May 14, 2014 - Falmouth, Jamaica

This was the first time that the Disney Fantasy had ever visited Falmouth, Jamaica.  The Disney Magic had visited before, and we were told that passengers had rated Falmouth 3rd place as overall cruise port.  The Fantasy had been visiting Costa Maya, Mexico, which passengers had only ranked 10th.

Falmouth, Jamaica was a first for us, as well.  I had been to Jamaica once before with my family, visiting Ocho Rios on Royal Caribbean's Mariner of the Seas in 2008, years before the port of Falmouth had opened.

Max has always wanted to visit Jamaica.  In fact, I learned years ago that it was his number one place to visit because Jamaicans have dreads, and Jamaica just sounds awesome.

When we had visited Ocho Rios, Royal Caribbean instructed us not to take any cabs outside of the cruise port and encouraged us to take their excursions.  This was a warning that we remembered when going to Falmouth and assumed it to be the same (note: we received no warnings on the Disney Fantasy about crime in Falmouth, so I think I assumed wrong).  Therefore, this was the one day that we actually booked an excursion in advance.  We selected Chukka Beach Express for $32 per person which included transportation to and from a nearby beach, as well as beach chairs.

Chukka Beach Express

The downside to booking a beach excursion through Disney Cruise Line was that we had to get off the ship early in the morning and returned to the ship in the early afternoon, while on our own, we would leave the ship around 10 or 11 AM and return later in the afternoon.

We met at 8:45 AM in the Buena Vista Theater which is where first-run movies are shown throughout the cruise.  This was actually the only time that we went in that theater.  It seemed that Disney had given us an early meeting time so that everyone would be there on time.  Because when it was our scheduled time to meet, there were 20 guests still missing!  When our excursion was called to leave the ship (about 15 minutes after our scheduled meeting in the theater), there were still guests who hadn't checked in, yet.  We ended up on the last bus to leave which ended up waiting for the late guests.