Wednesday, March 17, 2010

What is that big yellow thing in the sky??? (Trip report)

We woke up this morning and we were ecstatic to see the sun shining through the drapes. We opened the drapes and low and behold we had bright sun. We were pulling into Ochos Rios, Jamaica and it was a beautiful site. After 4 days of rain so far we were extremely grateful to have sunlight. So, as quick as we could we threw on our bathing suits, lotioned up and off we went for our excursion.


Now we have been to Jamaica before and had done the Dunn's River Falls and tubing before. The falls were a lot of fun, and so was the tubing but once was enough for us. So we tried the Jamaican bobsleds tour. It was not more than 10 minutes from the ship by tour bus. We got out and we were escorted to a ski lift that brought us up the mountain. Below us as we went up was the rainforest. We did not see and animals, but there were many sounds from the forest. The flowers and trees were beautiful. We were at the top in about 15 minutes. They have lockers at the top of the mountain. They take a deposit which all but $1 is returned when you return the key.

At the top there was a beautiful garden you could walk around in. A few artists selling things, a small store and then the entrance to the bobsleds, and the pool. Now we had paid for each of us to ride the sleds once on the cruise ship tour. we each got our own sleds. Now if you have a child or anyone who feels uncomfortable driving the sled themselves two sleds can be connected with the first sled doing the driving. The sleds are on a track, so the only thing you control is the speed and the breaks. There are cameras on the tracks so they do not let people go until they get past certain points so no one can crash into each other. When you get to the bottom, you go back up the mountain on your sled. We immediately purchased 5 more rides for $50 when we got to the top. On the lat ride we did not have enough ticket for me to go, and the attendant was kind enough to let me go on the last ride with my kids. I tried to get video, and will try to upload it from my phone, but it may not happen. There are lots of pictures though, which I will upload and add later to this post. After riding 4 times each, we took a dip in their endless pool. They had a nice size water slide and whirlpool there too. From the pool you had great views of the Navigator and Ocho Rios. We spent about 5 hours there. We could take as long as we wanted as busses came and picked up every 20 minutes. As we rode the ski lift (that holds 4 people comfortably) down it started to sprinkle. In all our excitement we had not noticed that it had become overcast and now the rain was coming in.



We got on our bus and met Phil (the DH) on the road that leads to the ship. We did some shopping (Pandora bracelets) at the ship approved stores and went back to the ship as it started to rain. We showered and went down to dinner.




Our table mates had enjoyed their limited sun as much as we had. The ladies had gotten their hair braided (ok, I was a little jealous I didn't) and had gotten a good amount of color. The men had been offered to have their hair braided too by people. They really were a great group of people to eat with. They had been on a carnival cruise the week before coming on this one and it had rained and been cloudy on that cruise, so they deserved this warm sunny 1/2 day!

Bye Jamaica!


We were so tired we zonked out early....tomorrow our last day at sea!

If you want to have all this fun...call us at Second Star Travel 1-508-808-5995


Secondstartravel
because today's vacations are tomorrow's memories!


3 comments:

Judy said...

Beautiful scenery pictures. The kids look a little freaked about the bobsleds.... Glad you got some sun, the pool and the slide look like a lot of fun!

Gloria Caruso said...

Nope not at all freaked out. They loved it and did it two more times each. It was really lots of fun. They went down alone too....

Unknown said...

Jamaica looks like so much fun! Those bobsleds look like a riot. So glad the sun came out for you!