Cruise 2017: Montego Bay, Jamaica
- Jennifer Thomas
- Mar 6, 2018
- 3 min read
So, after our last experience in Jamaica at the port of Ocho Rios, I would not have booked another cruise to Jamaica. However, due to the active hurricane season, our cruise itinerary was completely changed and we found ourselves going back to Jamaica.
As we were looking at the possible shore excursions, we found one that was listed as a coffee plantation tour and decided to try it.
After our day at Half Moon Cay, Chris was having problems with his ears. He was having a hard time hearing and he hadn't packed his ear wax remover, so that added a level of complication to the day. We would need to find a pharmacy...in Jamaica. Sigh.
For breakfast, we tried Blue Iguana Cantina and it was good. Not at all busy, but the food was fantastic. I'm not sure if it was the hour or just a more exotic breakfast choice that caused it to be so unpopular that day.
We got off the ship about 30 minutes early to take a look around the port shopping and get some information about where the nearest pharmacy was. Since there was nothing in the port shopping, we found a Carnival employee and they told us there were taxis just outside the building that could take us a mile or two down the road to the pharmacy, so we decided to do that after we returned from our tour.
We climbed onto a bus with a driver and a tour guide and started our 90 minute trek into the mountains to the Croydon Plantation. Our tour guide was awesome. She provided a lot of information and answered a lot of questions. Our driver was very competent, meaning he kept our bus on the narrow, winding, bumpy, mountain-side road with only one instance of cursing by the people on the bus. Note to self: Do not take Mom into the mountains in the Caribbean.
We arrived at the plantation and learned that it was a full service plantation. Coffee, bees, pineapples, and hundreds of other plants. It was an amazing tour! We also got to sample some of the plantation offerings. A juice made of the rinds of a pineapple and brown sugar, different varieties of pineapple, ginger beer and other fruits. The scenery was gorgeous!
After the tour, we had a fantastic lunch of jerk chicken, beans and rice before we climbed back onto the tour bus to go back down to the port.
When we arrived back at the port, I asked the tour guide where we could find the taxis. She asked us why and I told her we needed to go to the pharmacy because Chris was having trouble with his ears. She told us we shouldn't use those taxis and that she and our bus driver would take us. Talk about making me feel better! The bus driver dropped us off and the tour guide took us in and showed us how to buy stuff at the pharmacy and then walked us back out to the bus and took us back to the port.
When we got back on the ship, we got a snack and headed back to the room to treat Chris's ear (spoiler alert, nothing we bought helped) and get ready for dinner.
We had Steakhouse reservations that night, which is one of my favorite things! I had escargot for my appetizer and surf and turf for my entree, then the chocolate sampler for dessert. While we were eating, we went through a big storm that caused the main decks to be closed, which was kind of bummer because we had planned to catch the Dive-In Movie of the evening, Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.
But we were also exhausted, so we took that opportunity to turn in early, mostly because I was exhausted. (Remember that in a few weeks as we get to the end of the cruise.)
Have you visited Jamaica? Did you enjoy it?
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