ChriSusan

We had a longstanding reservation on the April 1st Jewel cruise. The price has drastically dropped on the past weeks and we have constantly been calling in to get the price adjustment. Final payment isn’t until Jan. 1st.

We yesterday took advantage of a Balcony Guarantee for about $1200 Canadian Dollars (taxesin) plus $100us OBC. Don’t know what that is in US$ but must be pretty cheap!

We did this exact cruise last year, great ship. San Juan cruises are running, actually we will be spending an extra week in a condo there.

Thanks for the notice! Got a great price and Cabin for January 21st. United Airlines also had pretty great prices too.

I don't understand why this thread keeps falling off the DR board. I'd still like to hear what people think about the island.

Don't know why this thread fell off the DR listing? Hoping to hear back from cruisers as they go to Cayo Levantado.

I haven't been to Samana, DR yet, but will be going there in May on the RCI Grandeur of the Seas. RCI just listed their shore excursions for the DR. From looking on the web it appears from that they are sponsored by a group called Cruise Samana. It doesn't look like they offer the tours directly, but just coordinate them with the cruise lines. Their web site is:

http://www.cruisesamana.com

They have pictures of a bunch of the tours, although fairly small. Their video page has a number of very good slide shows of pictures of the Samana area:

http://www.cruisesamana.com/video.htm

The "Jeep Safari Adventure" picture on that web site reveals that the "Jeep" looks more like a truck with up to 16 passengers in the back with a tarp roof over them:

http://www.cruisesamana.com/images/jeepsaf1g.jpg

The "Jeep Safari - Self Driven" on the other hand looks like real Jeeps going offroad and through rivers:

http://www.cruisesamana.com/images/selfdriven1g.jpg

Pictures of the facilities being constructed at the Cayo Levantado beach can be seen at:

http://www.cruisesamana.com/fotosconstruccion.htm

It appears from this site that there has been a concerted effort to rebuild Samana. One of their projects even says that they did a project to upgrade signage and facilities at El Limon Waterfall area.

Do let us know what you find when you go there.

Chris