Volunteers Dream - Pay it Forward. Anyone been?

We are going on Anthem of the Seas next October and one of the ports is Falmouth Jamaica. "We" are my wife and I and our two children; ages 14 & 12.

The Pay it Forward excursion (fyr3) piqued our interest, but we haven't been able to find anyone else who has done this.

We have researched a little and the Open Heart Mission looks to be reputable and on the up and up. Is this excursion safe? How do you get to the Mission and how many people from the ship generally take this?

Also, for four people the cost is almost $200. Does this money go to the shelter at all or is it mostly pocketed by RCCL?

Thank you!

Glen

I am sailing the Independence of the Seas in February and was excited to see this excursion (first cruise I took, I volunteered at the local Humane Society - Nassau). Unfortunately, and oddly :confused:, they have a 300# weight restriction. I am very close to that, but sadly, on the wrong side of close. I was very disappointed. :( I was going to go anyway, but I didn't want to be embarrassed by getting turned away in public.

IMHO, you should not have to pay to do volunteer work. RC should provide transportation for free!

We just got home from Oasis of the Seas sailing (2/13-20) and had signed up for this excursion. Unfortunately (unbelievably), out of 5400 passengers we were the only two who signed up and the excursion was cancelled?!? I think RC should have done a better job in promoting the visibility of this opportunity as most people we talked to had never heard of this excursion.

Sailing Oasis of the Seas on 6/4, with a small group. Two of us are looking into this excursion, but can't tell if it's really worth it so we are going to wait until we are on the ship to book it. Not sure what the $49 is for, other than transportation?

If we book and it isn't cancelled, I'll update here after...

Any update on this excursion? I am signed up to do it on Oasis in less than a month..

We just got back from a 7 day Oasis cruise and my daughter and I did this "excursion"

I would NOT recommend this for children. The book said tree planting but we apparently showed up on chicken slaughtering day. The entire group was pretty taken aback. There was about 13 people in our group so a decent turn out.

We the went downtown to the soup kitchen where we did get to briefly feed the homeless before being whisked away to a shopping center.

I think the excursion was more about awareness than actually helping.

Not sure if the 50 bucks actually goes to the mission or not but I kind of doubt it. The guide we had last year said Royal takes about 75% of the costs, but she could of just been pushing for tips.

If you want to do more research the place is called "Open Heart Charitable Mission" maybe send them 50 bucks directly and spend the day pool side.

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Anyone else have any additional experiences to add with this excursion?