Cheryl Boss

We didn’t book anything through the ship. We had wanted to experience Dunn’s River Falls without having to go with a group (Did I mention my aversion to large crowds? *grin*). Easily found a taxi (use ones with red plates), with “no problem Horace” as our driver. Don’t remember how much the fare was, but was reasonable and we paid for round-trip transportation. A pick-up time and place were arranged and we paid the entrance fee ($15 a person) to enter the recreation area. We were very disappointed as we were herded into groups and told everyone must climb with a guide. I like climbing, but just really hate not having my hands free when I do so. We attempted several times to separate from the group, but were actually told at one point, “you all look the same to me, so stay together, otherwise I won’t know who to get tip from.” There really wasn’t an opportunity to just enjoy the beauty of the falls with two groups of 40-50 climbing simultaneously, and being pushed/pulled to “hurry.” The final straw was when the guide repeatedly splashed water into my daughter’s face (she wears contacts) because she wasn’t moving fast enough for his liking. We exited the water at that point, with the guide trailing our steps, shouting “you tip me now.” Wish I could say this was isolated behavior, but this attitude from the locals continued at every place we stopped. The shops at exit weren’t as high-pressure as I had read. The shopkeepers on the island had most merchandise priced higher than it is on the boardwalk shops of coastal CA (example--$20 or more for baseball cap), and when we haggled, we got comments like “why you so cheap, you can afford it.” Must state, we were dressed simply in shorts, T-shirts, and flip-flops--no jewelry, nor name-brand accessories--so must conclude this assumption was simply because we were tourists. My daughter was looking for a spaghetti-strap sundress for Caribbean night at dinner. One shopkeeper pulled out a dress with sleeves and muttered, “why you need thin straps, this is better” along with insults towards my child (which thankfully, she did not hear). We went to Magaritaville for lunch and then back to the ship. Based on this experience, we will likely never return to Jamaica.

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