Travel. Jamaica. Cruise.
Was it a Deal or Deal-Breaker? You Decide
In March of 2019, I decided to take an Ocean Cruise with my husband aboard Royal Caribbean’s Navigator of the Seas. It was called the 5-Night Jamaican Dream Cruise for Adults-Only, which we thought was because of it being near Spring Break week. We expected there to be some party-goers, but that’s not what happened. Instead, it became a bit of a nightmare. I’ll tell you why as you read further.
First of all, I had never been on a cruise before and wanted to see what it was like. Plus, I got a great interline deal (my husband is a retired Airline employee, and I’m a travel consultant). I booked the upgraded balcony cabin at $125 per person.
I learned the hard way about all the add-ons that really end up costing you way more than you bargained for. Even with a steeply discounted interline rate, we ended up spending way more than originally planned due to the necessity of having to add some of these package “deals.”
We added the Internet package; 1 VOOM Surf + STREAM Voyage Package for 4 Devices, and Deluxe Beverage package for Adults 21+ at $324.50 per person. We then paid $649 total for the two of us to start this cruise. (It seemed like a great bargain until I found out more about what type of cruise this really was.)
We flew to Miami International Airport (basically free because of our flight benefits), landing just in time to get over to the Miami Cruise Port via Uber. The terminal seemed a bit worn, and hundreds of people were lined up in the lobby waiting area inside. This was pre-pandemic, so nobody practiced social distancing. We were supposed to start boarding the ship around 2 pm as it was set to depart at 5 pm.
They were running a bit late, still cleaning up the ship from the last cruise. After walking up the gangplank and getting our IDs/Passport checked, we were led to our cabin. It seemed a bit snug even with a separate sofa area, but walking out on the balcony made the room feel a lot bigger. Plus, it was nice to get an Ocean breeze. There was an announcement over the loudspeaker that everyone immediately went out to the nearest deck for a safety drill. We lined up, got our presentation done, and headed back to the room.
We quickly set up WiFi and figured out where we could go to dinner. We had several restaurant choices and wanted to quickly get a window-side seat before the rush of the dinner crowd. It was a great way to start cruising out of the Port of Miami with a panoramic vista view of everything. We were moving slowly, so everything felt smooth and comfortable.
The first port of stop was in Nassau, Bahamas. We got there late in the night when everyone was asleep, so it was lovely to wake up first thing in the morning and look outside to see where we were. After breakfast, we went to explore Nassau on foot.
Hundreds of us piled off the ship, seemingly all at once in a bottleneck, heading towards the shanty tourist town where they want you to spend lots of money on junk. After a quick walk-through, we decided to walk about 15 minutes further to where the Atlantis resort was on Paradise Island. We found a clean sandy-white beach walking all the way around to the Atlantis resort to check it out.
We found out you had to have a wristband to get through certain entrances outside, but they did let us eat at an outdoor restaurant for lunch. It was so-so. The Aquarium nearby was sort of interesting.
It was getting pretty hot outside on our way back, so we stopped at a bicycle place considering renting bikes to head back. We talked with a young guy first who said that his Uncle could take us in his car back to the ship port. The Uncle proposed he would give us an impromptu tour around the Island in his beat-up old car that smelled heavily like cigarette smoke. What-the-hell we thought, and off we went.
When he found out we were from Texas; he went on about Anna Nicole Smith being a Texan and how she died in the Bahamas. He eagerly asked if we wanted to see her grave where she was buried. Not really, we said, shrugging, but he took us there anyway. He also showed us the Bahamian hospital where she ended up last. Her grave was in a modest cemetery on the other side of the Island. At least we got to see around the Island for a bit.
He dropped us off at the Queen’s Staircase, a place all tourists go to see and learn about the history of the slave trade to the Bahamas. This is at Fort Fincastle, which was built in the late 1700s. It’s named after Britain’s Queen Victoria. Our driver got his $20.
At the bottom of the steps was this old, disabled guy who insisted we stop to hear a story from him that lasted about 20 minutes. We obliged, along with a few other tourists, to listen to what he had to say about this bit of history. We gave him $20 after he was finished, knowing this was his way to earn a living.
Ascending the staircase next, we made it to the top and headed over for the birds-eye view atop Fort Fincastle. I took some photos, stepped inside the small, dank prison with no air, and walked back down to the port through the tourist shops. We did stop and buy two tourist beach towels since we didn’t bring any and couldn’t bring the ones from the ship to shore. Thus we contributed another $20 to the Nassau tourism industry.
Back onboard the ship, we got cleaned and dressed and ready to try the Japanese restaurant for dinner, which was really nice.
We explored the rest of the ship that evening, which was fairly quiet. Although the Jacuzzi’s were full of people, it wasn’t too loud.
Not until we walked through the main area of the ship where all the shops were located. There was music so loud blaring from a live band perched up higher somewhere. The noise was deafening. I mean, really loud. Louder than when you are in the front row of a rock concert. I think that’s because the music echoed off the interior like a ricochet between all the 14 decks.
This music blared on throughout the night and echoed over to our outside cabin, located across the ship. That’s how loud it was. It was hard to sleep. It was nightmarish and the worst part of the trip.
The next day as we sauntered around groggily, we stopped at a bar to hang out and talk with people. An RCCL employee was hosting a trivia game which we joined in for some easy fun. We asked him later about the music noise-level going all night, and what was up with that?
He said this cruise had been partially chartered by a group of people going to the annual Jamaican Dream Week festival. That’s how we found out why this particular cruise deal we got was so cheap. They needed to fill more space, so they let out some rooms for interline and other discounted rates last minute.
During the day, the party-goers filled all the pools up, many of them half-naked or more. I’m not saying that to be a prude, but it was shocking when you would see a glittery sock over some guy’s penis or a quite overweight, bosomy woman with pasties on her nipples and a shiny gold G-string barely covering up her nether regions. That’s another reason why this particular cruise was adults-only.
It made for an interesting mix of people on the ship, that’s for sure. Young, energetic black party-goers and old-white repeat cruisers all seemed to get along for the most part. We were in the middle of all this, just observing as first-timers.
It was fun to watch the people use the Surf Rider wave machine and all the other sporting activities one could do onboard the ship while we sailed around Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, heading towards Jamaica. We arrived in Montego Bay, Jamaica, the following morning.
This time heading off the ship after a sumptuous breakfast, we went straight to Doctor’s Cave Beach, where we heard it was the best beach to go to. Getting there required a taxi which we shared with some of the other ship-goers.
One lady from Alabama was “disgusted” at seeing the amount of “nakedness” and partying on the ship. We told her it was partially chartered for the Dream Week music festival, which we hadn’t known about beforehand. She scoffed and said she would try and switch over to another ship at Port to get away from it.
At Doctor’s Cave Beach, we discovered it would cost about $40 to get a spot at the beach along with chairs and an umbrella and wait service. It was hilarious how some random guy kept asking me, “Boss Lady, you want some weed?” I chuckled and said No Thanks. “But Boss Lady, I got the best Ganja for you!” Why he kept pestering me, I don’t know. He did stop once he found another tourist lady. We got our beach gear and found a nice spot at the beach, and proceeded to relax so our ears could finally stop ringing. Haha.
We lost track of time and realized we were running late to get back to the ship. They were strict about what time you had to return so they could count all the people. So we started to flag a taxi down but quickly found that all the other ship-goers were doing the same. It was getting hard to find one that was empty or had room to share. We started asking around and ended up finding a young boy off one of the side streets who was willing for $20 to take us back to the port.
We got there just in time to discover one of the gates outside was locked, and so we had to literally run around to find an opening where security checks you before going back onboard. We weren’t the only ones making a mad dash to get back, so we assumed they would wait until all passengers were boarded without leaving.
I had seen stories about passengers being left behind on other cruise ships, and now I learned how that could happen.
We met some friendly people going to the Dream Week festival along the way. One young woman was also making it a point to visit her Grandmother in Jamaica. I didn’t realize so many people from the East Coast also made it a point to hop on board this particular cruise for the event. Lesson learned about Spring Break vs. Dream Week cruise ship sailings.
That night we had another excellent dinner, exquisite, talked with others seated near our table, and had an enjoyable time. By now, we were used to the loud thump-thump-thump music outside. When we got back to our cabin, we were surprised to find a towel monkey hanging from the ceiling light, along with a nice note from our stateroom attendant. I suppose that’s how they earn an extra $20. You can see the cute little thing here on my Instagram.
Would we do it again? Mmmm, not this particular cruise sailing, but I would be more careful to ask questions if I were to go on any other cruise ship. Since cruising is not one of the main travel activities I like to do, I would put it on the back-burner for another day, no matter how tempting the steeply discounted rate is. Except if it’s a Hurtigruten Cruise to Antarctica…then I would go!
Travel Tip: Make sure you carry a lot of $20 bills with you if you go on a cruise to the Bahamas or Jamaica! haha
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