2022 Disney Cruise Day 5 - Sailing Away from Jamaica

As day 5 of the 2022 Disney Cruise Trip Report continues, we are still at the beach in Jamaica...

Wednesday, June 8 (continued)

Out in the water, there was an inflatable obstacle course of sorts. Several in our group decided to go give it a try, while Dad, John, Kaitlyn, and I decided to skip it. We sat in the chairs for a while enjoying the beach views and the cool breeze. 

Looking at the beach from out in the water. And yes, I made sure not to drop my camera.

Lunch was served at 11:30, so we decided to head on that way. I checked with the rest of our group in line for the obstacle course to let them know what we were doing. For lunch, we had our choice of jerk chicken or fish, along with peas and rice and a salad. I chose the jerk chicken, not realizing that I could have had both until John came behind me and got both. Not a problem, though. It was all good, even if the jerk sauce was a little spicy. And I loved the peas and rice, which reminded me of many, many meals in Jamaica on our mission trips earlier. We found a table and enjoyed our meal.

Not long after we had started eating, the rest of our group came up. There had been people cutting in line in front of them, so they gave up and came for lunch. I suggested to Laura that she get chicken without the jerk sauce, knowing that she does not like fish or spicy things. We all ate together for a bit, but then I went back over to our chairs to make sure our stuff was okay. I figured it would be, but it wouldn’t hurt to check on it. And everything was just fine, by the way.

A somewhat rare photo of just me

Laura and me, taken by my Mom

Once the rest of the group got back to our chairs, a large catamaran pulled up to the walkway to the obstacle course, and lots and lots of people got off of it. I’m guessing they had boarded it before we had gotten there. We were thankful that we had already eaten because the food lines were about to get really long! The music from the catamaran was loud, and some of the people looked to not quite be sober. But they did not come over where we were, so we weren’t bothered by any of it.

Relaxing in the shade after a fun beach day

Some of us got back in the water for just a little longer. But our time was growing short, and soon it was time to board the buses and head back to the ship. We had brought clothes to change into, so we changed quickly before heading out to find our bus. At first, we were at the back of a large group, but we eventually realized that it was not our group! Someone pointed us in the right direction, and soon we were back on David’s bus. Once we had the right number of people on board, we headed back out to Falmouth, once again enjoying the views and the fun traffic of Jamaica.

One more view of the beach before we leave

When we arrived, we thanked David for his service, as he had driven us safely there and back. We walked back into the Falmouth “town”, and some of us looked in one or two of the shops. However, it was very windy outside, almost to the point of making it difficult to walk. There was also a long line of people, but we eventually figured out they were for the Royal Caribbean ship and not our ship. Still, we were tired and blown about by the wind, so we decided to board our ship. It was nice that we did not have a line, so that we just had to scan our cards, put our bags on the x-ray conveyor, and walk through the metal detector, and then we were back on the ship. 

Flying the Jamaican flag

Looking out over the port with the mountains in the distance

We went up to our rooms to put our stuff away, and then Laura and I decided to go up and get a cup of Coke or two to drink. We also wanted to watch them cast off the lines, since it was almost time to leave Jamaica. We went up near the front of the top deck to get a good view, and we waited. And nothing happened. And we waited some more. The captain blew the ship’s horn, playing a few of the different songs. And nothing happened. We waited for quite a while, and nothing ever changed. We were starting to wonder why we had not left yet. Maybe we were going to stay in Jamaica!

Waiting to set sail, while the other ship left ahead of us

While we were waiting to set sail, Laura played some miniature golf…

…and we took a photo or two

It was getting to be time to get showered and changed for dinner, so we went back to our room, checking out the verandah occasionally to see if we had left yet, but we had not. Eventually, we saw a large group walking through the port area and to our ship. They boarded, everyone watching cheered. But we still did not leave. A little bit later, a bus similar to the one we had been on drove right through the “old-town” port (which had been a pedestrian-only area earlier in the day) right up to the ship entrance, people from the boat boarded the ship. But we still did not leave. After two more buses did the same thing (and while we were showering), the ship finally departed, well over an hour late. If I were Captain Daniele, I would have been jumping up and down by that point. Jennifer said later on that she had overheard a crew member saying that it looked like some of the excursions did not start back early enough and got caught in traffic. Having been in Montego Bay traffic before, I could see how that could happen. But it made me wonder if those excursions would be offered again. 

A photo in the mirror of us getting ready for the evening

But we were finally underway, saying goodbye to Jamaica, and it was time for another evening at sea. We had decided to skip the magic show in the Walt Disney Theatre that evening, so we explored the ship a bit and also visited the shops. We took a few photos of ourselves since there were not that many people in the Atrium Lobby at the time, and then we had some photos taken by the photographers, too.

Four out of five Burnses on the stairs

Three Burnses on the stairs

Two Burnses on the stairs

And now some photos from the ship photographers, starting with this one in front of the ship

With the blue background

Jaylin and his grandparents

And last, with the black and white background

Our dinner for the evening was once again in Animator’s Palate. However, while we had seen the Crush the Turtle show before, this night was to be different. It was something that I had often heard of, but that we had never experienced before.

When we arrived at our table, Randy and Yuni greeted us, and they gave us each a piece of paper with the outline of a person on it. We were to take markers and draw our own character inside the space given to us. I really did not know what to draw, so I came up with a crazy-looking sort of guy with highly-patterned clothes. Randy and Yuni came back and collected our papers and brought our drinks to us. 

My guy that I drew. Not really sure what I was going for here, but he was fun.

For dinner, I had grilled garlic-marinated shrimp over pasta, which was of course delicious. And then I had a Very Cherry Chocolate Sundae for dessert, continuing my sundae trend.

Eventually, it was time for the main show, and Randy directed us as to which screens to watch. All of our drawings had been scanned in, and they were animated on the screen. The still figures that we had drawn were moving, walking, dancing, all on the screen nearest to our table. After some initial scenes, some figures even appeared in clips of famous Disney animated movies, which was also cool to see. It was all amazing, even if our drawings did not have much time on the screen. And at the end, our names even went by in the credits as animators. When we had finished dinner, Yuni brought our papers back to us, and each one had a seal reading “Official Disney Animator”. We are official now!

As usual, we stayed around and talked for a while after we had finished, which is what we always do with good company. Have I mentioned that before? Yes I have. But it bears repeating. Traveling with friends and family is good.

Afterward, some of us went on our usual Deck 4 Promenade after-dinner work-off-calories walk before going back to our room. And when we got back to our room, we were greeted by a towel rabbit that Reeda had made for us. I am always amazed at all the different things they can make from towels.

Towel bunny!

We headed on to bed after a fun day in Jamaica!

Up next is another day at sea! Check back soon for more from our 2022 Disney Cruise!