Jamaica advice

ErinGaf

Earning My Ears
Joined
Feb 27, 2015
We are sailing on the Fantasy Western Caribbean in 2 weeks. We have excursions books in Cozumel and Grand Cayman, but nothing in Jamaica. My kids are ages 4, 8, and 10. Is there anything to do in Jamaica right off of the ship, at the port? Or, anything nearby without traveling too far? It seemed like a lot of the more interesting excursions were long bus rides away and we'd prefer not to spend our vacation on a bus. Thanks very much!
 
We are sailing on the Fantasy Western Caribbean in 2 weeks. We have excursions books in Cozumel and Grand Cayman, but nothing in Jamaica. My kids are ages 4, 8, and 10. Is there anything to do in Jamaica right off of the ship, at the port? Or, anything nearby without traveling too far? It seemed like a lot of the more interesting excursions were long bus rides away and we'd prefer not to spend our vacation on a bus. Thanks very much!
There is a nice shopping area at port but nothing in the immediate area outside of that. I wouldn't recommend trying to walk anywhere. The Falmouth port is about 45 minutes from Ocho Rios where all the activities are.
 


We are sailing on the Fantasy Western Caribbean in 2 weeks. We have excursions books in Cozumel and Grand Cayman, but nothing in Jamaica. My kids are ages 4, 8, and 10. Is there anything to do in Jamaica right off of the ship, at the port? Or, anything nearby without traveling too far? It seemed like a lot of the more interesting excursions were long bus rides away and we'd prefer not to spend our vacation on a bus. Thanks very much!

The port area is secure, and offers quite a bit of tourist shopping. The other thing that's available within the secure area is Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville restaurant. The restaurant there has a really nice outside patio area with a pool. They often have live music also. We did big excursions in Cozumel and Grand Cayman, so on this day we just relaxed. Had a really enjoyable day there. Drinks and snacks are reasonably priced for a tourist location. And, if you make a purchase, you can use their Wi-Fi for free.
 
When we went with our sons, ages 2.5 and 6, on the 7-night western, my husband did the caves (Green Grotto Caves?) with our 6 year old and they loved it. They also stopped at a resort and enjoyed some beach time which they raved about. I believe the caves are only about 30 minutes from the port. We booked it through DCL. I believe the minimum age for that excursion is 6. We split up for it and it worked out really well. I enjoyed the ship and a really nice lunch at one of the MDR's with my little guy while my husband and 6 year old had a great time seeing bats, caves and a beach. It's a relatively short excursion so your time away from each other if you split up isn't much.
 


Please report back with a review. I am planning to book this food tour for August.

Thanks in advance and have a magical trip!

We also took that culinary tour. I highly recommend it!! We were traveling with two one year olds, a four year old, & 6 adults (I was pregnant, my parents in their late 60s & the rest in their 30s) We all loved it! The tour guides were amazing & especially with the kids!! They were adorable & so caring with our kids. The owners are amazing too!! You meet right at the port so that's nice & they were great at making you feel safe & taken care of once you were out and about. They'll include the kids on the tour but not charge for them if they don't want to eat or if you'd rather share yours with them. I can't say enough good things about how awesome they were & how enjoyable it was. A word of warning though, it's really hot!! My SIL was with us, and she is Jamaican, and she said the food was just like how her family cooks it...so you're not getting the dumbed down touristy stuff. Very authentic experience all the way around. We'd do it again for sure.
 
We also took that culinary tour. I highly recommend it!! We were traveling with two one year olds, a four year old, & 6 adults (I was pregnant, my parents in their late 60s & the rest in their 30s) We all loved it! The tour guides were amazing & especially with the kids!! They were adorable & so caring with our kids. The owners are amazing too!! You meet right at the port so that's nice & they were great at making you feel safe & taken care of once you were out and about. They'll include the kids on the tour but not charge for them if they don't want to eat or if you'd rather share yours with them. I can't say enough good things about how awesome they were & how enjoyable it was. A word of warning though, it's really hot!! My SIL was with us, and she is Jamaican, and she said the food was just like how her family cooks it...so you're not getting the dumbed down touristy stuff. Very authentic experience all the way around. We'd do it again for sure.

Thanks for your positive review! I love trying out authentic cultural food. Can't wait!
:thanks:
 
We also took that culinary tour. I highly recommend it!! We were traveling with two one year olds, a four year old, & 6 adults (I was pregnant, my parents in their late 60s & the rest in their 30s) We all loved it! The tour guides were amazing & especially with the kids!! They were adorable & so caring with our kids. The owners are amazing too!! You meet right at the port so that's nice & they were great at making you feel safe & taken care of once you were out and about. They'll include the kids on the tour but not charge for them if they don't want to eat or if you'd rather share yours with them. I can't say enough good things about how awesome they were & how enjoyable it was. A word of warning though, it's really hot!! My SIL was with us, and she is Jamaican, and she said the food was just like how her family cooks it...so you're not getting the dumbed down touristy stuff. Very authentic experience all the way around. We'd do it again for sure.
This makes me feel great about booking! I hope DD finds things she likes to eat too. She's pretty game to try stuff. I'll still pack snacks I guess just in case.

Did you buy anything along the way and/or tip? Did you have currency or dollars or cards?
 
We did the Green Grotto cave tour via DCL while in Jamacia. My kids 14 and 12 really enjoyed it. There was some walking and climbing involved, but they loved it.
 
We are sailing on the Fantasy Western Caribbean in 2 weeks. We have excursions books in Cozumel and Grand Cayman, but nothing in Jamaica. My kids are ages 4, 8, and 10. Is there anything to do in Jamaica right off of the ship, at the port? Or, anything nearby without traveling too far? It seemed like a lot of the more interesting excursions were long bus rides away and we'd prefer not to spend our vacation on a bus. Thanks very much!

We booked Jewel at Runaway Bay last month. My kids are ages 8 and 10 and loved it! Nice beach, awesome waterpark and delicious lunch. We booked through resortforaday dot com for MUCH less than dcl. If you compare the cost, it's crazy! Plus our bus was there at least an hour longer (arrived earlier) than the dcl group. It was about a 40 min ride and we enjoyed seeing some of Jamaica along the way. Very eye opening!
 
My 10 year old and I did a private tour with Courtney Taylor Tours in Jamaica. You could customize it to what you wanted. We did Dunns River and Blue Hole, then back to the ship. We could have added beach time or shopping, but she was ready to go back and get to the Lab! The driver was excellent and the whole thing was really smooth. No waiting around with a big DCL group. I liked that a lot.
 
We booked Jewel at Runaway Bay last month. My kids are ages 8 and 10 and loved it! Nice beach, awesome waterpark and delicious lunch. We booked through resortforaday dot com for MUCH less than dcl. If you compare the cost, it's crazy! Plus our bus was there at least an hour longer (arrived earlier) than the dcl group. It was about a 40 min ride and we enjoyed seeing some of Jamaica along the way. Very eye opening!
This sounds like something I would like to do. I s everything included. All food and drinks? When you get back, is there time for just a little shopping?
 
This makes me feel great about booking! I hope DD finds things she likes to eat too. She's pretty game to try stuff. I'll still pack snacks I guess just in case.

Did you buy anything along the way and/or tip? Did you have currency or dollars or cards?

We tipped (USD) at any of the sitdown restaurants and then the tour guide at the end. Because we had so many adults & kids they offered us a private tour for nearly the same price. We didn't buy anything extra.
 
We just booked this for our cruise. We wanted something that didn't have tons of travel and we are adventurous eaters.

http://jamaicaculinarytours.com/

We cruise 2 weeks after you though, so I won't be able to report back before you go.

Maybe it was just us but we didn't care for the food tour and my boys are big eaters. It was me, my husband, 4 boys ages 23,21,19,17 and 19 year old girl friend. Maybe we had different food but we found it kind of flavorless- not spicy at all. We had fresh fruit- which was good, some kind of meat pie that had much too much breading (and the restaurant was small and very hot), jerk chicken that was dry, coconut water and meat (which we all thought was gross) and coconut candy. The tour was long (about 4 hours) and unless you were at the front of the pack you couldn't hear what the guide was saying. It gets great reviews but none of us really liked it.
 
The port area is secure, and offers quite a bit of tourist shopping. The other thing that's available within the secure area is Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville restaurant. The restaurant there has a really nice outside patio area with a pool. They often have live music also. We did big excursions in Cozumel and Grand Cayman, so on this day we just relaxed. Had a really enjoyable day there. Drinks and snacks are reasonably priced for a tourist location. And, if you make a purchase, you can use their Wi-Fi for free.

Thank you! This sounds about our speed with the 3 kids. We are already leaving youngest with Grandma in GC so we can snorkel. And, we're all doing a beach excursion in Cozumel. I know the last time we sailed we didn't get off in St. Maarten and it was really pleasant being on the ship that day. I appreciate all of the ideas here, though!!
 

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