Jamaica

I didn’t even want to write this blog because I was SO disappointed with our time here. 

It’s also hard for me to write this blog without going into details on my experience with Viking. 

Here are the facts:

-When I first booked this cruise there was an excursion to Mystic Mountain which is what I was really set on. As we got closer to the cruise Viking removed it (and others) so they were no longer options. 

-My second choice for excursion was 4x4 jungle tour. Sounds cool, right?! But sadly it was all booked up so I figured I would get on a waitlist when we boarded the ship.

I would prefer to do excursions through the ship because it seems like a safer bet, but I planned on making my own way to mystic mountain if we couldn’t get the 4x4 tour. 

-We talked to guest services on the ship and I asked him if it was a 2 seater or 1 seater because I really wanted to drive my own. He said he didn’t know, but even if it ended up being a 2 seater I figured it would still be fun. 

-The day of the tour came and we boarded our bus. 

Our transport

I was a little disappointed because it was really hot and of course it didn’t have air conditioning because of the open sides. I get bad motion sickness so I sat towards the front. Lots of winding roads + bumps in the road + no air flow = very upset stomach. 

We reached our first stop on the tour and I asked the driver how long the bus ride was and he said 2 hours. Then I asked how long it was until we got to our 4x4’s and he said “this is it.” 

I had sunglasses on, but my eyes started tearing up.  I was SO looking forward to Jamaica and doing a 4x4… this is what I was envisioning and I’m pretty sure they used a picture similar to this in the advertisement for the excursion:

What I thought we were getting

 

We were maybe 30 minutes in, I felt extremely nauseous, it was very hot, and I just discovered we weren’t doing what I thought. 

It was extremely difficult to enjoy the rest of the trip which wasn’t even a good tour to begin with. 

Another lady on our ride told me she also thought it was a smaller vehicle like I had been envisioning.

We got back to the ship and I was extremely upset. If I had known all this I would have booked my own trip out to mystic mountain. I had a driver and everything lined up,  but by the time we got back there was no real time to do anything worth seeing. 

I take my countries very seriously and I didn’t even want to get a magnet because I feel like I didn’t see Jamaica at all. (I get magnets for every country I go to) 

Here are a few pics from our time in Jamaica:

How I felt

I'm currently waiting for the shore excursion manager to get back to me and hopefully they will make things right. Even if they do what I hope they will do, I will never get that time back and who knows if I will be going to Jamaica again in the future. This was supposed to be a one and done wonderful Jamaican experience and it ended up being a crappy way to end our vacation. 

In my next blog I will discuss the pros and cons of Viking and what my final thoughts are. Hopefully I will have a positive meeting with the shore excursions director. 

...to be continued