Monday 12 January 2026 – Montego Bay, Jamaica: Sylvia

We arrived at Montego Bay in Jamaica at about 7am. Shortly after that we received a phone call in the cabin asking me to go down to reception with my passport, as the immigration authorities had a few questions. I hurried down wondering what could be the problem. Apparently NZ had reported my old passport as lost or stolen. (It wasn’t but I had to replace it early because it was full. They knew this because I had had to scan every page of my passport and send it to them to prove it.) Luckily, once the authorities sighted my new passport and were happy with the explanation (and that I wasn’t trying to travel on a stolen one) we were free to go.

We headed ashore and met with Germaine, our driver for the day, from O’Neil tours. The security at the port was pretty tight. He needed to show ID twice as we were leaving the port and they wrote down all our details. I assume this is so they could track us down easily if we didn’t make it back in time.

Hurricane Melissa tore through Jamaica in October last year killing at least 54 people and wreaking havoc. The damage is still obvious everywhere. Many roofs are covered in tarps or show evidence of holes and there are broken trees and downed power lines all over the place. Germaine told us he lived in one of the lesser hit areas and was without power and water for over three weeks. The port only opened again quite recently.

We headed inland on a pretty narrow road that had obviously been very badly washed out in places. It was really sad to see the damage. In one place coconut palms lay flattened in great rows. The winds must have been incredibly strong – even the bamboo had been snapped in places.

After about 30-minutes we arrived at Lethe River. It was immediately obvious that this area had been particularly badly hit. It would once have been a beautiful river, surrounded by lush green jungle. Today it is bare in many places. What trees remain are broken and battered. We had organised a bamboo rafting experience. Germaine introduced us to our rafting guide, O’Neil. He told us that prior to the hurricane there were about 150 rafters operating in this spot and he used to get tours every day, or at worst every second day. We were his first tour since the hurricane. All the rafts were destroyed and have had to be rebuilt at a cost of about $900 each. Despite this, and the fact that he had lost his home and was staying with a friend, he was positive and enthusiastic and didn’t show one sign of self-pity or negativity.

He expertly guided the long bamboo raft with just a bamboo pole. He told us he had been doing this for about 45-years, starting when he was a kid and had ‘borrowed’ the rafts and explored the river. After only about 15-minutes he pulled over to the side of the river and proceeded to pull some flint stones off the river bank to show us. Then he grabbed some soft limestone – I think they call it marl. Here it is used as a natural sunscreen, to ease mosquito bites and for all sorts of other things. He used it to massage our feet and calves, leaving them chalky white.

He then turned the raft around and poled us back upstream. When we came to the faster moving water, he leapt off the raft and pulled us through. It looked like hard work but he made it seem easy. Arriving back at the start point, he washed the marl off our legs and we headed back to meet Germaine at the car. We were really glad we had been able to support the local economy even a little bit.

Germaine drove us back towards town. There were quite a few delays as we had to stop for trucks coming up the narrow road but we had plenty of time. We stopped briefly at a souvenir shop for a fridge magnet and to get some local currency for Roger. He also bought a box of cigars. Then we headed back to the ship, arriving just in time for a leisurely lunch in the Terrace Cafe.

I spent the afternoon relaxing on our balcony and then at 4pm headed back to the spa for a very indulgent hot mineral body boost – very relaxing it was too.

 

Tuesday 13 and Wednesday 14 January 2026 – At Sea: Sylvia

We were supposed to spend Tuesday at Georgetown in the Cayman Islands, where we had arranged a full day private charter to do some snorkelling and swimming. It looked like a fantastic place. We woke in the morning anchored off-shore and were all set to head off when the captain came over the loud-speaker again to say that it was too rough for the ship’s tenders and no local tenders were available. Once again we missed our port and were treated to another day at sea. Not too much later and he came over the loud speaker again to explain that due to a low pressure over Florida we would not be visiting Key West as planned on the 15th but would head instead to Nassau in the Bahamas. By now, I am determined not to look forward to anything more on this trip and just to take each day as it comes.

Nonetheless, we enjoyed two more relaxing days at sea. other than lots of walking around the deck, several gym classes and some more line dancing, we took it fairly easy. On Wednesday we skipped lunch and instead headed to the crêperie where I had a divine crepe with banana and salted caramel, with salted caramel ice cream to boot. Delicious to say the least.

That evening we ate at Red Ginger, the specialty Asian restaurant. They do the specialty restaurants very well with themed decor and excellent menus. We both started with Vietnamese pork spring rolls. I then had the avocado and lobster salad and Roger the miso soup. For a main I had the miso-glazed sea bass and Roger the seven-spice lamb rack. We both had the yuzu cheesecake to finish. Another fantastic meal.

 

Thursday 15 January 2026 – Nassau, The Bahamas: Roger

It was around 8am when we sailed into the cruise pier at Nassau, which is the capital of the Bahamas. The Bahamas consists of something like 700 islands, 400 inhabited and another 300 that are basically bits of rock sticking up just above sea level. The dock is situated between Paradise Island and Nassau city. From our balcony we could see a large barge delivering sand to Paradise Island, which was then taken by loader and truck to build or rebuild a beach on the other side. Like many of these places, what you see is not necessarily what it was. There were two other cruise ships docked when we approached and a fourth one arrived shortly after us.

Packing our rain ponchos, we headed off down the pier and were nearly at the exit when Sylvia received a call from the charter company we had booked for the day, advising that due to impending storms they had to cancel our day of snorkelling and swimming with turtles. We definitely haven’t had much luck with the weather. She took all our snorkelling gear back to the ship and then met me back at the town end. While she was away I had arranged a tour of the island with a local taxi driver named Paul.

We headed out of the port going east, passing the government and parliament buildings. The view of them was unfortunately blocked by the seating that had been erected for a recent festival. Our first stop was the Montague Bay Fort, built in the 16th century to help protect the island from pirates. They were pretty common in the area at the time.

Leaving the port and heading further along the coast, we stopped to visit some fishermen’s stalls. Paul showed us the many different types of fish that had been caught, all stacked neatly in ice boxes, ready to be purchased by the local restauranteers. On the tables were piles of conch shells. A couple of people were there extracting the conch from the shell by hacking a hole in the back with a little pick and then shoving a knife in to cut the conch free so it could be pulled out. They insisted we try some and on the spot chopped the parts that could be eaten up, added some onion, lemon and peppers and we were handed a plastic bag of ceviche. As this process was undertaken we were handed a conch penis to try, which Sylvia immediately balked at, but she enjoyed watching me eat it. Sylvia had a small taste of the ceviche, which I was left to finish, and rather tasty it was.

We continued east along the road with Paul pointing out many magnificent colonial era houses along the way. These had originally been built by the original British plantation owners. Many are still owned by the original families. We passed through many different housing areas, heading north for a while and then west towards the other end of the island, which is only 21 miles long and 7 miles wide.

Passing Lake Cunningham, we then headed north again and back along the coast. In this area there are dozens of apartments, many owned by US citizens. We drove into the BahaMar casino and resort, which is huge with magnificent grounds and a beautiful golf course, all superbly manicured.

As we got closer to the port there were dozens of boats around on the edge of a small island called Arawak Cay, which also houses many restaurants. We again drove past the parliament buildings, where there is a statue of Queen Victoria, who abolished slavery at the start of her reign in 1837. We then headed south to Mt Fitzwilliam where there is a fort and a grand set of stairs that were carved into the hill by hand over an 16 year period and opened in 1794. This is quite spectacular as they carved a huge canyon into the hill with the grand stairway leading up to the residence and the fort on top.

Paul, with his almost Jamaican “yeah Mon” accent, dropped us back at Prince George wharf (the cruise terminal) and we wandered the streets and looked through the Straw Market, with a lot of made in China rubbish, although there was also some locally made stuff there too. Next stop was Sénor Frogs, a Mexican Restaurant with a very loud DJ that liked the sound of his voice as he encouraged people into dancing and drinking shots. After enjoying a local beer and some nachos we wandered around the corner to the Nassau Pirate Museum.

The museum was not very big but was very informative and gave us a good rundown on the real Pirates of the Caribbean, who like any bad organisation had their own sets of rules, including how the prizes were to be divided, details of punishments for misbehaviour, which included being marooned on an island with a bottle of water and a few other essentials. Being gentlemen in their own way, any pirate that forced himself unwantedly onto a woman was executed. Lots of people left the navy to become pirates as the pay was better, the discipline less severe and they could drink heaps, have lots of fun and fight some pretty vicious battles, resulting in a short but merry life.

The pirate era continued for a couple of hundred years, until in the late 1700’s the British sent the navy to sort them out. Many were captured, tried and executed. Often their bodies were covered in tar and hung from a garrick at the harbour entrance to warn off other pirates. These bodies would often hang around for several months or even a year.

The pirates studied, we wandered back to the ship in time for afternoon tea in the Horizon Lounge while the strong quartet stroked away in the background.

 

Friday 16 January 2026 – Miami: Sylvia

A cold front hit Florida and we awoke this morning to beautiful sunny day but only 6 degrees, and with a chilly wind. It was certainly a shock to the system, but after putting the few warmish clothes we had with us on, and having a quick breakfast, we headed ashore, wondering how long the immigration process would take. The answer was about a minute. We showed our passports, the agent took a good look at our faces to ensure we matched, and we were waved through. The longer part was waiting in line for a taxi.

Debbie and Dave’s hotel was only about 10 minutes away and they were waiting for us outside as we drove up. Once our driver figured out the directions we headed off the for ~35-minute drive out of Miami to the meeting place for the Everglades Airboat tour we had booked. I was very glad I had made the last minute decision to throw my puffer jacket into my carry-on bag when leaving Auckland a few weeks ago.

We were met by Jay and Taylor and boarded the airboat, using a couple of old pallets as a landing. We zipped our jackets up (well all of us except Roger), pulled our hats on and donned the provided ear muffs, then set off, the powerful 600-horsepower corvette V8 motor skimming us over the reeds. The Florida Everglades National Park is a 1.5-million acre wetlands preserve, that makes up only a small proportion of all the wetlands in Florida. We only covered a tiny part but it gave us a great sense of the area nonetheless.

It wasn’t long before we came across our first alligator. With the weather being so cold, Jay explained that we would probably see a lot of them getting as much warmth from the sun as possible. The Everglades are really a massive, very slow moving river system. They are replenished by heavy rainfalls in the summer but dry out in the winter with only the deeper channels and holes that the alligators have created retaining water. This makes it very easy for the gators to find food as all the fish congregate in these small pools.

We saw numerous alligators, including one with a very small baby that was extremely well camouflaged in the reeds. There are many predators that eat these young; fish, birds, raccoons and other gators. Some of the alligators were quite large; the males grow to about 12-feet in length, with the state record being 14-foot. We also saw many egrets, great blue herons and woodstorks. There is obviously plenty of food available.

We entered a small channel and several grackles landed on the boat and hung on well as we continued moving. They are obviously used to these tourist boats and often get fed. As we pulled up in one spot a purple gallinule waded over the water lilies alongside.

After an hour we headed back to our start point and caught an Uber back to the hotel to collect Debbie and Dave’s bags before heading back to the port. We headed back on board and waited while they went through their boarding process before joining them for lunch in the Waves Grill. I had a delicious french inspired burger with goat cheese and caramelised onions, Debbie had a Philly steak sandwich and Dave and Roger both had the surf & turf burger.

After lunch we showed Debbie and Dave around a few areas of the boat, then sat outside on our balcony, waiting for their room to be available. A small pod of dolphins swam about very close to the ship, with a young baby among them.

After we sailed away, Dave and Debbie joined us in our suite for a champagne toast before we all headed to the Allura Lounge to see the welcome aboard show, which introduced the entertainers we will see over the coming days.