Breeze Review 2/23-3/1

[jolyroger]

There was no roof above our balcony. If someone was looking at the right angle, they could see down to our balcony from the top deck.

 

 

Thats what I figured..Eh not big deal, I'm cruisin!! And I have a Spa balcony!!! Woohoo

[brad09821]

Ok, time to get back to this review.

 

We arrived in Ocho Rios and had booked an excursion with Peat Taylor Tours. I was very nervous to book outside of Carnival, but we wanted to do the Dunn’s River Falls and the Ocean Horseback ride. Carnival wanted $130 per person and Peat Taylor wanted $75 per person. My parents had used Peat Taylor and they also had outstanding reviews on Trip Advisor, so we decided to give them a shot. The way that Carnival gets away with not having to match the other operators price for the excursion is that Carnival excursions meet inside the fence of the port and private operators meet outside the fence. Anyhow, we lined up at the gate and Peat Taylor immediately called us over to wait inside an air conditioned van until our car arrived. A small sedan pulled up and Benji and PJ aka Repeat, Peat Taylor’s son, had us get in the car and we were off to the falls. We arrived and Benji talked to someone at the falls, and we were led down to the line up area ahead of everyone else there.

 

We met our falls guide and the guy who does the video. We had brought our own water shoes and had rented a locker for $8. They give you $3 back when you return the lock at the end of the tour. Our guide led us into the falls all holding hands. The water was cold at first and then started to warm up as we went up. We had brought a cheap waterproof camera that our guide had used when we stopped at different parts of the falls. It was absolutely breathtaking and beautiful. Definitely a one of a kind type of thing. The whole climb lasted a little over an hour. The climb wasn’t too hard to do, with plenty of stops along the way to pose and lay back under the water flowing over the rocks. When we got to the end, the video guy wanted us to buy a video and we hadn’t brought a credit card with us or a lot of extra cash. They wanted $45 for the video. I made sure that we actually tipped our falls guide and headed down to the little snack shack for some jerked chicken and water. We sat at a table feeding Xena the stray cat and talking with the cook for about thirty minutes. The video guy actually came down to us and said “No tip?” I told him that I had tipped our falls guide. He was not happy and walked away.

 

We went to exit the falls, and this is where, in my opinion, the worst part of the falls. In order to exit the park, you have to go through a maze of people trying to sell their stuff. My wife ended up stopping and we bought some little tikis and finally managed to find the exit. As soon as we came out, there was PJ waiting for us with the car.

 

We drove off with PJ narrating the tour along the way until we got to the horses. He had us sit in the car with the air on until the horses were saddled up and ready for us. We climbed up on a little stand and mounted Nikki and Smokee for our ride. Our guides led us through a neighborhood that wasn’t the best neighborhood at all, but at no point did we feel unsafe. Along the way, they would pull some leaves down to let us smell the lime leaf or the allspice leaf that they use for their jerk spices. After about 30 minutes through the neighborhood, we headed down through a jungle like area and out to the water. The horses went right down in and walked out until our feet were down in the water. Now I thought that climbing the falls was breathtaking, until I got in the ocean on a horse. This was absolutely stunning. We walked for a while and came out of the water and then our guides led us back in the water again. They had our camera while we were in the water and took plenty of shots of us while we were out. We came back and headed back to the stable where PJ was waiting the whole time.

 

PJ took us back to the pier where he offered to take us anywhere we wanted to go. Shopping, eating, sightseeing. We chose shopping and he drove us to the Taj Mahal shopping area and we said goodbye. We had about 2 1/2 hours left before we were supposed to sail, so we never felt that we wouldn’t make it back to the boat on time. When we go back to Jamaica, we will use Peat Taylor without any questions for our excursions.

 

I am going to take a break from here for now. Be back in a bit with more...

[brad09821]

$47 for two drinks!?!?!? I hope they were huge and strong!!! :D

 

They were strong and ended up in huge cups with a test tube shooter in them. In hindsight, we could have paid better attention and just asked for a basic drink and not the Cadillac of drinks lol.

[rksmom]

Just checked out your pictures on Facebook. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing them and writing this review.

 

Sandi

[brad09821]

Just checked out your pictures on Facebook. Beautiful. Thank you for sharing them and writing this review.

 

Sandi

 

Thank you very much

[Mike C]

Brad,

 

I just sent you a friend request. Thank's for taking the time to write your review.

 

Mike

[brad09821]

Brad,

 

I just sent you a friend request. Thank's for taking the time to write your review.

 

Mike

 

You are very welcome. I will get back to the rest of the review tomorrow.