Carnival Vista Cruise - Day 4

By: Jenna Barnes

Jamaica baby!! We arrived at our first stop of our 7 day cruise; Montego Bay, Jamaica! We woke up pretty early to enjoy as much of Jamaica as possible. So, we got up, got dressed and grabbed a quick breakfast at the buffet, which was the same food as the night before and it tasted about the same too.

We then went down to deck 0 and got in line to check our boat cards. The boat card is the card used to check into your room, get drinks, buy things, or anything that requires access to your information. Once they scanned them and checked us out, we walked out to Jamaica! Quick note: If you have a medical exemption or are not vaccinated for any reason, you will not be allowed one step off the boat unless you buy a Carnival excursion. Please keep this in mind as we saw some people who couldn’t go because they did not know that.

Once we got out on Jamaican soil, we took some pictures with a Jamaican backdrop with a Carnival photographer and made our way to the bus area. They were loading people up so quickly, so make sure you are getting on the correct bus. We did not have a booked excursion here, so we just went on a transportation bus that took us to a beach for cruisers only. If you have an excursion, you will need to go to your specific bus.

Once we got on the bus, we were greeted by our “tour guide” on the microphone over the speakers. We were stuffed in this van with maybe 20 people, but everyone was so fun, and we laughed the whole ride together. Our guide, Norman, taught us some Jamaican language to start us off: “Ya Mon” means “yes”, “Irie” means “good”, and “No problem” means “No Problem!"

Norman then explained to us that they drive a little differently there. They drive on the left side of the road, and the other side was called the su-i-cide. They drove past all the picturesque places as slowly as possible, and when the road was clear, they took off! We were zipping down the roads, everyone was honking, and everyone seemed to know what each individual honk meant. Our first stop was a shop in the middle of what they called a town, but nobody wanted to get off, so they finally took us to the beach.

The guide kindly walked each of us off the bus, and to the front entrance of the beach where you had to pay for entrance, chairs, and umbrellas. The second I stepped out of the bus, I was swarmed with people trying to sell us things, especially weed. I cannot tell you the number of times I was offered it. After declining all of my offers, we made it to the beach and it was gorgeous! The water was so blue, the sand was soft, and the sun was out! We dropped our things off and headed immediately to the water. It was the perfect temperature of cold in the hot sun. They had 3 trampolines floating in the distance and we made our way over there. We climbed up and took turns jumping off into the crystal blue water.

We then tried to lay out for a bit, but that sun was beating down so hard, so we went back to the shallow part of the water and sat down there. There were people snorkeling off in the distance, and I heard one person say that they saw a stingray along the beautiful coral. We went and got a drink from the bar cabana, and the bartenders were so fun and entertaining, one even played a trick on me to sip off the top of my drink so he would add something to it, and I basically took a whole shot of rum while he laughed at my reaction. I’m just gonna say, I was not ready for that. But I didn’t mind at all when he told me the price was only $6!

After being there for maybe 2 hours, I realized I did not put on enough sunscreen, and I was already red as a lobster. Just when I went to go get more sunscreen, I look up and see giant grey cloud rolling in. Before we knew it, it started down pouring. Everyone took a dash for cover and while we were under the entrance cabana, our guide came and found us. He told us he was waiting and if we wanted to go back early, he would gladly take us. We were already all so burned that we were ready to go, so he got us back in the van and we went to go pick up the other people we went with that were at Margaritaville down the street from the beach.

The street was a madhouse! Everyone was honking and driving so fast and then we came to a complete stop. They had officers everywhere directing traffic for us to cross the street safely. Once we finally picked up the people from Margaritaville, we got stuck in the worst traffic jam ever. We ended up getting back to the boat just in time. However, no one was upset since one of the people on the bus had a speaker and started playing “Everything Little Thing, Is Gonna Be Alright” and then some Louisiana jams! Almost the entire bus was from Lake Charles (where my family was from), and we jammed out to some Louisiana favorites the rest of the way back to the boat!

Once we got off the bus, we were welcomed by a man playing the bongos, a woman spitting fire, and a guy dancing on nails! We stopped at the little shops for a bit to look around, and once we got a few knick-knacks, we made our way back to the ship.

We were so hungry once we got back that we ran to the Guy’s Burger Joint as soon as we got back. The line wasn’t too long, and we each got a giant juicy burger. They were amazing!! The burger was cooked just right and the fries that went with it were so good! We gobbled our food up and went back to the room to soak our sunburns in the cold shower water, then changed for the shows later that night.

We then headed towards the Limelight Lounge for a comedy show! We got there just in time! The comedian came out and started his bit and had us laughing within seconds! He hit joke after joke talking about different people on cruise ships, what the workers do off the clock, and things about his family that you just had to be there for. This guy was by far my favorite comedian we have heard! We found out that he had an 18+ show later tonight, so we went to dinner to eat before the next show started.

The menu changes just about every night with a few things that stay the entire cruise, and when I saw that they had the pasta I had last night, I just had to get it! I got that and wild boar as my appetizer which was actually so good!! I, of course, couldn’t pass up on the melted cake for dessert and it went down so fast! Everything tasted great tonight!

When we finished dinner, we headed back to the Limelight Lounge for the same comedian, but the adult act! Just when I thought he was good before, he came back even better! He told his jokes through stories, and each one had the entire lounge laughing so hard. I am more of an internal laugher when it comes to funny things, so I smiled through the whole first act, but I actually laughed out loud to the adult bit. He had some really funny stuff ready for us tonight!

Just when I thought I had enough for the day, I found even more fun on the ship! My room is right outside the Lido Deck, so when anything is going on there, I can go check it out before I go to my room, and I was so glad I did this time! They were having a silent dance! For anyone that doesn’t know what this is, it is where they give everyone headphones and play the same song on each of the headphones so it is like a club with the loud music, but no one can hear the music around you. It was so funny watching everyone sing along to the songs I couldn’t hear, and all dance the same way. I wanted to go join, but I got there right when they were wrapping up, so I just went to my room, put some aloe on my extremely red body, and laid down. Tomorrow, we go to Grand Cayman, and I can’t wait to see land again!