Dunns river falls info & warning!

[wdblake]

We just got back from a Celebrity Century cruise. We decided to make our way to Dunns River falls. On the taxi board it now says $8 per person. Our taxi driver to our surprise only charged us $8 for a round trip. Be sure to haggle before getting your cab. Admission is still $15 and water shoe rental is $5.

***Warning*** when you go to leave be sure to exit to the left where the entrance is. If you follow the signs to the tour bus it will take you through their shopping gauntlet. There you will be harrassed and grabbed by the vendors trying to sell you trinkets and pot. They are over the top and actually physically grab your group members. The children in our group were very scared by the over aggressiveness of these vendors.

If you exit by the entrance you avoid this completely.

[lenape]

When you say exit by the entrance do you mean to go out the entrance? Thanks

[Setme2sail]

Yes, that is what they mean, go out through the exit. Sen is telling the truth about how aggressive and pushy the vendors are. We had children in our group and they actually would put woven bracelets on their arms then demand payment. Just be cautious.:eek:

[wdblake]

Exactly, exit through the entrance...it's close to the exit.

[dz63]

Thanks for the heads up - we are visiting Dunn's Falls in July with children.:)

 

dz

[cruzdreamin]

We just got back from our cruise 3/35-4/1 and visited Dunns River Falls. We found the people in Jamaica to be absolutely wonderful. It was me, hubby and 2 kids (16 and 12). As we were walking away from the falls we gave a simple no thanks with a smile to the vendors and they didn't push at all. We went into the island village shopping area and thought the people were wonderful.

 

One guy made a bracelet for my daughter and said it was a gift. We thought sure, a gift - he just wants a nice tip or will force that issue. He told us stories and sang a song while making the bracelet (took about 5 min). Since he was so nice we went to give him some money and he almost insisted that he didn't want it. We must have been there on a really good day because we didn't get asked to by pot from anyone. I can't wait to go back to Jamaica!! I think if you give them respect they will give it in return.

 

I almost wonder if they try to find people who look scared or angry and try to intimidate them into buying stuff. We walked around smiling, laughing and talking to people and didn't find anyone to be intimidating at all. Guess we got lucky.

[SandyShores]

We were in Jamaica 3 months ago and I agree with Cruzdeamin the people there are not as bad as some on these boards make them out to be. I found the place actually better than I thought it would be after extensively reading CC for weeks.

 

Our only negative experience was just out of the gate off the ship we ran into a taxi driver who wanted to take us on a private tour for $ 60 and he insisted and when we finally said yes he shoved us off to another driver which he said was his 'brother'. This guy was ok but I was disappointed that the original guy that we talked to was'nt honest to us about who will actually take us on this tour. It was a rip off, I now it now :-)

 

Much better to just walk off the ship and do Ochios Rios on foot a few hours on the beach and some shopping and back to the ship.

 

On this tour we did see 2 ladies, defnetly cruise ship passengers, smoking dope at one of the look out locations. I was a bit shocked at that I thought they were taking a big chance and they were both 40+.

[sunnyshine]

Everyone will always have their own views of the people of Jamaica. Personally, I think they're very laid back friendly people. I was there last summer with my girlfriend (yes, we're lesbians) and we had absolutely no trouble at all. Everyone went out of their way to be nice to us. We walked down the street to Margaritaville with no problems or hassles at all.

 

I think some people just automatically assume that they will be dangerous just because of crime and things reported. The top 4 most violent and dangerous countires does not even include islands. But it sure includes the USA. Just saying... there are dangerous people everywhere, dont miss out on other cultures just because of stereotypes.

 

Just my opinions :)

[dz63]

Cruzdreamin & SandyShores - thanks for sharing your experiences and shedding a bit of light on the other perspective. Our kids are 15, 12, 8 and we are really looking forward to both river tubing and climbing the falls when we visit in July. My wife and I honeymooned in Ocho Rios at the Jamaica Grande (it was a Sheraton back then) for two weeks in the late 80's. We walked all over town, bartered like crazy in the straw market and got ridiculously low prices on some pretty neat souvenirs and did Dunns Falls twice. The locals were very agressive at that time, but we simply said no and walked by them if we weren't interested. Seemed to work at that time. After reading the reviews on this site and others, we were getting worried that maybe things had gotten a lot worse than when we were there.

 

dz

[Honbun]

I agree with Cruzdreamin & SandyShores - Jamaica gets a realy bad rap on these boards. Jamaica was and continues to be a lovely destination. The island has some of the most beautiful beaches IMHO. And, the people there are just lovely.

 

I have been going since I was a child and now take my DD. We either cruise there or rent a house. The first time I took my DD we rented a house in MoBay for 2 weeks; she was 5 yo. We climbed the falls. Yep - she climbed the falls just fine (it was ME I was worried about!). During our 2 weeks we went to a lot of the market areas. Yes, the vendors are more aggressive than other islands but they are not rude and they don't grab you. They may touch you - its just a different personal interaction that Americans may not be used to. Anyway, we bartered when we were interested and said a polite "No thanks" when we weren't. You'll find that the vendors are generally lovely if you treat them with the respect and kindness that we should always show someone as guests in their country.