Is Scheduled Ocho Rios Now Mo Bay Instead?

[bucsat1]

Leaving Thanksgiving on the Star and I realize things may change many times before then, but is the Star using Mo Bay now consistently instead of Ocho Rios? It really would effect the shore excursion situation.

[shellfreak]

We were on the Star last Easter. Our first cruise. If you haven't been on her before you will love her. Mo Bay, for us, was another story. We were supposed to go to Ocho Rios and they changed it to Mo Bay at the last minute, which Princess has every right to do. Everyone wants to do the Falls and some people made arrangements to go from Mo Bay and they had a great time. Jamaica was beautiful to look at when we arrived. It is sad that such a pretty place has such poverty. If you didn't have a Mo Bay excursion booked and toured by yourselves it was scary. (Again it was our first time out and we learned a lot.) We took a cab to Margaritaville (full of drunk college kids) had a drink and walked to the beach. Must have been asked 100 times in a 5-minute walk if we needed "something for the head mon." From the beach we took a cab to the shopping area stayed 10 min and went back to the ship. There were just to many people approaching us and eyeing our backpacks (they held our snorkel gear). When we reboarded the ship there was a lot of disappointed people. So, if you can book an excursion do it. No matter what enjoy your cruise.

[negc]

We have just returned from a week at Sunset Beach Hotel and Resort in MoBay (saw the Star Princess and P&O Oceana while we were there). Even though it was Spring Break, downtown on the afternoon we went there, was quiet and we encountered no problems walking on the "Hip Strip" where Margaritaville and Doctor's Cave Beach are located. Now we are in our sixties which may be why we weren't offered anything "for the head", but we never felt unsafe. There were police officers on the street but they were fairly unobtrusive. We found a small shopping plaza which was very low key and without aggressive sales people and even enjoyed some delicious Italian gelato. We took a day trip to Negril and visited a couple of resorts there and, in general, had a wonderful time under perfect weather conditions. We will be in MoBay next Fall when our cruise ship docks there and are planning to take our kids and grandkids to Doctor's Cave Beach. Cab fare and the admission fee to the beach facility are quite reasonable.

I can't say how downtown may be in the evening but since you are on a cruise, that really isn't an issue either.

Actually, on our trips to Ocho Rios we found much more aggressive vendors and even they could be handled with a firm, polite "no thank you".:) If you keep walking and don't stop, you should not have a serious problem in either port.

[GezWhiz]

We sailed the Star last year the end of March and they went to Montego Bay then. I personally didn't like it there. Margaritaville was full of drunk college kids and was so small you could hardly move. Got a drink there just to say we were there. The people were in your face always wanting you to buy something. Could hardly wait until we got back to the ship. Next time when the ship hits that port we will not be getting off. The rest of the cruise was great. Really enjoyed the balcony, would not do it any other way now that we have had the opportunity to see what it was like having a room with a balcony.