Bamboo Beach Excursion

[sea*siren]

I'm interested in hearing about experiences with the Bamboo Beach excursion I've seen though Carnival. It sounds like it would be good for myself and DH along with our two kids (both 10 yrs and younger), but after reading some of the reviews of Ocho Rios, I'm not so sure now...DH and I have traveled to Negril twice previously with no problems, but now that we're bringing the kids, I'm a little more apprehensive :o TIA!

[dcrose]

We just got back and did the Bamboo Beach Club in Ocho Rios with our young children through a Princess Excursion. We were very disappointed with the Bamboo Beach Club. It is walking distance from the ship as dending on which dock you are at it is either a 2 minute walk or a 10 minute walk. We were at the dock further away so they used a shuttle bus but later we just walked back to the ship once we realized how close it was. The beach itself is in the harbour and has nice sand, but the place stunk like boat fuel. The service was very basic and the staff did not go out of their way too much. They played music and had some local dancers and a fashion show once in awhile. Now that I know the area, in hindsight we should have just walked to the Island Village shopping area (which is quite nice) that contains Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville restaurant. Right next to this is a beach with chairs, water activities, etc. It isn't much different than the Bamboo Beach Club but looked good and if I remember right was only $5 admission including a lounge chair. This is even closer to the ship than the Bamboo Beach Club.

[sea*siren]

Wow thanks, I'll look into the beach area next to Margaritaville instead!

[cruzinsusan]

dcrose,

Sorry you had a disappointing time at Bamboo Beach Club. We have been considering this Princess excursion.

 

May I ask what time you went to the beach and how long you were able to stay there? I can't find the excursion times listed anywhere. Also, did you have lunch there? How was the food and what drinks were available?

 

Any info you might be able to share is greatly appreciated!

Thank you :)

[dcrose]

It took a long time to actually get to the beach. We had to meet on the ship, tender together with the group, wait for the shuttle bus to fill up (they wouldn't leave until it was full) and then get out of the congested parking lot, so we didn't get to the beach until around 11am. If we had known where to go, we could have walked it in 10-15 minutes, which we did on the way back. We could have stayed until 2:30pm but we left early and walked back to the ship, stopping at the Island Village shopping mall which is on the way back. I wouldn't say this was a terrible beach club, just that it wasn't good value for money and it was no where near as nice as the beaches we saw on the other islands. The lunch was BBQ chicken, spicy pasta and fruit (pretty basic). We just wanted a day on the beach with our kids and the beach by the Island Village mall would have worked just fine for us.