Thread: Falmouth, Jamaica - Any recent info?

We will be there Dec 29, 2011 on the Ryndam. This will be a new port for us and we are looking for feedback from recent visitors. We've been to Ochos Rios and Montego Bay and would probably stay aboard ship for future stops at those ports.

Last week we had a port stop in Falmouth. The port terminal area is about half completed ... but a pleasant place to walk around for a while and quite SAFE! Actually, there are some rather nice stores there with more to come. No pushy vendors within the terminal area!

The excursions offered by the ship from Falmouth are about the same as offered by ships in Ocho Rios & MoBay ... so we just talked around in the secured terminal area for a while. We we able to find the exact style of Ray-Ban sunglasses our DGD wanted there.

Hopefully, Neal will see this and post some pictures from his port stop there a few weeks ago.

Thanks for the info Lulu. Getting off to see the new port area is probably about the only reason I would get off in Jamacia. Never been a favorite stop for me.

We had a short break in Jamaica few years ago prior to a cruise from New York.

From Montego Bay Airport to and from our resort we passed through Falmouth. We had never seen such a poverty ridden filthy place in our lives. On the inward journey thought maybe my thoughts were exaggerated, unfortunately they were, it seemed worse on the return journey.

I would love to hear from cruise passengers visiting Falmouth their opinions. Seems as if passengers are segregated from Falmouth itself.

Originally Posted by Norman

Seems as if passengers are segregated from Falmouth itself.

This is true! The large cruise terminal area is very segregated from Falmouth itself. That's where we spent some time ... didn't go into the town of Falmouth.

Thanks for the info! It sounds like we will do the same--get off the ship and do some shopping in the port terminal area and avoid Falmouth.

I gave Falmouth a complete discussion in my live from thread http://www.cruiselinefans.com/live-c...caribbean.html (Live from the Millennium - Western Caribbean). In a nutshell. The cruise terminal area is totally safe. There is a big fence all around the area and only ship passengers and approved locals are allowed in. Everyone has to show a badge to get past the guards. Outside the area, anything goes, but inside it is just like being in Labadee. The area is all new, built specifically for the cruise passengers. To me, it was just like a Caribbean Disneyland Main Street. The shops, of course cater to the tourists. There are the Diamonds International and similar shops and the local tourist kiosk. There are musicians playing and all the trappings of a Caribbean city without the "bad" aspects.

Outside, there were the more typical vendors but you could see that they were a step down from the sanitized areas. We took the tour bus into Montego Bay and saw some really seedy areas that I would not have walked into. Whether it was a ruse to keep us in the "selected" shopping area or not, our bus driver said that we should not leave the shopping area that we were taken to. It was also gated but there did not seem to be any controls on who entered or not.

Jamaica is a third world country. That pretty well says it all. There are European enclaves and some mice areas around the bay but overall the country is poor and it shows.

I posted some pictures in Lulu's "where is" thread. Here is Falmouth....





The European enclaves......





Montego bay tourist area (a major strip club (?)....



And the city.....

Has anyone been into the town of Falmouth lately? I would to do some sightseeing - yes, I am the more adventuresome type.

Tom

What do you want to know, Tom? I found the town itself rather lackluster from our brief trips through it but there are open trolley rides available from the cruise ships that look interesting. Some films had scenery shots here but I can't remember which ones. The ship area is pure vanilla, the interesting (?) part is outside the enclave.