Day 9, Island Princess Cruise December 2009

Ocho Rios, Jamaica


Navigator of the Seas at the dock in Ocho Rios

The only other ship in Ocho Rios today was the Navigator of the Seas. It was a gray, dull day as you can see from the photo above. The original plan was for us to stop in Montego Bay today, but early in the cruise we were told that Day 9 would be in Ocho Rios.

There are two docking facilities here. One is next to where the Navigator of the Seas tied up. That dock can accommodate four ships and leads to a modern welcome center and downtown is immediately across the street. We docked a mile away by an ugly warehouse. It's a long walk to shops and restaurants along a busy highway.


Hamilton, Bermuda is the Port of Registry for the Island Princess. So it is no surprise to see a large Bermuda Red Ensign flying off the back of the ship.

Lovely dinner tonight in the Bordeaux Dining Room. Our head waiter, the attentive Nelson, treated us to a starter of very nice escargots and a wonderful pasta dish with our main course. Before we were finished eating we realized we had miscalculated the time and needed to hurry over to the Universe lounge for tonight's show.

We explained our problem to our waiters but as we left Nelson and others worried "that something was wrong." Even offering to send the rest of our meal to the the cabin to have after the show. It was our fault for not planning better and getting to dinner 30 minutes earlier. As it was there were few seats left in the lounge. In fact, we may have gotten the last two.

What we were rushing to the Universe Lounge to see was, "Adrian Zmed...In Concert." He was backed by the Island Princess singers, dancers and band. Every 10 days Zmed performs the show for two nights on the Island Princess and then two nights on the Coral Princess -- three shows on each ship. Both ships have the complete sets, costumes and performers, the only thing they don't have two of is Mr. Zmed. It was a fine show. Excellent music and the singing was terrific.

Distance Sailed
Fort Lauderdale to Aruba
1104 nautical miles = 1270 statute miles = 1822 kilometers

Aruba to Cartagena
374 nautical miles = 430 statute miles = 617 kilometers

Cartagena to Panama
279 nautical miles = 321 statute miles = 460 kilometers

Panama to Limon
193 nautical miles = 222 statute miles = 318 kilometers

Limon to Ocho Rios
670 nautical miles = 771 statute miles = 1106 kilometers

Total distance so far
2620 nautical miles = 3012 statute miles = 4323 kilometers

NOTE: 1 nautical mile = 1.15 land miles = 1.85 kilometers