Day Nine: Sunday May 24th, 2015

Today on the fifth day we woke up at 8 o'clock. Everyone got ready to go eat a fast breakfast. After we ate waffles from the hotel we packed sandwiches for the road to Ochos Rios. After we made the sandwiches we packed everything up and were out of the hotel by 10. We ended up leaving at about 10:30 because Emma is always late. It was about a 3 and a half hour drive, because we had to stop for bathroom breaks and for snacks. We got to Dolphin Cove at about 2:45 for a reservation for 3:00. It took us awhile to put on our wet suits because Emma broke the zipper on hers. When we finally got into the water, the instructors went through all of the rules of what and what not to do. After that we roamed around in the water with the Dolphins, Emily, Kelly and Roy. Then after playing in the water for about an hour, the instructed, Karl, showed us all of the tricks that the Dolphins could do. Roy was like a professional. We got out of the water and got into the car and headed to our hotel. After driving only 10 to 15 minutes, we arrived to Hermosa Cove (Jamaicans villa hotel), "The Villa", where we were staying at. When we arrived, we unpacked and put on our swim suits and headed out to our private pool/hot tub for the rest of the day. At around 6 o'clock we cooked spaghetti using the food that was put into our fridge from the employees. After dinner we all took showers and one by one all fell asleep. 

Day Eight: Saturday May, 23 2015

We woke up at 5:30am Saturday morning and all got ready to leave for the airport. After showering, eating a poptart or two, and getting dressed, we packed the car and left the house at 6:15am for Raleigh Durham International (RDU).  20 minutes later we arrived at the airport; after finally finding a parking spot, we went to check in our bags.  We then went through security, by then we had 45 minutes until we had to board the plane.  We then boarded our 8am flight to Miami.

We arrived in Miami a little after 10:15am.  As we walked to our next gate, we stopped and looked in some shops.  After buying lunch, we arrived at the gate for our 12:40 pm flight to Montego, Jamaica. About 30 minutes later we boarded our flight out of the United States.

When we got to Montego, we went through customs and retrieved our bags from baggage.  We then walked to the car rental to pick up our Suzuki Grand Vitara to drive to Negril.  Once we had checked out our car, we were finally on our way to the Beaches Resort!

An hour and a half later we arrived at our hotel for the week. We checked in and went to look at our room. Emma and Renee fell asleep, the other three went to go look at the beach. Once Emma and Renee woke up, we all started getting ready for dinner. We put on our nice dresses and began walking towards The Venelian for our 6:45 reservation. Once dinner had ended, we went back and changed into comfortable clothes. We then went for a walk on the beach and saw some crabs. Around 10 o/clock, we went back to the hotel after the long day and went to bed

Day Six: Thursday May 21, 2015

On the second day of our trip, which was our first full day at the resort, we had a fun day planned ahead for us. The plan was to walk down to the beach and do water activities with one of the resorts workers (inclusive). Everybody slept in because of the long trip we had yesterday, so we finally headed down to the lobby to eat breakfast at 11:00. The breakfast buffet was still up and running, so we all got a variety of food such as pancakes, cereal, muffins, and cinnamon rolls. We sat at our table for about a half an hour after clearing our plates to rest our stomachs and spare time before our activities reservations for 12:30.

 When we arrived on the beach, we saw our guide named Keston preparing all of the equipment such as the boats flags, jet skis, the ropes, and the boat itself. He asked us what we would like to do first, and we all agreed to go wake boarding first. Emily went first, followed by Shannon. They both got up on their first try and had a blast with it. Next up was Nicole, who was scared, so Keston was nice enough to hook up two boards at once to the boat. Renee went with Nicole. It took them a couple tries to get up, but they finally got the hang of it. They also enjoyed wake boarding.  Last, was Emma. Emma hopped right out into the water and was so excited that she didn't follow any of the tips Keston gave her, so she fell face first into the water on the first time!  We all got a laugh at that. She gave in to following directions eventually and got up on the board and cruised around for a bit. It was nice to see the beauty of the bright blue Jamaican water while cruising around on top of it. After everyone had taken a turn, we went tubing next. Emily, Renee, and Shannon all went together first, and then Nicole and Emma. After this we switched it up so we could all get a share to go with everyone. After some fun wipeouts and jerks around, we moved on to the next activity! Next up was jet skiing!  We had three jet skiis to use.  One person would always be on their own, and the other two jet skiis had two people on them.  We took turns of partners, and jet skiis.  We liked to go in circles a bunch of times which we called “dounuts”, creating waves in the form of a circle and then going over them!  After speeding around the ocean, we were begging to get tired so we went parasailing.  Parasailing gave us all a nice breeze and a good chance to really examine the beautiful place we were. 

After finishing up and putting all equipment away, we went up to the resort and ate some inclusive/unlimited pizza and ice cream cones while sitting by the pool.   When we finished we all went up to the rooms and showered, relaxed, and got ready for dinner.  We ate at the Mexican resteraunt in the resort called  Arizona’s Mexican Cooking, followed by karaoke night at the resort. After a few long hours of fun our night came to an end where we went back up to the room, watched TV, and went to bed. 

Day Seven: Friday May 22, 2015

We awoke very early, around 7am showered and got dressed. We headed to breakfast before 8. Afterwards, we left to go to Dolphin Cove, a place where you swim with dolphins and they have shows.  Our scheduled time was 10 so we arrived at 9:45 to meet the trainers Donna and Mitch. They gave us wetsuits to put on and then we sat on the side of the dock while the Dolphins came into the cove. Their names were Kessie, Lola, Steve, and Gerald. We got in the water and the trainers gave us noodles to float on. We fed, and watched the Dolphins preform for us. Then, they taught us how to ride them! You don't ride on their backs, you hold onto their fins while they pull you. Shannon got to have them push her feet with their nose so she went up in the air. I looked like she was walking across the water! It was so fun to get to spend time with dolphins, we all had a blast!

Once we had dry clothes on, we headed back to the resort for lunch at around 2:30pm. We ate at the Mexican restaurant named Arizona's TexMex. For the rest of the afternoon we went to the lazy river, the beach and just relaxed. We returned to the room at 6 to get ready for our last dinner at The Mill. The reservation was at 7:30. Once dinner was over, we all went to walk on the beach. At 10 we returned to our room and began to pack our bags since we are leaving tomorrow. Emma fell asleep while packing so we all decided to just go to bed since we have a big day tomorrow.

Day Five: Wednesday May 20, 2015

We woke up at around 11am and ordered room service for breakfast. We didn't have anything planned until the Jamaican soccer game that evening so we just hung out at the pool or on the beach. The 5 of us had lunch at Stew Fish at 3. Then we head back to the room, showered and got ready to go to the soccer game which was at 5:30. We left the Beaches Resort at 4:45 and got to the arena a little after 5pm. We had pretty good seats, which were right was at center field. They won the game 3-1 against Japan. Afterwards, we headed back to the resort and had a quick dinner

Day Four: Tuesday May 19, 2015

Renee and Emily woke up around 7:30am, and since the others were still sound asleep, they decided to go for a walk on the beach. An hour or so later the pair returned to the room to meet up with the rest of the group. Of course Emma was still sleeping when they arrived so Shannon, Nicole, Emily and Renee headed to the buffet for breakfast. 20 minutes later, Emma comes racing in looking for us and tells us we're about to be late for our zip lining tour which was scheduled for 10:30am. Since there was about a 30 minute drive to  we were supposed to leave at 9:45 and it was already 9:30! We raced back to our room to change into some more comfortable clothes, then hopped in our car and were on our way. 

30 minutes later we arrived at _____. We met our guides, Pam and Leo. They taught us everything we needed to know before going out onto the course. Renee and Emma were the first two to go, and Emily followed. Nicole was about to go but got a little scared. Shannon went ahead and pushed her off the platform and away she went. Nicole ended up loving it! The five of us saw so many colorful birds and different types of monkeys. It was a really cool experience! 

Around 12:30 we returned to the main building. We had lunch at the restaurant that was part of _____. 

At about 1:30 we left to go to our next activity: white water rafting. 20 minutes later we arrived at _____. Henry was our guide for this activity. After he had explained what we needed to know, we changed into our bathing suits and got our life jackets. Then we got on a bus to take us to the top of the river. When we arrived at the top of the river, we helped carry the raft over to the water and climbed in. Then Henry pushed off land and down the river we went. It was a class IV course so they were a little rouglh, but that was the fun part! We  all bad a blast 

Day Three: Monday May 18, 2015

We woke up a little later than expected since we stayed out a little late the night before. We went to breakfast at the buffet around 10am. At 10:45am we returned to the room and changed into our bathing suits for today's activities. We had an 11:30 reservation to go scuba diving. The five of us walked to the beach about 15 minutes early to talk to our instructors Jojo and Timothy. They picked us up in the water with a boat which had a glass floor.  This allowed us to see what was below us when sailing out deeper into the sea.  About ten minutes in, we stopped and got all of our scuba diving gear on.  After we were all suited up, we jumped into the water on the count of three and explored the sea life.  We saw many new creatures such as blow fish and pretty classes of colorful fish.  We also saw a coral reef, a starfish, and a stingray. There were many more, but too many to remember!  Once we got tired and had a good look at everything, we got out of the water and back onto the boat. As we headed back towards the beach we ate our sandwiches that we had packed.

Once we arrived, we had enough energy back to go jet skiing like planned.  There were five jet skis left, which was perfect for us! An hour later it was time to get ready for our dinner reservation at 7pm at Kimonos.We enjoyed this restaurant, because they cooked your food in front of you and also provided a show. Once dinner was over, we went to the main lobby where we saw people handing out coconut drinks so we grabbed one and hung out in the lobby for awhile. On our way back to the room, we walked through the gardens, which were lit up. By then it was close to 11pm so we headed back to our hotel room for the night.