Chukka Horseback Ride excursion question/observation of pics vs. description...

Dug720

See the line where the sky meets the sea?
Joined
Feb 16, 2012
Realizing that the offered excursions can change before next year (and that most people on here are very anti-ship-based excursions), I was doing some preliminary looking at ideas for my August Western cruise. One I saw for Falmouth that looked interesting was the Chukka Horseback Ride and Swim.

BUT...

There is a huge discrepancy between the "Things to Know" which clearly states that "helmets are provided and must be worn" and the pictures where NO ONE is wearing a helmet.

Has anyone done this excursion? What is the verdict on helmets? Are the photos just false advertising (or, I guess MAYBE the rules changed since the pictures were taken, but why not update the pictures with helmets now?)?
 
Helmets (and saddles) when riding outside the water. Then no helmets and light padding when in the water for the "swim".
 
Helmets (and saddles) when riding outside the water. Then no helmets and light padding when in the water for the "swim".

Gotcha. I guess the pics were taken before they were required since the outside the water ones have no helmets on. (They do seem to have flotation belts on in the in-water pictures.) Guess it's time for a picture update. LOL.

Was it a fun excursion?
 
Gotcha. I guess the pics were taken before they were required since the outside the water ones have no helmets on. (They do seem to have flotation belts on in the in-water pictures.) Guess it's time for a picture update. LOL.

Was it a fun excursion?
It was wonderful! We did the Ride + Dunn's Falls and we thought it fantastic. I know some folks balk at the length of the bus ride, but I think we got a nice scenic view of the island and some background info along the way. Our tour guide was super fun and really made it an enjoyable experience overall.
 


It was wonderful! We did the Ride + Dunn's Falls and we thought it fantastic. I know some folks balk at the length of the bus ride, but I think we got a nice scenic view of the island and some background info along the way. Our tour guide was super fun and really made it an enjoyable experience overall.

Awesome! Thank you so much!!
 
It was wonderful! We did the Ride + Dunn's Falls and we thought it fantastic. I know some folks balk at the length of the bus ride, but I think we got a nice scenic view of the island and some background info along the way. Our tour guide was super fun and really made it an enjoyable experience overall.
Glad to hear this! We are doing this excursion in December.
 
I don't know about anti ship based excursions, but I also don't tend to book through the ship and here is the problem with that. My husband and I did the chukka ride and swim years ago before kids (the company is really established in Jamaica) this year, I wanted to go with the kids when we did the western caribbean in August. Well, even though Chukka will take kids as young as 10, Disney would not book them under 12. Then, when Chukka found out i was wth Disney, I was not allowed to book through them because they had to book disney guests trough disney. So just FYI -

As for the trip, its a SLOW walk before the water and then they run/swim them through the water - tons of fun - wish my kids could have done it this year. We did the Blue Hole instead, which i HIGHLY recommend over Dunns river falls.

Have fun
 


I don't know about anti ship based excursions, but I also don't tend to book through the ship and here is the problem with that. My husband and I did the chukka ride and swim years ago before kids (the company is really established in Jamaica) this year, I wanted to go with the kids when we did the western caribbean in August. Well, even though Chukka will take kids as young as 10, Disney would not book them under 12. Then, when Chukka found out i was wth Disney, I was not allowed to book through them because they had to book disney guests trough disney. So just FYI -

As for the trip, its a SLOW walk before the water and then they run/swim them through the water - tons of fun - wish my kids could have done it this year. We did the Blue Hole instead, which i HIGHLY recommend over Dunns river falls.

Have fun


I know many folks on here like to book their excursions on their own. I understand completely about the age differences between booking direct and booking via DCL - we ran into that problem too. And, of course, we went the Comfort Suites route in Nassau - that was a no-brainer.
However, I much prefer going through Disney for most excursions, as I look at it as a sort of insurance policy. For instance, our last cruise we had two excursions booked for St. Maarten, but the ship was diverted to San Juan due to a wicked storm (Cristobal, I think?) - Disney simply didn't charge us for the excursions we had booked. For a Western years ago, we booked direct and had to change it, for some reason I cannot immediately recall. The change resulted in a "credit" that we could "use at a later time with the company"; but, it was basically a sunk cost. . As always, YMMV - but we just feel more comfortable making our plans with the mouse. It's worth the little bit of extra cost to us.
 
Particularly when talking about excursions that involve travel of an hour or more from the port, I will pretty much always book with the ship.

Yes private excursions WANT to get you back in time because of bad reviews if they don't, but poop happens sometimes. Unless they guarantee to me IN WRITING that they will cover the expenses of getting me back to the ship IN CASE, I will not consider a non-ship excursion that involves long travel from the port.
 
My family (sons 14 and 15, wife, my sister, her husband, their daughers 13 and 16 and my mother) did this excursion through DCL and we LOVED it.

The bus ride was like 45 minutes, but the tour guide talked to us a lot during the ride about Jamaica. Ya Mon! And taught us how to be HI-RY (happy). We were told we could leave things locked up on the bus and that we would have a chance to change before the Swim with horses part, so I left my water shoes on the bus and kept my sneakers on for comfort during the horseback ride.

At the horse ranch, they gave us all helmets that fit, and then paired us up with horses (about 40 people in our group). Because they were picking people they felt were appropriate for each horse as it came out, we were all out of order, but they were ready for that. The ride started on a circular dirt track, so that they could keep the horses walking (in circles) but pull people out of line and match them up with their group of friends/family. This also gave you an opportunity to get comfortable on your horse. Soon our group of 9 was all together. Then the real ride began. It was a nice wooded, course, but it didn’t have the ocean views I thought we were promised. It was about 45 minutes, as advertised. But unfortunately, right at the end, BEFORE going back to the bus, they took us all through the water. So all our sneakers got soaked, while our water shoes were dry on the bus. Don’t know why they did that. THEN we got to go change our shoes before the real beach part. So don't wear sneakers if you have anything else, or at least take your socks off!

The beach ride was Fantastic. Groups of 15 this time, different horses. And instead of a full saddle and stirrups it was more of a pad. What a big difference a saddle makes! Not only is the horses spine much more obvious, but holding on and steering become much harder. Being without a saddle was more of an adjustment than being hip deep in the water. But it was great! Like an advanced course to see what we learned on the first ride. The guides were great, and we went out into the water pretty far. Luckily the waves were non-existent, but we were basically in the ocean.

Another big difference between this trip and many others is that they welcomed your own cameras. In fact, the guides often took our cameras from us and took pictures of our group for us. Sure they sold their own pictures too if you wanted them, but I thought it was really nice of them to take pictures with our cameras even if it cut into their pictures sales.
 
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My family (sons 14 and 15, wife, my sister, her husband, their daughers 13 and 16 and my mother) did this excursion through DCL and we LOVED it.

The bus ride was like 45 minutes, but the tour guide talked to us a lot during the ride about Jamaica. Ya Mon! And taught us how to be HI-RY (happy). We were told we could leave things locked up on the bus and that we would have a chance to change before the Swim with horses part, so I left my water shoes on the bus and kept my sneakers on for comfort during the horseback ride.

At the horse ranch, they gave us all helmets that fit, and then paired us up with horses (about 40 people in our group). Because they were picking people they felt were appropriate for each horse as it came out, we were all out of order, but they were ready for that. The ride started on a circular dirt track, so that they could keep the horses walking (in circles) but pull people out of line and match them up with their group of friends/family. This also gave you an opportunity to get comfortable on your horse. Soon our group of 9 was all together. Then the real ride began. It was a nice wooded, course, but it didn’t have the ocean views I thought we were promised. It was about 45 minutes, as advertised. But unfortunately, right at the end, BEFORE going back to the bus, they took us all through the water. So all our sneakers got soaked, while our water shoes were dry on the bus. Don’t know why they did that. THEN we got to go change our shoes before the real beach part. So don't wear sneakers if you have anything else, or at least take your socks off!

The beach ride was Fantastic. Groups of 15 this time, different horses. And instead of a full saddle and stirrups it was more of a pad. What a bid difference a saddle makes! Not only is the horses spine much more obvious, but holding on and steering become much harder. Being without a saddle was more of an adjustment than being hip deep in the water. But it was great! Like an advanced course to see what we learned on the first ride. The guides were great, and we went out into the water pretty far. Luckily the waves were non-existent, but we were basically in the ocean.

Another big difference between this trip and many others is that they welcomed your own cameras. In fact, the guides often took our cameras from us and took pictures of our group for us. Sure they sold their own pictures too if you wanted them, but I thought it was really nice of them to take pictures with our cameras even if it cut into their pictures sales.

Thank you so much for this review!! This excursion has definitely jumped to the top of my list!!
 

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