NCL Escape Neighbors Cruise Day 5 - Ocho Rios, Jamaica
We arrived this morning in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Ocho Rios is a smaller port town in Jamaica. After the relatively flat stops in Grand Cayman and Cozumel, seeing the hilly Jamaican landscape was nice.
Several in our group had excursions planned today. We've been to Jamaica a couple of times before so we opted to just wander along the water into town on our own. We went up to breakfast in the Garden Cafe and it was an absolute zoo. Zero open tables meant that after you got food, you had to pace back and forth until someone finished and freed up a table. The venues on this ship simply aren't big enough for the passenger load. Eventually, we got a table and sat down.
As we ate breakfast, the Cruise Director made the typical announcement about not congregating on the stairs or near the gangway as the ship had not yet been cleared by local officials. That's pretty typical and happens in all ports on all ships. What was odd today was that he had to make that announcement three or four times. We sure don't know what was keeping clearance from happening, but it sure delayed everyone who wanted to get off the ship. Since we didn't have any plans, we got to just sit back and watch the mayhem.
The odd this was that the announcement that we had received clearance never came. All of a sudden, we noticed that passengers were getting off the ship. Communication seems to be an unpracticed art here. As we sat on our balcony and watched, throngs of people all got off and were milling about, looking for tour buses. It was a madhouse. We waited for a while for things to calm a bit and then we went down to walk into town. We were not docked at what is labeled the cruise ship dock - the one much closer to the beach and town. We were docked at Reynold's Pier - a more industrial port, and farther from town.
Still, it wasn't a bad walk. Of course, along the way, we were approached multiple times for cab rides, island tours, hair braiding (for Arlona, not me), and ganja. We browsed some of the shops and wandered a bit. I'm thinking of canceling the trip we have planned in late 2025 to see the Taj Mahal, as we saw this in town.
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| I wonder if India's version also has parking only for drop-off/pick-up |
We also got a kick out of this, having recently been in Japan.
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| Let's go to Jamaica and drink Japanese beer! |
We did a little more shopping and I may or may not have found a new timepiece for my timekeeping arsenal. Then, we slowly strolled back to the ship, enjoying the ocean views.
We decided to return to O'Sheehan's Pub for lunch. They have nice, comfort and pub food. Arlona had a Cobb salad and spinach-artichoke dip and I had fish & chips. One thing we picked up on when we heard a crew member mention O'Sheehan's Pub yesterday is the name. Say both of these out loud:
- O'Sheehan's Pub
- Oceans Pub
Hmm, is that a coincidence, or was it by design? Who knows.
Shortly after we finished, trivia was starting in the Atrium so we joined in. Today was much better with only five misses for a 15/20 score. We tied for the win with two other teams. Well, that was until several seconds later when a team suddenly decided they got 16/20. It is always suspicious when a team is completely quiet until the winners are announced and then they suddenly have one more question correct. You know what? Who cares? We play to have fun and learn. Our learning opportunities today:
- What TV show featured the Swan, Orchid, and Looking Glass stations?
- We had no idea - it was Lost - I should have known that
- How many bacteria are in one square inch of soil - 30,000, 30,000,000, 30,000,000,000?
- We guessed 30 million - it was 30 billion
- How many spices make up Allspice?
- We determined it was a blend of eight - it isn't - just one
- How long did it take to travel from Boston to New York by horse - 1 day, 5 days, 10 days?
- We guessed one day - it is more than 200 miles and a hose can cover 30-40 miles in a day, so the answer was 5 days
- What drummer led the band for Conan O'Brien until 2010?
- I couldn't remember - it was Max Weinberg
We got back to our room at about 3:00 PM to discover that our room still had not been serviced today. We found that pretty amazing and disappointing. At 3:25 PM, they finally arrived but we told them to just skip the day as we were in the room.
One little thing that NCL does is include this design in the carpet in the hallways outside staterooms.
See the little fish? Did you notice they're all pointing in the same direction? If you walk out of your stateroom and can't remember which way is forward and which way is aft - just look at the fish. They always swim forward.
Our gang met in Manhattan, one of the included restaurants for dinner tonight. We will also dine there for the next two nights. Dinner was OK with mixed reviews from the group. That seems to be the theme with food on NCL. Adequate but not stellar food.
Dinner ran about 90 minutes so we had to dash as we all wanted to catch tonight's comedy show in the theater and it was starting in three minutes. The place was packed but we were able to find seats here and there. Tonight's show featured short sets from both comedians.
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| Heath Harmison |
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| Warren B Hall |
Both guys were funny and we enjoyed some after-dinner chuckles. Next up was a trip to the comedy club. They have been featuring a dueling piano show called Howl at the Moon.
The show featured three musicians who cycled between two pianos, drums, a bass guitar, and other percussion instruments. The show is all about audience participation and singing along and it was good fun.
We heard from our bus driver, Steve, about picking us up on Saturday. That prompted a question to the Guest Services desk about disembarkation procedures. Most of us will choose to put bags out the night before so I asked about disembarkation groups and timing so we could all get off the ship together. My timing was serendipitous as tomorrow morning first thing, bag tags will be available to grab by the Guest Services desk. We want the purple tags as that will be the first group to disembark at 8:30 AM. I will be getting up early to head downstairs tomorrow morning and grab enough purple tags for our entire group. Steve will be there by 9:00 AM on Saturday to pick us up.
Tomorrow will be a relaxing sea day. The rumor is that Arlona and perhaps others may try the high ropes course on the ship tomorrow. Check back tomorrow and find out!
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