Gettin Married In Jamica .... Lots Of Questions

[Jim Brody]

:love2:
At the end of May my fiance ,Ann, and me are finaly geting married. We are getting married at Royal Decameron Club Caribbean (RDCC) in Runaway Bay and will be staying there for 5 days with our guests. Then me and my wife ( that word still sound wierd to me ) are headed to Sandals Dunn's River Golf Resort and Spa(SDR) in Ocho Rios for 8 more days. Both are on the North side of the island.
For my birthday Ann signed me up for a scuba certification program. Class and pool tome at the end of April and open water at Pearl Lake, WI in the beggining of May.
SDRart of its all inclusive package offers free scuba diving and snokeling. RDCC only offers snorkling.

If any can answer any of these questions it would be greatly appreciated.


- Has any one gone to either one of these that can give me any feedback on the resort; food, service, daily activities, or just the quality of the facilities? Positive or negative.

- Does any one have any pics of the resort or scuba in the area?

- RDCC does not offer free scuba but does offer a free scuba clinic in the pool. Some of our friends that will only be at the RDCC with us and they would like to scuba with us. Does any one know of any one in the area that offers scuba rental outside the resort, cheap perferably, but safety is the first issue? From what I hear the Jamaican population is not to fond of us tourists.

-Does anyone know of any cool local spots; shops, flea market, trails with some great seinery, a bar with a cool steel drum band, or a private beach? Again I would like it to be somewhere that I am wellcome and where my wife can feel safe.

-A while back on this forum I read something about obtaining a tempary collectors lisence to collect coral from the ocean. Is there a way to go about this leagelly, or would I just be contibuting to the destuction of already diminished natural coral reefs?


Thanks for taking the time to read this long thread

Jim Brody

 

[agilis]

Jamaica

Jamaica

Let me first point out that I have visited Jamaica many times, over the past three decades. I lived there for nearly a year in the early 1980s.

Jamaicans cannot be lumped together into any categories. Very few dislike American tourists as much as I do. There are, however, many Jamaicans who prey on tourists. You have to be very careful, and suspicious of any involvement with persons who offer to take you on tours, be your guide, be your buddy, etc., however charming and plausible they appear. Some of these guys are really first rate conmen, far more subtle than most tourists think. Jamaica is a very poor country, and there are many desperate people. Stay away from crafts markets, etc., even those recommended by hotel staff. Do NOT try to have polite conversations with the various vendors who will descend on you. Answer in single words, like "NO". Do not pick anything up or try anything on. Do not think that being politely reasonable will be effective. As soon as you begin a conversation, you are going to have trouble. The attempts to separate you from your money will begin in the airport, as soon as you clear customs.

Rely on activities run by the all-inclusive you are staying in. Jamaica is incredibly beautiful. The north coast is magnificent. It's also a tourism center where cruise ships visit. This makes the density of predators especially high. Do not mingle with the local people. In the vicinity of resorts, the hustlers outnumber the ordinary working people. If you are cautious, you will have a great time. The diving is not as good as it once was, but if this is your first experience, you will probably love it. I travel on my own all over the island, but I am familiar with Jamaica, and I NEVER go near any tourist centers. Never.

Do not mess with the coral. Do NOT try to bring any coral back with you. It's a violation of both US and Jamaican law.

 

[chrisp074]

As a fellow local, my suggestion is to do your checkout at Haite Quary down in Burbonassie, much nicer. Either way once you make it out to the ocean it is going to be so much easier than diving at either Pearl or Haite, its like a whole other world.
Have not been to the cariben yet so can't comment on that, but good luck with everything.
By the way, what shop are you going through for your lessons?

-Chris

 

[Jim Brody]

Agilis,
Thank you, sounds like some sound advice from an seasoned veterian.

Chris,
My open water dives are already booked at Pearl Lake. But in the future I would like to check it out, although anything around here is going to feel like less of a dive after Jamaica. The local scuba shop I'm using is Underseas Scuba Center Inc. in Villa Park on Addison Rd.

 

[mr.sailfin]

Hi I have been to sandals dunns river 2 times it is great.The food and the service is top knoch. Enjoy and have fun.

 

[snorvich]

Pearl Lake is not the greatest place in the world. It is cold and bleak but easy. Jamaica diving is probably the worst I have ever seen (about 2000+ dives) but it is warm, easy, and for beginners not a bad way to be introduced to marine diving. There is NO GOOD DIVING in Jamaica and the local dive shops there are so safety conscious that dives are all group dives with the divemaster leading and usually a divemaster trailing. But for the first oceans dives, it is not a bad thing. You will graduate to wanting much more: scenery and freedom. Enjoy.

 

[OK]

I went to Jamacia on my honeymoon in October, and my wife and I got open water certified while we were down there. Unfortunately you are staying about 2 hrs from MoBay where most of the diving takes place. You can still take a bus to MoBay or the Royal and dive from there. I'd highly reccommend Mobay. I've read horror stories of inadequate instructors at resort courses, this is not the case in Mobay. Our instructors name was Big-D, and he was great. It would take too long to list the great things about him, but I would travel back there to have him as an instructor for further certifications. Check the Sandals rules, you my be able to dive for free and just have to pay for the transportation. There are shuttles that run back and fourth, but check the schedule because it is not every day, and if it rains, the roads flood very easily, and the trips(bus) are canceled.
Hope this helped.

 

[Jim Brody]

bump

 

[Jim Brody]

last time, bump

 

[RobbyG]

Thats just totaly inaccurate information, there are many places in Jamaica that have Virgin reef that almost no one has ever dived on. The fact that you got stuck on tourist dives does not give you the right to make a blanket statement that there is "No Good Diving In Jamaica", that is total bull.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6515120#post6515120 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by snorvich
Pearl Lake is not the greatest place in the world. It is cold and bleak but easy. Jamaica diving is probably the worst I have ever seen (about 2000+ dives) but it is warm, easy, and for beginners not a bad way to be introduced to marine diving. There is NO GOOD DIVING in Jamaica and the local dive shops there are so safety conscious that dives are all group dives with the divemaster leading and usually a divemaster trailing. But for the first oceans dives, it is not a bad thing. You will graduate to wanting much more: scenery and freedom. Enjoy.

 

[RobbyG]

Re: Gettin Married In Jamica .... Lots Of Questions

Hi Jim to answer a few of your questions.

1) Sandals Dunn's river is a really nice hotel but unfortunately from the Diving point of view Ocho Rios is a bust. The reason is that Dunn's River Falls emptys into the Ocean in that Bay and the Mix of Fresh water has prevented any serious coral or fish life from ever existing. On the bright side the hotel itself is very nice, and the Dunn's River waterfall is absolutely stuning.

2) No Pictures, in digital format, but I also spent my Honeymoon at Sandals Dunns river.

3) Jamaicans are very fond of tourist, unfortunately unemployment is so high, coupled with the fact that only a few tourist emerge from the all inclusive hotels. So those that do are often hounded by a few bad people who make a living staying near resort hotels and harassing tourist to buy things from them.

4) Starfish Hotel is a nice out of the way place, they also have Chukka Blue Tours that offers many out of the way places to go to.

5) You can't take stuff off the reef, they will hammer you at the airport if they find it. The reefs in Jamaica are not nearly as depleted as some people think, about 85% of the reef is still pristine, the problem is that the tourism has killed some reefs because of the large hotels impacting the water quality, this applies to Negril and Montego Bay to some extent. In Ocho Rios the water has always been bad as I explained above.
None the less there are still places with fantastic water in even Montego Bay, but you would need to arrange a private trip with one of the operators. They don't take tourists to these spots simply because the dive operators like to stay within a 5 minute boat ride of the hotel, if you arrange a private dive you will see many untouched reefs. I use to drive around Jamaica with my Brother and Cousin and just stop the car at any remote location that we saw reef, I can't tell you how many Jaw dropping dives we had in places that probably no other human had ever dived at.

If you can afford it you might want to look into going to Port Antonio, it's on the far side of the island, very desolate and has excellent diving but of course it is a much more expensive area to stay in as the hotels are geared towards the upper class tourist.

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=6439207#post6439207 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Jim Brody
:

1)- Has any one gone to either one of these that can give me any feedback on the resort; food, service, daily activities, or just the quality of the facilities? Positive or negative.

2)- Does any one have any pics of the resort or scuba in the area?

3)- RDCC does not offer free scuba but does offer a free scuba clinic in the pool. Some of our friends that will only be at the RDCC with us and they would like to scuba with us. Does any one know of any one in the area that offers scuba rental outside the resort, cheap perferably, but safety is the first issue? From what I hear the Jamaican population is not to fond of us tourists.

4)-Does anyone know of any cool local spots; shops, flea market, trails with some great seinery, a bar with a cool steel drum band, or a private beach? Again I would like it to be somewhere that I am wellcome and where my wife can feel safe.

5)-A while back on this forum I read something about obtaining a tempary collectors lisence to collect coral from the ocean. Is there a way to go about this leagelly, or would I just be contibuting to the destuction of already diminished natural coral reefs?


Jim Brody