Our First Cruise - Part 1

Caribbean Cruise - Part 1 

April 2015

This time last year, Keith and I were total newbies to cruising and seriously had NO idea what to expect. We used a travel agent to book our Western Caribbean Carnival cruise aboard the Carnival Breeze for Spring Break!

Itinerary: Ocho Rios, Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel, Mexico, with two days of travel on the ship.

We were just a little excited.

(This was on our transfer from the Ft. Lauderdale Airport to the Miami port)

First things first, shortly after you embark, you attend an emergency training. It's not bad and doesn't take long.

I spy.... Jamaica!

Stop #1 - Ocho Rios, Jamaica

This is the stop we were most nervous about. We heard so many horror stories about people on the beaches if you went to the wrong beach areas. We didn't book a Carnival excursion for this one, so we were going to wing it!

As soon as we got off the ship at our first port ever on our first trip out of the country, it was raining. Why not? Right?

They had these large bus taxis and a display of all of the places you could take a trip to for the day. We decided to take the bus to the Ocho Rios Sandals Resort.

I sat up front squished right next to the driver in a special fold-down bench seat on our packed bus! That was interesting, but I had a really good view! Riding through Ocho Rios was eye-opening. It was a very depressed area with trash strewn through the street and poor living conditions. I immediately felt a sense of guilt that we had paid good money to come here and the people who lived there, on that beautiful island, had to live like that.

As soon as the bus turned into the gated Sandals resort, it was a night and day difference from what we saw on the way. 

We entered and paid for day passes to the resort. I think they were between $70 - $80 per person, but they were all-inclusive. We had access to everything the guests had. Meals, drinks, and activities such as snorkeling were all included.

This was the lobby and was all open-air. Beautiful.

From there, we walked along the pathway, past the guest buildings. The grounds were gorgeous! There were fish ponds, small, quiet pools, and vibrant plants.

We enjoyed a light brunch at this buffet style restaurant (included in price) while we waited out the rain. The employees all said that this was normal and would probably pass soon. They were right!

Then we walked down to the beach area. The waterfall ran down right by the stairs. Ahh...

Finally, some sunshine! We walked along this covered dock out over the turquoise water, where we could see straight down. 

These were part of the beach areas. We hung out here for a while and then made our way to the pool. It was so quiet, not crowded at all.

After we found this, it was our primary hang-out spot for the day. It's not a great picture but the ocean is right behind the swim up bar, so we could still see it.

(My favorite picture from the entire cruise!)

I'm pretty sure we could have stayed here for two weeks!

As soon as the sunshine came out really well, we had to walk around for a while and take some pictures. It was absolutely gorgeous! I would go back in a heartbeat!

Next, we had lunch at Tapas, which is a covered bar-style restaurant. The chef, I wish I could remember her name, was so sweet and made us the BEST fish tacos we have ever eaten. It was so picturesque to sit there, eating our fish tacos, looking out over the water.

When it was finally time to leave, we called our taxi driver, who said he would be there soon. After about 30 minutes, we were starting to get concerned. When he dropped us off there, we told him what time to get us and we of course told him ship time, which was not Jamaica time!!!! So they picked us up an hour later than we had originally planned on getting back. Such rookies. Thankfully, we made it back.

I had to include this picture from back at the port. This guy was really impressive. It is a little hard to tell, but he had a pretty crazy set up on which he climbed for his fire blowing tricks.

Our beauty, the Carnival Breeze.

I'll let you in on a little secret. This port, the one we were most nervous about, ended up being our favorite and most relaxing day. We talk about Jamaica and how relaxed we were all the time and day dream about going back! 

This post turned out pretty long, so I'm going to break it up for our next two ports and "on the ship pictures." Stay tuned!