Oasis of the Seas - Day 4

Wednesday, March 7, 2018
Falmouth, Jamaica

The gangway opened at 8:30am, but our excursion departed at 11:30 am so we took things slow getting ready this morning. There was no need to rush, especially since we couldn't do too terribly much before our excursion. We walked around the port a little before heading to our bus.

We decided to book a historical/cultural excursion. We thought the kids should learn a little about the places we were visiting since we/they were fortunate enough to take the vacation and we were loaded with entertainment on board. Plus Labadee was going to be our fun, play on the beach day and this was our cultural day. That didn't go as planned, but what can ya do.

We booked the 1700's Great House & Plantation Tour with lunch. Falmouth is known today as the home of Usain Bolt, Olympic record holder for sprinting (basically, the fastest man on earth). However, in the late 1700's and early 1800's it was a wealthy port town known for shipping sugar and rum, of which Jamaica was the world's leading producer. This tour was, in fact, of a sugar plantation.

Here we visited the property's boiling house- where the the sugar cane juice would be boiled down into a syrup. We also tried a blood orange- grown locally- the juice was pretty good, but the orange itself was bitter and difficult to chew.  Then we took a pic of the kids by a big tree.

Before heading to the Great House, we stopped for a Jamaican style lunch and I'm pleased to say the kids gobbled up the jerk chicken, rice & beans. I thought they'd be too picky, but they were not. Or just too hungry to care! We had some really yummy mango juice as well. 

The views from the Great House were beautiful as was the property itself. They had one of the first in-ground swimming pools of their time! And indoor plumbing in the master bath. The stone structure below was basically the office- where all the books were kept and below that is the pool. Plus, we have traveled to a different country, learned about another culture and my kids favorite part of the day was probably collecting and playing with leaves.

We were back on board in time for dinner, then the kids headed to Adventure Ocean for a couple hours while Daniel & I relaxed. I was up most of the night before sick to my stomach and was not feeling super great all day and was ready for some down time.