After seeing all the positive reviews on this site, I decided to book a tour with Courtney Taylor for our group of 6, docking in Falmouth on the Navigator of the Seas. I know it's suspicious for a first post being all these positive reviews for Courtney, but he does email after the tour and ask us to post reviews. I never registered before, just looked through threads. Anyway, on to the review:
We had an overall very positive experience, but we did have some things that we wish we knew about (and could hopefully change about the trip). Transportation cost was US$35 per person to within the Ocho Rios area, plus and extra US$3 for transportation to the Blue Hole. He also offered us a drinks package which was reasonably priced (Total of US$25 for a selection of beer/soda/iced tea).
*ARRIVAL:
Docking time and departure time were on ship's time, which was an hour off compared to Jamaica's time, and which we didn't know about when I was planning, so we were a little concerned about whether Courtney would be there on time. He delievered! He was waiting with his van just outside the main gate to the port, and was very friendly and courteous.
Falmouth is about an hour drive to the Ocho Rios area, and the van was air conditioned and comfortable for 6 adults. He gave us history of Jamaica and some cool facts while driving, and answered our questions about the place.
====
*DUNNS RIVER FALLS:
Because the drive is so long from Falmouth, it wasn't possible to beat the crowds. Courtney was fantastic, in that there was someone else from his company that he introduced us to there that helped us get tickets and explain how to avoid the pushy vendors on the way out. (The guards will tell you to veer right at a certain point into the shops, but they can't make you go right, so you just tell them you're going left and bypass the vendors.) They seemed to assume we were going to hire a guide, but we wanted to climb the falls ourselves, and told them that, which was fine with them.
Tips for climbing the falls have been discussed extensively elsewhere, so I'll just add some quick notes that we were are a group of young adults and vastly enjoyed climbing the falls ourselves without a guide, probably much more than joining the chain of people. If you're in reasonable physical condition, I would suggest doing it without a guide. (You can always join the chain if you want, even without a guide, as there are tons of people in basically a giant chain all the way up the falls. We did this a couple times.) All the other tourists are very friendly, but the guides seem to be just trying to hurry the tourists up as fast as possible.
You can climb the falls in probably an hour, but we took our time and explored different parts of the falls and took 2 hours.
====
*BLUE HOLE:
This was our favorite part of the tour. It is definitely off the beaten track, and is basically a pool surrounded by a couple waterfalls and jungle, with milky blue water that you can't see through. It's really beautiful there. There is a Tarzan rope you can jump into the pool with, or just jump over the edge. When we arrived there was only 1 other tour group there, and they left after 15 minutes, so it ended up being the 6 of us in the entire place.
Courtney charged us US$3 per person extra to drive us here, because it is another 15-20 mins from the Falls, and he has to drive some gravelly dirt one-lane roads.
The "guides" here are obviously just some local guys. THERE IS NO ADMISSION FEE, although the "guides" may ask you if you "bought tickets yet." You can just tell them you are paying through Courtney. Courtney told us they expect about US$5 per person in tips. They do nothing more than give you the rope for you to do your tarzan jump or advise you on the best spots to dive off the cliff, or help you up/down from the pool to the jumping off points. They are not "official" in any capacity, and when we were leaving, I overheard Courtney and one of them exchanging phone numbers so that Courtney could call them the next time he was bringing tourists. If you can, I would try to ask Courtney to not call them, but if they are already there, they are very aggressive in providing their "services" of giving you the rope.
====
*LUNCH:
We DO NOT recommend that you go to the restaurant he suggests, the one owned by his neighbor. It is clearly a tourist trap, and although he says he knows the jerk chicken there is very good, we thought it was good, but not amazing. He has the menu in his car so you can order while driving there. It is comparatively very overpriced, about US$10 per small quarter chicken. On the way here and out of here, we passed by multiple restaurants offering jerk chicken in the range of about US$2 to 4.
We originally asked Courtney if he could take us somewhere that the locals go for jerk chicken, or other local specialties like oxtail soup, but he more or less heavily suggested we go to this restaurant. In retrospect, we wished we either pushed harder to go to a more authentic (and cheaper) place, or brought our own food from the ship and just did excursions while on land.
====
We didn't have time to do anything else besides quickly stopping by a store to pick up some coffee because it took an hour to get to Ocho Rios from Falmouth and another to return, although it would have been nice to do tubing too. We enjoyed doing everything at a leisurely pace, but you can definitely fit in one or two more things if you budget your time efficiently. The best thing about having Courtney as a private driver is that he was more than willing to adjust the trip however you want and to go by whatever schedule you want to keep.
I hope this review helps everyone reading it, and sorry it's so long!
Courtney Taylor?
in Jamaica
Posted · Edited by NavigatorReview
Hi everyone,
After seeing all the positive reviews on this site, I decided to book a tour with Courtney Taylor for our group of 6, docking in Falmouth on the Navigator of the Seas. I know it's suspicious for a first post being all these positive reviews for Courtney, but he does email after the tour and ask us to post reviews. I never registered before, just looked through threads. Anyway, on to the review:
We had an overall very positive experience, but we did have some things that we wish we knew about (and could hopefully change about the trip). Transportation cost was US$35 per person to within the Ocho Rios area, plus and extra US$3 for transportation to the Blue Hole. He also offered us a drinks package which was reasonably priced (Total of US$25 for a selection of beer/soda/iced tea).
*ARRIVAL:
Docking time and departure time were on ship's time, which was an hour off compared to Jamaica's time, and which we didn't know about when I was planning, so we were a little concerned about whether Courtney would be there on time. He delievered! He was waiting with his van just outside the main gate to the port, and was very friendly and courteous.
Falmouth is about an hour drive to the Ocho Rios area, and the van was air conditioned and comfortable for 6 adults. He gave us history of Jamaica and some cool facts while driving, and answered our questions about the place.
====
*DUNNS RIVER FALLS:
Because the drive is so long from Falmouth, it wasn't possible to beat the crowds. Courtney was fantastic, in that there was someone else from his company that he introduced us to there that helped us get tickets and explain how to avoid the pushy vendors on the way out. (The guards will tell you to veer right at a certain point into the shops, but they can't make you go right, so you just tell them you're going left and bypass the vendors.) They seemed to assume we were going to hire a guide, but we wanted to climb the falls ourselves, and told them that, which was fine with them.
Tips for climbing the falls have been discussed extensively elsewhere, so I'll just add some quick notes that we were are a group of young adults and vastly enjoyed climbing the falls ourselves without a guide, probably much more than joining the chain of people. If you're in reasonable physical condition, I would suggest doing it without a guide. (You can always join the chain if you want, even without a guide, as there are tons of people in basically a giant chain all the way up the falls. We did this a couple times.) All the other tourists are very friendly, but the guides seem to be just trying to hurry the tourists up as fast as possible.
You can climb the falls in probably an hour, but we took our time and explored different parts of the falls and took 2 hours.
====
*BLUE HOLE:
This was our favorite part of the tour. It is definitely off the beaten track, and is basically a pool surrounded by a couple waterfalls and jungle, with milky blue water that you can't see through. It's really beautiful there. There is a Tarzan rope you can jump into the pool with, or just jump over the edge. When we arrived there was only 1 other tour group there, and they left after 15 minutes, so it ended up being the 6 of us in the entire place.
Courtney charged us US$3 per person extra to drive us here, because it is another 15-20 mins from the Falls, and he has to drive some gravelly dirt one-lane roads.
The "guides" here are obviously just some local guys. THERE IS NO ADMISSION FEE, although the "guides" may ask you if you "bought tickets yet." You can just tell them you are paying through Courtney. Courtney told us they expect about US$5 per person in tips. They do nothing more than give you the rope for you to do your tarzan jump or advise you on the best spots to dive off the cliff, or help you up/down from the pool to the jumping off points. They are not "official" in any capacity, and when we were leaving, I overheard Courtney and one of them exchanging phone numbers so that Courtney could call them the next time he was bringing tourists. If you can, I would try to ask Courtney to not call them, but if they are already there, they are very aggressive in providing their "services" of giving you the rope.
====
*LUNCH:
We DO NOT recommend that you go to the restaurant he suggests, the one owned by his neighbor. It is clearly a tourist trap, and although he says he knows the jerk chicken there is very good, we thought it was good, but not amazing. He has the menu in his car so you can order while driving there. It is comparatively very overpriced, about US$10 per small quarter chicken. On the way here and out of here, we passed by multiple restaurants offering jerk chicken in the range of about US$2 to 4.
We originally asked Courtney if he could take us somewhere that the locals go for jerk chicken, or other local specialties like oxtail soup, but he more or less heavily suggested we go to this restaurant. In retrospect, we wished we either pushed harder to go to a more authentic (and cheaper) place, or brought our own food from the ship and just did excursions while on land.
====
We didn't have time to do anything else besides quickly stopping by a store to pick up some coffee because it took an hour to get to Ocho Rios from Falmouth and another to return, although it would have been nice to do tubing too. We enjoyed doing everything at a leisurely pace, but you can definitely fit in one or two more things if you budget your time efficiently. The best thing about having Courtney as a private driver is that he was more than willing to adjust the trip however you want and to go by whatever schedule you want to keep.
I hope this review helps everyone reading it, and sorry it's so long!
Daniel C