Bri:

So a lot of very significant James Bond movie history. Right. So for you, that was cool that we pulled into that auxiliary port and you found out about that.

So that was cool. I didn't know that that building, I mean, we're literally like got up and we're looking outside on our balcony.

Jason:

Yeah.

Bri:

I mean, it was so funny because when we pulled into this port and I even said because we our balcony was actually facing on this particular where we pulled in, our balcony was facing the actual port like where you would walk and I said, this is where we are getting off. Like it was so different from every other one and that's when she explained like the other ones were full and that's how we ended up on this one. Right.

So. We had a fun time in Ocho Rios, but back on the ship a little earlier. Yeah.

Grab a little food when they finally opened because we were even earlier than food. Well, I mean, again, auxiliary port. So we didn't have all the shopping.

We didn't we weren't right by the beach. We weren't. So that was the bad thing about being like in the spot where we shouldn't have been was we were like, OK, so we did.

We went to the pool and I got some fun drinks and Jay had a nap. I had a nap. But we did get to go to experience one of the things we were excited about on the ship was the Sky Vodka Ice Bar.

Yes. Oh, my gosh. OK, so guys, you walk into this thing, they give you this parka like thing that you just throw over.

That's supposed to be like a coat to keep you warm. And it was more like a syrupy than a parka. And you and they give you gloves and you walk in and the whole thing is ice.

And did you make a note on what it was because it was freezing cold, like it was below something that was everything froze. It was 18 below zero, 18 below zero. OK.

So you're dumb. That's what I asked. No, I wasn't dumb.

Jay just. Oh, my God. When Jay decides we're going to do this thing and I don't realize I'm super excited.

I'm like, yes, let's do it. Let's do it. This is so cool.

I look down. I'm in flip flops. So I'm like, you know what?

I'm going to be fine. And Jay said, listen, we'll go in. We'll have our drinks.

Jason:

We're going to chest up.

Bri:

We're going to be Buffalo Tough. Well, you said we'll take some pictures. We'll have our drinks.

And if you can't handle it, we'll step out early because they give you 30 minutes in there because you have your drinks and then obviously after 30 minutes you need to leave because it's freezing like they keep it so cold to keep everything frozen. So the bar was frozen. The tables were frozen.

The benches you sit on were frozen that had like this fur that you sit on. Like it was it was incredible. So of course, Jay's in there without a glove to take pictures and videos and whatever.

And I'm in there in my like sparkly flip flops. Right. And not realizing.

And these people come over and they're like, why are your toes out? And I'm like, well, we're from Buffalo, so it's fine. And we were shovel snow in this.

Well, I mean, I probably don't shovel snow in it, but I was like, I mean, it's going to be fine. Right. And the floor was even like not ice where you would slip and fall, but you they put something on top of it.

But if you look at the floor, it was ice also. Yes. And it was just kind of like this little tiny layer or something.

So you and you could feel the cold under your feet. Oh, yeah. So we took a bunch of pictures.

We had both of our drinks because they offered you two drinks. So we tried all the different ones because I think you had we we had the same of one and then the opposite of another. So we could try.

Everyone was like a hazelnut. And I'm not a huge hazelnut. So that was the one you had.

And then we both had one. But anyways, so we were, by the way, the last people to exit. The last.

Buffalo Tough. Right. And I wasn't even that cold, which was so funny.

That's right. And I hadn't been hopped up on alcohol because it was the first alcohol we kind of had. It was fine.

Yeah. So it was crazy. But it was really neat.

And I understand why people are like, go to these igloos and have this like not the dinners and the fake igloos, like a real igloo made of snow. She's anti igloo eating. The ones that they built around Buffalo that are literally a see-through tent.

Come on, guys. Why are you paying $350 to eat in a see-through tent? You could do that anywhere you want to pitch a see-through tent.

But instead, you preferred the window seat at the Manhattan, right? Right. We were fortunate enough to go to the Manhattan room for dinner that night and decided when we decided to get in there, they said, well, then let's give you guys a great seat for the evening.

So we're literally on the back of the ship. Right. Next to the window.

A beautiful view of I've never seen that position of the boat. Giant waves just coming out of the back of the boat because that's where like the motors pushing the water. It was awesome.

It was awesome. Yeah. You had the fish.

We had this interesting nacho appetizer thing. I can't even describe what it was. You know, and we actually said this is how we keep learning is every time we go on one of these cruises, we learn something else.

So next time I'm going to take pictures of the menu so we know exactly what it is. But it was some sort of really cool like Mexican styled beef that was on top of these nachos with like fresh jalapenos. It was delicious.

Yeah. I ended up having like this chicken biscuit kind of dinner thing myself. Pretty good.

I enjoyed it. You know, but, you know, you keep yourself very busy on a cruise ship, but that night we had one goal and one goal alone and that was the glow party. The glow party.

So we did the glow party. Okay. My favorite thing.

Well, I shouldn't even say my favorite thing, but one of my favorite things on the cruise was the parties they have at night and we went to the glow party and I was like and I had no idea. This is a Norwegian thing. So every single ship you go on, on every single cruise, they will have a glow party.

Pack whatever, glow sticks, glow bracelets, whatever. So I reached over the... Blinky glasses.

Yeah. Take it all. So they give you glow, like these glow, not even sticks.

They're like what?

Jason:

Styrofoam. Foam sticks.

Bri:

Things that have lights or whatever. So I reach over the guy's shoulder to pull two out of the bag because I'm so excited about this glow party. And if anybody knows me, I would not be that abrasive, but I was.

And so that we could have these. And the glow party is amazing. The best dance music.

You got your glow stick, but this time people were there in like cool stuff and I was so jealous. They had like glow headbands and glasses and yeah, we're totally glow partying next year. A lot of fun.

I do like the older couple that was next to us that was just... They were in their 70s. They had to be.

And they danced the entire hour and a half glow party. They never stopped. Never stopped.

Probably still got up at 5 a.m. So did we. That's true. That's true.

Are we old? But yeah, like I don't know. It's so fun.

I loved it. Yeah. Did you want to jump to Cozumel?

Sure. Cozumel. Cozumel.

I've been to Cozumel myself before, but I've only done like beach stuff at Cozumel. My son was very young at the time. Inflatable pool like stuff out in the ocean.

I'm sipping tequila sunrises till my heart's content. But one of the things that we did on our excursion is what's called let's take a selfie. Because it's funny because I failed so many history classes in high school, but for some reason in my elder age, I've taken an interest in history here and there.

I spent some time in Belize. I've actually climbed a couple of Mayan pyramids. But this was an opportunity to take in some of the Mayan culture because the Mayan and the Mexican culture, most of the people now who live in Mexico are mixed culture.

Jason:

Yep.

Bri:

That's what he said. Yeah. So we had the opportunity to go and visit one of the monuments there, take in some of the tribal dances that took place.

Tribal is the right word. It's like the Mayan. Yeah.

The Mayan. Right. It was the Mayan.

Jason:

Civilization.

Bri:

And they did do a dance. Yeah. Yeah.

It was cool. We did visit the infamous Cozumel sign that I'm sure you've seen a thousand times in pictures and memes. It's fine.

We wanted to. That's right. So our guide, Jesus, great, great guide, took us into downtown Cozumel and told us some of the fun places to go as well as some of the quote unquote approved places because they have a good rapport to shop with.

Right. And he said he cannot be responsible if somebody like cheats you on any of the other stores. If you don't go to one of the approved places.

Which also is a little scary. And that was our first like island trip and I was like, what do you mean approved places? We found ourselves at Estrella Del Mar Tequila-y, which was a store where he sold organic and you know, wholesale tequila and agave spirits.

I mean, just a great place. We did a tasting without knowing we were doing a tasting. Correct.

The guy was super nice.

Jason:

Yeah.

Bri:

We said we knew Jesus and he was just like pouring and letting us taste stuff and I was like, this is okay. And then he was like, okay, let me pour you this. And yeah, so it was nice.

So yeah, I mean, 4,200 and what was it, 4,322 pesos later, equivalent to about $209 American. And then we walked out with some organic agave as well as this coffee liqueur that was just off the charts. Yeah.

So, so good. Yeah. Really good.

Do you want to talk about the bathroom experience in Cozumel? I mean, has anybody gone to the bathroom squatting over a hole on a step up in a tiny room with like only three squares of toilet paper allowed? Raise your hand if you have.

It's me. I'm raising my hand. So I had three squares of toilet paper to use when I went to the bathroom and- Spare a square.

It was very, it was an experience, it was an experience. And fun fact, when we went to another spot in Mexico, I had to go to the bathroom yet again because we drank beers. This one at least was not a walk up this step and squat over a hole.

It was a sort of looking like toilet with no toilet seat. Yeah. That was also the thing at OTOC.

Kind of like stood above it to go to the bathroom and it didn't really flush. So it was like, I don't, it was hard to explain. So it was not like a toilet flush, but it wasn't like a porta potty.

It was like something in between. And you know, no diss because I mean, culture is culture and this is how the country is. But like when we went to one of the places we went to after was OTOC, which was a tequila distillery.

Oh yeah. So, I mean, we went out of order now, right? Because- Kind of out of order.

Because I think we visited the church that was from like 15, 18.

Jason:

Yeah.

Bri:

So we stepped into this church, which was so cool. And like, I mean, I'm not a big church person, but I've been in some really cool ones and I hope to like be able to step into some really cool ones. Like I went to the like giant cathedral, like in the city in New York and like, so anyways, we go into this one and what did you write it down?

Because I read you the sign earlier.

Jason:

It was the first Catholic mass.

Bri:

You said one, the name was Juan Diaz was the first recorded Catholic mass in the new Republic of Mexico. In what was the year? 15, 18.

Yeah. Can you imagine that? 15, 18.

And we were sitting in the same church. That's what blew my mind. So it was so cool to be sitting there going like, it's 20, 25.

Yeah. 400 and- Incredible. 493 years later.

Like that, to me, that's crazy. So that was really, really cool. And well, anyways, so our, our guy was so cool.

So then, yeah, he took us to this tequila tasting, which you could order. What was small? Oh.

Anyways, whatever he said in Spanish for like, do you want a small? Piquito. Piquito.

Piquito. Small pour, medium pour, or mucho for the full pour. Even though mucho we know is grande.

Right.

Jason:

But he said to say mucho.

Bri:

So every single one they were allowing us to taste, which was like, what, three, six, seven of them. Seven. Oh yeah.

We were crab walking out of there.

Jason:

I wasn't. I was fine.

Bri:

Whatever. You were getting all kinds of high fives from people.

Jason:

It was so funny.

Bri:

Girl can hold her liquor. Yeah. So we had like seven shots.

And I said- Girl next to me is like, oh, Piquito. Oh, Piquito.

Jason:

Right. And I'm like, mucho.

Bri:

Mucho. Mucho. Mucho.

Mucho. Mucho. And the guy even comes over, he goes, mucho?

Mucho. Mucho. And then, so we're like leaving, you know, and everybody's in the gift shop or whatever.

And our guide was like, woo, you loved that. And I said, yeah, that was so good. And I said, and actually we kind of did a tasting before.

And he's like, how are you still speaking? And I'm like, I'm good. And then there were people around us being like, girl, I couldn't, what?

Like how are you fine? So I was like, I don't know. Yeah.

I don't know. But man, was that good. And maybe I was fine because everything is just organic and clean and- That's just it.

I don't know. There was like no additives in anything. They had to have this sticker if it was approved organic in the country of Mexico.

And listen, I wanted a mucho pour of everything because when am I ever going to have this again? None of this stuff is shipped out of there.

Jason:

It's an island.

Bri:

Organic does not exist outside of Mexico. Right. But you're having this on a tiny island off of like, whatever, Mexico, right?

Because that's its own little thing. And it's not going to be shipped anywhere where I'm ever going to have it again, unless maybe they ship it onto the mainland of Mexico and I go there, I'm not having it again. So it was pretty incredible.

And I don't know. I loved it. So I was so happy he took us there.

That was a surprise visit. We weren't even supposed to be there. So that was neat.

So yeah. If you're ever making a trip to Cozumel, it's in San Miguel de Cozumel in Quintana Roo in Mexico. It's the little province there and just out on the country road.

Jason:

Family owned.

Bri:

Family owned. Beautiful little property. Like, oh my gosh.

Spectacular. And he grew up in Texas, right? Yeah.

So that's why he spoke English so cleanly. Because somebody asked him, like, why do you sound so perfect speaking English? He was a funny guy.

I liked him. Yeah. When we were back at Estrella de Mar Tequila Re, we were asking about the rules of drinking in public.

Jason:

Oh, yeah.

Bri:

In Cozumel. So we had Tecate beer. Right.

He sold a can out of the cooler to us. So then when we moved on to Punta Marina Beach, we went to this restaurant that's on the beach. This whole coastline ravaged by hurricanes.

I mean, just awful. It's in a poor country that can't rebuild. But here they are, you know, limping through and trying to make things work for themselves.

We were there. We had Tecate light and we got to drink at the bar while sitting on swings, which was first time I've ever done that in my life. I loved it.

So okay. When we record this podcast, I actually bounce on like an exercise ball while we do this. She's bouncing the entire time.

So I think it's so fun. Wait till this goes to YouTube and people just see you bouncing on the ball. It's going to happen.

I just think it's so fun because the people who can't sit still, like I just have a hard time sitting still. I like I move. I shift.

I shake a leg. Like I just I don't know. I'm not.

I just don't sit still. And so people who don't like to sit still. You can just swing.

Jason:

Yeah.

Bri:

And you match in that. Right. So it's so cool.

And they're just these ropes tied to a beam and you just sit on it and swing. Jay hit his knee twice. Oh my God.

On the bar. The bar top was made of concrete. It probably was.

And it wasn't so much my knee as my, I tend to put my hands on my knees. So I'm swinging and crushing my fingers between the concrete and my knee. I don't know.

So yeah. Well it worked for me. I loved it.

So there were people who were sitting next to us that are like. Makes me forget about my arthritis for a hot minute. Right.

So there were people sitting next to us that wanted me to take pictures of them like drinking out of this gigantic like fake drink glass or whatever. And I really made it from Europe or something. I really made it look like she was drinking out of it.

And so she was so happy about these pictures. Yeah. She was like, this is so perfect.

So then the guy was like, do you want me to take a picture of the two of you? Because we were doing a selfie. Right.

But you can't see the whole swing. So I was like, yeah, that'd be awesome. So you know swings.

I feel like you can give a random person your phone to take a picture when you've just impressed them with your photo ability to take a picture of them with their phone like better than they could have imagined. So that was cool. We also trusted some people at the Cozumel sign.

Jason:

Oh, yeah. Oh, listen.

Bri:

I told you this. I'll give somebody my phone. What's your 40 time?

Because I might be 250 pounds, but I can I can run somebody down. But I feel like you can always trust the people who they trust you first. And then you take their picture and then you're like, OK, well, now can you take ours?

Yeah. Yeah. So.

But that was a blast. It was cool. And then we drove through the city so we could see.

And again, just poor conditions. But people seemed happy. I don't know.

I didn't see anybody like sad. I didn't see anybody, you know, whatever it was. It was not as it wasn't like poor like Jamaica with bars on the windows.

I didn't see that. And I didn't see that. It's just poor.

You know, just, you know, they just sort of lifestyle. Yeah. You know, but yeah, we made our way back to the ship and we had dinner at the Manhattan room that night.

What I remember was Waldorf salad, bruschetta. Oh, my gosh. This was I think this was so because we backtracked, I think this was the first night that we ate at a restaurant that wasn't the buffet, but not a specialty restaurant.

Correct. So I was like, how many appetizers can I order? And they were like, you can order as many appetizers, dinners and desserts that you want.

And I was like, I'll have two appetizers. The challenge accepted. So I had this like bruschetta, which was amazing with fresh tomatoes and onions.

And it was just it was so good. And then I had a Waldorf salad and I always wanted one of these things. And then I finally had it and I was like, it's so delicious.

And probably everybody's listening to this going, you're disgusting. But I loved you. It was awesome.

It's not my cup of tea, but, you know, go for it. It's not many people's cup of tea, but it was delicious to me. So pesto rigatoni.

Yes. Oh, my God. With pine nuts.

They sprinkled the pine nuts on top of it, too. Yeah, they had a barbecue plate was not quite what I expected it to be, but good nonetheless. Yeah.

And then I think we had the s'mores, the s'mores dessert. We both did. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Super yummy.

That was pretty cool. It was like a s'mores brownie. And they did a brownie with like they did the marshmallow and they like kind of they probably use the same creme brulee torch on it so that they could like kind of like brown it a little.

And I feel like I feel like with the day with as much energy was spent, like physically and mentally into that day, because, you know, it was, you know, it was a lot going going into that day. We were supposed to go watch Beatlemania. Oh, is this when you're going to make fun of me for I'm not going to make fun of it.

Yes. But, you know, you know, my my rule is I'm going to try to wake you up five times and then that's it. I give up.

So I gave up. And, you know, and I think it was more so when I was like, oh, hey, we got to like do the thing. And then you're like blankets over top of you.

I'm like, well, I guess she's just like chillax. I mean, the whole night went to kind of hell in a handbag anyway, because they were supposed to have the awesome eighties.

Jason:

Oh, yeah.

Bri:

So then they canceled it and then they didn't tell anybody they moved it. I know we found out on the TV later when they were doing reviews of the ship. Right.

And then we were like 80s party was in the bliss lounge. Yeah. So I finally got up from my nap of exhaustion and and I was like, OK, I'm going to get up.

We're going to go to the 80s party. And it was raining outside. So they canceled the 80s party.

At least we thought. But there was no sign up that says 80s party has been moved to bliss lounge. There was no announcement on the ship.

80s party has been moved to bliss lounge. Jerks. Nothing.

I mean, you could put a piece of paper attached to the whatever, like when you first walk out, somebody running down the hallway, ringing a bell going 80s. But even if you didn't do that, just like put a little piece of paper. Somebody wrote with a Sharpie and put a piece of tape on it.

Do you know what I mean? Like, I don't know. So that was a little disappointing because we love our dance parties and we love 80s.

So but but Cozumel, you know, in a nice, tight little bow. Yeah. You know, nice experience.

I liked it. Yeah. But where the peace studies is done, it happened where we I look forward to going back because I don't want to do any excursion when I go back.

I just want to wander the city. Yes. Is Georgetown Grand Cayman Island.

I am madly in love with Grand Cayman. I could live there the rest of my life. But how does it start at four hundred fifty thousand dollars?

And I'm not a millionaire. Right. To Buffalo, New York.

It is. I'll show up every couple of years and give you some of my money. That's fine.

So it was cool. Yeah. Things we learned about Grand Cayman.

Almost zero crime. Right. Most of the crime comes from drunken tourists and like just just drunken tourists and domestics.

There's no drugs at all. Automatic 15 year sentence on a first offense. Correct.

So there are no drugs. There are no weapons. Cops have guns, but they keep them in the trunk of their car and they rarely ever have to bring them out for any reason whatsoever.

You cannot steal a car in Grand Cayman because your friend will rat you out and say, yeah, he took it. He went that way. And you're on an island.

Where are you going? Where there's cameras everywhere.

Jason:

Oh, yeah.

Bri:

And you're on constant surveillance on the entire island, which I found to be so intriguing. I'm like, wow, someone's looking at me right now. Somebody's watching me.

You need that little glove. Yeah.

Jason:

Bob was here.

Bri:

He stole that car and he went that way. Right. Because I ain't my friend.

I ain't my friend no more. Right. He's my friend tomorrow.

But right now, not my friend. Traffic cops, funny, helping old ladies across the street. And they're dancing, taking pictures.

They're like, life is so great. And then, OK, so we always like to try to find a beer if they make a specialty beer. And again, forward to go back.

Red Stripe is famous in Jamaica. We can get Red Stripe anywhere. So we weren't fussing with.

Well, we were also in the wrong port. So we couldn't just walk to a place to have beer.

Jason:

Yeah.

Bri:

We didn't have that availability. Right. So and obviously you heard we had beer and the rum that we're drinking.

Right. And we had beer in Mexico. So we were like, we're going to have beer in Grand Cayman.

So we found out before we went that it was Cayman. Cabrew.

Jason:

Yeah.

Bri:

So we were like, OK, we're going to find a place. So we went shopping. We're walking.

And I'm like, look at that cool bar that has that like place you can sit. It's like kind of up above and you could see the beach. And Jay's like, this is the place I already researched.

So it was really cool. Yeah, it was. The name of the place is Sharky's.

It's right in right in the port area in Georgetown. Grand Cayman. That's like four block walk.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You go up a set of stairs. The restaurant's up top. You know, bar seating.

Beautiful. Looking out to the ocean like, oh, my God. You know, like when you see stuff on Instagram and you don't believe it's real.

It's it's it's actually real. It's real. It's amazing to see you look out and seeing our cruise ship sitting out there in the middle of the.

Yeah. You know, it's and like you sit there and you think, oh, oh, this sunshine and crystal clear water doesn't actually exist. It really does.

It really, really does, where you can just see down to. I don't even know how many feet you're looking down and you can just see through the water. It was just it was incredible.

And it was a gorgeous, sunny day. And we're just sitting in this bar. And I'm like, how how do people live here?

You must like thank God every single day that you get the opportunity to see such beauty. And then you wonder, are we impressed because we don't see this every day or they wake up every day impressed? So I asked the question to a couple of people and they were like, no, I'm happy every day that I live here.

So it was cool. And all right. Well, anyways, so drinking beer.

So we just bellied up to the bar at Sharky's. And, you know, these guys are like like mixologist generals, you know, just, you know, slinging these island drinks all over the place. You know, we started off with the like the Island Hopper IPA.

And then you had a lager. We had I had the regular lager. OK.

Yeah, because I just you don't want to see what they're right. We always try to get what we thought we were just going to probably have one beer. So we wanted to definitely get two different beers so we could taste each other's beer.

Right. We didn't know our excursion wasn't until later. So we have kind of hours to spend.

Yeah. And so we went shopping first at a beer. So I feel like I'm interrupting you to be talking.

It's OK. So we each had a beer. Then he comes over.

I remember we almost kicked the keg of Ireland Hopper. So the guy after us, we got the last one. They had to change the keg.

Yeah. And then so then he comes over and he's like, hey, we opened this beer. Do you guys want it?

It's like, oh, it's on the house.

Jason:

That's right.

Bri:

They she opened the wrong one, the wrong beer. And so she brought it back to the bar and was like, this isn't what they ordered. And then he was like, hey, I mean, we can't serve it right.

It like it's open. So I was like, heck, yeah, we'll have it. So we split that one.

Jason:

Yeah.

Bri:

And and then we were sitting there and we were like, all right, well, we got to go because we have to be able to get back. Make sure we've checked in for our excursion, whatever. To know what it was like to get back into the port.

So we had to give ourselves a few extra minutes. Yeah. So they give us our bill or whatever.

So it was interesting that they add the tip no matter what you order there. Yes. And so the thing comes and it's like the tip was like two dollars and thirty eight cents.

And I'm like, really? Because like if I would have paid 20 percent and they gave us a free beer, like so we gave him a couple more dollars in there and we gave him a Buffalo Brews podcast sticker. Right.

So we hand him that whatever. And then he was like, oh, did you you didn't try this one? You didn't try the mango tango yet?

He goes, we have one more beer. You're going to try. And then I was like, yeah, we have to we have to get to our like we have to get back to port to do our excursion or whatever.

So he pulls out this can of the mango tango. So when we were like, what are the rules about drinking beer? And he's like, we're on island time.

You can just walk and drink beer. And we're like, awesome. So we just threw it in our bag and on the house.

Yeah. On the house. He just gave it to us.

We had already paid our bill and then he just took it out of the cooler and sent it with us. So seriously, if you're ever there like they like the food, they were there was coming out of the kitchen just great. It looked amazing.

Family atmosphere. Yeah, the beer and the drinks just the drinks were incredible. Like I just want to go.

I wish half the places in Buffalo would sell drinks like no. And I would love to be able to go back there to spend just like a week there. Yeah.

In Grand Cayman. Yeah. Like that's how much I absolutely loved it.

And so anyways, we took a another take a selfie tour that. Yeah. Yeah.

So then I'll let you go. Pedro St. James was our first stop. So that was a it's a historical site that was very influential in the protection of the island during the like the 1600s during the spice trades, during the Caribbean Wars, where they were to protect themselves from marauders.

It was really cool. To walk through the house and the property. So it was very interesting to see how they how they defended themselves in the day.

I mean, the place had a jail. It had a living quarters upstairs, a playroom for the.