Land Ho! I woke up early this morning to record the time-lapse of the arrival of the ship into Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.
I took a few pictures along the way as well. You could even see the Carnival ship docked at their private port, Amber Cove, which I have visited before, but is significantly further from town.
I took a picture of the pilot boat dropping off the harbor pilot.
There was a big mountain behind the town which has a gondola system to reach the statue, similar to Rio and Lisbon.
There was a small fort at the entrance of the harbor.
There was a ship offloading bulk solids (sand?) into trucks in the port.
A tug on it’s way back and the pilot boat.
The meeting time for my shore excursion was at 10:45 AM, but at the end of the pier, which was a brief walk (5-10 minutes)
I chose the Discover Puerto Plata tour, it seemed to offer a variety of the town, and I really wanted to visit the Umbrella Street.
Here are the rest of the tours that were available at some point.
In case you were wondering how much the excursions cost:
They were handing out these maps on the pier, mostly to show where all the tourist traps are, but the port itself has a lazy river and pool.
It’s a big lazy river…It’s longer than the ships.
At the end of the pier were the excursions. I wandered about for a bit while I waited for my group to leave.
We are escorted to our mega bus, which luckily wasn’t full.
The first stop was a Rum distillery. (link below)
They had a brief video presentation (in English) and then a short tasting of certain samples.
I bought a small 300ml bottle of rum, it was only $5, so it was a good and cheap souvenir.
Back to the bus to go to the General Gregorio Luperon Museum. I took some pictures along the way.
When we arrived at the museum, our group had a tour guide. He didn’t talk very loud, so I didn’t get all the information. It’s a fairly small museum; it’s more important to the locals. It’s probably not something I would have decided to do on my own.
After the tour it was back to the bus to visit the center of town… luckily it wasn’t too hot – I would not want to be outside in the sun in the middle of the day during the summer months.
The bus dropped us off by a church, the Cathedral of St. Philip the Apostle, which we visited quickly.
From the church, we walked to the pink street where someone had painted an entire alley pink.
Around the corner was the umbrella street. They had us stop in a coffee shop for some free samples and to use the bathroom if needed.
The umbrella street was only a short block, but the area was nice. We walked over to another gift shop that sold amber.
Back to the bus and they took us to an Amber Museum. Apparently, the Dominican Republic has one of the largest deposits of Amber.
There was a decent number of amber pieces. I only took a few pictures because most people, I assume, don’t really enjoy staring at rocks. Maybe kids would enjoy this museum more, but it’s not on my recommended list.
On the lower floor, they had a small museum showing the production of tobacco and cigars. They said some Cuban cigar makers moved to the Dominican Republic.
Finally back to the bus to go to the fort for a quick photo stop. I had thought about staying there and walking back, but it looked far on the map.
After the brief photo stop the bus dropped us off not near the ship, but at the end of the port area, requiring us to walk all the way past all the souvenir shops.
The lazy river was huge.
Eventually I made it back to the ship and tried a hamburger at O’Sheehans.
I took a few more photos while the ship left the port.
I made dinner reservations at Cagney’s since I got this letter providing the two specialty dinners.
Good news – I get my hour back tonight.
It was now time for dinner. Finally (hopefully) a good steak.
From the wine list, I chose the Coppola Claret.
So as usual I started with the French Onion Soup
There was cheese, but a depressing amount. I guess they didn’t want to wash the cheese off the side of the cup?
The first steak came out and it was burned on one side and raw on the other side, so I had them give me another piece.
The saddest baked potato and truffle fries were my sides.
The new steak arrived and was better.
Dessert time
Creme Brulee again
It was okay, but I still prefer the vanilla creme brulee.
After dinner I briefly went to see Hirie in the main theater.
After the concert I went back to the room… The toilet wasn’t flushing again. I went to the guest services desk to report it and then went to the silent disco for a long time as I was hoping they would fix the toilet before I returned. However, when I did return it still was not working. I went back to guest services and thankfully, there was an available cabin they could move me to. It was a small upgrade, a very obstructed ocean view.
Of course this meant I had to pack and move all my belongings from the other cabin…. computers, cameras, chargers, tripod, oh and clothes.
Eventually I was able to get some sleep after the relocation.