We took a Western Caribbean Cruise in January of 2009 on the Ruby Princess. It was the inaugural year for this ship. We left from Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale; our ports of call included Ocho Rios in Jamaica, George Town in Grand Cayman, Cozumel in Mexico and the Princess Cays in the Bahamas. These are pictures of the Ruby Princess, some of its public spaces and a sunset.

Our first stop was Ocho Rios, a city on the northern shore of Jamaica. The shore excursion we chose was some of the Ocho Rios highlights as well as a visit to Dunn’s River Falls. These are pictures we took from our bus while traveling to the sites. The first is just a typical house and the next two pictures are of the Ocho Rios Primary School. Primary schools serve children in grades one through six. At the time we visited, it was a shift school meaning some students attended one part of the day and others another part in order to accommodate all students with lower class sizes (although there were still about 40 students per class). Since then, Jamaica has made additions to many of the schools and moved to full day school so students are in class longer resulting in improved student achievement.

These are pictures of the Shaw Park Gardens. It is a 25-acre park with over 600 species of flowers. It was originally the estate of John Shaw but was sold to the Pringle Family in the early 1900’s. Their daughter, Flora, designed the gardens. These are pictures I took while at the Gardens – a view looking down at Ocho Rios, some of the beautiful flowers and trees, and a banyan tree (last picture).

There was also a beautiful waterfall in the Gardens – and some not so beautiful banana spiders!

We then went to Dunn’s River Falls, a waterfall 600 feet high that goes to the Caribbean Sea. There are rocks that visitors can climb (with a guide) or a staircase next to the falls if you prefer to avoid the slippery rocks (that was our choice).

While we saw incredible beauty when we visited (2009), we also saw poverty and people desperate for money. At the time of this writing, the State Department has issued a Level 2 Advisory for Jamaica because of an increase in crime, both robbery and assault. Kingston, Montego Bay and Spanish Town are more of a concern than Ocho Rios, but if you are planning a visit to Jamaica, take the time to read any current advisories and recommendations.

Overnight, we sailed to George Town, the capital of the Cayman Islands. George Town is on the western side of Grand Cayman. In the morning, we took a short trolley tour of George Town and had some time for shopping. There are over 600 banks in the Cayman Islands and George Town is considered the financial center. Of the 50 largest banks in the world, 40 have branches in the Cayman Islands. Financial services account for 35% of employment.

The first picture below is of “The Pink House.” It was built in 1912 in a style traditional in the Cayman Islands at the time. It is a wattle and daub house. Iron panels were filled in with woven green panels or wattles. These were covered with daub, a sticky substance, in this case made from coral lime. It has a tin roof where water was once funneled into a cistern. The kitchen is not in the house proper – this was common at the time the house was built to prevent the house from catching fire.

There are also pictures of a beach I took while at a roadside stop. And as for shopping…rum and rum cakes are common purchases here. Over 5,000 Tortuga rum cakes are made a day. We purchased both rum and rum cakes which are delivered to the ship and then taken to the various cabins. As you can see in the last picture where several cases of rum are waiting to be loaded on our ship, several of our fellow passengers did the same.

In the afternoon, our shore excursion was the Atlantis Submarine Expedition. The submarine was especially made for sightseeing. It holds around 48 people, each with their own window. It descended just over 100 feet allowing us to see fish and coral. It is air conditioned and pressure-controlled making it very comfortable. These are pictures of the submarine and some of the pictures I took during the excursion. After reboarding the Ruby Princess, we would set sail for Cozumel – which will be the subject of my next post.