Just of the Dream with a visit to Montego Bay - Review

Montego Bay Excursion Review: Jungle River Tubing Experience. Booked through Carnival. This excursion, as well as many more that are offered in Montego Bay is ran by Chukka. But cruise passengers can’t book through them directly, we had to book through Carnival. Ok, our first excursion ever so that wasn’t a big deal.

Arrived in Mo Bay and fairly quickly was seated in a van\bus and headed to the middle of nowhere for the start of the excursion. Its about a 30 minute ride from port to where the river tubing and the zip line take place.Bus driver was very informative and entertaining. Google “Chukka Cove Adventure Ziplines and Tubing Tour” on google maps to see where the excursions take place. Let’s just say this right here: If you can survive the bus ride to the place, the river tubing will be tame in comparison. They drive on the wrong side of the road, way too fast, the streets are narrow and it isn’t uncommon for oncoming traffic to be in your lane for apparently no reason. And what’s worse, your driver doesn’t seem to care either. No problem mon…

Anyway, after reaching the compound in the jungle, you can rent lockers to put your stuff in. Hot tip: Be one of the first ones off the bus and get in line for the lockers. $5 gets you a locker. Take bug spray. Or,just walk through the bug spray that is being sprayed by everyone else as most seem to think one can per person is minimal!! I can still taste Deep Woods Off.

You get a life jacket and picture made. Maybe to help identify the body later? Stand in line abit and flop in a tube. Tube is nice and has a bottom. You’re then tied to several other tubers and assigned a guide. We had “Shrek” who was a great guide.Yep, looks just like the animation character. Behind us with another group was a guy they call “Donkey”. Lots of banter between the two as we floated downriver.

It had rained considerably the night before and the river was muddy. Wasn’t a problem though. Think lazy river. Shrek pointed out some of the nature around us. Stopped at one point to use a rope swing. Floated on down and reached the landing. Got out and was herded into an army type 6-wheeled truck for the ride back to base. Sit towards the front. That’s all I’m saying!!!!

Back at base we bought jerk chicken which was good. A small store sold trinkets and tourist stuff. Back on the bus for yet another ride through the countryside to the port. This time I rode in the very front seat across from the driver. Big mistake. I would be one of the first to witness any head on wreck we surely were going to be in. Luckily, somehow, we made it back to the port. My stomach gets queasy just thinking about it.

Had some time to kill and I needed some tranquilizers so we headed to Margaritaville. Bargained with a bus driver to reduce his fare for around trip to and from. About $30 for 4. Margaritaville wasn’t crowded and we were seated outside overlooking the water immediately. Ordered drinks and over-priced food. There were inflatables available in the water and I swam outwith the kids so they could use them. Water trampoline was very rusted and the skirt that covers the springs was missing in most places. I know picky right?After a short stay, we dried off, bought a tee shirt and headed back to the ship.

I won’t go back. The excursion was decent, but not worth the ride to the camp. And Jamaica is a poor country. Saw lots of poverty and situations that I didn’t want my kids to see. Pot is smoked and readily available. That doesn’t bother me though. It just isn’t, to me, a happy place. I’ve read on here a few folks say they just stay on ship when porting here. I see why. I want to see ‘happy’ and overall, I didn’t.

Others in our group did the zip line and one couple paid a driver to take them around the island to sight see. Everyone agreed that the different activities were just ‘ok’ and nothing really to get excited about.After visiting Grand Cayman and then Cozumel, Jamaica seems like such a waste of ship fuel. Our experience is just a tiny view of what the island offers. So maybe there are other good reasons to leave the ship. Red Stripe seems to be the highlight of our island adventure.

(Sorry about the formatting. I type this in Word and cut\paste to here. Sometimes the conversion causes words to run together.)