Ocho Rios Review - with Video Footage!

[dz63]

We finally finished our cruise review of the Western Caribbean on board the Carnival Triumph in July of this year. Our favourite port of call was Ocho Rios.

 

Click on the link below for a long, full review of our cruise. If you are only interested in Ocho Rios, scroll down to the section titled "Ocho Rios" for detailed information about Dunn's River Falls, White River Tubing and Magaritaville.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=32010

 

Click on the link below for a video of all of our excursions including those in Ocho Rios. Enjoy the video!

 

 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. :)

[momonthego17]

Hey dz63,

Thank you for sharing your wonderful trip!! My family will be doing a route very much like that and watching your's has made me even more psyched to go (if that is possible:eek: ). You did a great job editing and I hope I can do something like that with my trip's pics. Did you use Powerpoint?

I am taking my DDs (5 & 7) and it made me feel much more comfortable seeing your youngest enjoying the Dunns River Falls. Any tips for the Falls?

We are doing a stingray excursion with the DDs in GC and then hitting Royal Palms. Please share any thoughts on Royal Palms as well.

Once again, thanks!!

[jerwick]

Great review and the video was super. We are going in Nov,2007 and you have helped with many questions, especially glad you mentioned the amount of tips you gave at different points in Ocho. Other discussions on this port were quoting much higher tips being given.

[dz63]

Hey dz63,

 

Thank you for sharing your wonderful trip!! My family will be doing a route very much like that and watching your's has made me even more psyched to go (if that is possible:eek: ). You did a great job editing and I hope I can do something like that with my trip's pics. Did you use Powerpoint?

I am taking my DDs (5 & 7) and it made me feel much more comfortable seeing your youngest enjoying the Dunns River Falls. Any tips for the Falls?

We are doing a stingray excursion with the DDs in GC and then hitting Royal Palms. Please share any thoughts on Royal Palms as well.

Once again, thanks!!

 

In answer to your questions:

 

1. I used the basic Windows Vista Movie Maker to put together the video/slideshow of our port excursions.

 

2. Dunns River Falls: Our 8 year old had no problem climbing Dunns River Falls in Ocho Rios plus the guide is there to help you too, if you need it. Be sure to wear some type of water shoes for climbing the falls. We purchased deck/canvas shoes for this excursion and they worked fine. The water feeding Dunns River is fresh cold mountain water. Our 8 year old thought the water was cold and he was soon shivering. The rest of us thought it was refreshing. There is alot of shade along Dunns River, so you will not be in the direct sunlight for this excursion. It is also safe to give your camera to your guide. He will take photos of you as your climb the falls. We also took along a waterproof camera which we held on to to get photos too. If you are in a smaller group climbing the falls (like we were), you can climb it alot quicker and do not have to wait for everyone to pose for photos along the way. Our group of 9 were able to climb the falls in approx. 47 minutes!

 

3. Royal Palms Beach: We took an air-conditioned mini-van taxi, close to the pier, to get to Royal Palms Beach. The taxi fare was $4.00/person each way for a short 5-minute ride. The taxi drivers hold up a sign offering tours of the island.

 

Royal Palms Beach is part of 7-mile beach. The sand is soft and powdery and the water is a beautiful turquoise colour and is crystal clear.

 

There is a grill at Royal Palms Beach where you can buy food and drinks. We ordered two pizzas, a platter of fries and 5 Cokes and the bill came to $41 US. There is no shade on the beach, but you can rent a beach umbrella for $10.00 and a chair for $5.00. The beach was pretty empty and they had plenty of beach chairs and umbrella's sitting vacant. We could see the "fin" of our cruise ship just over the trees in the distance. We were hoping to collect some sea shells on the beach, but all we could find was coral. There were jet skis, floats and kayaks for rental here too.

 

Taxis at the Royal Palms beach were plentiful for the return trip.

 

If I would go to Grand Cayman again, I would look for a beach with trees that offer shade as well as add more tropical scenic beauty to a nice white powdered beach.

[4 cruis'n]

Fun to read your very complete review ports. Video was awesome! You have a lovely family. We will be going western this Nov and can't wait after watching the video. Thanks for taking the time to post everything:D

[jc73]

Hi

 

I enjoyed your video, thanks so much. I had a couple questions. My kids are 4 and 6 and am thinking about doing the dunns river falls/river tubing as well. How safe are the rapids? My 4 year old is tiny and am a little nervous. Were lifejackets provided? Also how was your experience with island marketing. We were looking at using them to book a dune buggy excursion in Cozumel as well.

Thanks so much

[dz63]

Hi

 

I enjoyed your video, thanks so much. I had a couple questions. My kids are 4 and 6 and am thinking about doing the dunns river falls/river tubing as well. How safe are the rapids? My 4 year old is tiny and am a little nervous. Were lifejackets provided? Also how was your experience with island marketing. We were looking at using them to book a dune buggy excursion in Cozumel as well.

Thanks so much

 

Hi jc73,

Here are the answers to your questions:

 

River Tubing: The rapids are very safe--the water is not that rough. Most of the time you simply float along with the current. The tubes are large with a fibreglass bottom tied in--so you don't scape your bottom or fall through!

 

The water is not very deep. Our tubing guide was continually hoping out of his tube to keep us together or to push us out of spots when we got stuck, and he was usually standing in ankle deep water. The deepest part of the river that we saw, was in the cliff jumping section.

 

No one wore lifejackets, nor did I see any. The river tubing excursion is run by Calpyso Rafting and Tubing. They do have a website. You could contact them if you have any further questions about this excursion or to check if they have lifejackets. There web address is: www.calypsorafting.com.

 

Island Marketing: Our ship arrived in Ocho Rios at 8:00 am. We left the ship and had to wait 20 minutes for our driver Mr. Denton Pendergast to arrive to pick us up as well as another family from the ship. He was expecting us at 8:00 am Jamaican time, which would be 9:00 am ships time. Someone paged him and he came "early" to pick us up. He apologized for the confusion, thinking that our ship must have come in early. Once out of the taxi compound he switched drivers and handed us over to "Paul". Paul was very knowlegable and explained things about the island as he drove. He assured us that it is safe to keep our belongings in the mini-van as he kept it locked at all times. At the end of each excursion Paul was there waiting for us with a smile on his face.

 

Paul was also very accomodating. We asked if he could drive us through Fern Gully and he accomodated. He had to pick up another tour group so he had limited time to take us there--but he did take us part way through where we could stop and take pictures. He was very conscious of our safety and advised us to be careful crossing the street.

 

Island Marketing is a reputable and profession excursion company. We thoroughly enjoyed our tours of Ocho Rios. We have no issues with them, except for the time confusion in the morning.

 

I hope this answers all your questions.

 

You'll have a great time in Ocho Rios!

[jc73]

Thanks so much

[julie aka social director]

We finally finished our cruise review of the Western Caribbean on board the Carnival Triumph in July of this year. Our favourite port of call was Ocho Rios.

 

Click on the link below for a long, full review of our cruise. If you are only interested in Ocho Rios, scroll down to the section titled "Ocho Rios" for detailed information about Dunn's River Falls, White River Tubing and Magaritaville.

 

http://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=32010

 

Click on the link below for a video of all of our excursions including those in Ocho Rios. Enjoy the video!

 

 

 

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. :)

 

Thank you so much. Enjoyed watching the video. You did a great job.:D

[tutak]

Great video. What software do you use?

[dz63]

Great video. What software do you use?

 

Hi.

 

I just used the basic Windows Vista Movie Maker program.

[Madkitty]

brill brill brill - can you tell me what the cruising song and mexico song were?

[dz63]

brill brill brill - can you tell me what the cruising song and mexico song were?

 

Hi

 

The Mexico song was sung by James Taylor and the Cruisin' song by Gwyneth Paltrow and Huey Lewis.