There were three ports of call on this cruise: Falmouth, Jamaica; George Town, Grand Cayman; & Cozumel, Mexico. I had purchased excursions prior to sailing for Jamaica and Mexico, none of the excursions for George Town sounded very kid friendly to me.
Falmouth, Jamaica
The excursion we chose for this stop was a day at Dolphin Cove. Every night at turn down service the attendant will leave the itinerary and other documents for the next day. If you bought excursions like us the tickets and information on where to meet is part of this documentation. So bright and early we get off the boat and the boat is at the docks so you can get on and off pretty easily. Right away you notice the tropical temperatures, when we left Galveston it was 60s and in Jamaica it was mid 80s. I made Mr. A take a selfie with me while we were waiting for our bus to take us to Dolphin Cove.
The drive to Dolphin Cove from the port is about an hour, the guide talks about Jamaica and shared some photos of the national foods and culture. She was very informative and very kind. These tour guides live off the tips they receive. When we arrived we went straight for this little cove beach area. We didn’t go swimming at all, the floor here was a bit rocky and neither of our kids really know how to swim without floaties. They were perfectly content playing in the sand.
We brought the sand toys pictured.
So they had different options if you chose to do the Dolphin Cove excursion, one was to swim with the dolphins. We did not choose to do this as the kids are too young. I did however get to swim with a sting ray!! There are no pictures because Mr. A had to rush Ian to the restroom…
Another thing not pictured is we had lunch here and they had limited options, Jerk Chicken or Hot dogs. Mr. A and myself had the Jerk Chicken it was fantastic!! The kids had hot dogs of course. But while we were dining they were getting the audience to play a game where you try to get a little hoop onto a bottle. Similar to what you see at carnivals and fairs, well 10 or so people tried to do it and none succeeded. I looked at Mr. A and told him he should give it a try. You get three tries and he got it on the second try!! He got a shirt that says Dolphin Cove on it 🙂 I wished I had filmed it, but I was too into cheering him on 😀
George Town, Grand Cayman
We decided not to do any excursions in George Town and just walk around the dock area and do some shopping. They had a small national museum which we went in and enjoyed. For this stop we had to take a smaller ferry boat to the shore, which was very fun for Ian to look out and see.
This is what the boats looked like
Some photos of us just wandering the streets.
We brought two umbrella strollers with us. I highly recommend it if you are cruising with small kids. The boat is very long and it can be a long trek from one side to the other. This particular stroller was amusing to many other guests on the boat as the sun shade looks like a shark.
Cozumel, Mexico
So Mr. A, Ian and I actually have been to Cozumel before. We went back in June 2012 for a friends’ wedding. Ian was there in my tummy so he won’t remember any of that trip 😛 Our friends’ wedding was actually part of a cruise wedding, which we couldn’t attend since I was too heavily pregnant. My parents wanted us to go with them to Cancun around the same time so we flew to Cancun with my parents and sisters and took a ferry over to the little island. The hotel was not far from the ferry station, about 2 miles. At the time we didn’t know and I’m awful with maps and Mr. A thought it was less than a mile away, so he made his 7 months pregnant wife walk dragging her luggage on uneven terrain. Later he kept saying how sorry he was, especially after he found out it was just a $6 taxi ride. Needless to say we took a taxi back to the ferry station to get back to Cancun.
Anyways, we chose to do a Mayan Ruins Excursion. This one was Mayan Ruins and Beach tour. Mayan Ruins for mommy and daddy and beach for the kids. It had been raining heavily the evening before and in the morning. Luckily when we were getting off the boat it had stopped and it was rain free the whole time we were out. But the humidity was intense, this is the first photo Mr. A took look how fogged up his lens was!
If you wear glasses you probably get this a lot, if you have your AC blasting in the car then step outside in some hot/humid air. All better a few minutes later.
Jensen gets so sweaty. I’m scared of the teenage years stink that’s going to happen :/
After the Mayan Ruins tour we headed to the beach, since this was the last port of call we actually were low on cash so we didn’t get to eat any delicious fish or shrimp tacos. Living in Texas for most of my life I love Tex Mex and Mexican food, so I was a little disappointed we didn’t get to enjoy some chips and salsa or a nice cold margarita.
Baby powder gets sand off way better than water. It’s truly amazing how well it works, try it!!
Next up, life on the boat!
