Ocho Rios Bike Adventure Review

[jtmalt]

I've mentioned my dissatisfaction with the Ocho Rios Bike Adventure in reply to a post in another thread, but here's my full review of this excursion. I've posted this in the Royal Caribbean forum, since it was one of their excursions, but decided to post it here as well, since the same operator also conducts this excursion for many other cruise lines.

 

Being a relatively fit couple who enjoy doing 6 or 7 miles of biking on hilly roads in the northeast, we figured this excursion would be a perfect fit for us. Although we booked the excursion through Royal Caribbean, it is actually conducted by a local tour operator.

 

We were met at the pier in Jamaica, and transported via mini-bus to the tour operator's excursion center in St. Ann's. There we organized into our tour groups. Our group of bicyclists (there were nine of us) were than transported up single lane, hairpin roads to a spot at around 2,000 feet above sea level. We had 3 guides, who I will refer to as Bob, Jim, and Jane (not their real names). As we stepped out of the transport van, it began to rain, and not just a passing shower. This turned into a continous rain for the duration of our tour.

 

We were assigned our bikes, which were standard-issue mountain bikes in none-too-great condition. The bikes my wife and I were assigned had all of the plastic around the shifters busted off, so there was no way to tell what gear you were in. My wife kept trying to adjust her seat...no matter how much I tightened it, it kep sinking down until her knees were in her chest. The guides, seeing that the rain was going to continue, pulled plastic garbage bags out of the flatbed truck that carried the bikes, and began to fashion them into impromptu ponchos. Which they then distributed....to themselves. The transport van left, our gear was piled into the front seat of the support truck, we donned our helmets and elbow/kneepads, joked about "liquid sunshine" and begain careening down the first hill.

 

The trail we were on used to be paved road. It was utterly washed out, with enormous potholes that quickly filled with rainwater. I suppose that at some time in the near future, the potholes will be filled in, as we noticed large piles of sand and gravel staged at intervals along the 8-mile ride.

 

During the first downhill, I realized I was in trouble. Either due to poor maintenance or the wet weather, I rapidly realized my best efforts at breaking were having virtually no effect. My brake handles were hitting the handlebars, and the bike was still accelerating. As I bottomed out at the end of the first hill, I frantically tried to stop the bike. I lost concentration for a moment, and slammed into a deep pothole, filled with water, and went flying over the handlebars, smashing into the ground with considerable force.

 

Bleeding from cuts and scrapes on my hands and shins, and with a fierce pain in my chest, I sprang to my feet. My wife pulled up, and she was white as a sheet. I straddled the bike again saying "it's alright, I'm ok, I'm ok." My wifes eyes were horrified as she pointed at the bike. I looked down and realized the front wheel now approximated the shape of a fortune cookie.

 

Bob, the guide, approached, said "You're ok, Mon, here's another bike, shake it off." In a daze, I mounted the bike and forced myself to "shake it off" and continue. It never even occured to me at the time that a little first aid might have been in order, even if only to stop me from bleeding all over the replacement bike.

 

We struggled on to the All Grade Schoolhouse. We all dismounted our bikes while Jim gave a speech about the heroes of Jamaica, painted on the wall of the school house. It was hard to hear him because of the pouring rain drumming on our helmets. I couldn't believe we were being forced to stand there, in the downpour. At least Jim, Bob, and Jane had makeshift ponchos...we were soaked to the skin and shivering in the wind.

 

When the speech was over, Jim took us 5 steps around the corner so we could peer into the schoolhouse...while covered by a huge awning! I was beginning to think our guides were enjoying our discomfort.

 

After this stop, I admitted that I was in too much pain to continue, and asked to be transported down the mountain in the support vehicle. Unfortunately, the cab of the truck was filled with gear, so my wife and I had to stand in the back of the flatbed, wedged in between the steel bike racks. We jounced down the mountain to our next stop at the Spicy Grove Tavern, getting slammed against the steel racks at every bounce, and whacked in the head by low hanging tree branches (good thing we retained our helmets).

 

After a short respite at the Spicy Grove, we continued our miserable trek down the mountain. At some point, Jane must have taken pity on us. She had the support truck pull over, stuffed all the gear from the cab of the truck into plastic garbage bags, and allowed my wife and I to get into the truck and out of the weather. we finally arrived at the post office, where we all boarded a van for the trip back to the excursion center. We struck up a conversation with another guest, who had also fallen and busted herself up.

 

Next up was the trip to a cove for a swim and snorkel. The cove was more of a cauldron of seething waves than the peaceful refuge we had expected. Jim and Bob half-heartedly tried to encourage the guests to jump off the rocks into the maelstrom, then wisely reconsidered and deemed it "probably not a good day to swim". We then had to endure another speech about the beauty of Jamaica, and an appeal for tips, before having to trudge 1/4 mile back to the excursion center.

 

When we got back to the center, I was escorted to the administration office, where I was given a choice of being transported to a local clinic for examination, or signing a waiver and returning to the ship. I chose to sign the waiver. We were all loaded into a mini bus for the return to Ocho Rios. During the ride back, our driver suddenly pulled over, jumped out of the vehicle, and disappeared. After ten minutes, he returned...we speculated that he had decided to grab a sandwich from a local shop.

 

Incidentally, Royal Caribbean really stepped up to the plate on this. They refunded our excursion fee, and offered me free medical care from the ship's doctor...it turned out that I had fractured a rib in the accident.

 

I don't know how this excursion normally runs...in dry weather, it's probably pretty uneventful, although I would consider the condition of the roads to be extreme for any level of biking expertise. Under those rainy conditions, it was downright dangerous and should have been cancelled, in my opinion.

 

What's more disturbing, however, was the complete lack of concern for the safety or comfort of the guests demonstrated by the tour operator. They were apparently not prepared or not willing to deal with injured guests. At no point was I ever offered first aid, or even a rag to wipe of the blood. I can tell you from personal experience that being transported down the mountain stuffed into the bike racks in the back of a flatbed truck, in the rain, with a broken rib, is no joke.

 

This is an excursion I cannot ever recommend, based solely on the operator's inability to deal injuries, and disregard for safety and comfort.

[jtmalt]

Forgot to post my photo of the snorkeling cove, for your viewing enjoyment.:D. Click for full size.

 

[MsShel330]

Oh my, jtmalt, I hope you're on the mend. Sorry that you had such a lousy excursion.

What was the name of the tour company, they sound amateurish. Obviously they couldn't help the weather but they should have changed routes at the very least. It would also help to have better bikes and gear, including rain gear.

[Nliedel]

Oh for cripes sake! There goes that excursion, right off my list. I LOVE Jamaica, but even I, the biggest Jamaica apologist on the CC boards have not one word of wit or wisdom to share. I am so sorry about your rib. Tell your wife to give you big hugs. Big, GENTLE hugs!!

[Kismets_mom]

I too was considering doing that excursion. I"m sorry you had such a terrible experience. At least RCCL stepped up for you. Hope you're feeling better.

[jtmalt]

Oh for cripes sake! There goes that excursion, right off my list. I LOVE Jamaica, but even I, the biggest Jamaica apologist on the CC boards have not one word of wit or wisdom to share. I am so sorry about your rib. Tell your wife to give you big hugs. Big, GENTLE hugs!!

 

 

Thanks! You know, I really went into this with an open mind, even though there are often so many negative comments about Jamaica 'round here. I figured we would get off the beaten path and see a little bit of the "real" Jamaica. I really didn't expect to wind up with such a negative experience.

 

I won't belabor the point...accidents can and do happen, and there often is no one to blame. But, this operator should have been at least minimally prepared to deal with a problem, and they weren't. What's worse, they appeared not to even care.

 

RCCL called me to follow up on this a few weeks ago. They say they're going to investigate the incident, and check up on the operator. I hope they do, and I hope they successfully get the operator to address these safety concerns. This operator is so big, and runs so many different Caribbean tours for so many cruiselines, that I hope this is an isolated problem and not widespread through their other offered excursions.

 

For what it's worth, we haven't sworn off of bicycle excursions yet...we're going to attempt it again at Water Island on our October Crown Princess cruise.

[copper6606]

WE did water island bike tour and LOVED it! Have fun!:D

[cruisinalong001]

What an awful experience! Seems to me I have read too many stories lately about bike or off road vehicle excursions where the equipment was in faulty condition. It really makes you wonder how often the cruise lines actually check out their tours. Seems like not often enough.