Jamrock Reggae Cruise -- a supposedly irie thing that really wasn't

[Jonny44]

First off, let me say that I am a huge reggae fan and loved the band selection. But it was the execution in 2016 that was horrible. In the previous years, they used a 2,000 passenger capacity ship on a different cruise line (Norwegian). It got so popular that they did it twice in 2015. But you then have to pay the musicians twice so I suspect some profit gouging was the motivation to change to the 4,000+ passenger Independence of the Seas. I am not going to review that ship, it has been done zillions of times so I will just comment that the ship is now middle-aged and could use some rehab.

 

But you don't take the Jamrock cruise for the ship amenities. You take it for the music, of course. But that is my chief complaint: the Independence of the Seas has no venue, not one, that can adequately accommodate 4,000 people. They tried with the main pool deck but even there, you cannot cram 4,000 people. Having said that, they do use the Independence of the Seas successfully for other music cruises such as the Legends of Rock cruise. But in that case, they would split the venues such that you could either see band A at the main stage or band B in the Alhambra theater. That way 4,000 people are spread about so that everybody gets a place to see a show. But Damien Marley (or whoever called the shots) didn't go that route. Instead, they planned each and every concert (but for some minor DJs) for the main stage.

 

That is problematic in that November is still the rainy season in Jamaica. So guess what: it poured rain 3 out of the 5 nights. Horrible. But Marley had no adequate back-up plan. Indeed, nothing was announced the first rain-out night. So I asked a guard: what's up, where will the music be? The fellow misinforms me that it will be in the Promenade. Now if you have seen the Promenade, it is conceivable that you could possibly cram 4,000 people into it. So we waited in the Champagne bar (great bar BTW) for the festivities to begin. But after about 9PM, we got suspicious and started looking. By pure chance, we come upon the Alhambra, which is where the concerts had been re-scheduled. Now realize that the seating capacity in the Alhambra is around 1300. Then illegally pack another 800 or so into the aisles. What a fire disaster waiting to happen, particularly as there was lot of smoking go on. I was surprised that Royal Caribbean would allow such overcrowding of a venue given the obvious fire hazards. But even packed beyond packed, that left 1/2 the boat SOL. Those poor souls had to just grin and bear it: no music for you!

 

In any case, we attempt to get into the theater. My sister-in-law is charming so the crowd stepped asidet and let her and my wife in. But then everybody joined shoulders again and blocked me. So I was allowed in only by indicating I was with the two women who just got in. By a miracle, there was still room for 3 at the extreme front left corner of the back aisle, I got to watch the back of Tarrus Riley's head for my $5,000. But we missed the other acts I wanted to see.

 

The same garbage continued for the next two days of torrential rain. Just one-half of the cruise ship got to see what they wanted. What an unmitigated disaster -- listen, I get it, the "Island way" of management is different from the US way. But you charged me US prices, not Island prices. So at least deliver on what was promised by doing what the other music cruises do and splitting the venues so that everybody gets to see a show.

 

Even if they hadn't had the rain problem, the upper balcony around the main stage was dominated by a group of loafers who arranged loungers all around the balcony. So where hundreds could have seen the show, just the layabouts who parked their loungers got to see (they would stand in front of their loungers and thus dominate about 8 feet of space each). Reminded me of the folks who don't pick up after their dogs, that sort of lack of consideration for others. Yet the cruise did nothing to police the situation, total hands off. If they had kicked the layabouts off the loungers, so many paying customers would be able to enjoy the shows they paid for. But they didn't. The same situation would occur in the Alhambra: a single person would claim 6 or 7 seats for their buddies. But what made it worse in the Alhambra is that, inevitably, only 2/3 of their friends would show up, the others being too partied out I suppose. But that left so many seats empty, despite the lack of space for everybody else. And again, zero was done to mitigate this BS.

 

So carefully consider what I am telling you before forking out thousands like I did. To sum up the lack of management, Damien tells a story during his final show (which was tough to follow because the pool deck had a hurricane-like wind blowing the whole time, note that the outdoor pool deck was never designed to be concert venue). So Damien indicates that Bruno Mars was backstage with him at a gig and was talking to him about some problems he had. And Damien's advice was to go out and get the best marijuana money could buy, that it would solve all his problems. It is that kind of thinking that lead to this disorganized, chaotic, and disappointing experience. Now don't get me wrong, his story was indeed amusing to me but it also points to a certain Jamaican laissez-faire that simply doesn't align when you are charging me $4900 for a balcony room for three. For that kind of money, you need more than weed to solve problems. You need professional management, which was nowhere to be found on the Jamrock cruise. Instead, you just got the top dog blazing the best stuff he could find while half the cruise missed out on what they paid for.

[dacsmom]

First of all Welcome to Cruise Critic.

 

Second, you do realize that JamRock chartered the cruise and your complaints should be directed at them, not at RCI.

 

I have been on many Rock Boats, and a few other music cruises and have had a great time. Sixthman runs a great music cruise, maybe you should look at them for your next one.

[Jonny44]

thanks for the welcome - I am aware that Jamrock chartered the cruise. But Jamrock just supplied the musicians and theme for the charter. The rest of the cruise including security was all Royal Caribbean. They did nothing about the overcrowding of the Alhambra. Nor did they police the upper deck of the main stage.

[pineappleexpress]

I have to agree with you in regards to the poor planning. Hours behind schedule is ridiculous not to mention the lack of an appropriate venue. November hi weather sucked..

[mollyeilis]

Doesn't sound like fun to me.

 

And I'm sure it's been true for a long long time (my mom was a hippie; I was born in San Francisco in 1969, and i have heard some stories that go back further than that) that the organizers of events should be clean and sober, even if their musicians and audiences aren't.

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Sheeba67]

First off, let me say that I am a huge reggae fan and loved the band selection. But it was the execution in 2016 that was horrible. In the previous years, they used a 2,000 passenger capacity ship on a different cruise line (Norwegian). It got so popular that they did it twice in 2015. But you then have to pay the musicians twice so I suspect some profit gouging was the motivation to change to the 4,000+ passenger Independence of the Seas. I am not going to review that ship, it has been done zillions of times so I will just comment that the ship is now middle-aged and could use some rehab.

 

But you don't take the Jamrock cruise for the ship amenities. You take it for the music, of course. But that is my chief complaint: the Independence of the Seas has no venue, not one, that can adequately accommodate 4,000 people. They tried with the main pool deck but even there, you cannot cram 4,000 people. Having said that, they do use the Independence of the Seas successfully for other music cruises such as the Legends of Rock cruise. But in that case, they would split the venues such that you could either see band A at the main stage or band B in the Alhambra theater. That way 4,000 people are spread about so that everybody gets a place to see a show. But Damien Marley (or whoever called the shots) didn't go that route. Instead, they planned each and every concert (but for some minor DJs) for the main stage.

 

That is problematic in that November is still the rainy season in Jamaica. So guess what: it poured rain 3 out of the 5 nights. Horrible. But Marley had no adequate back-up plan. Indeed, nothing was announced the first rain-out night. So I asked a guard: what's up, where will the music be? The fellow misinforms me that it will be in the Promenade. Now if you have seen the Promenade, it is conceivable that you could possibly cram 4,000 people into it. So we waited in the Champagne bar (great bar BTW) for the festivities to begin. But after about 9PM, we got suspicious and started looking. By pure chance, we come upon the Alhambra, which is where the concerts had been re-scheduled. Now realize that the seating capacity in the Alhambra is around 1300. Then illegally pack another 800 or so into the aisles. What a fire disaster waiting to happen, particularly as there was lot of smoking go on. I was surprised that Royal Caribbean would allow such overcrowding of a venue given the obvious fire hazards. But even packed beyond packed, that left 1/2 the boat SOL. Those poor souls had to just grin and bear it: no music for you!

 

In any case, we attempt to get into the theater. My sister-in-law is charming so the crowd stepped asidet and let her and my wife in. But then everybody joined shoulders again and blocked me. So I was allowed in only by indicating I was with the two women who just got in. By a miracle, there was still room for 3 at the extreme front left corner of the back aisle, I got to watch the back of Tarrus Riley's head for my $5,000. But we missed the other acts I wanted to see.

 

The same garbage continued for the next two days of torrential rain. Just one-half of the cruise ship got to see what they wanted. What an unmitigated disaster -- listen, I get it, the "Island way" of management is different from the US way. But you charged me US prices, not Island prices. So at least deliver on what was promised by doing what the other music cruises do and splitting the venues so that everybody gets to see a show.

 

Even if they hadn't had the rain problem, the upper balcony around the main stage was dominated by a group of loafers who arranged loungers all around the balcony. So where hundreds could have seen the show, just the layabouts who parked their loungers got to see (they would stand in front of their loungers and thus dominate about 8 feet of space each). Reminded me of the folks who don't pick up after their dogs, that sort of lack of consideration for others. Yet the cruise did nothing to police the situation, total hands off. If they had kicked the layabouts off the loungers, so many paying customers would be able to enjoy the shows they paid for. But they didn't. The same situation would occur in the Alhambra: a single person would claim 6 or 7 seats for their buddies. But what made it worse in the Alhambra is that, inevitably, only 2/3 of their friends would show up, the others being too partied out I suppose. But that left so many seats empty, despite the lack of space for everybody else. And again, zero was done to mitigate this BS.

 

So carefully consider what I am telling you before forking out thousands like I did. To sum up the lack of management, Damien tells a story during his final show (which was tough to follow because the pool deck had a hurricane-like wind blowing the whole time, note that the outdoor pool deck was never designed to be concert venue). So Damien indicates that Bruno Mars was backstage with him at a gig and was talking to him about some problems he had. And Damien's advice was to go out and get the best marijuana money could buy, that it would solve all his problems. It is that kind of thinking that lead to this disorganized, chaotic, and disappointing experience. Now don't get me wrong, his story was indeed amusing to me but it also points to a certain Jamaican laissez-faire that simply doesn't align when you are charging me $4900 for a balcony room for three. For that kind of money, you need more than weed to solve problems. You need professional management, which was nowhere to be found on the Jamrock cruise. Instead, you just got the top dog blazing the best stuff he could find while half the cruise missed out on what they paid for.

 

sorry to hear that you didn't get to see some of the bands you wanted. I really wanted to go on this cruise to see some of the bands, mainly to see the likes of Toots and Steele Pulse. I would be pissed if we missed them. Hopefully they will take some of this feed back to heart and clean up their act for future cruises. This is a great concept, but may not be practical as you suggest. The other problem I see is the lack of reviews. It is actually hard to find reviews like yours. Thanks for posting.

[Jonny44]

I wanted to see Toots also, but didn't because the deck was too mobbed. Trust me, you will see that there is no venue on the boat that can accommodate 4,000 people.

 

if you go to the Jamrock reggae cruise facebook page, there are plenty of "reviews" to the extent that comments along the lines of "best time ever" can be construed as reviews. In fairness, both my wife and sister-in-law had those sorts of comments. But they didn't toil away to pay for the cruise -- I did. It is not an insignificant amount of cash if you want a balcony room (the only way to go in my opinion), it will run you $4000 for two tickets. And more if you go for the junior suite. So that is the issue I have, they are charging real money but not following through on value.

 

The travel agency responds on the Facebook page that "they cannot control the weather," and that they are sorry if you missed the act you wanted to see. But it has rained at least one night for all of these Jamrock cruises from what I can read. So it wasn't like they couldn't have foreseen this problem.

[MermaidMary]

Great review, Jonny. This was our 3rd Jamrock cruise. On the first cruise, the last night was partially rained out, although there was the now-legendary impromptu atrium show to compensate. We were on the 1st of the 2 ships in 2015, and our last night got completely rained out. The headliner, Capleton, did eventually perform indoors in the atrium, with no band, but the communication was so terrible we had no way of knowing that, so at about 3 am we decided to get some sleep, and were very bummed when it turned out we missed Capleton.

 

The Alhambra Theatre is a better option than the atrium on the Pearl since it does accommodate a band, but it still leaves out over half of the paying customers, as you pointed out, and in addition to the dangerous overcrowding of the aisles there also was a very dangerous situation entering the theatre on Thursday night since there was no policing (or roping) of lines so it was a scary mob coming from all directions when they unlocked the doors. Many of us were afraid we were going to be trampled, but at that point we had no choice, since there was no way to exit the mob.

 

The chair-saving in the theatre was maddening - there is no reason any one person should be allowed to save so many chairs, either in the theatre or on the deck. Either the ship or the Jamrock management needs to come up with a policy on this and enforce it! Or maybe send out some pre-cruise emails in an attempt to channel everyone's "One Love" vibes. Why not SHARE chairs on the deck and in the theatre so that everyone can sit for a few minutes when their feet need a break?

 

Before the cruise we got several emails saying it was a nonsmoking ship, and that we really, really would not be allowed to smoke, other than in the designated smoking areas. Apparently for the cruise the designated smoking area was the ENTIRE SHIP. I was very concerned about fire danger. People were dropping cigarettes on the deck without even putting them out. The only concern for safety I saw from the ship's crew was at the muster drill (which was horrible due to some passengers who thought they could skip it - we had to stand the entire time in straight lines - while on Norwegian at least there was a place to sit while we waited for the latecomers!)

 

The music was excellent, and the lineup spectacular. We skipped dinner 2 nights so that we could get into the theatre for the music, and we did not regret our choice. The sound clash was great also, and the ice skating rink turned out to be a good venue for that. The afternoon concerts on the deck were a blast, and Kabaka Pyramid's early evening concert on the deck was one of the best shows on the cruise.

 

I agree they should use 2 venues each night, and I think it would be perfect in many ways. They could have one schedule for the deck and one for the theatre, with the ice skating rink as a rainout option. I heard many people say they prefer the deck, and others loved the theatre, so on nice nights everyone would be happy! And on rainy nights, at least everyone could get some music. They could also split the concerts based on the genre - roots in one venue, dancehall in the other. Those who like both (like me) could see both, but those who hate dancehall could avoid it entirely.

 

But it does not appear they are going to make any changes to the format for 2017, other than reducing the number of acts per night from 4 down to 3. And the lineup for 2017 is nowhere near as amazing as the first 3 years (still great, but not many true headliners like we've had in the past, and that troubling 25% reduction in the number of artists). So although we put our deposit down back in April, we probably won't go this year - not until they either fix the format or make the lineup great again - preferably both!

[Jonny44]

Hi MermaidMary: I wanted to see Kabaka Pyramid's show also but the schedule was so unpredictable that we missed it. We also missed Toots, Junior Reid, Beenie Man, most of Chakademus, Shinehead, and Bounty Killer. So I suppose it doesn't really matter whether they offer 3 acts or 5 acts every day for the 2017 Jamrock cruise since you inevitably miss so many of the acts given the rainouts and unpredictable scheduling.

 

But I would have to believe that the pool deck on the Norwegian Jamrock cruises was roughly the same size so that it could more adequately accommodate 2,000 instead of trying to cram 4,000 into the Independence of the Seas pool deck. So I wish they had not moved it to the bigger ship, things got lost in the translation. I should have known about Jamrock back then, the earlier cruises must have been better.

 

Despite my complaints, my wife wants to go again so if I have the budget I may even sign up once more since I did love Jamaica, it was really nice. So tropical and different. And the reggae on the Jamrock cruise was outstanding, to the extent that I got to hear it.

[MermaidMary]

Jamaica is indeed wonderful - we went to Doctor's Cave Beach in Montego Bay, and had a great time. It is such a beautiful place to swim! And we did get off the ship in Ocho Rios despite the downpour - we took a cab to Evita's and had a delicious, relaxing lunch. We didn't book any excursions because we have been to Jamaica many times on land vacations, mostly for Sumfest, and we have seen all the sights (some twice!)

 

I hope things will go better on the cruise next year. We still have our deposit down, and are waiting until the first payment is due to make the final decision. Hopefully by then they will have announced the 2 additional daytime performers.