Jewel of the Seas | Days 3 & 4

Day 3 – At Sea

Our third day of the cruise was an at-sea day. I told my mom she could sleep in until about 11 and then we would go down to the dining room for lunch. She loves sleeping in, so it was the least I could do for her! I figured I would wake up earlier in the morning, get a coffee, and then read on the balcony until she woke up. Instead, I also slept until nearly 11am! I was so surprised when I saw what time it was when I woke up. Cruise sleep is the best sleep, my friends. The rocking ship just lulls you into a deep, deep slumber.

We eventually got up, got dressed for the day (bathing suits and coverups, yasss!), and ventured into the dining room for lunch. I was so excited when I saw they had mozzarella sticks as an appetizer. WHAT?! I couldn’t order it fast enough! They were so delicious. I also ordered spaghetti for lunch and apple pie for dessert. Yum, yum, yum.

After lunch, we headed to the solarium where we were lucky enough to snag some deck chairs together (always a feat on a sea day!). I read my book for a bit and then coerced my mom into the pool. We also enjoyed the hot tub, which felt really good. My mom’s been dealing with a hip issue that reared its head the week prior, so the heat and bubbles felt really good on her hip muscles!

Eventually, we needed to make it to bingo! I love playing bingo on the ship. But sadness! We got there too late. They closed down bingo card sales just as we arrived. What a bummer! Instead, we sadly walked back to our cabin, played a few rounds of Uno (I won), and then took naps. You know, because we had had such a busy day! Hehe.

We woke up around 6, took showers, and got fancy for dinner. Dinner was quite the chaotic affair. First, when we ordered our sodas, they brought us diet sodas. So we asked for regular and when the waiter brought us round two, they still had that diet aftertaste (which I hate). This time, I just asked for a Sprite. They can’t get that wrong at least!

The second chaotic thing is that I ordered baked potato soup and they brought me French onion. You guys, I may get blasted for this, but I hate French onion soup. Blech. It makes me nauseous just thinking about it. I don’t know what it is about it: is it the beef broth? is it the soggy bread floating in the soup? Whatever it is, it’s not for me. Thankfully, I was able to get a redo and my baked potato soup was so, so, SO good. It’s my first time ever having baked potato soup, and it will not be my last!

After dinner, we stumbled upon a really fun Lip Sync Battle that was happening in the centrum area of the ship. OMG – it was fantastic! I had a lot of fun dancing on the sidelines and singing along to all of the songs. 🙂 The winner turned out to be this college-aged kid who sang The Circle of Life and really hammed it up during the beginning section. During the chorus, people turned on their phone flashlights and started waving them around, and it just hit me right in my feels, all of us in it together with this kid. It was just so good, and he was the easy winner of the battle!

And then it was time to head back to the cabin and hit the sack. We had an early alarm to set, as we had to check in for our excursion by 7:15am, eeks!

Day 4 – Ocho Rios, Jamaica

We were up early on day 4, as we needed to grab a quick breakfast before getting off the ship to meet for our excursion. One of the anxieties I was having about this excursion is that I didn’t realize until we were on the ship that water shoes were required. Eeks! I was hoping the gift shop would have some (wildly overpriced) water shoes, but they didn’t. So we just had to hope we’d be able to buy water shoes when we were off the ship.

And success! There was a stand for water shoes right by the place we needed to check in for our excursion. Woohoo! And they were only $12 a pop. Unfortunately, it was a cash-only stand and my mom didn’t bring cash (I had enough cash on me to buy a pair of shoes for myself) so she wasn’t able to get water shoes. It ended up working out okay, though.

Soon enough, we were on the bus and heading to our first stop of the excursion: Blue Hole Falls. I didn’t have my phone with me while we were at Blue Hole, so I don’t have any pictures, which makes me sad. But I tried to just enjoy the experience without feeling the need to document every part of it! Blue Hole is a place where you can swim in the clearest, bluest waters you’ve ever seen and enjoy the most magnificent waterfall. We had the option of jumping off a large platform into the waterfall, and before the excursion, I was sure I wasn’t going to partake in this experience. But when we got there and I saw the waterfall… I knew I couldn’t pass up this experience! When will I ever get to jump into a waterfall while in Jamaica?! Sometimes, you just have to do the scary thing. I didn’t want to regret not doing it!

Image from the Internet. (Credit)

My mom opted out of the dive, not because she didn’t want to do it, but because of her hip. She was very bummed, but it just means we’ll have to repeat this excursion the next time we’re in Jamaica, right?

I was terrified of jumping (I don’t even like the high dive at pools) but I took a deep breath and jumped off the platform. I screamed like a banshee and while the platform didn’t seem as high when I was standing on it, it felt like forever before I hit the water. But OMG, it was so much fun, too! I couldn’t believe I did it! I was really proud of myself for saying yes to this experience. It was well worth it!

After everyone had a turn (or turns!) jumping off the platform, we then got to zip-line to get back to where we started. How fun! I love a good zip-line. One of our tour guides, would push us off the edge while we held on to the zip-line handle, and then we were instructed to just fall into the water and swim to the edge, where there was a wood staircase. Unfortunately for me, I got caught up in one of the currents after I dropped from the zip-line and, y’all, I thought it was over for me. This was it. This was my final song. I would be carried away by the Jamaican river and die alone. Dramatic, much?

Just as I was preparing to be one with the river forever, one of our tour guides grabbed me by my lifejacket (not everyone wore lifejackets; even though I’m a strong swimmer, I decided to wear one just in case, and after this experience, I am so glad I did!) and pulled me to safety. Whew! From there, I was able to get to the staircase and climb out of the water, where my mom was waiting for me. I was bummed she didn’t get to do this part of the excursion with me!

After the fun in Blue Hole, we headed back to the bus where we were going to be taken to the White River to go tubing! This was the part of the excursion I was most looking forward to, and it did not disappoint. We all got into big inner tubes that had a solid bottom and were soon sailing down the river.

At different points along the river, there were floating bars where you could snag a rum punch or other drinks. Who doesn’t want to day drink while floating in a river?! It’s a must!

Most of the tubing experience was calm and peaceful, with the tour guides singing and keeping us happy along the way. Every now and then, we’d come to a small rapid that would make you go really fast down a section and douse you with cold river water. Eeks! There were a few stopping points where we would be instructed to hold on to a rope until everyone was bunched up together again. I believe this was just to make sure nobody got lost!

It was also very common to get stuck in a section of the river that didn’t have any current to it. Sometimes you could get yourself out of it, but more often than not, one of the tour guides had to come and rescue you. That happened to me a few times! At the beginning of the tubing excursion, Mom got stuck before we had even gone very far, and I was hysterically laughing about it. Then, a few minutes later, I was stuck in a section and she comes SAILING by me and says, “Oh, are you stuck?!” and keeps sailing by. You guys, I can’t tell you how much this made me laugh. It still makes me laugh! It’s one of those delightful memories that I will cherish forever. It was just so funny the way she just sailed by me, all cool, calm, and collected, while I’m struggling in my tube.

The last rapid of the day was going to be the most dangerous one! The tour guide said that 50% of people fall out of their tube during this rapid because it’s intense and long. We were all wearing lifejackets and helmets, so we were instructed just to float and let the lifejacket do the work if it happened. And I definitely got flipped out of my tube! I was so certain I wasn’t going to get flipped, but I did. Womp, womp!

Unfortunately, Mom also got flipped but it was worse for her because she lost her glasses when she flipped! The tour guides weren’t lying when they said not to bring anything on the tube that you didn’t want to get lost. While the tour guides assured us they would look for the glasses afterward, neither of us was confident they would find them. (And as far as we know, they never did. Wah.)

Anyway, even with that bummer, the river tubing was SO MUCH FUN. I was just laughing as the river twisted and turned me all around and having a blast the whole time.

After our tubing excursion, it was off to lunch at Margaritaville. They were serving us jerk chicken, rice, and beans as part of our excursion, although you could also order off the menu. (Good thing for Mom, as she can’t eat rice and the jerk chicken would have been wayyy too spicy for her.) We both ordered drinks and couldn’t pass up the kamikaze shots when one of the servers offered them to us. When in Jamaica, right?!

After eating, we were given time to poke around in some of the shops near the restaurant. Mom found a great shirt and magnet, and I was excited to find a very cool Jamaica magnet to add to my collection. Yay!

And then it was back to the port! It was around noon, and we had already done SO MUCH this day. We were pooped, for sure, and happily enjoyed naps in our cabin when we got back on the ship. Nothing like a midday nap after being outside and active all morning long!

We woke up from our naps around 4 or 5, and lazed around the cabin for another hour or so. I think we may have played a game? I’m not exactly sure. Or maybe I just read my book.

We had a lovely dinner in the dining room and I told my mom that after we ate, I wanted to check out the ship’s library. Every ship has a library, but I wasn’t sure where it was located because the library didn’t show up on the deck map anywhere. Annnd… that’s because the library is just this nook in the corner of an open area with two glass-cased bookshelves. Woe! It’s sandwiched between a bar and one of the event venues, so it’s not exactly the most peaceful place to be.

Ah, well. We were able to find some games to play while we were there. We started with checkers, which I won, and then played Scrabble. Mom won that one!

And then it was time for our favorite night on the ship: The Love & Marriage Game Show. Fashioned after The Newlywed Game, the Love & Marriage show takes three couples (a couple celebrating their honeymoon, a couple that’s been married for a very long time, and a couple that’s somewhere in the middle). Usually, you get the newlyweds and a couple that’s been married 50 or so years, and then a couple that’s been married around 10ish years. This time, we had the newlyweds, a couple celebrating almost 50 years of marriage, and a couple married for 60 years. So not exactly the range of marriages as normal, but it was fine because the 50-year couple was adorable in every manner of speaking.

Anyway, the show was unbearably cute, especially the older couples. (The couple married for 60 years had their first date at a drive-in! Like, how cute is that?!) It gets raunchy at times, but not so much that I feel awkward sitting next to my mom while I watch the show, haha. 🙂 It was a fun time!

And that was Wednesday! Whew – a long day and a long recap. Next up: a day in Haiti and our last day on the ship.