Cruise Excursions: Jamaica

The question I've been asked most after our cruise is, "Would you do it again?" While this question seems simple enough, it took me several days to decide what I thought. Cruising is obviously the perfect vacation for us because I like to sit around and do nothing, and Chase likes to plan the excursions and go, go, go. We both like to eat, and cruises are great for that, too! I think that I would recommend our cruise to someone else, but I would like to go on different cruises to see what else is out there. In other words, I wouldn't go on this exact cruise again, but I would cruise Carnival again and choose the Magic if it were going somewhere else. That being said, we did Carnival excursions in two of our three destinations, and an unaffiliated tour in the third. There were perks to all of them, and I'd say we were 98% satisfied with our excursions.

Ready to go on our first shore day!

In Jamaica, we wanted to see the real Jamaica, not just a pristine beach. I visited Jamaica once in high school on a mission trip. We went to the waterfall there and saw the beach, so I was fine with not seeing that again. Chase is also an off-roading junkie, so our choice to do a 4x4 tour was easy.

People in Jamaica drive like they've lost their minds. There is a strong possibility that some outside influence could be impairing their driving abilities (more on that later). Our driver like to call them CAJ's (Crazy ___ Jamaicans). The guy who drove the tour truck behind us was one of these...

Yeah, we were definitely moving when Chase took this picture...and he didn't have to zoom in. My reaction...

But our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable, and we got to see breathtaking views!

That's our boat in the background! 

Now, for some local flavor...as our tour guide informed us, this guy in the yellow, entrepreneurial fellow that he is, is building a wacky tobacky umm...shacky. The guy next to him is smoking some. Our guide narrated this scene with the disinterested familiarity that you'd use to point out a fast food joint in suburbia...use of the word "joint" was at first accidental, then serendipitous.

We got so many amazing pictures in Jamaica!

That was a lot more than I thought it would be...more to come :)