We are on the ship and mostly settled. Currently John and Matthew are in one room and Ryan and I are in another room. The steward let us know it won’t be a problem to switch the rooms around so the boys can be together and husband and wife and be together. That was always our plan but it’s good to know it will be allowed by the person who could have busted us. So tonight that switch occurs to kick off the new year. I already unpacked the rooms with the boys in one and John and I in the other so the transition will be easy.

The ship is great. You can tell it was remodeled in recent years. Everything looks great. It’s definitely small, and was easy to find our way around. The library is beautiful with a ton of books available. There’s a card room with games, though I’m glad I brought our own because they’re pretty limited. There’s a computer room that is never occupied so that could be a good spot for school work. The fitness center has everything we need (and we’ve used it twice already). Barista’s is a coffee shop with specialty coffees that I’m becoming a regular at – and where I’m typing this blog entry. The food is fantastic and has a great variety. We’ve eaten at the buffet and the grand dining hall so far. We’ll have a specialty dining experience tonight in one of the restaurants (the Italian one – yum).

Entertainment is as expected. So far we’ve participated in several competitions (golf putting, shuffleboard, cornhole, trivia) for which we earn Big-O points that we can exchange for prizes at the end of each segment (like bags, shirts, etc.). They had the show Gatsby the other night and last night was a comedian along with the New Year’s celebration. There have also been some speakers, including one on the making of Hollywood comedies, one on the history of Jamaica and the role of sugar, and another on the Hope Diamond. So good variety. We’ve skipped a bit since we have a lot of time to enjoy things – trying to relax a bit and enjoy rather than feel the need to cram everything in.

Our first stop had to be swapped out with another. So rather than go to Cayman Islands as planned, we went to Port Antonio, Jamaica. I’m not exactly sure why, though it might have been weather related. It rained the whole time we were in Jamaica, but that didn’t stop us. We first got off the ship around 10 but were told that nothing was open since church was in service (fun fact: Jamaica has the most churches per square mile than anywhere) so we decided to wait until after lunch to explore. So, at 12:30 we tried again.  We were greeted to what some of the locals referred to as “liquid sunshine” (it was still raining) and got our bearings in terms of where we’d go – just down to a craft market and back. We started walking – the wrong way (of course) when a local man with half his teeth missing told us town was in the other direction and basically started walking us there. So, we got an impromptu tour guide for the afternoon. His name was John and when he learned he shared the name with our John, he said, “that’s the name my mom gave me. Everybody calls me Black Boy.” Dear reader, I referred to him one time as Black Boy and felt instantly weird and wrong and Matthew gave me a look and said, “I know that’s what he said his name is, but you saying it…”. Yeah. I agree. Doesn’t work very well, and especially when telling this story – so he’s John the Tour Guide – or JTG.  

Anyway, JTG took us all over, pointing out churches beside bars, some plants called “Touch Me Nots” that when you barely touch them they recoil into themselves, showing us various buildings and telling us about local foods and some history. Nothing too deep but quite interesting. At one point he was talking about how Cocktail and The Blue Lagoon were filmed in Jamaica, and then he said, “And The Mighty Quinn. I was in that one. On this street… I was in a white suit and pretending to be blind. You can see me.” I’ve never seen the movie but want to see it now since we’ve met a famous actor. 😉 He also took us into one of the churches and then to the craft market and back to the ship.  

The boys got some souvenirs and a reminder lesson about haggling so they don’t over-spend on any single item. Ryan got a magnet and Matthew got a hat with fake dreadlocks. I’m sure he’ll wear that all the time (ha ha).

Back on the ship, we participated in our first teatime on the ship. Every day at 4pm they do an afternoon teatime with pastries and white glove service. I’m not a big tea drinker but it was lovely, and I think we’ll take advantage of it again. Maybe not regularly, but occasionally.

The ship was rocking a little more last night. Actually, it was rocking quite a bit while John and I were running on the treadmills. Talk about a weird sensation! I had to run while holding the treadmill and would alternate between feeling like I was on a planet with more gravity to being on the moon with less gravity. One second pounding my knees a little harder, and the next feeling like I was flying. So strange. Unfortunately, after I stopped running, I started to actually feel the ship swaying and had my first bout of seasickness. It turns out that watching Cool Runnings on the TV in the room helps with seasickness. (The motion sickness patches might also have helped, but I’m crediting the movie.)

That’s the update for the start of the trip. With that, I bid you Happy New Year! Tomorrow we visit Cartagena, Colombia!