MSC Seaside Shore Excursion RIP OFF - Ocho Rios & Dunn's River Falls

Ocho Rios & Dunn's River Falls 

(Ship Excursion code:OCH29) Duration 5h30

MY REVIEW

When we were on the MSC Seaside (beginning of January), we chose to book a shore excursion in Jamaica to the Dunn's River Falls. I had watched YouTube videos before we went on our cruise, to get an idea of what this excursion consisted of.

Trust me, when you book this excursion through MSC Cruises, it's not what you watch on YouTube. Apparently, this company that does the excursions for MSC Cruises, is not the same company that does them for the other cruise lines.

Even though the description of the excursion indicates that you will visit Dunn's River Falls, and then have lunch by the sea, and a tour, this is not quite what you receive.

Even though the description indicates that you'll have a Jamaican lunch by the sea, it's by the sea, but not at a beach. We thought the same thing. That it was going to be at a beach, but it wasn't. It's at a place called Almond Tree Restaurant, where you walk out back and they have a buffet sort of lunch. The chicken is spicy, but it was good. They also had beans & rice, but it was just okay. Not much flavoring and no salt or pepper are offered. The people were friendly, but I felt they were watching over us as we ate, waiting to take our plates. The sea is where the restaurant is located. It's up on a cliff, and you can view the sea from where the restaurant is at. You're not inside the restaurant. You are behind the restaurant. For MSC to word the excursion as lunch by the sea, is very, very deceiving.

Our excursion began around 9:00 - 9:30am, and we were dropped back off between 2:30 - 3:00pm at the port.

They put you on a bus, and I think we had 34 people in our group. I had family on a different bus, and they said that there were 35 people on their bus. They arrived at the Falls and the lunch place about 45 minutes after we did, so we would meet up to find out how their trip had been, up to that point.

There was no real tour. We didn't even get off the bus, except at the Falls, and the restaurant, and on our way back to the ship, they stopped at a rip-off place to shop, called "Rainbow Place", or something like that. Our tour guide on the bus made an announcement before we got there that she had called ahead, and was told they were having a 50% off sale on everything in the store. (The tour guide on my family's bus, also told them the same thing). The prices were astronomically expensive. I didn't see one person on our bus buy anything. A few people didn't even get off the bus. Shortly after the bus picked us up, our bus driver pulled into a road where there was an old church, and it was like "there's the church, take a photo if you'd like through the window of the bus, and now let's go."

My family that was on the other bus, said that the only place their bus stopped, was on the side of the road, where they were told that they had to buy water shoes for $10.00 a pair, in order to even enter the park (which was a lie). My niece walks with a cane, and just wanted to do the walking next to the Falls on the deck areas, but they told her that she had to buy the shoes just to get inside the park, whether she was climbing the Falls or not.

When she got to the Falls, their tour guide didn't get off the bus with them, and her and her husband had to pay another $20.00 ea. to get inside the park. She ended up paying it, and then when she got back to the ship, she informed MSC what had happened, and MSC refunded her back the money for the water shoes, the money that she had to pay to get in the park (since she had already paid $150.00 for her husband and her to take the excursion to begin with), and they also gave her back 1/2 of her money for the excursion.

Getting out of the Falls park area to get back to the bus is a tour in its own. The hagglers almost make it impossible for you to get out of there. They just don't take "no thank you" for an answer. They want to pull you by the arm, or touch you, shake hands the Jamaican way. I had a woman that pulled me by my arm, and tried to insist for me to take a beaded necklace and told me that it was free, and it would just be a donation to help the children at their local orphanage. :O I just wanted to get out of there so bad and get back to the bus.

If I would have known then, what I know now, I would not have paid $75.00 a person to take this excursion. Considering that it's $20 a person to get in the park, the other $50.00 a person was not worth it, compared to what we received. I felt that the majority of the trip was a scam.

We got a much better tour in Grand Cayman. Stopped like 6 different places, and it was only $20.00 per person. It was the first time we had done anything like that without going through the cruise line. We only had 10 people on our tour and it was very nice. However, in Jamaica, I would not suggest doing anything unless you go through the cruise line.