Sunday, January 19 was an 'at sea' day. We were basking in the 77* sun so it was hard to imagine the evening service being cancelled due to winter weather back home. It was a relaxing day, enjoying the ship's many amenities & activities. I was soaking up vitamin D to shake off the bug I picked up on the plane. (Memo for youth guys- if you must fly when you are sick, please have the decency to cover your mouth & nose when you cough & sneeze!)
Our stateroom attendant, Adrian, treated us to towel art every day (although it's not as common as it used to be.)
The Millers
The Schwartz'
The Lapps
Beef tenderloin & seafood linguine entrées
We were not in any ports at night -to get good photos, but the ship is a sight to behold when it's all lit up at night. 😍
Monday, January 20 we were in Labadee Haiti. For anyone who is concerned about us going to a Level 4 country, we were on a private, gated "island" 6 hours away from the violence. We were way up on the northern coast. At no time did we feel unsafe. The only sketchy part is their intense pressure to purchase souvenirs. 😏
The other 2 couples did 2 historical tours, but we were beach bums.
We had also purchased an all day pass for the mountain coaster. Back when Royal Caribbean had paused sailing to Haiti due to the violence and the excursions were 40% off. We were very glad we hadn't purchased a single pass because the first ride was a dud! We were stuck behind a young family that apparently were scared because they were on the brake the entire way. For the other rides, we were able to open it up and get some speed. So fun!
Haitian music & dancing
The cheeseburger, banana rum cake & coconut cookie for lunch were so good!
I was wanting to take a photo with the Labadee sign (with our ship in the background) again, but some people have no concept of forming a line and taking turns, so we gave up.
We sat on deck 4 to watch the sail away.
In the evening, we ladies went to a Generation Gap game show. They took volunteers from the crowd- Gen Z vs. ['Baby Boomers' is what they said, but it was actually Gen X]. Each team had to answer questions about the other generation. Gen Z won.
If laughter keeps you healthy, we should be good into the summer.
The longest married contestant couple was married 54 years; the newlyweds just 4 days.
Tuesday, January 21 we were in Falmouth, Jamaica. We docked while we were eating breakfast in the Windjammer buffet on deck 11. We 3 couples had booked an excursion rafting on the Martha Brae River. It started raining about the time we were loaded onto David's bus in a group of 20. Fortunately till we drove to the river, the sun came out and we had a beautiful day for rafting. 
When the show was over, we joined the men on deck 12 to watch the ending of the football championship game. If there is one sport I do not understand, it is football; I let them sweat it out & cheer while I crocheted.
We had to go for celebratory pizza after the game. We like to do our share of consuming the 800 pizzas a day on a cruise.
The excursion included complimentary fruit punch...
...then we loaded onto bamboo rafts two by two.
We rafted 3 miles down the river. Our raft captain did all the work, with a 16 ft. pole. He emphasized that we should enjoy every minute. He told Richard "with God in your heart, a beautiful woman by your side, and enough money in your pocket, what more could you want?!"
The rivers name is a corrupted version of Rio Mateberino. The story goes a Taino witch was tortured by Spanish settlers into revealing the location of a gold stash hidden along the river. After divulging, she changed the course of the water, killing the Spanish and blocking the cave where the treasure remains hidden. I don't know about legends, but it was a beautiful river and enjoyable activity.
Our tour bus driver took us through town and stopped at a souvenir shop. A couple of us popped into the grocery store in the same shopping plaza to shop where the locals go. We were after Blue Mountain coffee beans and jerk seasoning.
When we were ready to leave, there was a delivery truck blocking our exit from the parking lot, but with some skillful maneuvering, David got us past it. Amazing! I doubt you could've slipped a sheet of paper between our bus and the truck- it was so close.
After our excursion, we browsed around the shops on the pier. I had hoped to do a historical walking tour of Falmouth this time, but with Grandma's funeral coming right before the trip, I did not get my research done.
Falmouth's claim to fame is they had piped water before New York City.
They still have a guy on stilts walking around, selling Jamaican flags.
We got back on the ship at 3:30 because we were finished being in the hot sun. Unlike back home, where they saw -14*!
We decided to go up to the gym to walk on the treadmills. We were slacking this trip- I did not walk on the jogging track every day, and we only went in the gym twice. Why do they put the ice cream cones on the same deck as the gym?
Now we have to walk longer to work off the ice cream calories! 😞
It was Caribbean Night in the dining room. Richard had Asian pork tacos...
pesto tagliatelle -and I ordered an extra side of fried plantain -yummy!
We sailed away from Jamaica while we were dining. We went into the library for a quiet place to hang out that evening. We were mid-conversation when a young girl plopped into a chair with us and said something about us being her therapy group. She asked how we're doing and when we asked her in return, she replied "not very good" and launched into a long story about drama with new friends she had made on the ship. What in the world?! What made her comfortable joining us? She was almost 13, from a messy home situation, and we are in our 50s and Mennonite. She was on board with her grandparents, a birthday gift from them. She gave us her unbridled opinion of Jamaica, our ages and occupations, and several other subjects. She said it was "glock" that I'm employed by my husband as a secretary; I'll take that as a compliment. I was starting to wonder how we'd get rid of her. She didn't seem too impressed with our advice to leave the boys alone and go sing karaoke or one of the other ship activities. Eventually she left of her own accord. We saw her almost every day after that and she always greeted us as her therapists. 😮😀
We went outside to play shuffleboard. Richard & I didn't score so well. It's harder than it looks on a moving ship.
The ship was rocking more than usual. All of a sudden I started feeling queasy. I went back to our cabin to take a pill. Just getting into the center of the ship helped, less motion. For as easily as I get carsick, it's pretty amazing that I've never gotten seasick on a cruise.
To be continued...
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