Orlando, Florida. Sunday 16 December 2012

An early start with us meeting at 6am so we could get the express departure from the ship.  Everything went smoothly and we arrived at our hotel just before 9am.



One small part of Dr Seuss' Landing

After leaving the cruise we were preparing ourselves to be a let-down in comparison.  Were we wrong!

Universal Studios in Orlando is awesome!  So much there, attention to detail and just a magical feeling.  I wish we could've taken the kids when they were younger.  It was especially good as I expect no-one does Christmas like the Yanks.  Grinchmas at Dr Seuss' Landing was particularly pretty



Grinchmas

We struck the conditions right with it being 26C (remember its winter) and not school holidays (although a Sunday).  While it got crowded later on, it was pretty good when we arrived.





Owl Post at Harry Potter

First up was Harry Potter.  Hate to say it again, but it was awesome.  Wonderful atmosphere with all the shops in Hogsmeade looking like the real thing.  Many had novelty tricks in addition to Harry Potter merchandising.  We even had a butter beer!



Hogsmeade

Hogwarts hid probably the best ride/attraction I've ever been on.  As you walk through in the inevitable queue, there was so much to see in the corridors. 







The ride itself involved you being held in a seat with a rigid over-the-shoulder harness to stop you falling out when upside down. Sometimes your capsule was moved through Hogwarts, other times you were rocked with an incredibly realistic video simulation that made you feel like you were flying a broomstick.




Lost World Statue - a few stories tall

We queued for ages at The Lost World for a show that was pretty tame in comparison.

Spiderman was of almost similar quality and style to Harry.

The Mummy was an out&out scary coaster ride and the Simpsons was another aweome simulation.






Jurassic Park entrance

Jurassic Park was a fun but very wet river ride - fortunately the heat dried us out. 

The Simpsons was our last ride being shortly after we'd consumed an unusual ice cream treat called Dipping Dots. These are flash frozen (liquid nitrogen) balls (around 5mm diameter) of ice cream along with Oreo lumps.  Quite yummy, but the texture of the ice cream was strange until it melted in your mouth.

Somehow in the middle of all this I lost my phone (in the toilet), but miraculously reclaimed it due to the generosity of a cleaner who found it!

More souvenirs were bought as the stores are pretty wonderful with the variety of merchandise.  Would've spent more, but dont' want to exceed our baggage limit (or Visa).

We went back tired, but happy to the hotel,  The only restaurant available for tea was an "American Bistro" specialising in pizza, burgers and ribs.  Feeling snobby, I was reluctant to go.  However it was wonderful!

Elegant food and I ended up having two starters - one of snails, the other of 'gator tail.  Yep you read it here - I had alligator in Florida.  It tasted like chicken - seri-arse!

Deep fried alligator nuggets

 Last night in the States tonight - back home on Wednesday morning after nearly a day's travelling.  Dreading the travel but looking forward to the destination!

Cruisin... Friday 15 December 2012





Lift carpet

A low key day with Rebecca and I agreeing to just meet up at the Schooner bar  at 10:15 for the first trivia quiz.  Luckily she knocked on my door at 10, as my phone was still on Mexico time, not ship time – so I was still reading in bed.  After the fastest shower in the Universe we managed to get there in time. Still didn’t do brilliantly in the quiz itself.



One of the neat little touches that the cruise does is change a patch of carpet in the lifts to read the day of the week.  So it was with some sadness that we saw it read Saturday – the last day of the cruise.  It’s quite strange, part of you doesn’t want the magic bubble broken and many of the guests talked about having to go back to reality.  Another part of you just longs for home.

Melon and butter(?) carvings



Dolphin ice carving

Most of the day was spent fluffing around between trivia quizzes, working out how to get off the boat the next day and end of cruise activities.  These included sales of mainly jewellery, plus various “ship items” including T-shirts, carvings and cookbooks.  Oops, did I a ship cookbook was for sale? But I got it signed.

 

 

 

Main dining room

We ended up doing the galley tour, not realising that many others (I suspect regular cruisers who had made it to Diamond plus status) were also booked.  We met initially in the main dining room and had some interaction with the the head chefs.

 

 

 

In the galley

 

We didn’t see as much as we would’ve liked on the tour, but some of the numbers were amazing.  800,000 pieces of cutlery/crockery washed per day, 1100 litres of ice cream per day and approx. 12,000 courses per day.  All food is made from scratch (including all baking) apart from the ice cream.  The logistics are absolutely staggering.

 

 

How to lay a bread basket

 

And, everything is prescribed with such precision including how to lay a bread basket!



We tried hard to win an IPad 3 and a another Caribbean cruise at bingo and only just missed out.



Air hockey at the arcade

 

 

 

 

 

After a delicious dinner (it was a bit sad to say goodbye to the waiters) we went to th arcade where we played various games.  Then onto a game show (Blankety Blank) which was mildly entertaining.

Eventually bed.

Cozumel, Mexico. Friday 14 December 2012






Strange edifice coming into port

Our last port of call L.



Today we had a leisurely start meeting at 9am before adjourning to Windjammers for breakfast.

I should note that there is no typical “cruiser”.  There are all types of groupings with full-on families, siblings and couples.  So many nationalities, although we seem to be the farthest travelled as the Brits can travel straight to the Eastern Coast.  Attire and grooming ranges from distinctly scruffy to the sublime and as a consequence there doesn’t seem to be a socio-economic bias.  The fitness range is extreme with super-fit toned creatures through to HUGE lard-ass Americans (mainly) and those in wheelchairs and on oxygen.

And, it still amazes us that there are so many repeat cruisers.

We thought we’d sneak in for a few trivia questions at the Schooner bar before heading off on tour.  We were doing reasonably well when we had to leave for the tour (our story and we’re sticking to it!).

Giant Chupa Chups at the pier

This pier was a shared one – which is just as well with four cruise ships there!  Somehow, we seem to be chasing a few ships on the cruise.



Ccraft shop on the pier

By the way, there are a lot of tours that advertise riding in a Jeep Wrangler!  We saw a lot of them in Cozumel.



We hopped onto the coach for a very boring drive along straight roads with just vegetation  and no real views.  Cozumel is unusual in that it is a totally flat island.

Me and Rosita

We went through a stone arch that led to the ranch and were told “Welcome to Jurassic Park”.

Rebecca meeting Charra

At the ranch we were all given a lesson in horse-riding – quite daunting for a novice.

My horse was called Rosita, and Rebecca’s was Charra.  We got quite attached to them by the end of the day.

Mayan Jaguar God



The horses were very well trained and for the most part placid and slow.  Mine didn’t like the lead horse however and when the guide came past me there was a little kerfuffle.  However most of the time we followed each other nicely along the forest path and the Mayan ruins.

In the caves

There were less ruins than we expected and less information about the Mayans than expected as well.  But overall a very pleasant experience that took us out of our comfort zone – again.

Mayan bones

We did enter a Mayan cave complete with carvings and human bones.  Mayans were obviously a lot shorter than us.

There were lots of large lizards along the trail, which the guide called “Mexican squirrels”.

On the trail

On the trail, I met an American medical physicist who was travelling with a group from the Sceptics’ Association on another cruise ship and we had some interesting conversations.

Outside Margaritaville



Back at the pier it was mid-afternoon so we decided to taxi to town to the Margaritaville restaurant for lunch.

Balloon hats in the restaurant

 

This was great!



Lots of loud music which seemed somehow appropriate.  Really loud decorations – Mexican style.  One of the songs played was “Wasting away in Margaritaville”.



 

 

 

As soon as we arrived we were offered a shot each which for $3 came with a neck/shoulder massage while the masseuse blew on a whistle.  Bizarre, but somehow picked us up after our hot horse-ride.

 

 

 

 

Sour margarita!



To say we’d done it, we ordered a margarita each – long & cool on the rocks to toast being in Mexico.

 

 

 

 

First course...

 

 

 

Lunch was basic but delicious! I had shrimp fajitas and Rebecca had Calypso Mahi Mahi. Large American sized servings of both main and dessert.

 



Ailen "native" rock carving

More souvenirs and then back to the pier for the last lot of souvenir shopping in the Caribbean L.

Bizarrely there are a lot of Predator & Alien souvenirs?

Predator "native" rock carving

Showers then bought some $10 watches, played 500 and had another music quiz (on a team with a couple), but unfortunately we still sucked!

Dinner at Galileo’s where collected our ticket for the gallery tour for tomorrow.  Sometime later we watched a game show “Finish That Lyric”, before going back to my cabin to listen to music.

Rum, rum & more rum. Georgetown, Grand Cayman Island 13 December 2012

 

A different pace today.

Pirate ship we passed on way in

We left early (alarm set for 6am), not only because of when our tour was due, but also because we had to tender across to the Grand Cayman pier.

This pier wasn’t a Royal Caribbean fabrication, but guess what?  The evil empire is about to build one there!

Soon after we turned up, we were informed that the rain in the night had washed away most of the  5  hour tour and we were left just snorkelling with sting-rays – CRIKEY!

No Wake Zone

So we ended up doing a 2 ½ hour tour entitled  “A Taste of Cayman”.  I’d actually had my eye on this as a possible tour, so wasn’t too disappointed.

Typical Cayman fare - rum

Our driver gave us some background on the Caymans.  It is still a British colony, but has no taxes -which is why it is one of the world’s biggest tax havens.  52% of its income is from finance and 48% from tourism.  Like Jamaica they drive on the left side of the road. Unlike the rest of the Caribbean, it is one of the safest countries in the world.

Piratey stuff on the pier

Not as colourful as what we saw of Jamaica, but of course all the tourist spots have oodles of pirate imagery.

Rebecca & Jack



First stop was the only local brewery “Caybrew” – what else? They gave us quite large samples which were a little tough to stomach at that time of the morning, but were quite nice.  After a quick tour of the brewery we were back in the coach for a side detour to...

 

 

...the conch house.  This took something like 35 years to build from 4000 odd large conch shells.

 

 

 

Then to the Tortuga Rum Cake Factory. We sampled some variations of this apparently famous rum cake (very nice) along with some of their rum – variable.  The pineapple and banan rums were light and fruity, while the rum cream was downright gluggy.

Bought some souvenirs – naturally.

 

Rum still

Last stop was the only distillery on the island where they made – wait for it – RUM!  We were shown around by the owner who explained that their name “Seven Fathoms” comes from where they age their rum – under the sea.  Apparently the movement of the barrels in the water ensures moe the liquor touches the burnt oak and therefore infuses the rum more.

Of course we had to sample their many offerings – would be rude otherwise...

 

 

We were left to our own devices so we went to a restaurant nearby where I had Cayman style fried whole snapper and Rebecca had a jerk pork burger.  We’ve decide we want to cook more jerk flavoured meals at home – delicious.

Oh, and we had a couple of cocktails...



More souvenir shopping followed.  We found this neat place called Margaritaville which was the richest source of souvenirs so far.

Finally back to the boat for a much needed lie-down.  It was the heat (30s) and the exercise, not the rum J

We had another disastrous quiz game. 

Back to the room for Rebecca to change for formal night and a few rounds of 500.

 

 

 

Then another disastrous trivia game, but the bartender knows us now so got Rebecca a special non-alcoholic cocktail.

Off to Galileo’s for lobster night J.

This was cool.

It turns out that the executive chef Mark Wilson in charge of 238 chefs is a Kiwi.  He heard we were dining from our waiter and came out and chatted with us for a while.  Later on we heard that they were invited to the galley next night for a tour.  We’re pretty excited as the logistics are amzing with 1000’s of meals produced every night.

Lastly we went to a game show, which was alittle lame - a bit like Hi de Hi.  But, it still gave some laughs.

Falmouth Jamaica mon! Wednesday 12/12/12

A big day.

It started a little later due to our arrival time in Jamaica which gave us a chance to get much needed extra bed-time.  This has not been exactly a restful trip.

There was a very long queue when we went to leave while the ship sorted out papers with the authorities.  While waiting we met a nice Canadian family (Mum, dad two kids 10 & 8) who as it turned was going on the same expedition as us.

The Falmouth pier is another Royal Caribbean fabrication – super plastic (with a Jamaican twist) with many souvenir and jewellery stores.  I have this fantasy that they are a huge conglomeration bent on taking over the world...

On the bus outwards we learnt some Jamaican history, culture and language.  Every stereotype seems true!

In Jamaican patois you don’t say yes, you say “yeah mon”.  “No problem” is the second most common phrase. “Me neema Kate” is “My name is Kate” and “ Me kumma from NZ” is “ I come from NZ”.  If you look good, it is “You looka trash”.

But, “don’t worry about a ting, cos... “  I’ve bought a Jamaican phrase book!

Bob Marley is still King here and there are shops and souvenirs everywhere dedicated to him.

The countryside is reminiscent of the Pacific Islands with rundown shops, tropical vegetation, sad cats & dogs, colourful clothing and people just hanging around.

First stop was Dolphin Cove.

Wow!

We got into the water with Misty the dolphin (same colour as our Misty).  She is so clever, amazingly well trained and you just bonded with her.

We learnt the hand signals to make her come to us touch, sing, dance and give us a ride,

Yes, we rode with a dolphin!

Plus we got a kiss.

Overall,  very special experience.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Afterwards we had a Jamaican lunch – pretty basic, but the Jerk chicken was nice.

Then some souvenir shopping.  Actually ‘some’ is a misnomer – because with what we got there and at the pier later, we decided to buy a special bag to carry our souvenirs. Somewhat like Haiti, some of the vendors are quite intrusive.

We met a one-legged (real) pirate with voice that would do Barbosa proud.  He gave us some shots of rum.

Incidentally the plan is to buy rum at every port along with a shot glass so we can do a taste test back home.

Cool Runnings Movie Bobsled

After cuddles with a rare blue iguana we set off to Dunn’s river falls.

This wasn’t something we thought would be a highlight – but it was!

Instead of scampering along a path in the bush, we trekked in a handheld chain directly up the falls, some 600 ft or so.  The falls were quite wide consisting of flat “steps” and sneakily deep pools.  We got thoroughly soaked, even went for a deliberate slide down on the rocks on one part of the falls.

Quite an exhilarating experience.  Like the zipline yesterday, this was listed as strenuous on the program.  We didn’t find it so, but were still surprised to see significantly less agile looking people manage it.

Being wet most of the day didn’t faze us given the high temperatures. Although this IS winter and in summer the temperature gets up to a steamy 43C.

We also bought a DVD of the experience.  Apparently it has a Bob Marley backing track – typical.

Back to pier for more souvenir shopping and onto the boat as the sun was setting.  Early this time of the year – around 5:30.

We had booked dinner at Portofino’s the Italian restaurant as it was meant to be rather special.  However, although nice, we preferred the general dining area Galileo’s.

After collecting towels for tomorrow’s big adventure (Grand Cayman), we headed to our rooms where we decided to call it a night.  Rebecca was feeling pretty tired L.  No comment from me.