We chose this cruise because it was going out of Galveston. We would not have picked this itinerary but it was what was available for Thanksgiving week. I have been to Jamaica on a couple of land trips and a couple of cruises, so there was nothing I really wanted to do, so we just did the Hop-on Hop-off bus. We had a very safe driver on the outbound trip, but they take you to the farthest place first and work their way back. We wanted to go to Doctor's Cave beach. When we got there they wanted admission and fees for chairs, etc. which we weren't aware of, and it was looking cloudy and like it was going to rain, so we just went to Margaritaville about a few minutes' walk away. After about 20 minutes after we arrived, the weather took a very bad turn. It got incredibly windy and while we could see the ship before the storm, once the clouds and breeze rolled in, you couldn't see even a half mile and it was starting to look very scary. We decided to leave to head back to the ship. The island traffic is horrible on a good day, but there later came a flash flood causing a few hundred passengers to be delayed on the return for several hours. We just beat the flash flood back to the ship. In the terminal there was a huge line of about 500 or more people and it took us about 40 minutes to get back on board. (there were 4700 people this particular weekon board due to the holiday.) Having done Dunn's River Falls several times and having seen much of Montego Bay in past years, we probably should have just stayed on the ship. Oh, well--we have Grand Cayman tomorrow.

Cayman was good--did the Stingrays for the second time and Rum Point Beach. Our crew on our boat to the stingray sandbar were great. They let everyone feed the rays and allowed time for everyone to get pics who wanted them. They charged 40.00 for all digital photos that they took, or one for 20. We brought our own water camera but still bought their pics.

Next we took a short trip to Rum Point Beach. We liked it but bring tons of money if you want drinks and food. 12.50 per 8 ounce drink and our bill for 2 drinks and chili cheese fries came to 38.25 with a tip added in that I did not notice until we left (and I added more without realizing they had already charged us for the tip. Look carefully at your bill first! More expensive than the ship's drinks! On the ride back to our bus pick-up point a crew member cleaned out two large Conch and prepared us fresh conch with barbeque and onion sauce. That was a first for us! Our boat staff were a great team and we enjoyed our excursion in Cayman. Read more