Courtney Taylor Tours May 2013 REVIEW

[tgnorton]

After reading many reviews, decided to book Courtney Taylor tour from Falmouth Jamaica for our excursion from Oasis. We had a large group of 14 and many of them said they wanted to book, but in the end, only my husband, son and I did. We were VERY pleased!

 

Booked the Dunn River Falls/River Tubing Tour. $84 total per person.

 

During our cruise, several in my group decided they wanted to also go with us on Courtney Taylor after they found out that the same tour with cruise line was going to be additional $40 plus it would not be a private tour. Internet was so painfully slow on the ship, we couldn't get it done online. I told them just to come with me to meet Courtney, but they were afraid of not being accommodated so they went with the ship tour. BIG MISTAKE! They had a large bus and had to wait all the time for folks in the group that were lagging behind or not showing up on time. AND, Courtney said he would have accommodated them!

 

Transportation - had a private air conditioned van with Marvelous Marvin as our tour guide. He told us all about the area, stopped when we wanted to get something to drink, helped us go to vendors that accepted AMEX, let us change what the tour was doing and when we wanted to do it. No waiting for others in the group to do their thing and no crowded or loud bus!

 

Dunne Rivers Falls - We got to Dunn Falls early before the big tour groups and had to only wait maybe 5 minutes before our group was walking down to the falls. The rest of our family got there with their big tour group when we were leaving and had to wait 45 minutes in line before their group got down to start the falls. Late comers to their bus and also some kid trying on shoes for about 20 minutes.

 

We couldn't complete the Falls but did walk up the rest of the way and then sat in the cool water at the top. Our awesome Marvin was waiting for us at the top when we decided to leave. Courtney came by to make sure we had everything we needed - wow! Didn't have to wait for others - so AWESOME!

 

Tubing - We were able to leave right away and go to the tubing. The river tubing was a GREAT highlight and definitely recommend it. White River (I think) it was gentle and a little bit of "white water" mixed. Had a really good guide and it was just everything we wanted it to be!

 

Marvin was waiting for us at the end to take us wherever we wanted to go!

 

Lunch - We went to lunch at Scotchies. GREAT food! My 17 y/o son is a super picky eater but LOVED the jerk chicken and pork. He RAVED about the Festival (special Jamaican fried dough). In fact, he ate at least 5 Festivals. Marvin was so nice! He ordered our food for us so we could just sit and relax at a table. The restaurant knows him well, so we got our food way ahead of all other people who were still waiting even though they had ordered before us. :p It was great when Marvin came over at the end to join us. We talked about our dogs and his dogs. FUN!

 

My sister's group was supposed to go there to eat lunch but someone in the group wasn't feeling well, so they never got to eat there and everyone had to return to the ship. :(

 

Shopping - we made the mistake of only bringing our AMEX and not much cash with us. Marvin was able to find shopping that took AMEX and still had good deals. Also, because we were with him, they gave us a cash advance on our AMEX without a charge for it. VERY NICE! Courtney showed up here again, to make sure we had everything we needed - great service!

 

Next - we had the option of doing additional city tour or beach or anything we wanted and that was included in our $84 per person, but we were wiped out with the day so far, so we asked if we could just go back and NO problem at all! It was our day to do as we wanted, when we wanted.

 

Let me say - I highly recommend Courtney Taylor Tours! Can't say enough good things and if you have any questions or concerns, just let me know.

[Keith1010]

Excellent review. Thank you for writing and posting it.

 

Keith

[Ronaldo807]

Great review. A few questions.

 

Was it only the three of you? I thought he had a 4 person minimum?

 

Does Scotchies accept credit cards?

 

Did you tip Marvin at the end? If so, how much did you give him (if you don't mind me asking)?

[tgnorton]

Great review. A few questions.

 

Was it only the three of you? I thought he had a 4 person minimum?

 

Does Scotchies accept credit cards?

 

Did you tip Marvin at the end? If so, how much did you give him (if you don't mind me asking)?

 

Yes, it was just 3 of us, so we paid an extra $40 (the transportation fee).

 

Scotchies accepted credit cards from us because we were with Marvin/Courtney. Not sure if they accept unless you are with someone they know = that's what Marvin said.

 

We tipped Marvin $40 ($10 per person * 4 (should have been) people). Don't know what other people tip, but we thought this was fair as it was 25% of the transportation fee and he was with us all day.

[jjw1012]

I booked with Courtney Taylor in Oct of 2011 and he was awesome!! It was just my friend and i and he took us to Dunns River, zip lining, Scotchies, and Juici beef patties..felt like we were with a friend and not a tour guide..i will be in Jamaica again in Sept and already booked with him!

[clinthi]

Where did you meet him when you got off the ship?

[jjw1012]

When we got off there was a lady at the gates asking what tour u are with and she has him come meet you right there

[Ubiquitous Cruiser]

This past April we met him near the end of the shopping village. We asked some of the tour workers milling around where to meet Courtney. They directed us to the back right corner of the village.

 

So exit the ship and stay to the right of the shopping village. The Habano (cigar) store is next to one of the last shops on the right ... Turn at that corner (right) and all of the private tour guides were clustered there. Not sure if that's their designated area, but there were a bunch of them standing there. Ask one for Courtney & they'll point him out ...

 

It's very easy and you're completely safe ... The entire port is guarded and you won't be hassled.

[livingis2me]

I'm glad to see these great reviews about Marvyn. He recently started his own touring company and we booked him for November. I haven't met him yet, but I've read so many reviews about Courtney's tours where the reviewer had Marvyn (Marvelous Marvin) as their driver and liked him. He seems like a great guy.

 

I found out about him thanks to a thread that was here on this board just a few days ago but I can't find it anymore.

 

We're excited to visit Jamaica, especially the Blue Hole.

 

Ron