Let's talk about Jamaica excursions!

[Prose]

I couldn't find a thread devoted to just this topic, so thought I would start one. We are on the 10/11/14 Western with a stop in Falmouth. Would love to hear any reviews of Jamaica excursions, what people are planning on booking, etc. Also, if you didn't book anything but just got off the ship and explored, let us know about that, too!

Please include the ages of your family, what you booked, your thoughts, advice, etc. Since this is a fairly new stop for DCL, it is harder to find info on port excursions and Falmouth in general.

Can't wait to start planning!

 

[OhThePain]

I'm interested in seeing what others plan on doing also.

It's been a while since I have been to Jamaica with a cruise. I don't have very favorable memories of things there (I remember at one of the ports in Jamaica, you had to be escourted around by armed guards). I had done Dunn's River Falls a while back. It was alright but my wife would not be able to do it. As of now, we will probably enjoy the empty ship for the day. We will be 30 (me) and 27 (wife) with no kids.

 

[tripinbrums]

We are going in June with another family. I think we are leaning toward the snorkel cruise to Dunn's River Falls. It will be pricy but we have never been to Jamaica and want to do our big excursion there.

 

[Parkerpirates]

Following. I have no idea what to do in Jamaica. Our daughter will be 4 and there's not a lot to do right around the port from what I've heard. Are there any private beaches you can pay a small fee to use their chairs and buy drinks, lunch, etc? I'm considering staying on the ship to enjoy it without the crowds but I'm strongly thinking of doing that in Cozumel since we've been several times and don't care much for Mexico....we've never been to Jamaica.

 

[CarolyninCO]

Following. I have no idea what to do in Jamaica. Our daughter will be 4 and there's not a lot to do right around the port from what I've heard. Are there any private beaches you can pay a small fee to use their chairs and buy drinks, lunch, etc? I'm considering staying on the ship to enjoy it without the crowds but I'm strongly thinking of doing that in Cozumel since we've been several times and don't care much for Mexico....we've never been to Jamaica.

Same here! Our daughter will be 4 as well. It seems like many of the excursion descriptions started with "your adventure begins with a one-hour drive...". They lost me at one- hour.

 

[HillCrew]

We've been to Jamaica on Royal Caribbean but came into Ochos Rios for port versus Falmouth. I will say that it was intimidating walking out of the bordered port area there, but we did our own thing there and were just fine. We caught a taxi over to Dunn River Falls park (about $20 for all 4 of us adults). We paid to go into the park (I don't remember the price but it wasn't bad). We then walked through the beautiful gardens in the park and took lots of photos. We then climbed the trails along the falls and jumped in and swam/took photos at different areas. We played in some of the falls but were limited as my wife and her sister with us were both pregnant. Down at the bottom near the beach, there were some locals high pressure selling jetski rentals and also some recreational drugs We climbed back up the trails and exited the park (you have to go through a little market which also had a lot of people with high pressure sales pitches to get you to stop at their booths). We caught a cab pack to port and that was about it. Definitely won't be doing that excursion with our 3 kids under 5 this fall though. Will be looking maybe for a beach near port or just staying on the boat for some fun.

 

[FergusBC]

We stopped at Falmouth last November on the Wonder and it was our favourite stop. We booked a private excursion through Courtenay Taylor tours - got picked up inside the port area and then driven to Ochos Rios area (my kids are still talking about the jerk chicken & festival we got at Scotchies!!!).

Courtenay kept up a steady stream of interesting info on Jamaica. The people we met were super friendly - yes, the sales pitches were very direct but a simple 'No thank you' generally sufficed.

 

[carpenta]

....stay on board that is what we do now.......can't take the hassle of the port. Jamaica was pretty years ago but it has slipped as of late as the world wide economy has taken its' toll IMO.

 

[Notyourtypicaldisney]

I tried booking the White Water Rafting but it it sold out. We typically don't do excursions as the ship is empty during the port days and a great time to be on it. We will check when on board if we can raft. If not we may look at Dunn Falls as it seems to be a fairly active thing to do. Our kids are 14,12,10. All would want to hike or raft. I hate the mandatory shopping time where these buses take you to a shopping area.

 

[mommy2tati]

We stopped at Falmouth last November on the Wonder and it was our favourite stop. We booked a private excursion through Courtenay Taylor tours - got picked up inside the port area and then driven to Ochos Rios area (my kids are still talking about the jerk chicken & festival we got at Scotchies!!!). Courtenay kept up a steady stream of interesting info on Jamaica. The people we met were super friendly - yes, the sales pitches were very direct but a simple 'No thank you' generally sufficed.

I just returned from Jamaica last night (not on a cruise) and I loved Scotchies!!! I've never had such good jerk chicken before! Our guide was Glen Garwood of Jamaica Xplored. He took excellent care of us all weekend.

 

[FergusBC]

I tried booking the White Water Rafting but it it sold out. We typically don't do excursions as the ship is empty during the port days and a great time to be on it. We will check when on board if we can raft. If not we may look at Dunn Falls as it seems to be a fairly active thing to do. Our kids are 14,12,10. All would want to hike or raft. I hate the mandatory shopping time where these buses take you to a shopping area.

If you want something active to do, check out excursions to the Blue Hole. Your kids would love it! You'd have to book through a private tour as the cruise ships don't go there (which means it's not overrun with tourists )

 

[KashasMom]

We did the Heritage Walk (http://www.falmouthheritagewalks.com/) with our 3 1/2 yr old daughter. After the walk we had amazing jerk chicken at Club Nazz & Restaurant. Walked back to the ship, poked around the local markets and shops at the terminal. It was a great day. Have done Dunn's River Falls years ago but felt my daughter was just a little too young.

 

[wallawallakids]

Has anyone done the green grotto caves or the Hilton Rose beach break? We are starting to think about excursions for our trip next April. Our children will be 13, 11, 7, & 7 by then. Thanks!

 

[Homemom]

Has anyone done the green grotto caves or the Hilton Rose beach break? We are starting to think about excursions for our trip next April. Our children will be 13, 11, 7, & 7 by then. Thanks!

We visited the Hilton Rose on our October trip. We got a private taxi at the pier. (Very easy - walked past shops to taxis, found the board on the wall with prices, a woman asked us where we were headed and pointed us to a waiting taxi. The driver was great, gave us his card and told us to have the hotel call him if we changed our mind about return to port time.) We have 2 children 13 & 5 at the time. We called the hotel directly and booked a day room that included food and access to pools, etc. It was a lot cheaper than Disney because they had a kids free deal. There wasn't a lot of beach front, but my children were more interested in the pools/slides.

The pool directly off the hotel.

From the ocean.

The lazy river.

My children loved the slides. For one you had to walk up to the top, enter a pool and slide to another pool. You did this 3 times before you made it to the end pool.

 

[Ofinn]

Homemom This resort looks great. It would cost us 500.00 through Disney. I checked the prices on the Hilton website and I could get a room for 264.00. I'm thinking since were sailing in September the prices may come down. Thanks for the tip.

 

[wallawallakids]

We visited the Hilton Rose on our October trip. We got a private taxi at the pier. (Very easy - walked past shops to taxis, found the board on the wall with prices, a woman asked us where we were headed and pointed us to a waiting taxi. The driver was great, gave us his card and told us to have the hotel call him if we changed our mind about return to port time.) We have 2 children 13 & 5 at the time. We called the hotel directly and booked a day room that included food and access to pools, etc. It was a lot cheaper than Disney because they had a kids free deal. There wasn't a lot of beach front, but my children were more interested in the pools/slides.

Thank you for the information! Looks like a place my kids would really love!

 

[Homemom]

No problem. Here's a picture of the taxi prices from October 2013 so you can add that to your cost as well. Even though we had to pay $100 for the taxi, it still came out cheaper for us than going through Disney.

 

[wallawallakids]

No problem. Here's a picture of the taxi prices from October 2013 so you can add that to your cost as well. Even though we had to pay $100 for the taxi, it still came out cheaper for us than going through Disney.

Thank you for that!

 

[chinarider]

we are going in May and are doing a simple excursion thru Disney. I think it's the plantation and lunch. Will give us an opportunity to see a little bit of Jamaica (we have never been). It's just my DD (19)and myself. I wanted to do the bobsled and falls but, have muscle problems and I bad back and was afraid it would be too much ( same with ziplining etc). I looked into the caves (which we enjoy) however, read a lot about snakes and figure we would skip it. Would stay on the ship however, I'm not sure if we will ever get back to Jamaica and want to see something.

 

[SuzPasq]

If Half Moon offers a day pass of any sort, that is a gorgeous resort. We've stayed at the Hilton Rose Hall a few times when it was a Wyndham, and it's nice, although not as luxurious as Half Moon (or the Ritz Carlton).

Rose Hall Great House is an interesting place to visit, and would only be a 20-30 minute ride from Falmouth. http://www.frommers.com/destinations/montego-bay/attractions/213391