ventura: change of itinery

[dab1952]

Our cruise itinery on 29th Jan has been changed so that we are now berting at Montego bay Rather than Ochios Rios. Does anyone know what the travelling time is from there to visit the Dunnes River falls?:p

[ROSEBASKETS]

Sorry, can't help re the travelling time, but you ain't missing nothin' in Ocho Rios apart from the baying 500 tour guides and 100 hair braiders at the front gates. Hopefully your stop in Montego Bay will be less arduous

[marylizcat]

Thanks for posting that. Nobody has notified us, but on checking the cruise personaliser, I see it is indeed so. That is an absolute nuisance. I have a private tour booked from Ocho Rios. Dunns River Falls is a long way from Montego Bay, and I was looking forward to going there! Also to some other places in the area. There are no P & O excursions listed yet for Montego Bay, I see. A complete pain in the neck!

[marylizcat]

Have checked on the Jamaica board and apparently it takes about one and a half hours to drive from Montego Bay to Dunns River Falls. Great!

[CRUMB]

The roads around there aren't great either so that will be a long journey!

[marylizcat]

I have also noticed that they have changed the sequence of the islands visited, so we are there on different days. This means that I shall have to contact all the local tour operators and get them to change the date booked for a tour. A nuisance plus the worry that they might still turn up on the wrong day. Changes lead to confusion!

 

I think it is too far to go to Dunns River Falls and there seems to be little of interest in the Mo Bay area.

 

All in all, I'm not too pleased with P & O. Rather doubt we shall be cruising with them again!

[Merlin7]

Ports are changed. It's a fact and a risk that you take when cruising.

 

If you book a private shie excursion then ensure that payment is only due at the end of the tour in case the ship cannot berth there for any reason.

 

It is very foolish to book a private tour and pay in advance, IMO.

 

BTW, Dunns River Falls is well worth a longish drive to get there although we docked at Ocho Rios. Did a memorable private tour at a very reasonable cost.

[Somerset Cruiser]

We did Dunns from Montego Bay and don't recall it being a particularly long or hard journey.

 

Treat it as an 'extra' there is always plenty to see from the window of a bus in Jamacia. IMO the best place to see Jamacia from.

[marylizcat]

Ports are changed. It's a fact and a risk that you take when cruising.

 

If you book a private shie excursion then ensure that payment is only due at the end of the tour in case the ship cannot berth there for any reason.

 

It is very foolish to book a private tour and pay in advance, IMO.

 

BTW, Dunns River Falls is well worth a longish drive to get there although we docked at Ocho Rios. Did a memorable private tour at a very reasonable cost.

 

Obviously, I know that ports can be changed. However, this does not stop me being disappointed! Also it would be nice to actually be notified and given a reason. I am accustomed to missing ports due to bad weather. However, I suspect this change is to suit P & O's convenience. Ocho Rios was down as a tender port and my feeling is that they prefer to actually dock at Mo Bay. Another reason for disappointment as I enjoy tendering!

 

I did not say I had paid for any private excursions. Only an idiot would pay in advance! Anyway, no payments have been asked for.

[Merlin7]

Obviously, I know that ports can be changed. However, this does not stop me being disappointed! Also it would be nice to actually be notified and given a reason. I am accustomed to missing ports due to bad weather. However, I suspect this change is to suit P & O's convenience. Ocho Rios was down as a tender port and my feeling is that they prefer to actually dock at Mo Bay. Another reason for disappointment as I enjoy tendering!

 

I did not say I had paid for any private excursions. Only an idiot would pay in advance! Anyway, no payments have been asked for.

 

 

If you accept that ports can be changed then why be so disapointed??

 

We have sometimes not been notified until embarkation that the order of all ports had been changed. We recently were never notified that we would not be dockng at Tampa due to some idiot at P&O miscalculating the clearance under the bridge on the approach. Also, we did not tender at Ocho Rios.

 

We have missed ports, on never to be repeated cruises, such as a world cruise. Far more disappomting than Europe or the Caribbean, which can be repeated at some future time.

 

Get over the disappointment and look forward to your cruise.You may have been on board before you were informed and could do nothing about it,not even rearrange all those no payable in advanxe excursions.

[marylizcat]

Your sympathy is much appreciated Merlin7. I am sure you must gain many friends with your attitude.

 

(And what has the fact that you did not tender at Ocho Rios got to do with anything?)

[Merlin7]

Obviously, I know that ports can be changed. However, this does not stop me being disappointed! Also it would be nice to actually be notified and given a reason. I am accustomed to missing ports due to bad weather. However, I suspect this change is to suit P & O's convenience. Ocho Rios was down as a tender port and my feeling is that they prefer to actually dock at Mo Bay. Another reason for disappointment as I enjoy tendering!

 

I did not say I had paid for any private excursions. Only an idiot would pay in advance! Anyway, no payments have been asked for.

 

 

Attitude??? Look at my helpful post for members visiting this port re: excursions etc.and consider you response. Seems you are one of many that can only find fault and any petty reason not to cruise with P&O again.

 

Once again, we did not tender at Ocho Rios, was a reply to your post that it was a tender port. Do read posts before you respond so aggressively. This forum is for useful advice to fellow cruisers, not gaining points.

[ROSEBASKETS]

Now, now children, play nicely :)

[Elaine0138]

P&O seem to change the order of ports or change ports quite a lot, never happened on other lines I have sailed on unless for bad weather.

It is a pain if you have arranged private tours, we only had notifications the day before we left home, were fortunate to be able to contact the tour operator but she was unable to take our party as she was already booked on our new date.

[CRUISENSNOOZE]

Our cruise itinery on 29th Jan has been changed so that we are now berting at Montego bay Rather than Ochios Rios. Does anyone know what the travelling time is from there to visit the Dunnes River falls?:p

Hi Dab 1952

Feel sorry for you as Montego Bay is awful and agree Falls are too far on their roads. Whenever we now stop in Jamaica we don't even get off the ship!! - Only island we hate.

Chris

[Merlin7]

There is so much scaremongering regarding Jamaica on many cruise forums, as to beggar belief.

 

Anywhwere is unsafe if you do not take care, even large cities in the UK.

 

We had a great day in Jamaica with a local tour guide, and saw and did far more than with a ship's tour.

[Somerset Cruiser]

There is so much scaremongering regarding Jamaica on many cruise forums, as to beggar belief.

 

Anywhwere is unsafe if you do not take care, even large cities in the UK.

 

We had a great day in Jamaica with a local tour guide, and saw and did far more than with a ship's tour.

 

I disagree Merlin, I don't think too much care can be taken in Jamacia, trips are ok whether they be ships or independant, but wandering the streets is a risk. To tell anyone otherwise is untrue.

 

Nowhere is 100% safe but I would rate Jamacia as a long way from that.

[darknightsdespiser]

Very interesting! The Princess cruise I am just back from went to Ocho Rios and had we had such a good time that was thinking of booking a P & O one purely because Princess not going there anymore; really useful to know they do actually change the stops. Dunns River Falls is not the only attraction, Mystic Mountain offers the chairlift and bobsled which was just amazing fun and around 10 min taxi ride from the port.

 

Docked at Montego Bay last year and had brilliant trip to the beach at Negril, (around one hour I think). As a previous post has mentioned Jamaica does get a lot of scaremongering but we found no bother with these areas and organised tours.

[lancashire_cruisers]

We were in Jamaica earlier this year, on the same cruise as Merlin in fact, and unfortunately I believed the hype about Jamaica being dangerous etc. etc. (mostly coming from the ports of call board of this forum) and as we had our then 10 year old DD with us I wasn't prepared to take a chance going ashore.

 

My husband, however, did go ashore to take some photos of the ship and buy some souvenirs (blue mountain coffee etc.). He didn't get an ounce of hassle from anyone and wasn't offered drugs at all. His experience was the everyone he came into contact with was friendly and took 'no' for an answer (unlike St Lucia but don't even get me started on that dump!).

 

I now bitterly regret the decision to stay on the ship:( and wish I hadn't taken as much heed of the hysteria that seemed to dominate the forum at the time.

 

Debbie:)

[aussiepaula]

We went to dunns falls in november, we did dock in ocho rios tho. It was so worth going. It was extra busy tho as there were people from other ships docked around Jamica as well, but so worth going. Make sure u get water shoes in advance and there is a fee of $15 us dollars to get into the falls which we didnt know, but worth it.