Day 27 - 12/16 - Falmouth, Jamaica

We were last here 2 years ago on Halloween on the Harmony of the Seas so we sorta knew what to expect. We didn't have anything planned so the night before I sent a message to Falmouth Historic Tours inquiring whether they might have a guide to lead us on a walking tour of the architecturally rich little town. To my surprise, I received a positive response via Facebook Messenger that a 9:30am 2 hour tour could be had. So I booked it.

My 6:45am alarm stirred me out of a deep sleep as the ship glided towards the V shaped port. Having been here previously I knew the ship needed to rotate 180° and back in along the narrow dredged channel that Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines and the port authority created. And that's what the Volendam did, taking the eastern berth of the V shaped port. Another ship, Marabella Discovery 2 (former Anthem of the Seas) took the western berth around 3pm in the afternoon. It would complete a transatlantic cruise in Montego Bay tomorrow and would begin its winter season in the Caribbean.

The V shaped pier here is nicely set up with many souvenir shops (including the ubiquitous Diamond International and other high end jewelry shops). At the other end of the scale was a lowly Dairy Queen. The port area is neat and clean and quite comfortable to walk around in. And like last time, Angela bought doll clothes for her American Girl dolls. This is the only port in the world we have visited that sells this style clothes.

At 9:45am Sanya, our guide, showed up and she guided us throughout the small downtown and residential area pointing out historical or architecturally significant buildings like the former barracks (now a bank), the Courthouse, Anglican and Baptist churches, a school on the grounds of a former fort and the like. She was full of information and enthusiasm about her town.

In the center of the town on Water Street is a fountain and it only operates when a Royal Caribbean ship is in town. RCCL also gets docking priority here after putting a bunch of money into the port facilities and infrastructure.

Back inside the port area we did more shopping and enjoyed a Jamaican Pastie, BBQ'd jerk chicken and some diet Cokes. We ran into another couple who had just taken a good van tour and they wanted to see the town, so we became tour guides for them.

We were back at the ship by 3pm (onboard time was 4:30pm) with threatening skies and 25mph winds. When 5pm came and went, I figured that the wind was holding up our departure. Initially some of the mooring lines were cast off, and the wind was still pressing us to the dock. Finally just before 5:30 the remaining lines were cast off, we moved away from the pier and the ship accelerated forward at a rapidly increasing speed to keep it in the narrow channel and away from the highly visible reef on our starboard side. We sure didn't want a repeat of the Amazon grounding.

We cleared the narrow channel and made it out into the open sea. Overnight m, the Captain said we needed to average 17 knots to make our next port.

Five O'Clock Somewhere performed another excellent show tonight. Afterwards we went to the screening of Judy (about Judy Garland), but I walked out of it out of boredom with the plot.

Tomorrow is Georgetown, Cayman Islands and we are tendering for the last time. Stay tuned.

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