00:00:00 SPEAKER_01
Here's a sneak peek from this week's
00:00:02 SPEAKER_00
episode. When you have an opportunity to do this and you know, we were had a little private tour, if you will, because we had our private driver, but we invited him to have lunch with us and that just gave an opportunity to sit down and have a different type of conversation. And so I felt like we got to know a little bit more about him and you know, it's his family and kind of the day to day of Jamaica versus just the tourist thing that they take you into. I'm Scott. And I'm Melissa. And we are the Sunshine Travelers. Our passion is travel and sharing our experiences with those who enjoy it as much as we do, or those who want to learn more about travel, or even those that just want to live vicariously through our travel stories. No matter where you fall along that journey, get ready to hear about our firsthand experiences as we visit some of the most interesting and amazing places on Earth. This week, we are going to share a recent cruise on Holland America to the Western Caribbean. Along the way, we'll make stops in Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. If you're thinking about taking a cruise to these locations, you'll want to listen in and hear our suggestions on what to do and where to eat while you are there. So pack your bag and bring your snorkel gear as we set sail to the Caribbean. I can't get Jimmy Buffett's lovely cruise out of my mind since we've returned. I'm sorry it's ended. It's sad, but it's true. Honey, it's been a lovely cruise. It was truly
00:01:32 SPEAKER_01
a spectacular trip. It really was. We really enjoyed it. We haven't done a cruise in a while, so it was nice to do that again. So here's just a short synopsis of our cruise. So it was seven nights and it left and returned to Fort Lauderdale. That's actually quite a large cruise port there. There were, I think, seven or nine ships leaving the day that we left. And so it was actually, we left a little bit late because it was a ship behind us. So they had, it's a very, very busy cruise port there. So we went, our first day was in Half Moon Cay. Then we had a day at sea, and then we had a port day in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, another port day in Grand Cayman of the Cayman Islands, and then the last port was Cozumel, Mexico, and then another day at sea as we returned home. So we basically went down past Cuba and then when leaving, coming home the other way past Cuba.
00:02:29 SPEAKER_00
Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about that port there at Fort Lauderdale. I mean, that was a really busy port, both trying to get in it. And then as you said, the number of ships that were there and the people who were boarding and then the ships trying to get out of the port as well.
00:02:45 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so we actually drove just because where we live, we're about five and five and a half hours. So we're kind of on that cusp of where it's like, OK, do you drive? Do you fly? You know, if you fly, you have to take into account if, you know, something's going to something's going to happen. You're either going to park at the airport at home or you have to part. So we're just kind of on that cusp where it's like it really just makes more sense just to bite the bullet and kind of drive down there. And So that we didn't have to spend another night. We left like at, I think just right before 7 a.m. And then our boarding time was like at 1230, 1240. And when we, when we got there, it really felt like it was like, Oh my goodness, we're the last, some of the last people on the ship. It felt like, you know, even though that we have done a cruise before and had like the one mariner status, I really felt like, I mean, there was like nobody waiting in line. We didn't have to wait to go through security. I mean, even though they have all this waiting space, So, and we also, there was a parking deck there. So, I guess the way it's laid out, there's all these different cruise lines, right? So they have all these different parking decks and then they direct you based on what cruise lines. They have plenty of parking, but we didn't end up getting covered parking in that deck because it felt very, you know, very,
00:03:55 SPEAKER_00
very crowded. And I think we got to bypass a few of the little security line type things because I had the little knee scooter. trying to go through there. And so they pulled us to the side and sent us a different way where they would send anybody who's traveling with, you know, either a wheelchair or, you know, a motorized scooter or something like that. They did, they did have quite a few, it looked like bypasses that you would take, you know, if you were traveling with some type of handicap or something like that.
00:04:25 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, they also didn't ask us. We had planned to carry everything on. We didn't really have that much stuff and we had planned it, but they never really asked us, you know, do you want to give your bags or, you know, anything like that. We saw, we did see a lot of like vans pulling up and then they were putting luggage on to, you know, different carts and stuff like that. So I'm sure if that was an issue, we could have said, hey, we need to, you know, have help with our, with our luggage, but that wasn't a big deal. yeah I mean when we got on it we didn't really see you know in all of it in any like long lines or you know people waiting or anything like that so
00:04:58 SPEAKER_00
For me, I just took my e-bag this time. So that thing was packed to the brim. I will say over packed. There were some clothes that I didn't wear on this trip, but everything that I had, including my snorkel gear on the way down was packed inside that e-bag. And so, you know, that was on my back and, you know, I was, I guess with the scooter thing or whatever, no one even asked about that.
00:05:25 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. And we did have to, you do have to put your luggage through security just like you would at the airport. And they look through that. And then of course you do have your passport control check. They look at that. And that really is the only time on the cruise that you, you know, you need your passport as well. So yeah, so that was a pretty smooth process, but I would say, so then if you are flying, then there is the issue, like you would need to get some kind of transportation, right? So you would need to book some kind of transportation or get a taxi or something like that. But we did talk to several people. I almost
00:05:56 SPEAKER_00
think you could almost walk from the airport. I mean, literally, the airport is right there at the cruise terminal.
00:06:02 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I did say, man, they really need some kind of just need some kind of shuttle. But of course, in that case, it does cut out, you know, some somebody's livelihood, right? These transportation companies or taxis or whatever. But I do think a lot of people like to arrive a day before. I mean, not everybody, but a lot of people like to. We did talk to one lady who said my travel agent always books me the night before, you know, just in case. Because if you don't, you know, if you have a flight delay and you're arriving that morning, because I mean, that was twelve thirty. Right. So if you're traveling from far away, and you've got to make connection or that, you know, to get to Fort Lauderdale, you're, you're probably going to have a hard, you're going to have to leave really, really early and then, you know, potentially risk missing the ship. So it ended up leaving, I do think, so that was like 1230. I think like, like, I think all aboard was like at 230 and we were supposed to leave around three and it ended up being about 330, I think, before we really got out of there. So we were able to, you know, have lunch on the ship once we got there and get Situated, unpacked, and get familiar with the ship. That's one tip, and that's one thing that we always try to do is just try to learn where everything is. The Holland America ships are a little bit smaller, so it's fairly easily done. But Scott and I, he took a scooter and we kind of wandered the different decks so we could kind of see, you know, where's the dining room? Where can we get coffee? you did work a couple of days, the two days at sea. So like, where can I sit to work? Cause that was one thing we did. We did both have the wifi pass, but we found out for whatever reason, I don't know if this was for everybody, but for whatever reason in our room, um, the signal wasn't super strong and we even talked to guest services, but it really wasn't a big deal. You had a great view from the, from the deck. It was just a little, it was loud a couple of times when they were doing the little arts and crafts classes, but not, you know, not a, not a super big deal. No,
00:07:46 SPEAKER_00
it's fantastic views. I tell you, one thing that I also just remember from being there in port is I've never felt more safe in my life.
00:07:55 SPEAKER_01
There were lots of, I guess, like the Coast Guard, and then you saw the county, like the police boats and stuff like that. Yeah, they really were keeping an eye on. And I guess it is just, you know, for security reasons and watching the security of the ships and things like that, because they do take that very seriously. But yes, there was lots of boats with lots of heavily armed just, you know, keeping an eye on that port. But yeah, I mean, there were five, seven, I don't know, ships are little boats, right? Watching, just, you know, keeping an eye on everything. So you're right. I mean, that is, they do take that seriously. So that's a, that's a good, that was reassuring.
00:08:34 SPEAKER_00
Yeah. Let's talk a little bit before we get started on the cruise is like, you know, we went on Holland America. We've talked about this before. We like Holland America and we have several reasons why we like it, but you know, what are some of the things that someone needs to think about when choosing a cruise line?
00:08:52 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so this was interesting. So we did talk to several people on the cruise, like, you know, have you cruised a lot? Because one thing that we don't mind doing, and they typically ask you, do you mind sitting with other people at meals? And so there's opportunities to do that. We actually had assigned seating at dinner. So when those other people came, it was the same people. But other things like at tea or at breakfast, if we sit down breakfast or one of the days I went to a brunch and so they put you with other people. And so just kind of chatting with them and people like to ask a lot of things. Have you been on cruises before? Where have you been on cruises? Which cruise lines, you know, do you travel much? Just some of those things. And so we did find a lot. So a lot of these people talked about carnival. Sorry, Scott, what
00:09:34 SPEAKER_00
did you even ask me? Yeah. So, you know, how do you choose which, which cruise line to go on?
00:09:39 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so to answer that, several of the people said that they really liked the Carnival ship, right? It's definitely budget and family friendly, lots of entertainment. Large ships, but also it's like, considered maybe the fun ship, like a younger crew, there'd be a lot to do. I mean, I would say definitely on Holland America, it's definitely an older vibe, an older demographic, but not to say there weren't younger couples either traveling with families, but then just some younger couples that we met that were just traveling on their own. And so that's what I would say about Holland America. Holland America, I feel like does tend to be more of an affordable like a more of a median price. I wouldn't say that their ships are like the newest but they do try to keep up a lot of the common spaces were had been renovated. And then actually this ship was about to go into dry dock for about two weeks they were sailing that day actually when we got off back to the Bahamas. They were renovating some mechanical systems, but then they were also like our dining hostesses told us they were replacing the carpet, replacing some of the chairs, doing some refresh of that. So we like it because it is a smaller ship and then the price is affordable, but it's very, very comfortable and very well appointed and the service is fantastic as well. I would say less entertainment and probably less options of booking excursions. And I'll talk a little about that in a minute. I didn't realize that, but one of the young couples I talked to had said, you know, there is actually less excursions that you can directly through them as well. So and then, of course, Disney. and very family oriented. It would be for Disney, definitely luxury pricing, elevated service, lots of entertainment, lots of Disney theme things. So that is definitely what you would be paying for as well. So if we had kids with us, right, that might be something that we would, uh, like, but we, we particularly wouldn't do that on our, without kids most likely.
00:11:39 SPEAKER_00
Yeah. And just talking about Disney real quick, we've done a Disney cruise before. It was great. We had excellent service. And I think we had one of those magical experiences when you're on there, like the person who took care of us at dinner every night, you know, they would do magic tricks for our son and stuff like that. Well, I had a friend recently who told me she went on Disney Cruise with her family and she had heard all of these magical experiences about being, you know, pixie dusted and being, you know, magic tricks and stuff like that. And so she had a very high Expectation going into this cruise and unfortunately she never ran into those opportunities. So her kids were never pixie dusted her kids you know the person who was there their waiter and stuff like that at dinner they didn't do magic tricks and interact as much with the kids as someone at the table next to them and so. Unfortunately, she left that cruise having a little bit of a disappointment because her expectations had been set so high going into it. But I'll tell you is I think that that's pretty rare because I've heard so many people who talk about that wonderful trip, that wonderful service, that wonderful set of experiences that they had on that cruise. But you are going to pay for it.
00:13:03 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, you're definitely the other reason that you're going to pay for it is those tend to book up. And so there's not the discounts. And so say, for example, on the Holland America cruise that we just got off of, there were state rooms that were not occupied. Now, the week before it was a different story. It was the Thanksgiving week and they were at capacity, lots of kids, things like that. But this particular week tends to be a slower week. People go back to work and back to kids go back to school. And so there were actually state rooms that are available. our crews actually had a lot of crew members families sailing didn't realize that that was a thing but apparently with when the ship's not full there's the opportunity if the family has the opportunity to do that to be on board so they can spend time with them in their off time so that was that was neat to see
00:13:51 SPEAKER_00
One of the things that we learned is a lot of people on our ship were doing a two-week cruise. So they had done the Eastern Caribbean the week before, the week of Thanksgiving. And then when they got back to Fort Lauderdale, they stayed on the boat overnight and then sailed out again the next day and went with us to the Western Caribbean. And so that was pretty interesting to know that, you know, we saw that when we were in the Mediterranean is some of the people stayed on the ship and went to Greece afterwards. But that's a pretty common thing is that people will book a two week cruise. And in this case, it was Eastern Caribbean one week and then the Western Caribbean the next.
00:14:34 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. And Holland America, if you look on their itineraries, they actually sell that as an itinerary. So like, if you looked at that itinerary, it wasn't like you were booking this cruise, then that cruise, but it did go back to Fort Lauderdale both times. Cause I had seen that itinerary. So if you have more time and two of the couples that we had talked to that did that, we actually ran into three couples, well, two couples, and then a single lady who had done that. And, but both of them are like, Oh, one week's just not, You know, just not enough because they had the time and the ability to do that. So that is something that is common on Holland America. I'm not sure if it's common, has common on the other ships, but it's we've seen that twice now. So what are
00:15:13 SPEAKER_00
some other cruise options out there?
00:15:15 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so Virgin is actually new to the cruise fleet. They have quite a few ships that have come on on board in the last couple of years out of the US, they fly, they port out of Miami, very high end, probably medium to upper pricing, I would say, but this one is an adults only. I would say also geared toward a younger audience a little more edgy. They do not have any buffet type food options and Holland America is not really a buffet per se like they're they seem to be like more like stations right but there are things that are freshly prepared or not like pre prepared I guess I should say and then they have stations where then you can have a sandwich made or a salad made that kind of thing but from what I understand with the Virgin is that it's everything is like like almost like a food like a food hall right so then you would go in it even though if it is that kind of cuisine then it's not pre-prepared right it's like made to order I guess that's what I'm trying to say made to order so definitely for a younger audience But then Virgin does go all over the world now, so you can go, you know, to Australia, New Zealand, Europe, all those types of things, too. I think one
00:16:22 SPEAKER_00
of the things I read is you can get a tattoo while you're at sea on Virgin.
00:16:26 SPEAKER_01
Oh, yes. They do have a tattoo parlor, barber shops, which a lot of them have, you know, spas and barber shops. But yes, I think that one is that that is unique to them. A tattoo parlor. I kind of like their some of their mantras like they have like detox is very popular. Right. So they have detox to retox, you know, like detox to then drink at night and things like that. So just some cute little sayings and things like that. So then I also asked, just as I shared some of these things during our cruise, I asked our Instagram followers who else they also liked. And Royal Caribbean was one of them. A couple of people that we talked to on the ship also had said that they really enjoyed Royal Caribbean, mainly for their shows as well. So their ships tend to be very big. have like water slides and all kinds of stuff, very family oriented as well. But they particularly enjoyed the shows. And then a couple of people actually responded that they liked the Oceana and the Regent Seven Seas cruises. So those tend to be smaller luxury ships. So you could go into a lot more places. They're also going to be very then high end and luxury, but definitely worth checking out for just a different kind of cruising experience.
00:17:35 SPEAKER_00
Well, let's jump into a little bit about this cruise. So the first part of the cruise is we sailed short, short ways down to the Bahamas and we had our first port of call at Half Moon Key. And that's a private Island that's owned by the parent company of Holland America, which is Carnival Cruise Line and Carnival and Holland America share that, that private Island. And that was our first port of call.
00:18:00 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so we were the only ship in port for that Sunday, and here you have to tender onto the island, so they have tender boats that actually stay there. They almost look like big ferries, right? And so we had great weather, but we did run into a couple whose adult children had been on the cruise the week before, and then they had stayed on, and they said that, unfortunately, the stop the week before, they had been unable to tender. to the island because the waves were just too rough and the weather was too rough. So thankfully we got really lucky with that. So it's a beautiful beach and you're able to snorkel from just right from the shore. And we were surprised. We didn't know that if we'd really see anything, but we did. We saw some tropical fish and then surprisingly we saw about three sea turtles. So that was super, that was super exciting. You kind of swim. So when you go to the beach and you kind of look to the left, there's some rocks and you swim over there. Other than that, There's just you can enjoy the beach. They do have some little Cottages and then bigger villas that you can rent for the day. It's uh, and so then they do have some excursions So there was a glass bottom boat experience you could do but the people who had dinner with us on most nights said There wasn't really a lot to see there. And so there wasn't really and we could kind of
00:19:19 SPEAKER_00
They actually recommended against doing that excursion. So if you go to half moon key, they said there was like really wasn't a glass bottom boat. So there's like four portholes in the bottom and that they were really dirty windows or whatever. And so you couldn't see anything. And so they said they felt like that was actually a waste.
00:19:39 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. And I would kind of see that from, we didn't, you know, when we snorkeled, we didn't really know if we were going to see anything. It was almost like they had put, I don't know, what did you call them? Like, like they weren't real coral reefs, but like little things to where, you know, it might attract the fish and it might attest. Now it did have the grass on the bottom, which attracts the, you know, the turtles naturally as well. So yeah. So there wasn't a ton. And I did wonder, so when I was swimming with my snorkel gear and it's like the fish kind of like all approached me, So I was almost wondering if that, you know, they thought, oh, is she going to feed us or something? Which is unfortunately, I guess
00:20:13 SPEAKER_00
what they do with that glass bottom. She said that they kind of churn the water with, you know, pieces of bread and stuff to get the fish to come up to
00:20:20 SPEAKER_01
the boat. Yeah. So there was there was also like a bicycle tour that you could have done or they also had a tour of the island on like a little taxi truck. Yeah, like a little taxi truck. So that might have been interesting. You know, even though it is a private island, there are people who, you know, live there full time that that operate some of the some of the stuff. And then, of course, they bring, you know, a lot of the crew for just the day as well. So that those might have been an interesting excursion. as well so they do have some shops but of course those are just very you know they're run by the by the cruise line so you could you know probably save your shopping for the ports and support the local economies in the other the other places but overall it was a good day they they brought they did like a Caribbean barbecue picnic. So they had anything that you could think of, you know, ribs and chicken and fish and hot dogs, hamburgers, you know, slaw, you know, bars on the Island. And so of course all that was included or you pay for the alcohol the same way as, as on the ship. So, and then they had a neat little pirate ship looking thing that had, you know, had a bar in it. So lots of different things for you to check out. And I think we were there from like what, eight to about two 30 or three 30. I mean, it was plenty of time to, you know, explore the little Island.
00:21:34 SPEAKER_00
And so one of the things on this, this cruise is I've kind of mentioned it. I was got a walking boot on my foot. I've got a fresh injury to, to my foot. And so we weren't able to do a lot of the activities that we would normally do when we're, when we're traveling. And so we're very limited of where I can get to with this knee scooter that I was on, you know, in some of those activities so that. That's a little bit different for this trip, but I think we got a lot of stuff done anyway.
00:22:04 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, we did. I mean, I think there's just a couple of ports where we might have changed something like in that case, like we may have looked into the bicycle. But, you know, on the other hand, it is just kind of a private island. It's nothing really like authentic. So I'm not really sure that there's like a ton of stuff, you know, a ton of stuff to see. So in this case, we didn't
00:22:22 SPEAKER_00
want to
00:22:22 SPEAKER_01
wildlife. Yeah, maybe some wildlife. So we didn't really want to spend a lot of, you know, like money on excursions for this particular for this particular thing. But If this is your big vacation, then you're going to want to maximize probably every single port and really do some stuff that you would enjoy in each port.
00:22:40 SPEAKER_00
So we got back on the tender, got back on the boat and that evening we headed out down towards Cuba. We're going to spend the next, I guess, 36 hours or so at sea. So then, yeah, so Monday was the whole
00:22:53 SPEAKER_01
day at sea. And like I mentioned, like you worked and then we just, you know, we tried to check out a few of the, you know, the activities on board during the day. I actually took the opportunity to go and listen to, they have presentations about like each port and like some of the opportunities of things that you might be interested to see. So some, I mean, most of the port excursions were not sold out. There was a couple of them like that we may have been interested in and would have been able to do like a, like a cooking class or something like that. But you typically, they have an opportunity for you to still book stuff. So just taking advantage of some of those types of things and just checking out to see. I mean, there was literally something going on. I mean, multiple things going on every hour and they would, you know, it was in the app that they gave you. And of course they have, you know, the paper pamphlet. And I mean, you can't, you know, from exercise type stuff to talks to art, to books, to the casino, to, you know, anything you, Oh, art classes and, you know, art auctions plus art classes, plus just anything and everything that you can think of to
00:23:55 SPEAKER_00
do. And I was going to say, the area that I had found to sit and work where I had good Wi-Fi coverage and stuff like that, there was a room right behind me. And I think that was the only downfall is sitting here. I'm trying to carry on normally, have meetings and stuff like that, like I would if I was sitting here in my office. And just behind me, that's where they would do all the art classes. So, you know, they had painting classes one day, they had time where you could come in and do adult coloring, which I didn't know was a thing, but evidently it is. And then other days they had, you know, origami, they had calligraphy type classes. They had all kinds of stuff that were continuously going on throughout the day. And
00:24:40 SPEAKER_01
we found that besides in our room, the internet was actually quite good and you were able to do video meetings and things like that. We did pay for that for, um, you know, I think the per first device per person was, you know, some certain amount and then you paid a little extra to also have your laptop. And I will say they do have a package to where it's like internet plus a drink package. Plus you got a little bit of credit for, shore excursion. So you just kind of like take it into those different options and just see like what makes the most sense financially if you would really get the benefit for like that all
00:25:15 SPEAKER_00
included package. The only thing I would say about the Internet is if you do a lot of voice and video meetings like Zoom or Teams or something like that, just know that there was a little bit of a delay that was introduced. And so you could easily work from the ship if you needed to.
00:25:31 SPEAKER_01
And then, of course, I will point out like so when we're in port, we use we use T-Mobile. And so, of course, when we were in port, we could just turn our airplane mode off and just use Wi-Fi like we normally would. It just connects to, you know, whatever service that they have. And so that, of course, was handy for us as well.
00:25:50 SPEAKER_00
And so on that day at sea, we passed along the coast of Cuba. You know, we're what, three, four miles off the coast of Cuba, something like that. And so, you know, it was out or maybe it's like 30 miles, but anyhow, it was out to our right as we were heading down. And so our cruise ship then went down below Cuba and that's where it made the turn over to go to Jamaica. And so our next stop is going to be at Ocho Rios in Jamaica. And that was a place where we could actually dock directly in the port. They had a dock there and you didn't have to do a tendership.
00:26:29 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, there were actually quite a few cruises there that particular day, so it was pretty busy. And so a few of the things that we had actually looked at for Oto Rios that might be of interest, so they have the Dunn's River Falls. You can do it on your own or in conjunction with the Blue Hole, which is the cenote that you can like swing on the swing and jump in. Those are probably the two that we would have been interested in if Scott had been more mobile just to see some of those natural things. You take hikes and climb on the rocks and things like that. We did also look into the cooking class. Looked interesting. They said that that one had booked up quite a bit. And then the one I had found on Viator, you had to have a minimum of four people. So we just ended up booking a private driver through Viator to take us around and show us the highlights. And so if you're not booking through the cruise ship, just make a note. Like, so we went into Ocho Rios, but other cruise ships might go into Montego Bay that might go into Kingston. And so you have to pay particular attention because like that one particularly said, make sure that you're going into Ocho Rios, like you can't, Of course, if you were staying in a hotel close by, right, they could come pick you up and take you around to show you some different things. But Montego Bay is quite a drive, right? Kingston is quite a drive because Jamaica is pretty large. So our driver was Leroy from Tour Jamaica by Winston Gale. And we actually did meet Winston. He was driving another, you know, family around, another couple around. So we'll put the link to them. We were very happy with that. So we got a terrific scenic view of the bay from our boat. Leroy took us to a couple of overlooks to the fern gully and just showed us around just things that were interesting to him. Talked to us a little bit about like, you know, his family and the economy of Jamaica and just like different people's, you know, economic situation and just some different things like that. He took us to the, well, he asked us about shopping and I think he was going to take us to like the port shopping mall. We we were more interested I guess and go into the place you know where the local people were selling but we didn't go to the one by the port we went to the one that was called pineapple market obviously he knew the people. So this was your typical you know jewelry and. Well, when
00:28:35 SPEAKER_00
we say jewelry, handcrafted jewelry. Oh yeah,
00:28:38 SPEAKER_01
handcrafted jewelry or yeah, that kind of thing. But you actually did in getting, you decided, you had your scooter, you decided not to take like the walking cane, but actually decided that you would have liked to have it. So you did find the guy there making wooden canes. So
00:28:54 SPEAKER_00
he made me a new walking stick out of hickory. And now I have something, you know, it's hand carved. He literally, they brought one first that had been painted and had colors and stuff like that on it. And I didn't really want that. I just wanted something that was kind of natural looking. And so he just went and found a piece of wood. He carved it up real quick. And and brought it and said, is this is this what you're looking for? And when I said yes, he took it back, sanded it down and then stained it and put a varnish coat on it and made a handcrafted walking stick. Yeah. So, I mean, some of that stuff is going to be handcrafted
00:29:30 SPEAKER_01
there and then some of the stuff that people just buy to sell. But I mean, you're right. You have something that was definitely handcrafted because we were watching him make it. I really was afraid that that stain was going to be very stinky. But give us a headache, but it didn't like it, it dried very quickly. And so, so that was a neat little place. And so then we asked Leroy to take us and have lunch with us and invited him, invited him to eat with us. And so he took us to the jerk center. We had terrific jerk chicken. He suggested the festival bread, which was kind of like a cross between a, like a, hush like a sweet hush puppy almost had a little bit of a funnel cake taste to it but very sweet like that but he said you have to eat that with the jerk chicken and of course the peas and rice and tried the red stripe and then they also had a red stripe shandy lemon shandy they had watermelon too and be something they really like the sweet juices because she really tried to say don't you want the watermelon one but because they'd really do like juices and sweet things so but i opted for the lemon
00:30:34 SPEAKER_00
that was really sweet I like chandies. Chandies are great, but usually they're a little more dry and not so quite as sweet. These, this thing was almost like Kool-Aid.
00:30:44 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. I will say that there were actually several like taxi type drivers and stuff like that who had dropped people off there for lunch or we had run into them at a few of the other stops. So that is something pretty common for us not having been to Jamaica. I just felt more comfortable kind of having it prearranged as well. One of the tips that I have read though is that if you don't prearrange it, you know, and you, and you kind of meet somebody at the port, negotiate a price with them, you know, before you go. So if you're going to say, okay, two hours or three hours or four hours, but it definitely was easier because the port people were very, who are you meeting? That kind of thing. And having his name and then being able to go call him and get them, that was, that seemed like it was kind of a big deal, you know, as they were getting all the tours organized. So. One
00:31:28 SPEAKER_00
thing that I would say is when you have an opportunity to do this and you know, we were, had a little private tour if you will, because we had our private driver, but we invited him to have lunch with us and that just gave an opportunity to sit down and have a different type of conversation. And so I felt like we got to know a little bit more about him and you know, his, his family and kind of the day to day of Jamaica versus just the tourist thing that they take you and do.
00:31:57 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it feel like that, you know, on the drive, like typical things that they show you or take you to the market or take you to this overlook, but you're right. We were able to ask him about, and he showed us like the kids were having their lunch break, like as we drove through town and then he talked about his son and his kids and like where he lived and, you know, different things like that. So, so that was neat to just have him come. And then we wouldn't have tried the festival bread. I don't think we wouldn't have known what that was. And so just having, you know, try something as a recommendation. So, so probably the other things, so we definitely still thought, okay, we would have enjoyed the cooking class. We, we definitely would have enjoyed that, enjoyed that Blue Hole or that Dunge River Falls if you had been more, more mobile, but that leaves something for, Another trip. So just some things that you might be interested in checking out Our dinner companions did have say that they did the one with the gardens and they again Unfortunately weren't super impressed with that. They did say there wasn't a ton of things to they
00:32:58 SPEAKER_00
said they mostly just drove by the gardens They didn't actually go into them. Yeah, so they said here's where the gardens are and kept going and So, you know, that's one of the things we've often talked about excursions from the boat. Some of them are probably really good values. And matter of fact, some of them have been the exact same tour that we took and booked through Viator who were together with them. You just have to really check into it, maybe ask some more questions about them. And then if, you know, it's not going to be what you think that it is, then maybe you look to see if you could do something different.
00:33:35 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I'm looking at the ones that were offered on the cruise. I mean, I felt like they probably were reasonable, you know, in price and got you the transportation. The other thing I would point out about Jamaica is Jamaica is a very I don't know, like they rely on that cruise port money. Right. And so just like a lot of the tours that we have talked about in other places, they will take you. And even on this one, even though it was a private tour, he did still take us to some of these places. Right. So we went up into the Fern Gully and one of the one of the descriptions on there that they would show you the leaves where different things were made and stuff like that. But those guys who then showed us that they obviously had things that they were selling. You know, so if that maybe is in your capacity, I mean, we typically don't like to buy a lot of things, but if that is in your capacity to like to do so, like it really does benefit their, you know, their economy. Yeah. I mean, they said for some of these people, they like make less than a hundred us dollars, like in a whole year is what we were told. So, So
00:34:37 SPEAKER_00
we left from Ocho Rios and we sailed through the evening and overnight and our next port of call is going to be Grand Cayman in the Cayman Islands. So I was really looking
00:34:48 SPEAKER_01
forward to this. I've heard a lot about like the snorkeling in Grand Cayman and the beaches. This was another one where we had to tender onto the island. And again, it wasn't like the tender boats from the ship. They actually have tender boats from that port there. So we really had two things that we knew that we wanted to do, which was go snorkeling somewhere along the port or along that seven-mile beach, and then go to the Seven Fathoms Distillery that we had heard about. Now, unfortunately, though, this was a very, very short day in port, I felt like. So at 8 o'clock was the time. So if you didn't have a tour book, 8 o'clock was the first time those tour people were getting off the boat. And then if you didn't have a tour booked, you had to go to a certain location and get like a tender ticket. And then we could get on the boat almost immediately. But by the time you do that, and they put you on the boat, like it was probably almost nine o'clock before we actually got off in Grand Cayman or, you know, close to it. and then just trying to like get our bearings. So what we had planned to do, I had marked several snorkel spots. The one that seemed the most interesting to us was called the Gamma Shipwreck. It was just like a little small ship that had wrecked right there off the coast. And it was, I don't know, maybe would you say like a mile north of that port? And so I thought it would be, so we ended up like walking there. Which, I mean, wasn't that bad. It was a little rough with your, with your scooter, just because the sidewalk, we had to cross the road a couple of times and, and that kind of thing. And so, but we got out there, like, there had been a very good description online about where it was. So it's across from the Poinsettia condos. There's public beaches everywhere. And so it was no big deal to kind of cut through. And I had read that it was kind of rocky and you could get in right there. You could go a little north and swim to it. But the water, even coming over, the water was a little bit choppy. And so just kind of looking at it, like, so when you look at water from outside the water, like you have to think about, okay, how is that really going to look when you, once you get in it? And it's typically a little bit rougher when you say Scott. So we were just a little bit nervous about like, you know, getting, getting in over those rocks and you know, would it, would it be safe for
00:37:05 SPEAKER_00
us to do that? I mean, think about it. This, this boat was shipwrecked right there on the rocks. And so. When we looked at it, I guess the tide was high and the waves were really kind of crashing into those rocks. So that's somewhere that you don't want to be swimming at, at that point in time. You know, maybe later in the day at a lower tide or something like that, that would have been a good location to snorkel. It just wasn't working out for that time of day or even on that day because of the water.
00:37:39 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. So we just, you know, just always thinking about like safety, you know, is, is the most important thing. Yeah. You want to see this? Yeah. This is your opportunity, but it's just not worth, you know, getting hurt and then, you know, having maybe a little trouble walking on the rocks and stuff like that. So we decided to grab a taxi. So we found a way to grab a taxi real quick. And there's also public buses that are very frequent. So this, I mean, this is a great tip that, they're really more like vans and they go up and down and they stop very frequently and they you know even stopped and asked us we just felt like it was a little bit of an imposition maybe for them because you did have your scooter but I will tell you like it ended up costing like 30 US dollars to go a few miles whereas it would have been like one to three dollars on that bus so the bus if that if you can do that that definitely would be a great way a cheaper way to get around
00:38:31 SPEAKER_00
Let's clarify what public bus was. Public bus is a van. It's a minivan, you know, just getting that scooter up into there. Plus it's full of people, the locals who are using it and it just wasn't going to work. So we, we had to do the taxi. If you were traveling to Grand Cayman, I would highly recommend these buses because they, I mean, there must've been like 10 of them that were constantly going in every direction. And so you could just flag them down, hop on, and then take it as far as you needed to go and then get off. And so, because there's just one road where these things traveled back and forth.
00:39:10 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, and I will clarify, too. So we, the port, Georgetown is right there on the part of the island with Seven Mile Beach. So that is really where we stayed because he did tell us, like, for example, to kind of go on the other part of the island where Rum Point is, where you can go to where the there's like a bay where you see the starfish or the stingrays, which you can take an excursion to go to takes about an hour to an hour and a half to get up there. So if you want to do that, I would probably definitely say book an excursion. And, but that's going to take a, you know, a good bit of your time. Or negotiate
00:39:42 SPEAKER_00
with a driver, like a whole day road. Yeah. And then head
00:39:45 SPEAKER_01
up there, you know, in plenty of times, cause we had already like planned to do this distillery tour, like at one o'clock. So that wasn't, didn't leave us a ton of time. So I had marked some other spots, but basically like not having our bearings, I just asked him, okay, this isn't going to work out for us. Would you recommend? And he said, well, the next best is probably going to be go and up the road a good bit to the cemetery beach. So we had us take him, take us there. And so we could snorkel right off the beach there and I had read about that one. And so then I did ask him just because I didn't know like, you know, how convenient is going to be for us to like catch a taxi and that. So he did give us his number and he was very available. So we used him a couple more times. As Scott had said like so in hindsight we probably should have said hey like at this time we want to go here and then we're gonna have to go back to the ship how much to kind of like bundle all that together because we did end up paying for that a la carte so we did end up spending a good bit on transportation you know in the Cayman Islands but That's okay. Just tip for
00:40:42 SPEAKER_00
you. So, you know, we swam right off the beach. There were some tropical fish out there on a reef, you know, maybe 7,500 yards out off the beach, lots of fish. So it wasn't as if there was nothing there, but it was mostly just the tropical fish.
00:40:59 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. And you could tell like the beach was very much coral. So you could tell like a lot of the coral had, had died. Right. But there was a lot to, there was a lot to look at and there was actually snorkel boats out just a little further than that. And there were people snorkeling there. So that always makes you, you know, when you go to a snorkel place for the first time, you know, a little bit more comfortable when you see, you know, other snorkels or those snorkel boats coming from, you know, the outside for people to swim there. And
00:41:26 SPEAKER_00
I think it just happened to be the water that day, but the water was a little bit more cloudy. It was more aerated. You could tell by the water crashing and stuff like that. It's still very clear. I mean, super clear water, but it was just kind of a little bit more murky because of all the air bubbles that were caused by the water crashing.
00:41:46 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, but absolutely white sand, absolutely beautiful water. We got some beautiful shots from, you know, the beach and then from being in the water with our water camera. So, so that was a great place to just kind of experience. And, and the advantage of us having gone up there instead of at that reef is that we then, that was on the seven mile beach. So we did get to see, you know, what seven mile beach looks like and then see, you know, of course that whole road then is resorts and homes and, Things like that too. So just kind of get a feel for the island.
00:42:17 SPEAKER_00
So Melissa had looked up, we knew where we needed to go next because we had that one o'clock reservation at the distillery for a tour. And she looked and there was a Mexican restaurant right near the distillery. Now this is, you know, we talked about as a good ways outside the port. So we're now in the place where the locals are. This is where people live. This is where people work on a daily basis. And we found this fantastic Mexican restaurant called Agave.
00:42:46 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. And so I asked the taxi driver and I'll actually leave his information to in the show notes, if you ever have need for somebody and just want to have somebody to call that you have heard of. And he was like, Oh, do you want Mexican food? Do you want Caribbean food? Cause there's a place across the way. But when I asked him, it's like, okay, well we're going to eat and then we need to go to this distillery. And he was like, yeah, that's actually going to be probably the easiest way for you to get there. And he was nice enough to, to drive us and show us, hey, here's the distillery. Here's where you're going to go and then drop us off at the Mexican place. So yeah, so it was fantastic. It was hand, like everything was hand done, right? So their tortillas were hand done. We had, had their chips and salsa, which were made from their tortillas. Just absolutely fantastic handcrafted drinks. And, and I went up to go to the restroom before we left and Scott actually met the, the owner was there kind of doing some work and you asked him, Yeah,
00:43:38 SPEAKER_00
I talked to him for a bit. His name is Irvin. Great guy. And he asked us, he's like, how did you guys find us? You know, because like, I don't think they get a lot of people from the, from the ships who come in there and eat. Like I said, it's mostly the local. folks. And so we had a great conversation. He wanted to take us out back and show us their garden because evidently they have a garden where they grow a lot of the vegetables that they use inside their dishes. We didn't have time, but Irvin was a great guy and he has a fantastic restaurant. And I would say, you know, make that little drive out there and go to Agave and try that. especially if you're going to go to our next stop, which is the distillery. It's right there beside and we walked from Agave to the distillery. So, you know, go by and see them.
00:44:29 SPEAKER_01
Okay. So this was Cayman Spirits Company and I was able to book a tour like just the day before and I booked it for the one o'clock just so that we could like have time to snorkel and do a couple of things. They had some other like 11 o'clock available. But I will say I'm glad that I did the one o'clock because he did mention that they are a stop on several tours and that they had been really overrun with people. And so on our tour, it was just the two of us and then a guy who is a bartender and lady that was with him, a bartender at a local restaurant who was, you know, part of the local local scene there. So.
00:45:07 SPEAKER_00
There are several tours that are like rum tasting tours that you can go on. So I imagine that those went to this distillery. And this distillery, they're known for their seven fathoms rum. And so when you think of seven fathoms, we learned on the tour that a fathom is basically rough about six feet. So this rum is aged in barrels 42 feet below the surface of the ocean and so I said the water temperature is constant around 70 degrees year-round and so gets aged in barrels down 42 feet below the the surface or seven fathoms and general rocking of the waves actually keeps that bourbon or not the bourbon, but the rum churning inside those barrels. And so it ages a lot faster. And so a very good rum that's made right there at this distillery.
00:46:11 SPEAKER_01
And then they also don't lose the angel share because it is under the water. So yeah, so highly recommend that if you are interested in, if you've listened to any episodes or know about Scott and myself, we enjoy distillery tours. We've been on the tequila ones and bourbon ones and just all kinds of ones. So that was very interesting. But if you can go to a later one, you'll kind of avoid some of those crowds. So then we caught her. And
00:46:36 SPEAKER_00
you're going to try what, about seven, eight different spirits that they distill there.
00:46:41 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, that's true. And so, and I will say like, so when I booked it, we didn't have to pay in advance. It was just like, you'll pay when you get there. And then so they can ship the seven fathoms rum, just the rum back to the States. But if you want to, then they would have, they had coconut rums and espresso rums and what, what else?
00:47:00 SPEAKER_00
blackberry and just everything.
00:47:02 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, all kinds of other flavors. And those you have to purchase and bring back with you. And just so you know, when you bring those things on a cruise ship, they hold them for you until like the last the last day as well. And so then I called our taxi driver back and we rushed back to the ship. We had to be back before two thirty. So this lasted about an hour. So I think we got back to the port at about two fifteen. It was only about 15 minutes by car. So we weren't the last people, but we were, it was the last tender vote, uh, close
00:47:33 SPEAKER_00
to the last people. There may have been a dozen people who got on after us.
00:47:38 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. So we really maximized our time. I, I do feel like it was a definitely a very short day and, and we pretty much got off the boat as soon as we could and got back on the boat as late as we could. So definitely would want to have more time to see more of the
00:47:52 SPEAKER_00
Cayman islands. Which that's a good, good thing to point out right now, because we talked about the Mediterranean cruise as being a great hop on hop off way to see the Mediterranean and some of those countries. For the Caribbean, I'm not sure that I would consider that to be the same, because our time in port was very short, I felt like.
00:48:13 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, except for probably Cozumel that we're going to talk about next. But yeah, for both Dos Rios and for Grand Cayman, it was very, you know, 8 to 2.30, 8 to 3 o'clock, something like that, which just really doesn't give you a whole lot of time. Whereas I did feel like, like at minimum in the Mediterranean we had from 8 till like 5 or 5.30 or if you had late ports or we had the two whole days in Barcelona, And also I just feel like the cruise ports there are a little bit more conducive to grabbing a train, right? A taxi to a train or grabbing a train right there and then getting outside of the port. So definitely was a different experience. And so if you, if you were going to use it for that purpose, I would definitely say lean toward a Mediterranean cruise rather than really trying to use the Caribbean ones to see a lot of the Caribbean.
00:49:08 SPEAKER_00
Yeah. We got back on the boat and now we're going to do our last venture from Grand Cayman to Cozumel, Mexico. And so when we arrived the next morning in Cozumel, we docked directly in the port. And this was another case where they had the dock, so we didn't have to tender onto the port and, you know, we could get started right away on our journey.
00:49:35 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, but this was an 11 o'clock port. So we had a little bit more time in the morning, we could get breakfast and all that kind of stuff. So what we had planned to do and what we did were two completely different things. So we really had just planned, we had our snorkel gear, we really had just planned to like probably grab a taxi and go to one of the, I had researched several of the beach clubs that had like more conducive to snorkeling and stuff like that. But when we got off the boat, There was a lot of people renting little, of course, mopeds and buggies, little buggies and stuff like that. And so we said, Oh, you know how much might be something that where we can really see more. So the difference too is Cozumel is really drivable. If you have a vehicle within a few hours compared to. Definitely compared to Jamaica. There's no way. And then, I mean, if you got in a car immediately and try to maybe drove Grand Cayman, you could probably do that. I mean, you'd be a little bit push, but Cozumel not so much like you could stop and, and see things and then come back. So
00:50:41 SPEAKER_00
I didn't see him pushing cars and stuff like that to rent. Oh no, we didn't
00:50:45 SPEAKER_01
see that at all. Yeah. We didn't see that at all in Grand Cayman. And of course I think that is part of like just the culture in, in Mexico. So
00:50:52 SPEAKER_00
we ended up renting a Jeep. And when you talk about the culture, we laugh because like the seats were just barely bolted into this Jeep. You know, they rocked back and forth a little bit. And Melissa was fumbling looking for the seatbelt every single time.
00:51:07 SPEAKER_01
And the guy was
00:51:08 SPEAKER_00
like, no, no, no. Welcome to Mexico. You don't need a seatbelt.
00:51:11 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, but I'm just like used to that. Well, so I will say that the other thing was, too. So we said, OK, yeah, we're interested in that. You know how much blah, blah, blah. OK. And then he's like pointing to the guy. OK, go see my friend over there. Right. So then the guy that we're actually running from is not right there. He's like somewhere else. Right. So we're going over there and then we get over there. This fellow doesn't have any of those buggies. He's like, I give you the Jeep. It's the same price. OK. So but, you know, I think for us it's like okay we you know if you listen to our episode about Cancun like we've been to Mexico enough we're kind of just like you like maybe used to some of that so then So we're renting the Jeep. I'm about to thirst to death for some reason. Didn't bring my water bottle. Scott went and got that. So he doesn't even know what I'm going to say. He did come back and say, is everything OK? He had said, OK, it's going to be this much. And I was like, well, but he told me it was the same price. OK, but we have to add this and add that. And so I was trying to negotiate with him a little bit. Right. And so then So I get that price and of course they're wanting the insurance and you know, wanting to like cover all those bases. And so then of course he does get the last whatever because he's like, Oh, if you pay cash, it's going to be that price. But now it's going to be credit card. It's going to be this other price. You know, at the end of the day, it's just like, okay, it's like $10 more. I'm just, I'm going to done. So I had gotten him down to the, you know, to this quote unquote same price. And then he got me back up to the credit card price. So anyway, that's what we were negotiating when you, when you were like, is everything okay? And it's like, okay, well, this is, this is the deal. But you know, that was really our one, um, one opportunity did to do that. So we did have the, the Jeep, which, um, this pedometer didn't work and there was another check engine light on right. Seatbelts don't work, but it was a purple Jeep. I did have his phone number. Hopefully that was his phone number. Everything ended up being fine, but so anyway. Yeah,
00:52:57 SPEAKER_00
so it was great because now we were able to venture out and just be on our own and do the things that we wanted to do, not be on someone else's timetable, you know, not be pushed to do what someone else wants to do. Like, you know, take us to their friend's place where we can buy cheap souvenirs and stuff like that. We really got to go out and see Cozumel and, Actually, I think we saw some of the most majestic and beautiful places that you could imagine.
00:53:29 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I think so, too. So we we headed south and we went by the places that we had planned on snorkeling and we were like, OK, well, let's you know, let's take a look at this and then we'll come back. And so he had you know, he had kind of given us a little map. And of course, we had the GPS on our phones. And but we did end up driving just basically all the way around. The tide was up. So we saw these blowholes. And so we got to stop there and, you know, take some pictures and Oh, I guess the other thing I should say Scott is always the driver, you know, Scott just he likes to drive and so he's always the driver. But with his foot, I drove back and forth to Fort Lauderdale to the port. So I was the driver. And I will also point out that this I think he did have manual automatic transmission cars because he did say it would be $10 more for that. And I was like, no, I can drive a manual transmission. And I think we've mentioned this before in like our Scotland road trip or Ireland and stuff. It is very handy if you can learn. to drive a manual transmission if you are traveling overseas. Because number one, they may not have an automatic car. It might be more expensive. So this was definitely handy for me to be able to also do that. So that's just a skill I think that is very helpful to learn. So that's my two cents worth about that. We went
00:54:50 SPEAKER_00
down to the south end of the island, and Cozumel has a point down at the bottom, and I think they call it Pointer or something like that. As we were heading south, we stopped, we saw the blowholes, and that was just something where we had seen the water crashing up, and I said, I think that's a blowhole out there. And so we got out, and I hobbled, and we went to the beach. And sure enough, it was an area where it was like volcanic rock, and there was a hollow place underneath. And as the water crashed in, there were a few holes where the water would push out, and it was almost like steam or something like that. where you would see it and so it was just really a neat place to stop and then we drove a little further south and that's when we said okay it's around lunchtime and i had noticed this place on the side of the road and it said coconuts barn grill but it was kind of up on top of a little hill Overlooking the water and so we pulled into there went up to the top of the to the hill and that's where we had a terrific Lunch, they had fresh tacos some of the best tacos I think I've ever had and then you know good drinks To go along with that and we had this just beautiful view to enjoy as we were having our lunch
00:56:10 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it was neat because you were really were like up on top of a cliff. And so on that part of Mexico, you just really don't see anything like that. And I would also say that like that side. So that would be the eastern side, right? Of Cozumel compared to like the port side. It was just completely different. You could tell the water was a lot rougher, right? They had some like little inlet beaches and stuff like that. But we started talking to a couple and they were like, oh, how did you find this place? Or have you been here before? How did you find this place? They said they had been here several times, but they said, oh, you found the best spot on Cozumel. They said that they actually, and here's another tip, they like to just hire a driver so that they don't have to worry about driving and can have their beverages and stuff like that. And they just negotiate four hours, six hours, whatever for this person to take them and just wait on them. Because we did see a lot of taxis at some of those little roadside stops. So that definitely would be a great place to stop and Have cash there, though. Need to make sure that you have cash. They did not take cards there. So either stop, you know, bring. But they did take American dollars. And I will say, like everywhere we went, took American dollars. So we did not end up getting other currencies out in any of the
00:57:24 SPEAKER_00
other places, though. We had a bunch of Mexican pesos that we had taken with us from a previous trip. And so it ended up where the pesos I had was exactly what we needed for lunch and tip.
00:57:35 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. But, but all the places like took American dollars and they would have taken American dollars as well. So yeah. So that ended up being a great little stop. So highly recommend. And so
00:57:45 SPEAKER_00
as we were driving up the other side of the island, we had seen this place and it said Tequila Museum. And of course, that's interesting, Tequila Museum. And Melissa turned around and we went back in there. It's not something we had planned. Come to find out, there are several tequila museums on the island and matter of fact the map that they had given us at the rental car place was sponsored by these tequila museum places but we went in and you know first and foremost they came out to the car and they met us and of course you know I've got my little scooter thing and so, you know, they're wanting to be as helpful as they can. And they point us, you know, take us to this little bar first. And he says, you know, my friend is going to make you a cocktail with our tequila. And it was a very good cocktail. Paloma that he made for us and they said okay now we're going to go into the rest of our tour we're going to teach you about how tequila is made from the agave and how we distill it and then you'll have the opportunity to taste some of the tequilas that we make at the end of the tour. And so this was Casa Jalisco tequila and it's made in Jalisco, Mexico. So the home of tequila on the mainland. And so this was just a place where, you know, they had a little tourist area set up, but you could go to Jalisco and go to Casa Jalisco and see where this tequila is actually made.
00:59:29 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so that was an interesting little stop and stuff like that. And again, I felt like that probably earlier in the day or before that, they probably would have a lot of, you know, some tour groups and stuff come by. And like Scott said, they had different ones. So yeah, so we wanted to maximize our time. So we actually then drove through town and to the north part of the island. There's like almost like a little hotel zone at the very north part of the island. there's really like the port and then there's the downtown on Cozumel and then like a hotel zone like you would find in Cancun and we get all the way to the end of that and like the road gives out and there's a couple they are on a moped and they're turning around so I'm planning on turning around and the guy's like oh she doesn't want to go like we've done this several times she don't want to go there was a lot of water puddles like we could see she don't want to get all muddy but you really need to go down there like y'all y'all can do it in the jeep you really need to go down there and you need to see it's like a little fishing place where people like go off and fish and then really so that north part of the island there's really no roads is the impression that I got right and so then those boats take off and go to the north part and so Scott's like, yeah, let's go. Let's do this. And I felt so bad because Scott driving Scott would have really enjoyed the off road. And I was so nervous this whole time because I'm like, this water is so deep and the Jeep is not going to make it. And, you know, here I am trying to go fast, even though we so we used to have a Jeep. We've done off roading Jeep a bit. We've done it in Hawaii. We've done it in different places.
01:00:55 SPEAKER_00
But it was usually me driving.
01:00:57 SPEAKER_01
It was him driving and the hang of it by the end. Right. I was much less nervous, but the beginning I was like, you know, plowing through this thing
01:01:06 SPEAKER_00
and hitting these big mud puddles at full speed.
01:01:10 SPEAKER_01
We did pass another jeep convoy that was almost like they were on like a tour though. And then several people were driving their mopeds. But so let's just say that was probably the most adventure for the day. And again, I felt really bad because Scott really would have enjoyed driving that. So the other thing too is the whole, like the whole day I'm having to tell Scott, take a video of this, take a video of that. Cause I'm usually the one like doing the videos of different things that I can share. So I'm like video this, video that. So he, he did a good job. So, um, So
01:01:38 SPEAKER_00
as we said, we had a good bit more time in Cozumel, but it was starting to get later in the day and we knew that we wanted to go and do some snorkeling before the sunset. Well, and we also had to have
01:01:48 SPEAKER_01
the Jeep back by six o'clock. They were, so we had until eight 30 on the Island, but the Jeep was due back. They said normally they close at five, but because of the ships going out later, we had to have it back by six and it was going to be dark by then. Right. So we needed to be finished snorkeling. So yes.
01:02:04 SPEAKER_00
So we hightailed it back down to some of those places, the beach clubs that we had seen, and we pulled into one and there was a guy standing out front and we asked him, said, you know, can we still come in? And that's kind of a neat little thing they have set up because basically the premise is, is that you either buy a drink or you leave them a tip and you can use the beach club. And so we went down to the beach and it was one of those situations where you could just enter the water directly from the beach. You did have to go over a little bit of rock. And so just kind of a tip here is if you have a pair of Tevos or something like that, it would be perfect for that day because you would have those on your feet going over the rocks. and then get into the water and then immediately Melissa put her snorkel mask into the water and she pops up and says, stingray. And so she immediately had the spotting of a stingray. Well, actually it ended up being an eagle ray that was right there. So she got to see that. And then we snorkeled out a little ways. We saw a lobster that had backed down into a hole. We saw a bunch of conch shells with You know, one of them that picked up, I had snorkeled down and dove down and picked it up and it had a crab in it, but huge conch shells out there. We saw lots of fish and then we saw more of those eagle rays as we were swimming around. And so I would say that that was probably some fantastic snorkeling and would highly recommend that location if you were going to go and spend your time snorkeling.
01:03:48 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so that particular one was called Bahia de Uvas Beach Club, the Santa Beach Club de Uvas. And so there was lots of them, though, right along there. There had been one called Corona Beach Club and just all along up and down there. But there also is like a more of like a venture park type thing too that you can pay. I think that's a bit more expensive. I think it was like thirty five or thirty six dollars and then you could snorkel off the coast of off of that. And I think that was Chunchaka or something like that. I'll leave the link to that. And that's in that similar area. And that is one place though where the tours would go right. You could book an excursion to go to that. So that might be of interest and I'm sure they have all the gear and stuff like that. So we had brought And this place would have had gear it had like earlier in the day you could have done like kayaking it had him he even even pointed out we've got showers we've got lockers we've got you know all this kind of stuff and then of course we got a drink from a drink from them and he ended up giving us like two for one margaritas and but we really only had like he said oh we're closing at 5 30 so I think we had maybe what like 45 minutes but Yeah, so that was a great so I would say that whole area would be a great place to snorkel and if you didn't want to drive, that would be a place that would be very easy to take a taxi down to and then grab a taxi back there were lots of taxis waiting to take people
01:05:10 SPEAKER_00
And in Cozumel, they didn't disappoint. They had tons of shops right there in the port, selling everything from rare Tanzanite jewelry to leather goods and all kinds of stuff right there in the port. So you can see that they have a Senor Frogs, they have a
01:05:29 SPEAKER_01
Margaritaville, all the shops.
01:05:31 SPEAKER_00
All that right there in the port. So, you know, plenty to do in that area. Our thought was that we would go take a shower because we had been snorkeling, get dressed, and then we would go back out into Cozumel for dinner. After we got back on the ship and we got showered and changed and stuff like that, It's a little bit difficult for me to get around in these places. We just decided that we would end up having dinner on the ship. So we went and saw our favorite waiter and waitress that took care of us. They were happy to see us because they hadn't planned on us being there that night. And so when we showed up, they had big, huge smiles on their face. Very happy to see us.
01:06:15 SPEAKER_01
Yeah. So one thing I wanted to point out, so I do have a few like dietary restrictions. I don't do, or I can't eat lobster and crab and shrimp. I also try to avoid dairy as much as possible. And so they had kind of got in the habit. We, this cruise in particular, we ate in the dining room every single night. And so they would bring me the menu the night before, so that if there was something that the chef needed to accommodate for, they could do that. And so when we told them, oh, we're going to eat in Cozumel the night before, they did seem disappointed. So we just decided it had been a long day. We had done a lot. And it was going to be like walking back, grabbing a taxi because we had to turn the car back in, which was going to be, you know, a taxi there, a taxi back plus dinner. And so we just opted to, you know, like Scott said, stay on the ship.
01:07:08 SPEAKER_00
And let's just, can we call out the crew on the ship real quick? I mean, I felt like the crew members that we interacted with were absolutely the best. And so Ari and Aristi, they were our waiter and waitress that kind of took care of us every night. We had the same table and the same people waiting on us and. I mean, they just went over, over the top for us, anything that we needed. And then of course our cabin stewards, they kept our rooms, you know, just absolutely immaculate and spotless. And so I just want to call out the Holland America crew because they do a fantastic job. Matter of fact, we even mentioned that once we got off the ship, we were like, oh my God, you know, you realize how dirty everything is because that ship was just spotless the whole time we were on it.
01:07:57 SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I think we stopped at a rest area or something way back and you're just like, Oh, you just don't you don't realize you know how nice it is and how clean it is. But yeah, they do an absolute fantastic job. And really, like we didn't even, like most cruise ships, they they have the opportunity to upgrade to like a different level of dining, which then costs, you know, extra and We didn't, we didn't, we didn't do that. Right. So we didn't feel like it was necessary to do that. I think one night you upgraded to a different, you know, steak or whatever, but it's really like everything is fine dining when you eat in the dining room. And so that's something that we do recommend. We tried to do that for breakfast as much as possible, sometimes for lunch. And
01:08:33 SPEAKER_00
I'll just say that again is when you go on a cruise, this dining is exactly what you're paying for. If you go to the buffet or the cafeteria, I know there's certain times a day where maybe that makes sense for you or whatever, but you are missing out. So if you're only eating in those buffets, you have totally missed out on what you're paying for because that dining is top notch.
01:08:55 SPEAKER_01
Right. And they're, you know, bringing you the extra silverware and you're having the, you know, the three course meal and their, their service, right. Is just absolutely top notch and their presentation. And that's why I told Scott is these people who work on the ship could go work at any fine dining five-star restaurant and be better than people that we've encountered. Yeah. So were
01:09:18 SPEAKER_00
there any locations that you said to yourself, we should come back and spend more time here?
01:09:24 SPEAKER_01
So for sure, I would want to go back to Grand Cayman. And that would be a place I think it would be fun to stay there. Right. And to get to explore some different locations. Like to go across to the other
01:09:36 SPEAKER_00
side of the island to Rum Point and the Starfish Bay and those places. Yeah. And to probably,
01:09:42 SPEAKER_01
you know, be able to snorkel at some different, you know, locations. But definitely if you are a diver, right? So if you do diving, then Grand Cayman and Cozumel and stuff like that, but they do have great opportunities for, for snorkeling. And I would like to visit Jamaica sometime when we can do the Dunn rivers fall or the blue hole or see some, you know, other locations.
01:10:07 SPEAKER_00
So we wrap up every episode, especially with the destination. And we always ask Melissa, what do you need to pack? So
01:10:14 SPEAKER_01
still, I would say, just try to pack light. I think both of us still ended up typically, you know, overpacking. I did bring a few more, like, nicer, like, sundresses than I did on the Mediterranean run, just because I didn't have room to carry it. So we did take advantage of even the dressing nights, even though we weren't dressed and people had tuxedos and suits and we didn't dress up that much and it was perfectly fine like a sundress. Whereas when we were in the Mediterranean, we didn't even have as that dress is close. So we kind of skipped those and opted for some other things. So bathing suits and cover ups. And for the onboard though, rather than just have like a cover up cover up, I would recommend something like shorts or something like that so that you can like wear your bathing suit underneath. And then, you know, go, you know, feel comfortable going to a couple of places other than probably the, you know, the private, private island. And then I brought a change of clothes so that we could, you know, kind of change quickly before going to lunch or, or that kind of thing. I also had brought my rash guard along for snorkeling. I didn't want to, you know, get sunburned. And sometimes you can do that. So we had also brought along a beach bag. So for Holland America, they actually did provide a little chore bag that you could take along. And they also did provide towels, which we took to the private island. We didn't end up taking those to Cozumel and to Grand Cayman though just because they were a little bit bulky and we had taken our lightweight like camping towels just to make it easier to like carry around. But I will say that even when we went to the distillery they had a place where we could leave our stuff so that was great. So of course we brought our own snorkel gear just so we wouldn't have to worry about that. Underwater camera, GoPro, that was really nice. And then like Scott mentioned, having those Tevas. Other than that, it was really just like shorts and some t-shirts and a couple of options for tennis shoes, sandals, that kind of thing. Tropical
01:12:03 SPEAKER_00
weight clothing.
01:12:04 SPEAKER_01
And I don't know about other cruise lines, but also like if you needed to wash or if you needed them to do your laundry, it's actually very affordable on Holland America. They'd do a whole, you know, bag of clothes for like $25. So if you, you know, had a case where you needed something washed, it's actually
01:12:20 SPEAKER_00
inexpensive. And we learned this on the last day, or we probably would have taken advantage of it. They had unlimited ironing for like $23 for your stay. Boy, we would have really used that. So, you know, when we say getting familiar with the ship, these are the things that we're talking about. It's get in, get familiar, because we missed out on an opportunity where we could have had all of our stuff ironed. And they even had a price for laundry throughout this day that didn't seem really bad at all. And then you have just a few things, have them launder it, have them pressed and ready. And there you go. I have to admit that I was a little apprehensive about going on a cruise this time of year. We've been at Thanksgiving before and the boat rocked constantly, but this time it was just perfect. We had great weather. The seas were mostly calm. We'd both taken the patches that go behind your ear and that mirror may not have been necessary at all. We used them just in case, but all in all, this was definitely a lovely cruise. So what is your favorite time of year to cruise? Send us a message and let us know what your favorite time of the year is to take a cruise. We're always inspired by your travel stories.
01:13:29 SPEAKER_01
We hope you enjoyed this episode and will find some inspiration to help you with your travel journeys. Please consider going on your favorite podcast platform and leave us a review. The more five-star reviews we have, the more likely we are to be featured and discovered by others. Make sure to follow or subscribe to our podcast to be notified of new episodes as they are released. You can also find us on Instagram as sunjontravelerspodcast. Remember that's travelers with one L. And most importantly, share it with your friends and help them catch the travel bug. You never know, they may become your greatest travel companion.
