Our first excursion on our Caribbean Cruise was scheduled for 11:30 am at Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We were to assemble in the theater at 10:30 for our ‘tender’ tickets and instructions.

What an unorganized mess. The ship holds two thousand one hundred passengers and seven hundred fifty crew members. The theater is small and can only hold about one thousand people at a time. It was full to the brim and people were lined up to go on stage to receive their papers. We stood in line, got all the way the steps up to the stage when the announcement came to only have one member of your party come to the stage. I was able to find a place to stand while Linda went up to the stage.

Hmmmm, we were supposed to have received our ‘tickets’ in our stateroom the night before. Good thing that Linda had a printed copy of our receipt. She was able to get an official slip but was told to go back down into the audience as our number had not been called yet.

Okay, now it was 11:30 and we had not been called up to get our package and ID’s for our excursion. Finally our number was called, Linda got our package with our sticker numbers to wear for the day. We were again told to wait in the theater until this new number was called. As we were waiting a woman came up to us and pointed to her number on her shirt and our number. They were the same. She only spoke French. We motioned to her to wait with us and we would help her. Her name was Linda as well!

An hour later around 12:30, our number was called and we were directed to follow the crew member to level four and catch our ride to shore. Now we were at least an hour late, our outing which was supposed to be for four hours. The last ride back to the boat is scheduled for 4:00 pm so it was a tad worrisome how it was all going to fit in. We made it downstairs to the tender.

YIKES. It was a small covered thing that holds about 50 people. Three of these tenders had been lowered into the water and was our transportation ashore. Now picture this, the waves were churning to and fro and up and down. The tender moved away from the ship creating an abyss one was expected to traverse. As the tender came towards the ship, one was expected to leap into the moving tender. I grabbed the hand of one guy, took a deep breath and plunged forward. Thunk. At least I’m on the tender.

Linda and I at least got seats together and now had the pleasure of bouncing our way to the dock. The next obstacle, getting off the tender onto the dock. Another large step up. I managed to make it off the swaying tender and onto the dock with much trepidation and my own kind of grace and style.

We followed another leader to stand in line again for our shuttle to the Plantation for our cooking lesson. This time, in addition to our number stickers, we were given wrist bands. There were now seven of us going on this little adventure. Five women and two men. Luckily, one of the men spoke French and translated for Linda.

We boarded the air conditioned transit van for our ride to the Plantation. The driver/guide explained where we were on Jamaica and things about the town. As we neared the Plantation, the road became a bit rougher and less crowded. We got out of our comfortable van and were asked to go into the gift shop. From the gift shop we were instructed to go out to the bar area and wait for our transportation to the Main house and cooking class.

Upon exiting the bar area, we were directed to a very large tractor that was attached to a cart with a corrugated tin roof and benches to sit on. Another high step up to the seats. I did it though. Whew. The guide started the tractor and we went about 5 feet before it ground to a stop. Yup. It was hit by another tractor right before we arrived and it was broken.

Off we go from this vehicle to another one that has even higher step. I was able to maneuver up the thing and into a seat. Oh my. The trek to the main house took us down an unpaved, crater filled, pothole riddled road. Good thing there were backs to these seats and poles to hold on to or we would have been bounced off!

We passed the camel ride (yeah, two camels in Jamaica, who knew?), the water tubing area and the ATV groups that were out exploring. We arrived at the top of the plantation. What a view. The gardens that we could see were beautiful. We were hustled to the washrooms to wash up before our cooking class.

The literature for the class stated that we would each have our own work station. Well, not so much. We got a place at a long table, a stool to sit on and a plate and small bowl. Plastic aprons, hairnets and gloves were passed out. We were given dough to knead and shape. We brought those up to the chef and she proceeded to fry them.

The chef brought each of us a chicken breast. She then came by with a Jerk Rub mixture for us to put on our chicken piece. We were instructed to rub it all over the chicken and then bring it up to the chef. We removed our gloves and then returned to our ‘stations’. Our next task was making the sauce for our chicken and help to flavor the cabbage mixture for the rest of our meal.

The entire process was rushed. After we ate our creations, we were given the opportunity to ‘look at and photograph’ the hand written recipes. We were then given a quick tour of the house (it was a former fort). No time was left to tour the gardens. We were hurried back to the tractor contraption and driven back to the gift shop.

Our air conditioned van was waiting for us and we headed back to the dock area. We did make a couple of stops as some of the people wanted to shop for a hot minute. We returned to the dock area and stood in line again for almost an hour to get on the tender back to the ship.

This time, it was an even larger step down into the tender. as the tide was lower. I watched as an older woman who looked as if she weighed about 90 pounds soaking wet was passed (sort of thrown) into the boat. A relative was already on board and ‘caught’ her.

Needless to say, we made it back to the ship as well as the rest of the passengers on shore.

Can’t wait for the next port, George Town and the adventure to come!

Frances Graziano Copyright 2020 All Rights Reserved