Pearl - Reggae Cruise - Roy's Review

My wife and I had the extreme pleasure of being part of the first annual Welcome to Jamrock Reggae Cruise hosted by Damian "Junior Gong" Marley.

Background - I am a 55 year old engineer and my wife works for the State of Massachusetts. We are both massive reggae fans. This was our 4th cruise. All previous cruises have been on Carnival (1999, 2001, and 2003).

All photos were taken with a Nikon D-5100 with 18-55 zoom. Unfortunately, we left our 55-200 zoom at home. I will try not bore you with lots of pictures of the artists.

Itinerary:

Mon. 10/20/14 - Leave Miami

Tues. 10/21/14 - Day at Sea

Wed. 10/22/14 - Montego Bay, Jamaica

Thu. 10/23/14 - Ocho Rios, Jamaica

Fri. 10/24/14 - Day at Sea

Sat. 10/25/14 - Back in Miami at 8am

Day 1 - Embarkation

It seems that most people leave home a day early and get a hotel for the night. Well, I broke that cardinal rule of cruising. We had a 6am non-stop flight (Hartford to Miami) so I felt comfortable with that. Luckily, it worked out for the best. The flight was uneventful as was the transfer to the pier.

Getting on the ship was extremely slow. Security was very tight.

Once we were on the ship, we were able to go right to our cabin (1063). We met our cabin Steward (Halim) who turned out to be great. Very impressed with him.

We grabbed some lunch up at the buffet and then checked out the ship a bit. Travel day is quite tough - getting up at 3am and at the airport by 5am. So we were both quite tired by this time. So we went back to the cabin for a nap.

Here are a few photos during sail away...

We had a Royal Caribbean ship right behind us.

I think everyone who departs from Miami has this picture!

Next thing I knew it was 9pm. Wow what a power nap. Unfortunately, show time was 8pm. So I left my wife to nap and went up to deck 12 as quickly as I could. Deck 12 is the Lido deck. They covered one of the pools and built a stage over it. All shows ran from 8pm to midnight every night and were outside.

Next up. Pictures of Julian and Damian Marley.

Day 1 - Continued.

I stopped and grabbed a quick bite to eat at the buffet. I had already missed the entire set from Black Am I and almost half of Julian Marley's set. The area directly in front of the stage was very crowded. So I walked around and took some pictures before I found a nice area right beside the stage.

Here are two pictures of Julian "Ju Ju Royal" Marley...

The emcee for the night. I loved that outfit and the shades!

>> Sorry for the sideways pictures. I have to figure out how to fix that. <<

The final act for the night was our gracious host - Damian "Junior Gong" Marely. For those of you not familiar with him, Damian is electric. He can whip a crowd into a frenzy just by walking on stage. His set was my personal highlight of the cruise.

Those are some impressive dreadlocks!

From behind the stage.

For a true reggae fan like myself, this was one amazing day. How could it get any better? Stay tuned for day 2.

Day 2 - Day at Sea

We both slept in and had a very nice breakfast. After that, it was time to explore the ship some more. My wife went to play bingo so I kept walking around and socializing.

Up on Deck 12.

Main stage. You can see where they covered up one of the pools.

Inside of our cabin.

Our balcony.

Shaggy's soundcheck.

Have to take this picture!

More of Day 2...

Lunch was jerk chicken, rice and peas, and corn. Yummy. Those peppers were hot hot hot!

This picture was taken up on deck 14. You can see the stage and the covered pool. One thing that I thought was really cool was that they hung flags from every country that people came from. I think there were 46 of them. Wow. I can't think of any form of music that would bring that many cultures together with such a positive vibe. It was truly amazing.

Finally a picture of yours truly - enjoying one of many cold Red Stripe beers!

Here is a picture of my lovely wife getting ready for the "All White Affair".

Unfortunately, I do not have any pictures of the artists that night. I thought I was having technical issues with the camera. Turns out it was just "operator error" caused by too many beers!!!

Day 3 started out with the ship pulling into Montego Bay.

We had a Carnival ship right behind us.

We took a shuttle bus into down town Montego. On the bus with us was our favorite singer, Tarrus Riley, and his saxophone player Dean Fraser. What a treat to sit next to them and talk for a few minutes.

My wife with the "Musical Maestro" Mr. Dean Ivanhoe Fraser.

The one and only Tarrus Riley!

We took the shuttle and got off at Doctor's Cave Beach Club. This has been one of our favorite places in Jamaica for many years.

Me enjoying some fresh coconut water.

We took a cab back to the pier. I got a picture of the front of the Norwegian Pearl.

Again, we had our supper in the buffet. By this point I was getting tired of the same old same old. But I was so afraid to miss something special on the stage. What a dilemma.

The first artist of the night was Etana. This girl is an amazing talent. We made sure we got up to deck 12 very early so we could be right at the stage.

What a lovely dress.

Doing a duet with Jo Mersa marley (grandson of Bob). This young Rasta has the talent to make it big.

Busy Signal was on stage after Etana. He is NOT my cup of tea, so we left the stage area. We had heard a rumor that Etana would be in the gift shop meeting fans and signing autographs. Unfortunately, she never showed, but I did get a picture with Jo Mersa Marley.

We went back to deck 12 for Jah Cure. I was very anxious to see Jah Cure since I had never seen him perform live before. The front of the stage was very crowded, so we couldn't get very close. Plus other people had found my nice spot on the side of the stage. So I got as close as I could and held the camera in the air to take photographs. I thought thay actually came out pretty good.

Looks like lots of fun! Great pictures, too. :)

Looks like lots of fun! Great pictures, too. :)

Thanks GreatLakesGirl. It is hard for me to describe the feeling I had all 5 days. I had a perpetual smile on my face. Everyone was so happy and nice to each other. No pushing and shoving at the front of the stage. Just a positive vibe.

I always thought that I was a complete "reggae fool" - and I am. But to be on this ship, with thousands of others just like me was a thrill.

I am very happy to find this. I will be on the Pearl for a Blues Cruise in February. I haven't been able to find reviews specific to music charters before now. So thank you!

Very nice review with great pics. Thanks very much for sharing your holiday with us here on CC.

Happy New Year :)

~Robin

Every Day at Sea is a Great Day

We booked the Bamboo beach VIP excursion through Norwegian this day. Getting off the ship went fine.

Here is a picture looking back at the ship.

The bus was waiting for the short ride to the beach. Our tour guide was Latoya who was excellent. Her and her staff made the ride fun and enjoyable. In no time at all we were at a beautiful beach. We were both handed rum puch as soon as we got off the bus.

Open bar all day and the food just kept coming. This is sausage.

The main course was grilled lobster, jerk chicken, fried plantain, and callaloo. Did I mention that you could get as much lobster as you wanted?

The chef who prepared all this delicious food.

My one complaint with this tour was that we had to leave too soon. The bus ride back to the pier was quite the adventure. A bus full of drunk reggae fans singing Bob Marley songs.

Back on the ship, I happened to get on the elevator with Damian Marley's mother, Cindy Breakspeare. What a proud mother.

We decided to have supper in one of the main dining rooms tonight instead of the buffet. What a great decision that turned out to be. Delicious meal and a nice atmosphere. Why didn't we do this every night? Next year.

I was anxious to see Wayne Marshall, so we got right up to the stage early. Wayne put on a superb show.

On the left is our dear friend, Erica Newell, along with Rochelle Bradshaw.

Damian Marley joined him on stage for the last song.

It had been a very long day with a lot of alcohol. We are not big fans of either Cham or Sean Paul so went back to our cabin and called it a night.

Thank you for posting. Always wondered what a music cruise would be like but why so short?

Day 5 was our last full day on the ship. My wife and I were both very excited about the line-up of artists for the last night and what we expected to be a major grand finale.

We started the day with breakfast in the main dining room. Again, great idea that we should have done sooner.

The day was spent chatting with friends and making reservations for the 2015 Welcome to Jamrock Reggae Cruise. We heard that as much as 90% of the people re-signed.

One of our favorite bands is Morgan Heritage. Maybe because they are from Springfield, Massashusetts or maybe because they are just so good. I happened to be on deck 12 for their afternoon soundcheck.

This is Roy "Gramps" Morgan (keyboards and vocals).

He was nice enough to pose for a picture with me after the soundcheck.

We also made 5:30 reservations for dinner at Cagney's Steak House. What a treat that was! Here is my lovely wife.

And me with a rum and coke. You can't drink beer all the time!

We were very excited about all the artists for the night. It can be tough staying at the front of the stage for a long time. So we decided to go up one deck and get chairs for the night. I settled in with my bucket of Red Stripe Beer.

The people next to us were nice enough to take a picture of the two of us.

We were ready for a great night of reggae music.

We got out of Cagney's with plenty of time to spare before show time. We went up to deck 13 and got chairs overlooking the stage. We knew that any pictures would not come out so good. But we were willing to give that up in order to be comfortable for the night.

Unfortunately, Mother Nature had other plans for us... After 4 nights of beautiful weather, we had torrential downpours. I felt so bad for the hard working stage hands. They would cover everything in tarps while it rained. Then they would take the tarps off and get ready. But then rain would come again. They must have covered and uncovered everything at least 5 times that night.

Show time was normally 8pm. Christopher Ellis finally came on stage at 10:10pm. Christopher is the son of reggae legend Alton Ellis and it shows. He was only able to do 3 /12 songs before the rain came again.

I was wishing we hadn't forgotten the 55-200 zoom lens!

After another lengthy rain delay, Morgan Heritage was next to take the stage. They were able to do their full set, but they ran through it very fast (no extended versions of any songs). Shame.

Next was Bob Marley's grandson, Jo Mersa Marley. This young man has the talent to make it big. Unfortunately, his set was cut short due to rain.

Last was Stephen Marley. He is my favorite of all of Bob's sons.

They tried and tried to make the outdoor show work. Finally, around 2am, they gave up and moved inside for the "grand finale". All the stars gathered in the atrium and basically did some "free styling".

What a crowd of people!

We finally gave up and went to bed around 4am. We heard the party went on until 6am. The ship was docking back in Miami at 7am!!!

Embarkation was an absolute nightmare. We stood in line for over 3 1/2 hours just to get off the ship.

We got a day room at the Miami Hilton Hotel. That was a very nice end to our trip. We relaxed, napped, and got a bite to eat before the flight home.

The flight home was dreadful. Nearly constant turbulence the entire flight.

We got back home around midnight.

Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home. Especially when you have these two wonderful boys to come home to.

This is Marley.

And this is Cooper.

They are both Cavalier King Charles Spaniels.

We are so happy you are home mommy!

Phew. That's my cruise report. I hope you all enjoyed tagging along with me. Next December is the second annual Welcoem to Jamrock Reggae Cruise. We are already booked!

Thank you for posting. Always wondered what a music cruise would be like but why so short?

I would have preferred an extra day or two myself. But it was fine. In 2015, they are doing two 5-day cruises back-to-back.

Thanks for the review and great pictures!

Thanks for the link to your review Roy. I have never been on a theme cruise but it looked fun. I wonder how many Red Stripe beers were consumed in that cruise....probably more that week than any other week

Wonderful review and awesome photo's.

Thanks for the link to your review Roy. I have never been on a theme cruise but it looked fun. I wonder how many Red Stripe beers were consumed in that cruise....probably more that week than any other week

Funny you should mention that. The ship ran out of Red Stripe on the last night. I had to switch to Bud Light!

It was quite amazing to be on a ship loaded with people who share the same passion as you.

Funny you should mention that. The ship ran out of Red Stripe on the last night. I had to switch to Bud Light!

 

It was quite amazing to be on a ship loaded with people who share the same passion as you.

Well ya know Jamaicans love their Red Stripe. I'm sure it is very awesome to experience an atmosphere like that on a cruise