drove through town and out into a couple of neighborhoods. The area looked as though building had begun and then abandoned. O’Neal explained that there aren’t any rules about how long it takes to build a house, and the local attitude is it will be finished eventually. So the necessary rooms- kitchen, bath, a bedroom are completed and then they add the rest when they feel like it.

Sun peeking up

View of the Bridge

Carnival following us in

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We both woke up really early (5 am) so we watched a movie while slowly getting ready for the day. We went to the Garden Cafe’ for breakfast- I had french toast and bacon, yum, yum, yum. Then we did some more wondering, eventually making it to the Bridge view on deck 13, it was pretty cool. One very disappointing aspect of this ship is the lack of access to see off the ship. When coming in to port I like to watch from the front of the ship and there really isn’t a good place to do that (it is a restricted view on 18). It turns out that it was ok, the port at Ocho Rios is not much to look at.

Epic will home port in San Juan when she completes her Nov 2019 Transatlantic crossing, not this year.

 

 

 

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Than you and I apologize for posting misinformation. I can only blame the UBP.. it was 11 o'clock when we went to the meet and greet so I had already had a few.

Enjoying the review! Thankfully we are fortunate enough to be able to take at least a cruise every so often, even if on a tight cheapskate budget!!! It isn't what you spend or where you go but who you are with!!!

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I love towel animals.

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Back to my wonderful vacation- the show was pretty long so we called it day afterwards. Our room was very dark (after I figured out how to turn off the closet light). It was also very quiet. I don’t think I ever heard anyone in the hallway ( actually we didn’t really see anyone out there either- we saw the people in the cabin directly across from us one time- kinda weird) , never heard the neighbors, once or twice we heard what sounded like jumping and running above us but it didn’t last long. So I always slept very good.