The Falls in Jamaica

[DisneyUD]

Hello! I have heard some stories that have made me question if the falls in Jamaica are worth it. Does anyone have any insight? There will be six of us. My sister and husband hate crowds and my brother and I are not a fan of heights. Is the scenery worth the trip and hassle at the end? Did you feel safe?

We have it books through Disney Cruise line, but are thinking of canceling the excursion and just staying on the ship or checking out port.

Thank you in advance for any insight.

 

[carolynsanta]

Hello.
You have to go to the Falls!!! They are so much fun. I have been twice now, once on my honeymoon (non Disney related) and the second time 2 years ago on the Western Caribbean Cruise. We booked through Disney and took our 10 year old son at the time. There is climbing involved, but nothing too bad. If it is a slippery or steep section, they will ask you to form a chain (holding hands). Everyone helps each other.
The boat ride over to the Falls and back was so much fun. The tour guides were great. You can't go to Jamaica and not have a good time. We were dancing on the boat.
I believe if you don't want to climb the Falls, you can walk on a paved path alongside. But the fun is in doing it!

What I wouldn't do in Jamaica, is venture off on your own.

Hope this helps!!!

 

[DCSWO]

People seem to have mixed experiences. This is one point of view: http://travel.cnn.com/explorations/life/15-worlds-worst-tourist-traps-077541/

 

[mevelandry]

When are you going? It's our excursion when we go to Jamaica in October... I could come back and tell you what I thought of it.

 

[lorimay]

We have this booked for our Sept. 30th cruise, looking forward to it.
The pictures look so cool.

 

[Capt_BJ]

we go 'up the middle'

 

[MSPeeler]

I'm with OP. FIL and DH really want to do this, but I am not too keen on the "exiting" situation of having sellers within a foot of mine and my young children's personal space trying to sell stuff. Then making rude comments when we don't. If I want a souvineer, I will look for one.

Also, I've heard the tour guide REALLY makes a difference in your experience. So it's a roll of the dice. We aren't experienced or brave enough to do the excursion on our own.

 

[mevelandry]

I'm with OP. FIL and DH really want to do this, but I am not too keen on the "exiting" situation of having sellers within a foot of mine and my young children's personal space trying to sell stuff. Then making rude comments when we don't. If I want a souvineer, I will look for one.

Also, I've heard the tour guide REALLY makes a difference in your experience. So it's a roll of the dice. We aren't experienced or brave enough to do the excursion on our own.

I heard bad stuff about the vendors too. I haven't been there yet but my guess (I could be wrong) is that it might be a bit less intense if you are part of a group (excursion) than if you are on your own?

 

[Love2Cruise2015]

My family and I will be on the Disney Western Caribbean Cruise in April 2018 and I am having mixed feelings about the Falls excursion as well. Does anyone have any advice on the shopping near the ship?

 

[DisneyUD]

We will be there end of July

 

[DisneyUD]

Thank you for all of your help! Still trying to decide what to do. Is the port area nice?

 

[carolynsanta]

Let me shed some light on the "vendor situation". It's really not a big deal.
2 years ago we chose to do the Falls excursion via DCL. We were in a large group. We didn't even see the vendors until you are at the top of the Falls area.
If you have young kids, take them by the hand and just walk by. You don't have to run or brace yourself for your life. Lol. Just politely say "no thank you" and keep walking. No big deal!

In Cozumel, we decided to do the Dune buggy/snorkel/beach/lunch excursion. Sine I don't snorkel, I found a nice lounge chair where I could wait for my family and relax. Literally every 3 minutes I was being hounded by someone walking by my chair trying to sell me drinks or souvenirs. I found that far more intrusive and annoying.

That said, I would not venture off into Jamaica on my own. I would pick a DCL excursion.

 

[flyersfan1129]

We did this about two years ago, and will never do it again. The vendors literally grabbed our table mate's daughter, and when we stopped to help, they grabbed my husband. When we began, finally, to walk away, the vendors followed us, screaming that we had stolen from them. It is a shame, because the Falls are really gorgeous and it was a lot of fun. We did the Bobsled/Falls combo, and that market area really spoiled what had been a great excursion.

 

[soniam]

We did the falls on our honeymoon. We probably wouldn't do it again, but I think our son will enjoy it. So we will be doing the falls and the bobsleds in August. My gut makes me think that the falls may not be for your group. Are you guys adventurous? The height at the falls didn't bother DH, who has a fear of falling, but it's not much of a fall. It's kind of hard and really wet and slimy too. The vendors are annoying and have actually tainted me a bit for other excursions.

Let me shed some light on the "vendor situation". It's really not a big deal.
2 years ago we chose to do the Falls excursion via DCL. We were in a large group. We didn't even see the vendors until you are at the top of the Falls area.
If you have young kids, take them by the hand and just walk by. You don't have to run or brace yourself for your life. Lol. Just politely say "no thank you" and keep walking. No big deal!

In Cozumel, we decided to do the Dune buggy/snorkel/beach/lunch excursion. Sine I don't snorkel, I found a nice lounge chair where I could wait for my family and relax. Literally every 3 minutes I was being hounded by someone walking by my chair trying to sell me drinks or souvenirs. I found that far more intrusive and annoying.

That said, I would not venture off into Jamaica on my own. I would pick a DCL excursion.

Ugh! We did the falls and the dune buggies too. I found it annoying as well. I was reluctant to do the falls again because of the hard sell experience there and in Cozumel, but I think DS will like the falls.

 

[carolynsanta]

Flyersfan- so sorry to hear about the experience you had! Was it during a Disney cruise on a DCL run excursion?

 

[DisneyUD]

We did the falls on our honeymoon. We probably wouldn't do it again, but I think our son will enjoy it. So we will be doing the falls and the bobsleds in August. My gut makes me think that the falls may not be for your group. Are you guys adventurous? The height at the falls didn't bother DH, who has a fear of falling, but it's not much of a fall. It's kind of hard and really wet and slimy too. The vendors are annoying and have actually tainted me a bit for other excursions.

I am thinking that we might not do this anymore. While we are adventurous, I feel that many of us would be worried about the end or the long drive. We have been blessed to have visited many other beautiful sites and waterfalls around the world. We might just skip this one.

Thank you so much for everyone's feedback! We are doing the Segways in Cozumel. Always a family favorite

 

[SunDevilFanAZ]

We just did the falls a couple of weeks ago and I documented part of it in my quick post on the Fantasy 6/10-6/17.

Now overall we had a very unpleasant experience in Jamaica. I did not enjoy it. But you asked about the Falls specifically so I will answer your question as it relates only to the falls.

The falls take about 30-60 mins to climb up. That is after you wait in line to get into the falls. We had to wait 60 minutes just to get down to the water. The water for the falls is not that cold but not tropical warm either. You daisy chain hand hold your way up the various levels of rocks. It is surprisingly doable to hike up. I was surprised that it wasn't slick but our guide said they scrub the rocks each morning to remove algae.

There are a couple of exit points along the way unless you go all he way up. I took my 11 year old up them when my wife and 8 year old gave up after they got tired of waiting in line for an hour. My 8 year old is the more cautious type so he would not have enjoyed it.

The hike itself is a relatively short distance, only a few hundred feet. To me it is a lot like Slide Rock in Sedona here in Arizona. That made it something that was unimpressive to me. I expected a real hike up the falls not a football field's distance.

Now that should help with the actual falls themselves. The vendors at the end were not pleasant for us to deal with. As for the rest of our day in Jamaica we were cursed with a bad guide and long wasteful day other than the 20 minutes swimming with the sharks. The end result of 6/7 hours in jamaica was standing around with an inept guide and nothing to do.

I already knew beforehand from others that the falls were similar to what we have here therefore something unimpressive. Others may feel differently.

i hope that helps clear some things up.

 

[DisneyUD]

Yes! Thank you so much for your input.

 

[kiford]

We felt it was the highlight of our cruise. I had thought that the excursion was basically just a walk up along the side of the falls so I was rather lukewarm on doing it. But we decided to put on bathing suits and shirts that morning because we'd heard that there were some pools of water. I was a little daunted after finding out that you actually climb up in the middle but it wasn't too difficult and there were lots of stops in various pools partway up. We had a great guide - I don't know that I would do it without a guide. I'd do it again. It wasn't too busy - constant groups but no waiting.

I am not too keen on the "exiting" situation of having sellers within a foot of mine and my young children's personal space trying to sell stuff.

I barely noticed that there were any vendors. I don't really have a problem ignoring them, however. They couldn't have been as bad as the ones in Turkey near the port or in Tunisia in the Medina so maybe I've just learned how to tune them out. But I don't recall them being particularly aggressive.

Is the port area nice?

Yes. It's been recently built. You can't get into the port area without showing identification that you either work there or you are on one of the ships. Good duty free shop. Found my favourite Jamaican rum which we can't get at home. I wouldn't leave the enclosed area on my own though and there's nothing right outside of or near the area that I would bother with.

 

[sambycat]

we went to dunns river falls as an excursion on the podcast cruise (RCL) last december. we encountered none of the issues i am reading about here. it was super fun and we have many great memories of this excursion (it was a combo snorkel/falls excursion. i don't remember the cost, but i know all cruise lines seem to use similar/same vendors, so i thought i would throw in my 0.02)