I just returned from the Carnival Freedom also. I climbed the falls in 2007. However, I would be more than happy to compare our day at Jamaica to see who got the worst of it. From my review ...
Thursday, June 16 – Ocho Rios
I wake up at 6:00am and look outside. It doesn’t look like the makings of a very good sunrise. So I check the TV and the forward facing camera is showing a sunrise. According to the Fun Time that should not happened until 6:33am. The sun is a good twenty minutes early. It is too lake to take any pictures of the sunrise since my camera lens will just fog up. Nonetheless, I do put my camera out so that I can take pictures as we approach the dock round 7:00am. Then I hop back into bed until about 8:30am.
My plan today is to get to a highly recommended restaurant near the dock for a lunch of jerk chicken. I have nothing else planned. So at 10:00am I off the ship with my map headed to Scotchie’s.
Well to say that things did not go as planned would be a major understatement. All in all I made three mistakes. And even though I’m going to look like an idiot to some, I’ve been telling it like it is for over one dozen reviews and I’m not going to stop now.
The mistakes in the order made are:
1) The address and thus the map I had did point to a place where I could get jerk chicken, but it was not the Scotchie’s Restaurant that was highly recommended. More on that in a minute.
2) I forgot about the time difference. This was just an inconvenience, but it added to mistake number three.
3) This was the big one, and a lesson to all. I did not negotiate the price of the taxi ride prior to agreeing to the ride.
So let’s go back to the beginning, which is when I was looking for shore excursions on line. I wanted to do the dog sled tour. However, when it came time to book it, the dog sled tour was not offered by Carnival. So I contacted the vendor directly. However, after an exchange of e-mails I discovered that while the vendor offered the tour, Carnival didn’t, and the vendor had an exclusive contract with Carnival, meaning the vendor could not book a Carnival passenger directly. Once the vendor discovered I was a Carnival passenger they would not talk to me.
Since nothing else was interesting, I decided to take the time to go get some jerk chicken which I really like. Scotchie’s was highly recommended and seemed to be about 3/4 mile from the port and about one block off the main street. However, when researching Scotchie’s location I remembered someone stating that it was on the other side of the falls (which as it turns out – it is).
So now fast forward to today. After dodging a few taxi drivers I ended up talking to someone who told me Scotchie’s was six miles away. I didn’t believe him. So he stopped a policeman and asked him to tell me where Scotchie’s was. The policeman said it was about six miles away and then said the magic words – it is on the other side of the falls. Okay, so I’ll take a taxi. Well in my mind it was a taxi, but this turned out to be an independent tour operator and he was looking at an all day tour (at an all day price). Oops – my mistake for not verifying that we were both on the same page.
At any rate we arrive at Scotchie’s at 10:30am and it does not open until 11:00am. Unfortunately it is 10:30am ship’s time, which is 9:30am local time. So my taxi driver/tour guide offers to take me on a tour before we eat (this should have been a big clue to the mistake I was making). He takes me to a place where I get a good picture of the town and the ship. Back to Scotchie’s for lunch and then to the shopping mall for one shot glass (I made it clear that all I was looking for one shot glass – his mistake to think I was looking to buy anything more).
Now done he wants $100 for something I viewed as a $40 dollar taxi ride. After realizing my mistake, and not wanting to create an international incident, I paid him $100 and returned to the ship. Lesson learned, and to be honest, fairly cheap also. It only cost me $60 plus the respect of anyone that reads this. From my point of view, I’m not awaiting trial like those people in Antigua. Did I feel taken advantage of – yes? Did I realize it was my mistake – yes? I knew better, but was focused on what I wanted, and not focused (thinking) of what was happening at the time it was happening. Next time I’ll be a little wiser and a lot more careful.
Had I gone where the map was taking me, I still would have gotten jerk chicken and I would not have been out $100. On the other hand, I would not have ended up a Scotchie’s, which in fact had very good jerk chicken.
There is some good news to report however. The street venders are one, mostly gone and two, those that are here are not nearly as aggressive as they were the prior two times I have been here. I’m wondering if all the aggressive street vendors have all moved to Falmouth (where the reviews are mentioning the aggressive street vendors).
Well, with that out of my system I’m going swimming. I took a peek outside my balcony first, and the line go get back on the ship is long. Everyone is supposed to be back on in 45 minutes and I have a past guest party to go to. Also, tonight is the second of the two elegant nights.
The past guest party was not well attended. It was held in the main show lounge, so obviously Carnival was prepared for a lot more people than actually showed up. It was pretty standard as far as past guest parties go. There are free drinks and snacks. The cruise director says how happy Carnival is that we have chosen to cruise on Carnival again. Then there is a slide show featuring of all the Carnival ships in the company’s entire history. Everyone is supposed to clap when they see a ship they have been on. So I was a little surprised when people started clapping for the Carnival Magic, which just started sailing last month and even more surprised when people clapped for the Carnival Breeze, which is still under construction. The cruise director also noticed this.
Since I had only one meal today, I was looking for something a little extra at dinner tonight. However, the only thing they had on the menu that really interested me was shrimp, and I knew that would not be enough, so I also ordered off the menu and had a side of macaroni & cheese. The thirteen year old then decided he wanted that and soon after Mom decided that she also wanted some (there are always choices available that are not listed - just ask).
Of course the conversation drifted toward what we did and I gave them the full story. Having cooled off in the pool (in more ways than one) I was okay with it, but still had to admit that I knew I had made mistakes. What I really needed was someone there to grab me by the shoulders, shake me and say, “Think!”. Oh well, lesson learned and it is one I will not repeat.
After dinner we went back to my friends’ cabin and they found out that laser tag was not listed, and had not been all week. Their son wanted to play and I convinced Mom to call guest services and find out why it is not being offered. Turns out that apparently the room that it is played in was damaged and needs to be sent out for repair (it is portable), much to their son’s disappointment.
After that we attended another family friendly comedy show put on by John Rathbone. I thought he was funnier than Smiley Joe Wiley. The production show tonight is a Ticket to Ride, which is a tribute to the Beatles. It is really pretty good. I didn’t see it here because we attended the comedy show, but I did see it on the Carnival Miracle (I understand that they are performing this show on all the Carnival ships). My friends had breakfast with someone who saw the show on this ship and gave my friends a positive review.
