Seawinds--Montego Bay

[erinlaw]

We will be on the Carnival Magic in November. Has anyone ever been to Seawinds for a beach day? We will be traveling two children (6 and 2), so we are planning a beach day.

[gingerboo]

Well,...and just let me say this..I'm surprised that cruises are going back to Montego Bay! Guess I've been out of the loop for awhile! MB got a very bad reputation several years ago, and cruise lines dropped it as a POC and added Ocho Rios, and recently, Falmouth. We last were there Dec. 2001, and were harassed and treated so badly by locals...we just wanted to go to Doctor's Cave Beach for the day, and got screwed by taxi drivers, beach admissions, beach chairs, food...etc. The "JUTA" taxi driver (which we later found out was a fake) we hired to take us back to the ship (Carnival Inspiration) scooped up our four Carnival beach towels ("Here, let me carry them for you") and parked outside the gated pier, and demanded more money for our towels...which would have cost us $22 each had we not returned them. He'd put them on his lap. DD was sitting in the passenger seat and managed to grab two towels, and the four of us got out and ran like H*** to the gate! He'd also demanded payment up front, so stupid me gave him $8.00. We reported this to Carnival, who didn't charge us for the missing towels. We described the driver and the car. Apparently, the official red JUTA tags were being sold and swapped. I'll never go back to MB again!!

 

Maybe Jamaica/Montego Bay is trying to clean up its act...hope so! From what I can ascertain, the original resort was Seawinds, then Sunset Beach (very nice A/I family-friendly resort with nice beach) for several years, and now Seawinds again? Whatever you do, pay for the ship excursion!!

 

Sorry if I sound like a Pessimist....just a really bad experience there! Good luck, enjoy your cruise, and be safe!

[erinlaw]

Thanks for the advice. Particularly because we have the kids with us this time, we are going to stick with ship excursions.