On January 23, 2012 Jim and I loaded our bags and our friends, The Walkers, and their bags, into the truck and the early (crazy, dumb, dark early) hour of 4:15 a.m. and headed to the airport. There was a light blanket of icy snow on the ground (the only snow we've had in weeks) but the roads weren't too bad. I think there was a bit of a buzz in the air. The kind you get from starting an adventure so early in the morning. But I could be wrong. It might just have been the cold and ridiculously early hour. It was not time at all before we were boarding our next plane in Dallas...like seriously.....I think I must have slept right up to the point of walking on the second plane. Weird.
The flight from Texas to Miami was fun. I've never flown over water before. Cool. The emergency instructions were a little different...you know in case of a WATER LANDING....I don't think our craft was equipped for a water
landing. I think at that point it is a crash. Just sayin'.
The popcorn clouds were cool and the coastline was awesome!! I could hardly wait to get to the ship!! I guess at this point I should tell you that we were headed to the Carnival cruise ship Destiny. How cool is that!
Jim and I are celebrating 20 years of marriage this year and decided that since we never took a honeymoon or really ever had a vacation without the kids....it was time. Our friends The Walkers have a lot of travel experience and graciously agreed to let us tag along with them. We planned and dreamed and schemed for months. When we were finally on our way it felt a bit surreal.
From past experience (Kevin and I went on a cruise [with his ballroom team] just before we moved to MN) I expected to get to the dock and have to wait around for a few hours before getting on the ship. Not so!! We walked in and up to the ticket counter to get our key cards and onto the ship. Wow!! We were really there.
Of course it all happened so fast that my camera stayed right there in my backpack. Oh well. I took a few pictures throughout the week (and a whole lot of us leaving the the harbor)....so I guess it all evens out. First thing we did was eat! It was like 1:00 and we were hungry! After some grub we checked out our rooms and then wandered around until it was time for the muster.
After we knew all about the safety of standing on the deck with the ships entire crew and passenger roster....(holy crowded mess batman!) it was time for some exploring. We rested a bit in there too.
Our dinning time was 8:15....not our plan....but hey, we went with it. After a brief chat with the dinning room maitre de he sat us in the early seating at a nice table with four women. Dinner was nice....at least for me. I went out of my comfort zone and got the chicken covered in green goop. Excellent. Loved every bite.
After dessert (because we had dessert at.every.dang.meal.) we went to the big theater for some Disco dance lessons.
Victor (from Russia...so you have to say it with an accent) and Disco Johnny taught us a short "dance" to get us started. It was funny. Good thing we can all laugh at ourselves pretty well. Then we sat in on a game of Gender Wars. Again....entertaining.
After that our lovely cruise director, Kevin Newnin came on stage and called some guests up and
made fun of them introduced them and some pointed out some of their quirks.We all got a laugh and I think everyone had fun with that.
By then it was 11:15 and if you know anything about the schedule Jim and I keep....you know how late that is for us! We are in the early to bed, early to rise camp...But there was more to do and see so we fought through our drowsiness and headed to the dance club.
The music was really good so we went in. The Walkers headed to the dance floor and we headed to the bar stools surrounding it to watch. Jim and I have been known to cut quite a rug...you know, like Fox Trot and Waltz and even Swing....but he just wasn't up for any of the dancing going on on that dance floor.
After being entertained (watching inebriated people dance) for almost 45 minutes we left that club and went to the comedy club where they were doing Karaoke with a live band.
It was way cooler than just Karaoke. Some of the performers were really good. Some were not. But the band was always good! But by the end of it Jim and I were beat.....1:00 a.m. It's been a long time since we've been up that late!!
We said good-night and turned in. What a great way to start our vacation. Because I have a tendency to set my expectations pretty high (and then be disappointed when diamonds don't fall from the sky) I tried to be more realistic. I'm glad I did. This first day was better than I could have imagined. I slept better than I have in months. Being rocked to sleep by the ocean is the life for me!
This is the first of our towel animals.....a seal. Cute. With the itinerary for the next day all ready to go!! I say...BRING IT ON!!
There are no problems in Jamaica.....just small situations. In order to avoid a small situation, it was safety first for all the drivers as well as their passengers. As soon as we got in, Jim said, "The steering and suspension are shot on this rig." We were about to find out why. The trail we went on was so rutted and rocky it literally took Jim both hands on the wheel to keep us on the road.
When our guide said keep up...he wasn't kidding. We hauled...our cookies....down that trail. We flew through orange groves and stands of water coconuts. Over and around and under and through.....at break-neck speeds.
We stopped at one point and our guide picked an Ugly Orange (it's official name) and peeled it and gave each of us a few wedges. I bit into it...(it's a cross between a grapefruit and a tangerine)and juice sprayed everywhere! It has a tough membrane (not fond of that word) like a grapefruit. It was sweet and delicious. But so messy!
Jim recommended putting the whole thing in my mouth to avoid the mess....Attractive!! Mainly the ugly orange is sold to juice companies. It was pretty tasty.
The Ugly Orange is like a huge grapefruit in size. Then we drove some more until we came to an old stone building with a water wheel. We learned that in the 1700's this was the Good Hope plantation. At one time there were over 300 slaves that worked here. The owner is said to be a good slave owner. He built a hospital for them and schools. He never had a slave revolt. Ever.
The main crop on the plantation was sugar cane. At one point this plantation was the largest supplier of sugar cane in all of the West Indies. You know what we get from sugar cane? Molasses. And do you know what we get from molasses? Rum.....at least that is what both our bus drivers were sure to tell us.
All of the buildings and bridges that are original to the plantation were made with stones that were once used as ballast stones on ships coming to the island to buy sugar cane and such. Most of them are still standing. We drove across the stone bridge that the slaves built using the double arch design. The key stones hold it all together to this very day.
We finished back at the gift shop and then rode our bus back to the pier. There were a lot of tourist shops set up to take however much money you were willing to part with.
Since I was lucky enough to get a cold (yes my first cold in a year and I get sick on vacation!), Jim and I headed back to the ship for lunch and a nap. We then met the walkers for 80's Music Trivia. We totally rocked that game!! We missed one out of 20...and if I had thought about it a little harder we would have walked away with the prize.
We hit the buffet for dinner and went to the game of love....picture the newly wed game but with one newly wed couple, one couple that had been married for 24 years and one that had been married for 58 years. It was so very funny!! The old couple was a hoot!! The boat was really swaying that night. I didn't mind it too bad though.
We took a Latin dance class from the most fabulous boy ever!! His name was Keenan and he was flamin' funny!!! We LOVED it!! It was beyond fun!! The wind was whipping pretty good so we called it a night around 12:30. Tomorrow is our last day on the ship. I am sad that it is almost over.
