Dec. 2-14: New Orleans Vacation and Serenade Cruise Review

[PaulInPGH]

[quote name='mcsgabby']We are thinking of booking this tour on our cruise at the end of the month. Can't wait to see what you thought of it. We aren't big into the adventurous stuff so we were having a hard time finding an excursion on Jamaica. Please tell me it was a good excursion, please, please, please. :D

Gabby[/QUOTE]

We found it to be very enjoyable. The views were pretty amazing and the Great House itself was pretty cool. The tasty food at the entry to the estate was a nice bonus.

Cheers.

[PaulInPGH]

View from outside the Good Hope Great House, 600 feet above sea level:

[IMG]https://fbcdn-photos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-0/10730886_10101996158264744_3688599395394832156_n.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoiYiJ9&oh=b5f77babfe592cf642b03e5af9fd9589&oe=5520FA71&__gda__=1428765799_7b97416e4d6aebaa912746f4c81ffbca[/IMG]

[PaulInPGH]

Good Hope Great House:

[IMG]https://fbcdn-photos-f-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfp1/v/t1.0-0/1509929_10101996158105064_657536478775699527_n.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoiYiJ9&oh=599869655c1a715487e0633547fd25eb&oe=556D3AF8&__gda__=1428512113_4878ac4ea76acd66dc01d76c8ca66ed3[/IMG]

[PaulInPGH]

Counting House:

[IMG]https://fbcdn-photos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-0/10686967_10101996160011244_4812456345167593269_n.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoiYiJ9&oh=5900a4a90c077f24ae300eb414ef3c56&oe=5536A6E9&__gda__=1430243516_2b28eb2abec7c36810b31260b6fd54a9[/IMG]

[Raxter54]

[quote]After about an hour, we took the shuttle back down to the entry area. We were told the next shuttle back to the ship would be leaving in about 45 minutes, so we decided to grab a quick bite at their restaurant. We split a helping of jerk chicken and jerk pork and it was delicious. Overall, we had a very enjoyable time touring the Great House and dining on their jerk offerings[/quote]

Is this the free meal that comes with the tour?

[PaulInPGH]

[quote name='Raxter54']Is this the free meal that comes with the tour?[/QUOTE]

I'm not sure. We did the least expensive tour, I think it was $28 or so per person. It didn't include food, so we bought lunch.

[PaulInPGH]

The day we spent in Jamaica was the hottest day of the trip, so we decided to shower and change before heading off for an afternoon drink.

We were back on the ship by about 1:30, a good couple hours before most people were due to return. We headed over to the Schooner Bar and grabbed a couple of drinks. Having had our fill of the Jamaican heat, we decided to enjoy them from the air-conditioned comfort of the Safari Club. We sat in a couple comfortable seats near the windows and watched as crewmembers, who were clearly not afraid of heights, cleaned the outside of Oasis.

[PaulInPGH]

Cleaning Oasis:

[IMG]https://fbcdn-photos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-0/1613875_10102003306559504_6933413380648477678_n.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoiYiJ9&oh=0e61f1df883b595a00398921f3487bac&oe=552FE90B&__gda__=1433307520_f8b42a69dc6bf0116a761460aa295f17[/IMG]

[IMG]https://fbcdn-photos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-0/10881508_10102003306479664_7962931426327411214_n.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoiYiJ9&oh=ac994db88a5b2f5ecf4b3ed7dc03c559&oe=5537608A&__gda__=1429391772_16f2fa8658190f58112c8b6e14dcf8b0[/IMG]

[IMG]https://fbcdn-photos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-0/10421260_10102003306649324_5355862989353116460_n.jpg?efg=eyJpIjoiYiJ9&oh=f3fb7a20081717e9288f8d70a7bc288d&oe=55232165&__gda__=1428851994_6f2b640c52fec45a1a5caab7c085f9d0[/IMG]

[PaulInPGH]

We were both so full from our double lunch of jerk chicken and meat patties that we decided to forego dinner in the WJ. We met up with MIL and FIL and joined them while they ate, listening as they told us about their excursion for the day, a zip-line adventure at Good Hope.

The entire idea of zip-lining scares me—not being a fan of heights. However, the zip-line tour they took at the Good Hope Estate sounded downright terrifying. Apparently, toward the end of the zip-line course, there is a 90 foot free-fall portion. This was not mentioned in the shore excursion info and MIL and FIL were none too pleased about doing it. They both survived though, and it did make for a good story.

Once MIL and FIL finished eating, the four of us headed down to the Crown and Castle for a game of trivia. Just as with most trivia, there was one table taking it way too seriously, which gave us a chuckle. We didn’t win, but we did have a lot of fun.

[PaulInPGH]

Our hunger started kicking in by the end of trivia, so we decided to give the food at Rita’s a try. The food is not free, but it is reasonably priced. It isn’t exactly made-to-order, but it did taste pretty decent for a $3 quesadilla. And of course, we ordered more two-for-one margaritas. After finishing our food, we took our margaritas to the outdoor seating behind the WJ and enjoyed the sound of the waves and the night sky.

At about 9:15 we decided to head down to the centrum to try to get good seats for the aerial show, which was scheduled to start at 9:45. MIL and FIL headed off to bed, as they saw the earlier show at 7:45. Even though we were a half hour early, seating was scarce. We did find a good place to stand, near the casino on deck six, but I would suggest getting their early if you actually want to sit. The show itself was very cool, but it only lasted about 15 minutes.

After the show, we ran in to a couple of new friends we’d made throughout the cruise. We ended up chatting with them for about 45 minutes and then, a bit tired out, we decided to call it a night.

Up next: a blustery day in Grand Cayman.

[yancycruiser]

Paul, thanks taking time to post a truly great review. I do have one concern. You appear to be eating all the food. :) We leave in the morning for New Orleans so I won't have a chance to read any more of your reviews. I know you had a wonderful two week vacation and I hope your next 36 hours goes by very slow for you.

 

Best regards.

[PaulInPGH]

Paul, thanks taking time to post a truly great review. I do have one concern. You appear to be eating all the food. :) We leave in the morning for New Orleans so I won't have a chance to read any more of your reviews. I know you had a wonderful two week vacation and I hope your next 36 hours goes by very slow for you.

 

Best regards.

 

Hahaha, it felt that way sometimes, believe me.

 

Don't worry, at the rate I'm writing, I'll still be going by the time you get back.

 

Have a fantastic trip!

 

Cheers.

[PaulInPGH]

Cruise Day 5: A Windy Lunch in Grand Cayman

 

I mentioned a while back that we had an excellent stateroom attendant on this cruise, mostly due to his fantastic towel animal skills. The night before our day in Grand Cayman, Antonio left us a turkey. Starting this morning, we began trying to come up with amusing things to do with the towel animals. We started by leaving the turkey sitting on the window, facing out to sea—contemplating the vast world on the other side of the glass.

 

With no shore excursion booked for the day, we waited a little while before getting on a tender to shore. Our plan was to walk around downtown for a bit and grab lunch at Paradise Grill. This did not go as planned.

 

When we arrived at the pier, we noticed things look drastically different from when we visited a year ago. It took us a few minutes to realize that we tendered to a totally different location—the pier where the Carnival ships were located. This, it turned out, was due to the heavy winds around Grand Cayman that day.

 

We decided that, having taken the time to tender over, we might as well pay for a taxi to downtown. This added a twenty-minute ride and $10 fee each way to our day, but my wife really wanted to eat at Paradise Grill, for a specific reason: the opportunity to dine on sea turtle.

[PaulInPGH]

We hopped in a van with a few other people and headed downtown. We got out right at Paradise Grill and scored a seat right on the water. On a normal day this would have been ideal, but on this day it was actually so windy we were getting the occasional spray to the face as we ate.

 

Before the trip, we had looked at menus in Grand Cayman to find where we’d most like to eat. We settled on Paradise because they offered a sea turtle burger and we really wanted to try it. Grand Cayman is the only place in the world where eating sea turtle is legal, so it seemed like something we should get in on.

 

When we sat down though, the turtle burger wasn’t on the menu! My wife was bummed, at least until I asked the waitress if they were still available and she said yes—day saved.

 

The turtle burger was very tasty, kind of a gamier-tasting conch. Speaking of conch…Paradise also does the best conch fritters I’ve ever had. I ended up ordering their famous fish sandwich, which is famous for a reason—it was absolutely outstanding.

[PaulInPGH]

Turtle burger:

 

[PaulInPGH]

View from our table at Paradise Grill:

 

[PaulInPGH]

Following our fantastic lunch, we walked around downtown for a bit. It was so crowded though that we decided to head back after only about 15 or 20 minutes of walking. Our van ride back was, not to put too fine a point on it, absolutely horrible. We were packed in like sardines with some completely drunk people. These particular people were Carnival passengers and—I’m not trying to start a Carnival versus RCI discussion here—but we could see why Carnival has the reputation it does. Longest twenty-minutes of my life.

 

After that eventful trip, we had a nice, uneventful tender ride back to the ship. When we got back to our cabin, we saw that Antonio had moved the turkey—he was now facing the inside of the cabin. Wanting to continue having fun with the towel animals, we left the turkey wearing my hat.

 

Because we were back so early, we decided to head to the pool and enjoy some swimming time while the ship was less crowded. We spent a very enjoyable afternoon with the pool basically to ourselves.

[PaulInPGH]

Towel turkey wearing my hat:

 

[PaulInPGH]

We met up with FIL for dinner around 6:00. Unfortunately, MIL had been feeling sick all day with a head ache and cold symptoms, so she decided to stay in and rest.

 

After dinner, which featured another trip to the grilling station in the WJ, we went down to the Crown and Castle for another round of trivia. We again failed to win, but we had fun just the same.

 

When trivia was over, we took a walk over to the casino. I was hoping to find a poker game going, but there were no interested players. I tried several more times throughout the cruise but I never had any luck.

 

At 8:30 we went to watch that evening’s show. It was a Broadway revue and it turned out to be our favorite musical performance of the trip. We could tell the singers felt more comfortable singing the Broadway classics than they did singing Motown.

 

When the show wrapped up we felt like having a few more drinks, so we popped back over to the Crown and Castle and enjoyed a couple rounds while Chas Burnett played guitar. We tried requesting Rush, to no avail.

[PaulInPGH]

Even though we are not nightclub people, we decided to go have a drink up at the Vortex as we’d yet to check it out. Unfortunately, the spinning bar was broken, so there wasn’t much to see.

 

The bar itself was absolutely dead—I think we were two of maybe five people there that night. We did chat with the DJ, Phil, for about an hour. He was a very nice guy and if you’re heading on Serenade before his contract is up in March, you should definitely pop in and say hello.

 

Up next: my favorite day of the trip.

[PaulInPGH]

Cruise Day 6: An All-Inclusive Day in Cozumel

 

We got up early the morning of our day in Cozumel, as we wanted to have as much time in port as possible. We were super excited for our day at the all-inclusive Nachi Cocom.

 

Now, go visit the Cozumel forums here on CC and you’ll see a person raving about Nachi Cocom on just about every thread. It got such positive reviews that I felt very confident when we decided to book it, about eight months in advance of the cruise. They only allow 100 people in each day, so we booked very early to be safe.

 

Since we wanted to be nice and hungry when we arrived, we decided to skip breakfast. We dressed in our swimming attire, and after tucking the monkey towel animal we’d received the night before into bed, we headed off the ship.

 

We made a quick stop to buy a shot glass, but we made it out to the line of taxis in about 15 minutes. We had a nice, quiet cab ride out to Nachi. The trip took about 15 minutes and cost $20 each way, including tip.

[PaulInPGH]

The night before, our stateroom attendant joked with us and told us not to wake up the monkey he left for us in the room, so the next morning we left the monkey tucked in bed to give him a laugh.

 

[PaulInPGH]

We were greeted immediately upon stepping out of the taxi and, after stopping for a photo, we were escorted to check-in. After paying the remainder of what we owed—day passes are $55 each, BTW—we were brought to our own loungers on the beach. Each set of loungers is well-separated from the others, so the beach felt very quiet. We were introduced to our waiter for the day and we grabbed our first drink, a delicious margarita.

 

As we enjoyed the drink and the ocean, we looked over to the loungers nearest ours and saw our friends from the CC Meet and Mingle, Celeste and Ben and their son Noah. We hung out with them throughout the day and had a fantastic time chatting and drinking together.

 

One margarita down, we decided to take our first dip in the ocean. The beach was beautiful—not a rock to be found. There was a little seaweed, but nothing too unpleasant.

 

After about twenty minutes of swimming in the ocean, we headed over to the pool where I fulfilled a life-long dream by ordering a drink from the swim-up bar. A margarita on the beach is great, but a margarita in a pool is even better.

 

Since we skipped breakfast, we decided to start on an early lunch. We ordered various dishes, including a fantastic ceviche and the largest shrimp I’ve ever eaten.

 

Over the next few hours we fell in to a rhythm: eat some food (and have a drink); swim in the ocean; swim in the pool (and have a drink at the swim-up bar); and repeat. It was, without a doubt, one of my favorite days ever and the highlight of our cruise.

[PaulInPGH]

The beach at Nachi Cocom:

 

[PaulInPGH]

More Nachi: