Ocho Rios: Entryway to the Heart of Jamaica

On our Carnival Horizon cruise, we visited Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We got some Jamaican love as we climbed falls and swam at the beach.

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The cruise terminal at Ocho Rios

We arrived at Reynold’s Pier, which is a small cruise terminal at Ocho Rios, Jamaica. Once off the ship, you’ll find a few signs welcoming you to the country. On top of that, if you’ve purchased an excursion from your cruise line, you’ll likely end up meeting here, just off the ship.

You won’t find too much here in walking distance at Ocho Rios aside from a parking lot and bus terminal. There are plenty of individuals looking to sell you a ride to where you’re going, so ignore them if you’re already committed. But if you’re not, at least there are options for you off the ship.

Off to the side at Ocho Rios is a small pathway along the shore where some vendors have set up shop. I can’t speak to the authenticity of the goods here as we didn’t purchase any.

Ocho Rios has a population of under 20,000 persons (compared to roughly 2.8 million in all of Jamaica). And while you might think “Ocho Rios” is a reference to eight rivers, it’s most likely a translation error from “Las Chorreras”, meaning the waterfalls. The country was subject to British rule up until 1962. As a result, English is well-spoken and understood here both in Ocho Rios and throughout the country.

Our experience with Carnival’s Konoko Falls Climb & Beach Club Getaway

For this Carnival Cruise, we purchased the combo ticket of the Konoko Falls Climb and a Beach Club Getaway with Lunch. The tickets cost us on average $75 each person ($300 total), which doesn’t account for the fact that I paid with Carnival gift cards I acquired at a 10% discount.

We met at Reynold’s Pier along with many others looking for their own excursions, so it was a bit hectic by the outside of the ship.

After a short wait, we met Qerine, our tour guide for the day, and Michael, our bus driver. We liked Qerine, who described herself as our Jamaican momma for the day. She led us outside the cruise terminal to our bus that would take us on our excursion.

One programming note of importance. Right at the start, we were taken to a local store (Andy’s Souvenirs) where you can purchase water shoes if you are not already wearing any. If you’re looking to climb Konoko Falls (which includes everyone on this tour), you absolutely need water shoes. I didn’t get a sense of the pricing (nothing was marked with a price and my attempts at hovering near checkout failed). However, with shoes only being $10 on the ship, I’m confident in saying you’d save money buying them there.

Climbing Konoko Falls

We arrived at our first stop: the base of Konoko Falls. This is one of the two more popular falls to climb here in Jamaica. Of course, it does make me wonder how authentic the experience truly is. I know someone from the country and she mentioned that many Jamaicans haven’t done it themselves–so do what you want with that information.

In total, it takes roughly 30-45 minutes to climb the falls. Not because they are particularly treacherous but more because you’ll make pitstops along the way to take pictures and let the group in front of you move up.

Heading on up

Before heading up, we got a nice picture of the falls behind us.

On this climb, Qerine and Michael allowed another guide to take over (unfortunately I didn’t catch his name). The water is rather cold in April and there’s no way to avoid feeling it on your climb up the falls.

Along the way, you’ll find quite a few pools where you can stop and take a picture, like this one below. Hope your stuff is waterproof!

It can be a little slippery at points going up. It’s not a difficult climb, as five-year-old Char had little issue with the terrain.

Again, the kids loved stopping at each pool along the way. If you’re more adventurous, there is a small cave you can explore if you dive underwater (we didn’t do it). There’s also a rather large pool at the top if you feel like going for a swim.

Once at the top, you’ll find a nice panoramic view of the area. We spent a couple of minutes enjoying the view.

We could even see our cruise ship in the distance.

Our tour guide took one last photo for us at the top.

A drink stop and visiting the local (caged) animals

Once at the top, Qerine met back up with us and led us over to a hut, where they offered us a fruit punch to drink. While there are prices for other drinks, we didn’t bother asking for anything else.

The punch was a bit sugary but the kids enjoyed it.

We then walked along a path over to the bus. Along the way, we saw several animals including some owls, a crocodile, and turtles. The animals here weren’t too active.

At the end of the pathway were two men holding animals for everyone to hold. The first was an iguana, which everyone but Char held.

The second was a macaw, which Alex enjoyed holding.

I should point out that holding them was technically free, though the employees reminded everyone that tips are greatly appreciated.

Museum

There is a small museum up here, which was pretty basic. It’s just a single room, with some artifacts scattered along the walls. If I’m being honest, it’s the bare minimum definition of a museum.

Just outside the museum is what everyone called the fountain of youth. It’s a drinking fountain that has perhaps the freshest-tasting water we’ve ever consumed. Naturally, Char was afraid to drink it as she feared the water would make her so young that she would disappear. That’s cute of her.

Qerine talked a bit about the local plants outside the museum to add a little education to the tour. She discussed the cocoa bean, which entertained the kids.

Back to the gift store

OK, if I’m being honest, I thing I dislike the most on these cruises is the required time at stores. They break up the pacing of the tour, they last too long, and it’s clear the tour operators get kickbacks. Qerine gave everyone a sticker (to identify to the shopkeepers who provided the customers) and we were stuck here for half an hour. This is the same store we stopped by at the start of the tour for customers to get water shoes.

There’s no requirement to make a purchase. If you do, you’ll find employees promising a discount off standard prices (another sign of a scam) but to find them to ring you up. They offer free alcohol to guests (yet another red flag) as they shop. Really, the best thing to do is not participate and just sit outside and wait for the tour to continue.

And for the record, the souvenirs (such as rum cake) were cheaper on the ship than they were at the store, even with the quoted discounts.

Lunch at Puerto Seco Beach

One of the most interesting things I found about this combination of destinations was the distance between them. Konoko Falls and Puerto Seco Beach ended up being a good 45 minutes apart, which ended up a bit longer on the return with traffic near the cruise terminal.

Along the way, we saw other places that were offered as an excursion, including Dolphin Cove and Mystic Mountain.

Eating lunch

We arrived at the beach to find a small setup for lunch. We also found a code for Wi-Fi but it actually didn’t work. So much for that.

The food is more or less served cafeteria style. The first station was rice and peas (perhaps they meant beans?), followed by some jerk chicken and fried fish, and lastly a tossed salad. The only drinks were fruit punch or water. Alex discovered that his new passion is jerk chicken, as he really took to the flavor of the food. The food was fine, but it was at least better than what we ate on the Carnival Horizon. So there’s that.

You can always purchase other food and drinks if you’re not satisfied with what you can get for free.

The pool and beach

Can I admit that up until this point, I didn’t exactly understand the appeal of going to a beach or pool when on a cruise. That’s because the cruise has a pool, so why essentially pay for access to a different pool? Well, with the pool on the Carnival Horizon as lackluster as it was, I could potentially see a reason. The water here was significantly better than what we had on the ship.

There are some hawkers selling goods on the beach. I found that a bit odd since this is supposed to be a beach club.

But the beach itself reminded me a great deal of the beach at the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar. The sand is very fine and while there were some ants, there weren’t any flying bugs. The one tip I would give is to remember to bring a towel since there are none provided here. In total, we were here for about two hours.

Obstacle course

There’s a free obstacle course in the ocean just off the shore. If you want to participate, you’ll need to meet the following requirements:

Be at least 6 years old
Know how to swim
Sign a waiver
Wear a lifejacket at all times

The water is about 10-15 feet deep below the obstacle course. Alex and Jenn did it (while I hung out with Char). Alex said he loved it and was hoping we would end up doing another one at some point.

Confusion between ship time and the real time

The Carnival Horizon cruise, which departed out of Miami, was forever on ship time. That means you never change the time zone even when you visit destinations in a different time zone. To be frank, I’m not a fan of this. And this visit to Ocho Rios helped highlight the problems of never changing to the local time zone.

When Qerine dropped us off at the Puerto Seco Beach, she said to meet back in two hours at 1:45 PM. However, the ship told us to always stick to ship time and that the tour operators will know that. Two hours from arrival would have put us at 2:45 PM ship time. Everyone on our tour adapted to the time confusion, but I have to think that some might get left behind as it’s just not intuitive.

In my opinion, cruise lines should always go with local time. That’s the way the Celebrity Solstice handled time change and it’s just more intuitive for everyone.

Can you drive yourself for a more independent visit?

Yes, you absolutely can rent a car here, but I want to just offer a bit of notice related to local driving conditions. I’d consider driving on Jamaica to be a bit more intense than in the United States. Most roads only have one lane in either direction and the basic expectation is to drive on the opposite side of the road to pass.

However, roads were poorly maintained. At times, that necessitated the tour bus to swerve as we drove around at high speeds. The swerving even took us directly into the line of passing vehicles on the other side. So if you do rent a car, take your time as you drive. And plan extra time if you need to get back to the cruise terminal at Ocho Rios given the traffic.

Bottom line

Ocho Rios was our first visit to Jamaica. We enjoyed the hiking up the falls and the visit to the beach was nice enough. But we would have enjoyed it more if the two spots were closer together (and allowed us to spend more time at either destination). Alex discovered he is a big fan of Jamaican food, so it was a very fruitful visit to the country.

Just try not to get tricked into spending extra money at required visits to local stores. We found the same souvenirs are cheaper on the cruise ship.

Stay tuned for the next installment where we’ll visit the port at Cozumel, since our visit to Grand Cayman never happened due to weather conditions.

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Chris Wada

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experiencing the world via gastronomy with our children