Book, Wine and Time: Ocho Rios, Jamaica (Norwegian Getaway Cruise

Our fourth day on the Norwegian Getaway was at Ocho Rios, Jamaica. This, by far, was the best part of the trip and I must go back to do all the other stuff I wanted to do.

The Freestyle Daily....

When we got to the island it was a rainy day and I thought it was going to turn out bad. It ended up being a really pretty and fun day. I had booked a package doing the dolphin swim and climbing Dunn’s waterfall. Here is some of the other packages you can pick.

Once we got off the ship, there was a tent set up for us to wait for a bus to take us to Dolphin Cove. This was well organized and pretty stress free. The bus driver was pretty funny but be prepared for a crazy ride. They can swing those busses into the tights corners! Our driver also told us that rain in Jamaica means blessings.

Dolphin Cove is a small park with Dolphin/Shark swimming, food and shopping. They also have a swimming area with a water slide. The slide was closed because of dirty water the day we were there. You can rent lockers there for $10 (medium size) and get $5 back when you return the key. You are not allowed to take your camera on the Dolphin swim because they sale pictures/videos afterwards.

Swimming with the Dolphins was amazing and the highlight of our trip. My son loved it. We got to swim and kiss our Dolphin, Misty. The water was really warm, although dirty from the storm. It was over pretty fast but still worth the money spent.

We bought the pictures and video which was $108. You have to wait 15 minutes while they make your DVD. While waiting, we decided to walk around the animal park. They have this amazing walk in bird cage. This place was pretty cool. The birds love to land on you and check out anything you may have with you. There is a guy there that will give you feed so that the birds will eat out of your hand.

After the walk we went back to get our pictures so we could move on to the Dunn’s climb. We reviewed the pictures only to find that they made a copy of the wrong family. It was a nightmare trying to tell them that the family in the pictures were not us. It took another 20 minutes to get the right copy. This was disappointing. We were in a hurry to get to Dunn's Falls so skipped eating at the Cove. Although the food smelled really good and I kind of wished we would have stayed for lunch before moving on. You can shop in the gift shop while waiting for the bus to take you to Dunn's Falls. It runs every few minutes.

The Dunn’s Falls was nuts and also very confusing. You need a guide to take you up the falls but I think this was more for the ton of pictures they make you stop and take so you will buy later. We took a water camera and was able to get some pretty cool pictures on our own. But stopping and starting eats up a lot of time. This made for a very long climb because of all the stops.

The bus lets you off at the top of the Falls where you can rent a locker. Cost is $8 and you get $3 back when you return the key. You also need some pretty good water shoes.

You will wait in one of the lines for the guide to take you to the bottom of the falls, which starts on the sandy beach. The guide will take you slowly up the rocks. I did enjoy this climb and recommend you at least do it once in your lifetime. If you can’t make it all the way up, there is several escape routes which will allow you to leave the falls. The water was very warm and the never came over the knees so this is perfect for kids.

After this we took the bus back to town for lunch at a local restaurant. I almost had a heartache when we got the bill and saw the subtotal of $3,949.35. The food wasn't THAT good.