We woke up to a beautiful view of the port in Ocho Rios. With the help of the binoculars, we were able to see the shops surrounding the port as well as many boats with some variation of the name “Cool Runnings.” We laughed. The ship had docked very early and having no excursion booked, we had not gotten up very early so we could see people starting to get off the ship. The pier at Ocho Rios is very long – which makes it a pretty port because you get a good view of the water and mountains from your ship and then a good view of your ship from the port. However, it is a long way to dry land. That walkway would have been hot in July!
We had a leisurely breakfast in the buffet (burritos again!) before we sprayed on the sunscreen and headed into port.
We had no excursion planned for the day because we couldn’t quite agree on one so we just walked around, decided it was hot, watched the people at the Margaritaville beach for a little while and then wandered back onto the ship for a cool quiet lunch at Ji Ji’s Asian Restaurant.
Both the Asian and Italian Specialty restaurants are open for lunch without a fee or reservations on Carnival ships. Ji Ji’s was always super crowded on sea days, but on this port day we were almost by ourselves in the restaurant. We got a great seat by the window with a view of the Norwegian Epic and the green mountains of Jamaica. At the Mongolian Wok for lunch, you check what you want in your lunch and if you want a salad and wait while your food is cooked to order.
When the restaurant is relatively empty because the ship is in port, the food is pretty quick. I hardly had time to finish my salad before our noodle bowls showed up. Fresh vegetables, noodles and calamari made the bowl both yummy and healthy!
After lunch we put on our bathing suits and headed to the aft pool. It was closed. Why was the pool closed? We have no idea. So, we went to the middle pool until it got too crowded and I went to scope out the back pool. It was open and there were even lounge chairs open under the umbrellas – we are always searching for chairs in the shade!
Unfortunately, after just a few minutes in the aft pool they closed it again. We gave up and went to lounge on the balcony until it was time for our massage instead. If you do not have plans in port, it is a great time to get a massage (or other spa services) because they are much cheaper while in port plus there are usually more times available.
But before and after the massage we figured we could hang out on the balcony. In the past few cruises I have found the new hobby of watching pier runners. Pier runners are people who either are late for the ship, or just think they are late. Sometimes, no one is late and it is really boring. But sometimes a whole bunch of people are late and it can actually be pretty entertaining.
I don’t know if it was the particular port, or if it was just the day, but there were a lot of late people. As it approached the time to leave, some people started to hustle, but busses kept rolling up and we were still there past the time we were supposed to leave. Carnival guarantees that if you book an excursion with them if something delays your excursion, they will hold the boat for you. We watched bus after bus of people hustle up to the ship. They had dock workers at the ropes waiting for the call (or shout or whatever) to tell them to throw off the rope to let us cast off and finally two women hustled their way up to the boat and we finally left.
We had reservations for the specialty Italian restaurant for dinner. Cucina del Capitano is the Italian restaurant on board Carnival ships. The idea behind the restaurant is that it’s supposed to be like Italian home cooking, so it will make the captains feel at home when they eat there. For a flat $15 up charge, it is all you want to order like the regular restaurant on board.
After our three course meal, we wandered around the ship to try to work off a couple of calories from the heavy meal.
