Falmouth Pier

We arrived at Falmouth, Jamaica first thing in the morning on Monday, April 10th. This is a brand new pier, built especially by Royal Caribbean. It seems to have revitalized an impoverished town on the north side of Jamaica.

While most of our fellow cruisers were off to climb Dunn’s River Falls – I had been warned about this excursion. I heard that you needed to hold hands to climb up the waterfall… and by the looks of it, this is after a long long bus ride. Instead, I had found an excursion called “Montego Bay At Your Leisure”. By the looks of it, I would have leisure time in Montego Bay. Awesome! I heard about Montego Bay on a beach boys song, so I was all for it. I looked up the best place for Jerk Chicken on Trip Advisor and we were off. We got in a van and suddenly were captive. We had a tour guide – she taught us to say “ya mon” and showed us some of the real estate. We drove through the town of Montego Bay, looking at the poverty and I needed to use the restroom. I was relieved that I wasn’t roaming around town looking for a clean facility. We eventually stopped (my bladder was about to burst) at a fenced facility – we were the only people there. We were invited to try the banana bread and taste the coffee. I opted for a Daquiri and Jerk Chicken while the DJ played “Name that Tune” with the handful of tourists trickling in from cruise ship excursions. At the end of the 90 minutes of “Leisure” at this fenced in spot.. we boarded our van for some “shopping”. We were taken to another fenced in area that offered a secure mall – “The Shops at Rose Hall”. There were only cruisers here as well. I finally asked one of the merchants if the mall was owned by Royal Caribbean – yup…. No wonder I saw the same exact stuff back at the Falmouth Pier.

Once back at our secure pier, we wandered into a Duty Free shop where my sister tried her hand at bargaining… no go… she paid full price for those sunglasses. Later that evening over dinner – our tablemate Sean told us all about the successful bargaining he had that day. Oh well.

I am still kicking myself for not buying one of these hats

Rasta Hat