Muskoka Girl

Just came back from an awesome visit in Ocho Rios thanks to Courtney! He gave us a great tour and even the rain couldn't stop us.

We walked off the ship about 30 mins late due to us sleeping in. I asked one of the port officers for Courtney (per his instruction) and about 10 mins later he came and picked us up. I apologized for our lateness and he said not to worry. His vehicle was clean, a/c was cold, and it was nice to climb into our own car opposed to joining the herds of people getting in their excursion buses/vans.

We're pretty easy-going and aside from DRF, shopping, lunch, we didn't have an exact itinerary but Courtney was great with going with the flow. We beat the crowds at DRF and he escorted us to rent water shoes and to the entrance gate (as well as giving us a heads up about the aggressive vendors) and passed us off to colleague Carrington to accompany us the rest of the way. Courtney was there waiting when we were done and he took us to a gorgeous spot for a photo, stopped to visit the Spice Lady (a sweet old woman on the side of the road who educated us about the spices used in local cuisine), stopped at a pottery studio for a free tour, educated us on everything about the island from history to general info, and even made a bank stop for me. He drove us to Mahogany Beach for lunch, owned by his neighbour, and we ate some delicious jerk chicken next to a gorgeous beach.

My husband was at first hesitant of the idea of hiring someone for a private tour but minutes into it he was very pleased and even told him so. (He probably also liked the fact that someone knowledgable was right there to answer his millions of questions!)

When he brought us to the shopping area he showed us where to shop for the best deal and samples of Blue Mountain coffee and also led us to a place to shop for local snacks so I could bring a treat home for an Ochi colleague. There were still a couple hours left until we were scheduled to depart but we got so much out of our tour that we were more than happy and asked Courtney to drop us off at port.

Again, we had a great time with Courtney with lots of laughs. Whenever we asked him a question he answered honestly, and he was friendly and laid-back, yet professional. I felt very safe and comfortable being with him and not only was choosing him an economical choice vs. a ship excursion, we really couldn't put a price on that kind of convenience. And talk about great customer service...I e-mailed him last minute (gave it a shot as it was two days before we left for our cruise) and a couple hours later he had us scheduled in and confirmed. My hubby insisted that if we ever came back we had to hire him again.

Thanks for a wonderful visit Courtney! We'll have to do it again soon. :)