Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas Cruise Day 4

This trip report is from our Royal Caribbean Western Caribbean cruise onboard the Freedom of the Seas. If you’re just joining us, start from Day 1 by clicking here: Royal Caribbean Freedom of the Seas Cruise Day 1.

 

On the fourth day of the cruise, we arrived in Falmouth, Jamaica. Falmouth was a new port being built which wasn’t finished yet when we were there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After breakfast in the Windjammer, we left the ship and headed to the van for our excursion to climb Dunn’s River Falls in Ocho Rios. It was a little crazy with the amount of vans and people around holding up signs and yelling for people in their tour groups. This is probably because most of the excursions are either in Ocho Rios (which is about an hour away) or Montego Bay (about 30 minutes away).

 

 

Our trip to the falls was a little over an hour, which our tour guide filled with little bits of history and facts about Jamaica, which made it go by pretty quickly.

 

 

 

Once we arrived, we were brought to get wristbands and then were introduced to our tour guide for the Falls.

Lots of stairs down to the start of the falls

 

 

 

 

Before the cruise, I had read on Cruise Critic about them making you hold hands with your group while climbing. Many people had said it was because that’s how you had to do it if you booked through the cruise ship. However, every single group I saw were holding hands in the beginning. The guides that work at the falls made you hold hands, at least in the beginning. At first, I was disappointed seeing this, but quickly realized that at times, it was very helpful to have someone in front of you helping you up. At the beginning of the falls, there was a build-up of people, but it quickly dissipated as we moved up.

 

Our group probably had about 30 people in it, holding hands in a long line. However, in front of me was an older couple that ended up getting off and walking to the side shortly after we started, so it was me in the front leading the way! We were all doomed at that point haha! It was fun trying to feel out where I could step and every once in a while the tour guide would run up and help me up when needed. I must say, those tour guides are freakishly fast. I wonder if Usain Bolt was our tour guide. He didn’t have any water shoes on (we all had to wear water shoes), but he was lightning fast. One minute he was down at the bottom of our line helping someone and the next minute, he was 20 feet in front of me telling me to come that way! I had to do a double take a few times. I guess when you go up several times a day, you become better and better and know exactly where to step.

 

Since we were at the top of the line, once we got to a certain point, we would either stop to hang out and wait for the rest of the group, or we would continue on without holding hands. So we weren’t holding hands the entire time…just in the beginning and when it was needed. Brett needed to help the girl behind him a lot. There were times when he would let go of me to help her, which oddly enough was kind of funny to me and I picked on him about it. Thanks babe, way to look out for your wife. I guess that means he trusts that I can handle myself. :-/

Along the way, there are some fun activities the guides have you do. I especially loved sliding down the smooth rocks into an open pool of water. They were always willing to take our camera so that both of us could be in the photo. I am so glad we brought our waterproof camera. The photos aren’t the best quality, but at least we were able to capture the fun time we had.

 

 

 

 

 

 

After we made it to the top, we headed back to the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

After we left Jamaica, it was time for dinner. Tonight, as an appetizer, I had Caesar salad and Brett had a fruit salad.

 

For dinner, I had surf n turf and Brett had an herb roasted half chicken.

 

 

Our waiter, Kumar, asked Brett if he would like him to debone the chicken for him…which Brett immediately said yes to because he HATES eating chicken off the bone. It totally grosses him out. I thought this was hilarious, so I took a picture of Brett having his food cut up for him…and Kumar played along and even fed Brett a piece of chicken. Now THAT’S customer service!

 

 

For dessert, I just had ice cream and Brett had coconut crème brûlée…and shots.

 

 

Next up was the ice show, Freedom-Ice.com, which was fantastic. I was surprised that there was only a couple of wobbles/falls, seeing as they were skating while in the middle of the ocean. As soon as we arrived at the rink, Brett immediately regretted not bringing his camera (actually, I took more photos this trip than he did because we were in such a relax-mode that he hardly had his camera at all!)…so y’all are stuck with what I was able to take with el cheapo camera.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The final entertainment event of the evening was the Love & Marriage Game Show. While we were waiting for the show to start, Brett and I were chosen for the Kiss-a-cam that they had showing on the large screen. We sure gave ‘em a show and Brett was red for the entire rest of the show.

 

 

 

The Cruise Director, Graham Seymour, was the host, and this was the first time I realized how much I loved him. He seemed to thrive when he was able to be a little raunchy, which was awesome. The show was hilarious. The premise of the show is that they pick three couples from the audience, all at different points in their marriage: newlyweds, a couple that has been married about 15 years, and an elderly couple that has been married a long time. The guy from the young couple looked like he was 12, so Graham had plenty of comedic lines in regards to him missing his bed time. Some of the answers were set up, but still made for a great show nonetheless.

 

Next up: Day 5: Grand Cayman!

 

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