Doctor's Cave Beach

[CruisingYiayia]

We'll be going to Montego Bay in November on Celebrity Reflection. We're thinking we might book the excursion through Celebrity to use some of our OBC. Has anyone done this excursion and what is included for $29 per person? Does it cover admission and chair? Thanks!

[Skai]

Hi,

 

I can't speak to what the ship's tour includes(admission etc.), however this is a very easy DIY(Do-It-Yourself) excursion that we did at our recent port stop at Mo-Bay.

 

There are plenty of (private)mini-buses just outside of the port building clamoring to take ship passengers to Dr.'s Cave Beach(and other locations) for $5USD pp. - Slight downfall being that they will wait until the (Air-Conditioned) van is completely full before departing - This may take up to 10 minutes.

 

Entrance fees for Dr.'s Cave Beach were $6 pp and chair rental was around the same. As we were leaving the beach after a few hours there, our driver's asst.(looking for return fares) approached us asking if we were ready to go back to the ship yet, but we decided that we wanted to walk down the 'Hip Strip' to grap some lunch at the Pork Pit (Jerk BBQ) instead.

 

When we were ready to go back to the ship after lunch, a little shopping and some strolling around, we opted to take a taxi back to the port for $5 pp -- There are NO shortage of taxi drivers asking people for fares here. In fact, I would suggest doing one's best at ignoring the constant and steady barrage of offers until one is ready.

 

So, If you are able to find out if admission & chairs are included in the cost of the ship's tour, the differences aren't that much for the ship's cost($29 pp) vs. the DIY cost($22 pp).

 

The one potential advantage to the DIY option being that there may be more flexibility to one's schedule than the possible fixed timeframe offered by the ship's tour.

 

Either way, we found Dr.'s Cave Beach to be a safe/secure beach, with nice clear water and few to none vendors other than the ones selling water/drinks etc. from the nearby restaurant & bars.

 

It did get pretty crowded as the day progressed. However, when we arrived in the morning, we were able to walk down the beach a little ways from the entrance -- where we found a nice swath of sand and water to ourselves.

Edited August 16, 2015 by Skai