{title card modified from flickr | creative commons}
Note: Today’s post is a special guest post from my mom, Karen, on her excursion experience in Jamaica. We unfortunately were not able to go on this excursion because it was for ages 6+ and S was only 5 at the time.
On our recent Disney Cruise we booked the Bobsled Jamaica and Dunn’s River Falls excursion. In 2014 I snorkeled in Alaska with my husband, so it was only fitting that this year we would bobsled in Jamaica. We snorkeled in Alaska solely for the bragging rights, the same can be said about bobsledding in Jamaica…I did it so I can say I did it!
I am 58 years old and against many warnings from my daughter, I climbed 600 feet on slippery rocks, against rushing water up Dunn’s River Falls in Jamaica !!!
The cascading falls looked a bit intimidating as we stood on the sandy beach at the bottom and I considered not going forward but it all happened so fast that before I realized it, I was moving with the group right up the falls.
We had a guide leading and at times helping us and a camera man who was filming the trip up. We all held hands (I know that sounds weird) and up we went. The hand holding means that the person in front of you helps you and you help the person behind you. This system actually worked very well, good thing most of the time I had a strong guy in front of me and I was pulling up a young girl behind me.
Every so often there was a pool of water where we slid in feet first, fell back in to or just rested under the rushing water. Each pool of water had a staircase coming in so you had the opportunity to leave the group if you just couldn’t go up anymore or if someone in your party didn’t want to climb they could enter the water easily for a dip. It was a struggle at times, some rocks were quite high and I was happy to reach the end. Once I was out of the water I was surprised that I actually did it and wondered if I would do it again? I think maybe I will.
For a fee (ours was $40.00 cash) a CD of your journey is available. Before we even boarded our cruise ship we met a family who immediately became great friends and they decided it would be fun to join the crazy old people (my husband and I) on a quest to conquer the falls and bobsled thru the jungle. “The family” as we like to call them, purchased the CD and shared it with us. 
From the falls we passed through the market area where there were lots of interesting crafts to purchase. After returning to our bus, we made the short trip to Mystic Mountain.
We ascended on a chairlift over the rainforest canopy, about a 15 minute ride. The views of the forest and the turquoise water below were breathtaking.
There are a variety of things to see at the top but we went straight for the bobsled line. The bobsled is designed for a single person, if you need to go with your child or in my case your husband they can strap the two bobsleds together and you go down as a team or as the young man informed me “a driver” and “a screamer”. I was the “screamer”.
You have control of the brakes and can go as fast as you wish. We were told “ride it like you stole it” so we did just that. We didn’t use the brakes and went full speed down the mountain! It’s on a track but it is not straight down. The track goes around trees, around the edge of a cliff, turns and twists all while moving pretty quickly. Our estimate was around 40-50 mph. I thoroughly enjoyed this ride inspired by the Jamaican Olympic Bobsled Team!
When you get to the bottom you have to slow down using the brakes as you’re coming into the gate. Something grabs your bobsled and pulls you up the track back to the top, it takes about 8 minutes in total.
After we went to the gift shop (we bought hats that said “Jamaica Bobsled Team” of course) we had a nice lunch. The jerk chicken, grilled fish and rice was very good, hot dogs were available for the kids.
We also had time to walk thru the little hummingbird and butterfly garden and watched the kids dancing and playing drums with the band, finally we took the chairlift down to the bottom for our return trip to Falmouth and back to the ship.
Thankfully we had a charming tour guide full of information and good bus driver which made the hour journey each way very pleasant. This was a long day (about 6-7 hours) and full of moderate activity, but it was one of the best excursions we have experienced.
My tips:
- Everything you wear or take to the falls will get wet so leave everything on the bus that you don’t want wet
- Wear water shoes or rubber soled shoes to climb the falls
- Apply sunscreen on the bus before you arrive at the falls
- Be careful of your sunglasses, mine got bumped and landed in the rushing water, fortunately the last person in our group was able to catch them as they flew past
- Waterproof cameras are ok to take
- Take cash for tips or purchases (the venders will take credit cards for purchases) in a waterproof bag in your pocket or give it to your guide to hold our guide placed my camera in his waterproof bag for safe keeping and even took our picture during the climb
