Places You'll Go: Excursions for the Upcoming Cruise

In 23 days I'll be boarding Mariner of the Seas and setting sail on a Western Caribbean cruise via Royal Caribbean. We'll be sailing out of Galveston which is great. It means no money wasted on a flight which means more money to spend on the cruise. It also only takes about 4 hours to get there from here. So, it's really just enough time for a nice long chat. I haven't looked this forward to a cruise in a really long time.

Our first stop will be Cozumel, Mexico. In Cozumel, we will be doing the Dune Buggy & Beach Snorkel excursion. I've done this before. In fact, I think a picture of it is currently my Facebook profile picture. That was with my Mom and niece, Rebecca. We had a blast that day. Then when I took my nephew, Matt on his graduation cruise, he and I did the Jeep & Beach Snorkel. It is the same thing except that you drive a Jeep rather than a Dune Buggy. You even go to the same stops. In fact, Matt and I even had one of the same guides that Mom, Rebecca and I had. I believe his name was Pancho. Here's a picture of Matt with our guides. Pancho is the one on the left.

In reality, Pancho's name is probably Joe or something like that. He just tells the American tourists to call him Pancho as part of the experience. If choosing between the Dune Buggy or the Jeep on this excursion, I would always recommend the Dune Buggy. After all, you can go down the street to your local Chrysler dealer and test drive a Jeep anytime you want. But how often do you get to drive a Dune Buggy even if you don't get to go across any dunes????

Our next stop will be at Georgetown, Grand Cayman. Many of you already know that this is among my favorite places in the world. I'm not sure why I love it so much. But I do. At Grand Cayman we had not planned on doing an excursion. But now I think we are starting to re-think that. I had planned to rent a car and get around the island that way. But now it is sounding like getting the car will be a hassle and I really don't want any hassles during this vacation. So, maybe an excursion is the way to go.

I generally always recommend ships excursions since it gives you the comfort of knowing that if something happens and you are late returning, the ship won't leave you. If you are so late getting back that the ship cannot wait any longer, then they will pay to get you to the ships next stop. So, going on a ship sponsored excursion just gives you a little safety net. I hear a lot of people complain about the price of ship excursions saying that they could arrange the same outing for less money and that is usually true. But for the added $20 or $30 you pay to do their excursion, you get the peace of mind knowing that you won't be stuck in a foreign country with no hotel reservation for the night and trying to arrange a flight either to Jamaica or back to the US for tomorrow. So, for me, the extra $20 or $30 you pay is well worth it.

In Grand Cayman in the past, I have swam with the sting rays and gone to Hell and the Turtle Farm. I loved all of those things. I have also just spent time on Seven Mile Beach and walked around town visiting various restaurants, bars and gift shops. But there are still parts of the island that I haven't seen. I'd like to hit some of those, which is why I had thought that renting a car would be nice. It is sounding like today, I might be going back through excursions one more time.

Our final stop before returning to Galveston will be Falmouth, Jamaica. I've been to Jamaica a number of times but I've never been to Falmouth. I think it is up by Ocho Rios which is good. I far prefer the village feel of Ocho Rios to the big, overcrowded and depressing Montego Bay. At Jamaica we will be on another excursion. This time we will be sailing on a catamaran and then snorkeling. I think it also takes us to one of the Margaritavilles in Jamaica. I just hope it is a Margaritaville that I haven't been to before. I have already been to a few of them in Jamaica. I like doing the catamaran snorkel excursions just because I always enjoy the boat ride. Even if you don't snorkel, the boat ride is fun. But I love snorkeling too so it is a win - win for me.

In Jamaica there are a number of fun excursions to do. Once we did a tour that takes you up to the Appleton Rum Distillery. It was interesting but I probably wouldn't recommend it. It is a very long drive through mountains on winding roads. My niece was with us and got motion sickness from the drive. She never had any trouble at all on the ship but as soon as she got in that van in Jamaica she was a puking machine. So, that may have swayed my opinion somewhat. But I just didn't think the Appleton Estate was enough to make up for that long drive even if I hadn't been forced to hold a bag full of puke for the half of the day. To the right is a picture of me, Mom and Rebecca along with some "rasta mon" pre-puke. It's not nearly as funny as the post puke picture which is featured at the end of today's blog. Poor Rebecca was really miserable.

I went to the Dunn's River Falls on another occasion. It was a lot of fun and there was no puking involved, but I think once you have climbed the falls, it isn't something that you need to do again. If my travel buddy, Jenny had expressed a serious interest, I probably would have done it again since she never has done it. But she didn't. So, I'm kind of glad. I hope that my Mom and Dad join us on the Jamaica excursion. I think they will like it and they hardly ever get off the ship in Jamaica so I think it would do them good.

I will stop writing now so that I can work on travel stuff. Have a good day!