Our first port day on our 10-night Princess sailing! Today we visited Jamaica. Jamaica is Eastern Standard Time, but they don’t observe daylight savings. So for half the year, they’re one hour behind us. We set our clocks back an hour last night and the extra hour of sleep was refreshing!
I booked our excursions months ago and was torn between booking directly with Princess Cruise Line or with a third-party. For this particular excursion, I opted for booking with Shore Excursion Group. The main reason for doing this is that through Shore Excursion Group, I could book into a small group. Small group travel is so much easier for special needs and children! Also, I could book Dunn’s River Falls and river tubing for today versus only Dunn’s River Falls with the cruise line.
Our instructions told us to stop at the Jamaica Tourism Desk once we left the ship. We stopped at this pretty basic table and honestly, the main reason I recognized it is because I’m already familiar with the tourism board logo from being a travel agent. I think most people would have missed the table. Anyway, he told us to proceed outside to the white tents.
Through the little town we walked and at the other end was a collection of white tents. There were several white tents so I asked for clarification from one of the port workers. She directed our attention to a couple in the far distance and told us to follow them. We turned right of the main white tents to a path that led to another parking lot. There in the corner was a smaller hidden white tent! We checked in with Yardie Tours and we waited under the canopy. We waited 30 minutes past our meet-up time and then we were headed out.
The cruise tours left in mega coach buses while our tour left with a small van. We had 8 passengers in the van not including the tour guide and driver. Interestingly, there were three different tour variations for the 8 of us. One lady was signed up for horseback riding so the van pulled over at the ranch where she got out. She was passed to another Yardie Tours guide. The van continued to Dunn’s River Falls where the rest of us were headed.
This is my fourth time to Jamaica, but my first time to Dunn’s River Falls. I really wanted to go here the first time we came to Jamaica, but we were staying in Negril and the falls are in Ocho Rios. The two towns are not near each other. The stars finally aligned and we were doing this!
Our shuttle pulled into the parking lot where we were each given a wristband for entry. Dunn’s River Falls is inside a park and the falls are visited with a Dunn’s River guide who was different from our Yardie guide. The hike begins at the beach and then you walk up the river against the current to the top of the falls. Odds are, you’ve seen a picture of Dunn’s River Falls. What is not obvious in the pictures is how long of a hike it is. I don’t know the distance, but it took us about an hour. There are several climbs broken up with flatter areas. It’s a large tourist attraction with a lot of people, but it’s a rare place where the crowd doesn’t negatively impact the experience. In fact, I think it’s useful as a group activity. Our small group merged with some of the cruise ship groups for this particular part of the journey. Before we began the ascent, our guide strategically moved people to ensure anyone needing extra assistance was near someone strong.
Princess Cruise Line was the only ship docked today at Falmouth so many of the hikers today were 60 or older. I think most of us were surprised about what the hike entailed. Brian, my son, and I had no issues with the physical demands of the hike, but it was challenging for some in the group. Throughout most of the hike, we’re all holding each other’s hands so if one person falls, there are two people available to stabilize that person. My son was in front of me and a 50 year old guy was on the other side. Next to him was a woman probably in her 70s and another gentleman next to him that was roughly the same age. After the first section, the 50 year old moved one position back to stabilize the two older folks. I hope that when I’m in my mid-70s that I’m still able to be that active!
The waterfall was a beautiful shade of blue and the water was crystal clear. It was a hot day and it felt so refreshing. The hardest part for my son was the water temperature. Since he’s obviously so much shorter, there were several parts where the water was up to his chest. It’s refreshing when your legs and feet are in the cool water, but you get really cold when you’re submerged. His teeth began to chatter and I started to carry him when we were on flat terrain. This put his body back in the sun and gave him bursts of warmth. We all loved this activity!
After the falls we met back up with Denise who is our Yardie Guide and she led us back to the van. Our small group of seven passengers piled back into the van and off we went. Earlier I mentioned that there were three different tours. Here is where another group broke off. One of the tours was Dunn’s River plus local shopping. The van pulled into a shopping district and tour guide, Denise, exited the van with the couple who signed up for this tour. The remaining five of us had signed up for Dunn’s River plus river tubing so off we went to tube! The van dropped us off at Calypso Rafting where we signed in and a guide was ready to take us in the river. The van left to meet us down the river and we gathered our tubes and life jackets and headed in. The black tubes were tied with ropes and each included a board for the bottom of the raft. This was especially helpful for my son as his little body would have been too small to tube without it. The guide strapped lifejackets onto each one of us, but then when we went to enter the river, we were allowed to take them off, but they had to stay in our raft. My son of course had his on the whole time, but the rest of us removed them.
Similar to Dunn’s River, we daisy-chained ourselves to each other. The beginning of the journey had quite a few small rapids, and the very first one flipped my son's tube over despite the fact that we were holding onto his tube. Luckily, he flipped onto my legs and I was able to catch him and pull him into my tube. The next round of rapids we developed a much better strategy where Brian and I both used out feet to hold down his tube. The guide also paid special attention to my son the rest of the journey and we didn’t have a repeat event. The river also calmed down after the initial set of rapids. The river was a similar beautiful color as Dunn’s River Falls and it was a relaxing journey. The tubing was shorter than I expected, but it was because we had a deadline for being back to the ship. If we were staying at a resort, there were a few parts we could have spent more time. There was an area with platforms to jump and tire swings. There were also areas for snacks and drinks. It was a well-spent day in Jamaica!
We arrived back at the ship around 4pm and we were famished! Our driver offered to stop for food, but as a group we decided to go back. Our first stop onboard was to the grill to grab a very late lunch. We then went back to the cabin for warm showers and soon enough it was dinner time. Back to the cabin for some much needed rest!
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