Monday April 2nd

Doors in the hallway starting slamming around 7 as people were up and roaring to go apparently. The ship rumbled a bit docking at the tiny port on the secluded coastline of Labadee Haiti. Thick forests covered the tip of the island with a few beaches that we were going to spend the day on.

Morning rituals of a protein smoothie began. Waking the boys before 8am was its usual unpleasantry but necessary.

I took a quick trip to the Windjammer for some eggs and a pancake and back to the room to load up the backpack and depart on deck 2.

Labadee is on the north shore of Haiti and this chunk of the island is completely run by Royal Caribbean cruise lines. As we entered the beach areas there was lots of shopping complete with the usual tourist stuff but a lot of voodoo related items also. It's definitely a thing in the Caribbean. We grabbed a makeshift shuttle and made our way passed several beaches and the mamaketplace before arriving at Columbus Cove - where the Cuzzettos had rented us a cabana for the entire day. We grabbed some smoothies and walked in the sand and ocean for a bit before all heading back to the entrance to get the boys all rigged up for their Zipline experience. After 30 minutes of safety training, they rode up the hill on carts and we prepared to get them on video. Around 1115, the 4 of them came down with the heaviest finishing first and Jacob bringing up the rear. We got a few photos and then headed back to our cabana to find some lunch.

Lunch was prepared on the ship and brought out and was mostly American fare with burgers hot dogs ribs rice and beans and a few salads and tons of fruit.

After munch we did a bit o shopping but spent the majority of the day in the water or on a lawn chair with our toes in the sand. A 3 ft Needle fish made an appearance on a couple occasions which was neat. We saw a helicopter come in and land and were hoping there was not any significant injuries. Nicholas and Jacob played volleyball for a while and we borrowed a washer ring toss game from some neighbours in the cabana beside us. I had an interesting conversation with a fella and his wife from upper state New York who were pro-gun lobbyists and staunch Trump supporters. Tried very quickly to get out of that conversation and back to the water as they wanted to arm every teacher in America and allow security guards to have AR15s. Sheesh. Merica......

4pm arrived far too quickly as we proceeded back to the ship and had a shower and grabbed a small bite to eat before joining Rick and Michelle on their patio to depart the Haiti port. It was really neat watching such a massive ship and over all general floating city leave such a small chunk of island.

We headed west towards Jamaica and watched the sunset soon after.

We wandered around for a bit and the ladies did some shopping and found a hat, purse and outfit each.

We went to watch some TV and wind down. Jacob made an appearance and both he and Krista promptly fell asleep on the bed for an hour.

The 3 of us headed for supper and enjoyed 4 appetizers and 2 mains each with some delicious French Onion soup, Iceberg lettuce wedge, garlic butterflied shrimp and shrimp tacos with Steak Diane and Cherries Jubilee. Not a band meal at all.

Our waiter Bayu pulled out a guitar and a buddy sang Perfect by Ed Sheeran to the table beside us. Pretty well done.

We left the restaurant and went for a walk. There was a couples dance off on deck 5 that was good for laughs as there was some serious competition and cheering taking place. The NCAA Basketball final game between Michigan and Villanova was taking place in the karaoke bar and was very close.

Cuzzettos called it a night as we went to the casino and blew a whopping $5 each before heading to watch a stand up comedian that juggled. He included a couple of audience members and had everyone laughing as he told tons of jokes and really engaged the crowd. His show wrapped up around midnight and we called it a night. A highly entertaining 3rd day!