The first stop on our recent Caribbean cruise was Ocho Rios, Jamaica. My wife, my brother, his girlfriend, and I all decided to do the Dunn’s River Party Cruise excursion. My parents have both done this at least once, so they offered to stay back with the kids while we took a ride on a sailing catamaran to the Dunn’s River Falls, climbed the falls, and then enjoyed unlimited rum punch drinks on the ride back.

Photo Op #1

Man-Made Improvements

I wanted to take my GoPro with us for the trip, but on the morning of the excursion I found that the batteries were dead. So we all chipped in and bought the DVD from the guys at the falls, which offers 15 minutes of video and pictures from our group’s climb up the falls. I captured a few images from the video to share, as they are the only pictures we have from the falls.

Waterfall Slide

The hike up the falls is not terribly difficult, but there are some added tricks that make it a fun activity for nearly all ages. We had a four-year-old in our group who made it up the falls, though he did require some big help from his parents. I don’t think it’s worth doing more than once, but everyone should experience this for themselves.

Cruising

The ride back was a fun time with the crew of the “Cool Runnings” catamaran. The rum punch was definitely flowing and I don’t think my glass was ever empty, thanks to the lovely crew.

Cool Kids

Margaritaville

For the rest of our stay in Ocho Rios, we found a nice little beach outside of Margaritaville, which overlooked our ship. Buckets of beer were available to take down to the beach and the restaurant itself was never very crowded. We had a couple of appetizers before heading back on board on our way to Grand Cayman.

Ocho Rios on Dwellable