Ocho Rios Jamaica - NCL Epic Shore Excursion Review

The first port on our cruise was Ocho Rios Jamaica, a new port for us. We chose the Mystic Mountain Bobsled and Dunn's River Falls excursion through the cruise line. I know that you can do excursions cheaper on your own but since we've never been to Jamaica and we'd heard lots of bad things about the area, we decided to stick with a ship sponsored excursion.

We were to meet in the theater in the morning at a designated time. When we arrived we realized that all excursions go from that meeting point and it was a logistical nightmare. They would call out the excursion that was leaving and you just followed the crowd off the ship, no guidance from the staff, and walked to the pier and got your wrist bands and found your bus. The overall organization of this was pathetic. You'd think they would have better crowd control since they do this daily. Thankfully we found our way off the ship, no thanks to the staff telling us to go the opposite way of what the man calling out the tours in the theater told us.

Lining up for our excursion in Jamaica

Once on the bus we headed to Mystic Mountain which was just a few minutes away. You need to take a lift (think ski lift) up to the top of the mountain. I am severely afraid of heights but I thought it was time to face my fear, because, well, I'm an idiot. It is a long, slow, very very high climb to the top. I had to keep my eyes closed the entire way as I was scared to death. When we got to the top, I realized that this was also my only way back down which did dampen my excitement for the rest of the excursion. The bobsleds were awesome, like Space Mountain in the rainforest, I only wish we sprang for the extra cost to ride it again. There were also amazing views of the ship from the top of the mountain.

View from the top of Mystic Mountain

View while on the lift to the top of the mountain.

Scary Ski Lift

Once back on solid ground, we got back onto a bus and headed off to Dunn's River Falls. Our tour guide at the falls was very nice and helpful and brought us to the lockers to lock up our stuff. I was concerned about the locker situation when I was researching this excursion, but the lockers are good, no issues. At this point, I was not feeling very great, I was overheated and still very shaky from my experience on the lift and just was not into experiencing the falls. I chose to head towards the bottom of the falls and just stand in the water while my husband explored a little. We chose not to follow a guide and climb. We didn't last long at the falls at all, after maybe an hour or less we decided to head out and back to the ship.

Dunn's River Falls

I have a few regrets from the excursion; I wish I had stuck with my original plan and gone to the Green Grotto Caves, since the heights were just too much for me at the mountain, though the Bobsleds were great. Second, I wish we had brought our good camera with us. We brought only our water camera since we thought we'd be in water for most of the day and I didn't understand the locker situation. This caused us to miss out on some great shots from the mountain and at the falls because our water camera started misbehaving, leaving us with blurry pictures.

I would definitely go back to Jamaica and back to Dunn's River Falls for the whole experience in the future. I'd love to see where the falls end (we missed that) but I still don't think I would climb the entire falls, it looked too crowded for us.

After getting back on the ship we took a much needed nap in the cool room and headed to dinner. At dinner we learned that during the previous cruise, a group of people from the Epic were stuck on the lift for the mountain for over an hour. Just thinking about that, over a month later gives me anxiety. No more slow climbs up a mountain for me!

View of Mystic Mountain Lift from the ship.