Trip log, day five. Falmouth.
7-Night Western Caribbean Cruise from Port Canaveral
March 20, 2019
Guests Ashore: 7:30 am Guests Onboard: 4:45 pm
Personal Navigator – Day 5
When we first got started cruising, we seemed to sail the Western Caribbean back when it was on the Magic and you’d get to go to Key West, or the early days of the Fantasy where Costa Maya was a regular port of call. Around the time Disney added Jamaica, our Caribbean sailings were mostly to the Eastern and Southern Caribbean. We were extremely excited to explore a new port of call.
Our port adventure today was a Disney excursion. We booked Bobsled Jamaica and Dunn’s River Falls (FA10). Of note, when we booked, it was $139pp. According to the Port Adventures guide, it is now $144.
The Disney Fantasy arrived in Falmouth in the 6 o’clock hour and our port adventure meeting time was 7:15am, giving us time for a quick breakfast in Cabanas. Thankfully, we were 95% packed the night before which is probably a top 5 tip if I ever start doing The Friday Five. I am still working out the terms with TouringPlans.com Saturday Six author Derek Burgan to avoid any C&D iMessages at 2AM.
Our Port Adventure group was ready to go. Our group was led ashore and we prepared to board the awaiting vans. The overall group assembled for our port adventure was very large, but once we broke off into smaller groups it was much better. I believe our group was just under 20 guests, much better than a coach bus tour group. Each van had their own tour guide as well as a dedicated driver. I’m just mentioning the later because sometimes the driver doubles as the guide. This port adventure, like many we’ve experienced, allows you to keep your belongings in the van during each stop. This is especially nice for a tour like today’s where it is split between a water activity and a land based experience.
Disney Cruise Line’s Bobsled Jamaica and Dunn’s River Falls port adventure was, in our opinion, worth the price. If you’ve followed along in the past, we are big fans of third party excursions or touring by ourself using public transportation or taxis.
Overall, we had a great time. The climb up the falls was fun. It did take a bit to get acclimated to the water temperature, but the cold water provided instant ice packs for every time you took a misstep.
It’s not bad, but if you have any mobility issues, this would not be a recommended tour.
Lunch was also included during the bobsled half of the excursion.
Lunch was jerk chicken, fried fish, rice & peas, cole slaw & water/punch. They did have hot dogs & fries available as well.
When in Jamaica, one gets a Bob Marley shot while waiting for the bobsled.
We could have spent all day going on the the bobsleds. It was a blast.
Stay tuned for a future in-depth review of the Bobsled Jamaica and Dunn’s River Falls port adventure. Potentially, the video may be worth the wait. I will warn you now, if you book this port adventure, be prepared to receive no less than 688 notifications, alerts, wave phone texts, and papers delivered to your stateroom with various reminders, warnings, and random legal disclaimers, okay! (That last part needs to be read in the Pépe voice.)
A couple of last notes about the excursion; there are free restrooms at all of the stops. However, the trip is bookended by an hour drive as you must go from the port at Falmouth over to the the Ocho Rios port area.
I highly suggest encouraging everyone to take a restroom break before going to the designated meeting location. Additionally, you may want to bring some snacks, and something to keep the kids occupied during the drive if they are not interested in seeing the scenery along the way.
The day started early and the port adventure returned to Falmouth just after 3 o’clock giving us more than enough time to look around the port’s shopping area. We just walked around Margaritaville, but I like it so much better than the location in Grand Cayman.
The pool looked awesome and I could see myself hanging out there if we had more free time during a future stop in Jamaica. The key difference in the various Western Caribbean Margaritaville locations is the Falmouth location is just for cruise passengers, whereas the locations in Cozumel and Grand Cayman are open to everyone.
There isn’t much else to do around the port if you do not have an excursion booked. The port, at it’s core, is a secured shopping and to some extent entertainment district for the enjoyment of cruise passengers. Unlike other ports of call, there isn’t anything do or see in the nearby area unless you walk over to the Bend Down market on which is open on Wednesdays.
The port area is beautiful, but I struggled to capture a truly memorable photo of the Disney Fantasy that screams ‘this is Falmouth.’ The shops back up to the ships on either side and the security guard started to stare me down as I started to walk down the port access road to get an angle outside of the fence.
By this time of the day, I was not interested in having that conversation with port security that I’ve had one too many times in the past. To date, I’ve never had an issue once the found out what I was doing, well except in Naples, Italy, where security was implying they were going to confiscate my camera if I took another photo.
After walking around the port, we decided to just return to the Fantasy. It was still early so we were able to do another load of laundry before dinner.
Tonight was Pirate Night, the night Emily and I typically book adult dining, and Isabelle gets room service before heading off to the Club/Lab and/or EDGE. For literally the first time in forever, we went to the Pirate Night dinner and found the food to be pretty darn enjoyable, but we ordered from the smaller menu AKA the suggestions from Mario who has been spot on so far on which items to avoid.
The evening entertainment in the Walt Disney Theatre was Captain Marvel followed by the Pirate deck party and buffet. We were losing an hour of sleep tonight, so we opted for the 7:30 showing of Captain Marvel in the Buena Vista Theatre. I think by now, my love for the Disney Magic & Disney Wonder is public knowledge, but the one thing I love more about the Disney Dream & Disney Fantasy is the Buena Vista Theatre; it is so much more spacious. It’s like a Dolby Theatre seat compared to a 1980s theatre seat with negative leg room. Emily brought drinks from Bon Voyage and snacks from the Vista Cafe, which included parmesan cheese, crackers, grapes and veggies.
About 2 minutes after returning to the stateroom I was fast asleep; weird memory foam pillow and all.
I am loving your trip review!!!!! I will be on the Fantasy March 30 and cannot wait. We sailed her in 2012 during her inaugural season. Thanks for all of the personal navigators and for your amazing review.
Sheila, thanks for following along.
Enjoying your trip log, thank you so much for sharing it always with us! I also pack a day or two before -makes Castaway day so much less stressful!
Are all the pillows now memory foam? Pillows were one of the best things about the rooms (we’ve bought a bunch for our home) So all of them have been swapped for these new ones?
All the pillows in our stateroom were identical. I do not know if they have been swapped out ship or fleet wide.
Are MagicBands now working on the cruise line? I see Isabelle has hers on
Erika, while identical to MagicBands, they are technically called Oceaneer Bands. They are used for secured access in the Oceaneer Club and Oceaneer Lab.
We did this excursion when we were in Jamaica. It is one of my daughter’s all time favorite excursions. I don’t think she would allow us to return to Jamaica without doing it again!
We didn’t do the same exact excursion, but we did do Dunn’s River Falls. I loved it!! We had a few bad experiences on the excursion, one being the bus broke down twice, another being we arrived back at the boat 30 minutes before all aboard time. We were so out of breath by the time we arrived back onto the boat. We were on the cruise in August of 2017, where our itinerary was changed due to hurricane Harvey. We had to proceed to Falmouth first, instead of Cozumel. This delayed our arrival and departure time into the port. But, this was all resolved by the kind gestures of the crew and staff aboard. They are always so great and really exceed your expectations.
Totally agree about the Buena Vista theater in the Magic and Wonder. We went in to see a movie, sat down, and then after about 5 mins we got up and walked out. Not a pleasant experience at all. Love watching movies on the Fantasy though.
Thanks for the detailed trip reviews! We are going on this itinerary this Sat, so cannot wait!!! One logistical question, you mention there are bathrooms at every stop, but is there ample time to change into bathing suits, or did you just wear swimwear underneath regular clothes at bobsleds and then left clothes in the van during Dunn’s River Falls?
Hi Tracy, Dunn’s falls was first so we left the ship wearing swimwear. Then, we just wore them the rest of the day. Looking back, if you really wanted to change after the falls, you would have had a few minutes. There is a waterslide and pool at the bobsled area. A number of people in our group including our daughter went down the slide as we waited for our turn on the bobsled.
Thank you so much for the response!
Scott – thank you for your trip report. We are sailing this itinerary on May 11th and will be doing the same excursion in Falmouth. Your website has been a huge help to us in the past. I was happy to meet you about two years ago. Your whole family was very kind to me and my family. Keep up the good work.
Thanks Bob. I hope to get our port adventure review posted before you go.