Falmouth?

[DebJ14]

Royal Caribbean has now postponed stops until mid February.

 

Yes they have - check your new itineraries because some of them are completely rearranged. You might need to change your private excursions.

[mstelly]

Yes they have - check your new itineraries because some of them are completely rearranged. You might need to change your private excursions.

 

USA Today article:

http://travel.usatoday.com/cruises/post/2011/01/royal-caribbean-falmouth-jamaica/137087/1

[chiapet]

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=4378

[Capt. Johnny]

It would be great to get some feedback from cruisers who have just visited Falmouth.

[carribbeanmic]

http://www.cruisecritic.com/news/news.cfm?ID=4378

You cant always believe what you read in the papers or on the official articles on Cruise Critic. I was on the the 2nd arrival Feb 24 on Navigator of the Seas. We were met by a very large marching band upon debarking. There was many offiial port authority people in uniform to guide px where to go. I did a private tour with General Bailey to MoBay. We met right outside the main gate. Before leaving the gate, an official took all our names and cabin #s and checked out out tour guides documents before letting us out to the van. We were very safe. They checked us back into port the same way.

 

The Falmouth site was very much under construction, the people working the port were extremely friendly and grateful of our visit. No one was trying to sell (at the moment) the lady in the restrooms took pride in her work and was very gracious. People on stilts, music and dancing were all around inside the port. It will be lovely when done. Outside the port in Falmouth there was a large numbers of people just looking at the port. I am glad I was not driving, so many people in the streets just looking at the new business.

 

With wwwadmiralbaileytransportationservicesjamaica.com we did not have to wait to start our tour. He was very affordable and got us back to the ship on time. Marilyn

[psciotti]

Was just there on the Navigator Feb 21st sailing and had pretty much the same experience as carribbeanmic. Lots of happy people around and a jam packed town. We did an RCI tour and they did not do the taking your names thing before boarding the bus. On the way back to the port our driver actually went into to the wrong pier return gate and we had to go thru "main st" falmouth to get to the other. Ther were hundreds (and I do mean hundreds) of locals in town hanging, kids getting out of school and traffic was absurd.

 

Just note that the boat was supposed to leave pier at 4P and we were still waiting for people to board at 4:45. My cabin was looking into the bridge overhang and the Captain and 2 others were watching for the last 1/2 hour... they did not look pleased. Not sure how long this will last before they start leaving people behind or altering the official RCI tours. We even altered our route back to Lauderdale by retracing our steps down rather than making a complete loop (guessing it was quicker).

[bilboinsa]

This is my update on Falmouth as of 4 days ago:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IMHO, Falmouth is not ready. You are basically forced to tour from there, unless you have a great insight to some well-hidden resort nearby. Kudos to those that do. To the rest of us, even the taxis at Rose Hall have been banned (via gates) so the option of taxi'ing into other MoBay areas was verbotten. The economical/sociological/philosophical discussions about Falmouth will go on. For me, lovely people, but not a good port.......yet.

[dfgf]

IMHO, Falmouth is not ready....For me, lovely people, but not a good port.......yet.

 

I'll second that. We were there 10 days ago. We had arranged for a tour to Ocho Rios for my group of 6 - I was the only one with any experience in Jamaica. If the ship had docked in Ocho Rios we would have had a fantastic trip - hired our own taxi, gone to Dunn's River Falls, then had a nice lunch and explored the shops/port area. Instead we hired a driver and went to the time, trouble and expense of getting to Ocho Rios and back. That's 90+ minutes spent in a car that we could have spent enjoying ourselves.

 

I think it will be great a few years from now. But for right now, the Falmouth port is a big disappointment. Even when it's finished and has bars and restaurants - it's going to feel more like Labadee than it is a real country separate from Royal Caribbean.

[dfgf]

Oops - double post.

[smithley]

We were on Voyager in March and took the Heritage Walking Tour as a ship excursion. My husband and I ended up with basically a private tour that was very interesting and quite leisurely. You do need to keep your eyes open for some uneven pavement, but the pace allowed us plenty of time to do that. The historical background on the town was very thorough as was the commentary on the Georgian architecture. It was especially nice to stroll around the neighborhoods and see some of the churches and schools. We never felt unsafe nor harassed and we got back to the immediate port area with plenty of time for milling about and having some rum punch. Although the port still has quite a ways to go, we think it definitely holds promise.

[calgary mom]

We are going to try to go to the Rose Hall Hilton for a day of beach and sun. Hopefully it will be a great day. There website is http://www.jamaicaforaday.com/Falmouth_Jamaica_Shore_Excu.html

I will let you know what it's like when we get back!

[amancuso]

Is there a beach within walking distance? My husband really just wants to go to a beach and we don't want to go all the way to Ochos Rios or Montego Bay for a beach.

[ChickonRules]

Is there a beach within walking distance? My husband really just wants to go to a beach and we don't want to go all the way to Ochos Rios or Montego Bay for a beach.

 

I would like to know too.

[OkieGeezer]

We were in Falmouth on April 14th. The buildings are just shells. All the vendors are outside on the sidewalks. They did have bands and music most of the day and lots of friendly greeters. They are providing free shuttles to another shopping center (Rose Hall, I think). The port still looks like the pictures in bilboinsa's post of April 4th.

[anniversay/grad trip]

When we booked our upcoming cruise (May 28th aboard Oasis) we were told by RCI that the port was at that time near completion and by our cruise it would surly be up and running. This is obviously not the case...and the private tours from this port are pricing due to the travel time required. I hate to go somewhere and not leave the ship. So, what would be considered a good tour for say half a day that sees some of the points of interest? Is there open air buses/trolleys available when you disembark that will take you around for a few hours? When we were in Puerto Rico and various other caribbean islands these types of tours were available for around $30pp for 2-3 hours. Anyone that has been seen anything like this? or is it just booked private or RCI sponsored tours.

[neptune18]

Can you get a taxi at Rose Hall to MoBay?