Appleton Rum Tour Excursion (RCCI 3-2-08 VOS)

[trapeze5]

The Jamaican port was, well, interesting and unpleasant. I say interesting because we were able to see the interior of the island, the people, their dwellings, the extremely beautiful vegitation and topography during our excursion to the Appleton Estate.

 

It was also unpleasant for a variety of reasons, most all of them due to the excursion company. The description of the excursion said that we were going to be taking a 90 minute drive each way during a 6.5 hour trip and that we would be stopping off on the way back for a rest stop (I don't even know where now). That meant that we were going to have something like 3 hours for the lunch and the tour of the estate.

 

Things started off badly when we did not depart on time. We should have left the pier at 9:30 but did not get moving until probably after 10. The bus that we were crammed into had small seats with almost no leg room. About thirty minutes into the drive there was a small explosion in the front of the bus...I was in the first row of seats and saw a vapor cloud form next to the driver. The tour guide (sitting in the front seat opposite the driver) immediately informed us that we had blown a tire. Of course we hadn't. The driver pulled over into the oncoming traffic lane (never did figure out the logic in that), got out and opened the hood. After a cursory examination that couldn't have lasted more than 20 seconds he slammed the hood shut, got back in and announced that the alternator had exploded but that we would go on. Total BS, of course...no one goes anywhere very far without an alternator. Within a few minutes it became obvious that what I suspected, had indeed happened: The air conditioning system had lost it's refrigerant charge.

 

For the rest of the trip we experienced Jamaica with the windows of the van open. I actually enjoyed this turn of events because I was cooler with the wind blowing directly on me and I got better pictures without the window glass obscurring the scenery. I am not sure, however, how the occupants in the rear of the bus faired.

 

We finally got to the estate about 2 hours and 10 minutes after departing the pier, not the promised hour and a half. There was a lot of confusion when we went in to the dining room/greeting area and lunch was served after about 25 minutes. The food was acceptable but not remarkable and after about 10 minutes to eat it we were ushered outside for the tour of the estate.

 

The Appleton Estate, for those that don't know, is where Jamaica produces its famous aged rum. I will never know what was left out of the tour but I can only assume that it, like the lunch, was abreviated to make up for the rest of the delays. The estate tour guide (not affiliated with the excursion company) was actually very good. I assume that they did not shorten the amount of time reserved to purchase rum in the gift shop. I picked up a liter of the 12+ year-old "Reserve" and a couple of liters of the flavored rums.

 

Then we were stuffed back into the vans and told that we would be taking a "short cut" back to the ship because we were behind schedule. Again, I didn't much mind the short cut because it allowed me to see more of the island. There was, however, virtually no time saved by taking the the short cut...at most we saved 5 minutes over the trip to the estate. And there was no "rest stop" as advertised...we will never know what we missed.

 

Thankfully, we were not groped or mishandled by the Jamaican port security people and got back onto the ship without incident. And, because of the nature of our excursion, we did not have any opportunity to interact with the "bad" locals.

 

All in all, though, we will probably never get off in Jamaica again...certainly not in Montego Bay. The troubles that we endured (mostly the ridiculous time delays) were enough to outweigh the rest of the positive aspects of the excursion.

 

EDIT:

This was origonally posted in the Meet & Mingle forum.

[Daycare Provider]

We have been to the appleton estates several times. We always enjoy the scenery and atmospher of the trip. However we never book our excursions through the cruiseline. We have a private guide that we hire every time we return to jamaica. This April we are headed back to jamaica for the 4th time. We will be visiting YS Waterfalls, tubing, Appleton, and lunch at M'ville in Mobay. Thie excursion is costing us 85.00 pp. Our tour guide is so awesome they narrate thier knowledge about the island while were driving.

The Appleton reserve you can now buy at your local grovery or Bev Mo store. Thier sister company Sangster sells an awesome banana cream and coconut cream rum....neither one of these can you get in the states.

I'm glad that you were able to return to the ship safely. I am sorry to read that you didn't get to discover the beautiful jewel jamaica truly is...

[meshach101]

Day Provider,

My husband and I are newbies to cruises. What company do you use?