Aruba, Curacao, Grand Turk, La Romana

[billfish]

We did this itinerary in February and loved it, as mentioned Grand Turk is a beach day, check out Jack's shack http://www.jacksshack.tc/ it is a short walk down the beach. In La Ramona we did the carnival beach break and had a great time. Curacao we just walked around did some shopping not much. But Aruba..... lol we did the catamaran snorkel excursion from the ship..... had a great time.... on the way back well lets just say what happens in Aruba stays in Aruba loved loved loved this itinerary!!!

 

this is the beach in LaRamona at the resort we went to:

 

and this is the catamaran we snorkeled from

 

click on the pictures and it should take you to my albumn from this cruise.

 

We were on this vruise with you. What is the beach you went to in La Romana?

[hockeyluver]

We were on this vruise with you. What is the beach you went to in La Romana?

 

It was Bayahibe beach, we booked the excursion through carnival.

[sonicbuffalo]

We're less than two weeks from our cruise. Anyone have any more suggestions? la Romana is calling us....should be a nice beach day....

[gam888]

We are going to La Romana and Grand Turk in January. Also visiting Nassau and San Juan. We are considering Seavis Tours at La Romana. They told us to take a taxi from the port to Bayahibe to meet up with the tour. We are supposed to meet up with another family at the pier where the taxi vans are so we can pool together to share a taxi. Could someone who has been to the La Romana port please tell us if these taxi are out side the "gate"? I read from an earlier post that there is some sort of a gate and only vehicles that are commissioned by Carnival are allowed within the gated area? Is it difficult to find these taxi vans? Do you just walk pass the security gate and they are all there? Could anyone please share their experience with Seavis Tour? The ship docks at 10 and leaves at 6pm. Seavis tour starts after we dock, and said they will be back at Bayabibe at 5pm. It takes half an hour to get back from Bayahibe to La Romana. The ship normally expect people to be onboard half an hour before sailing out. I wonder if it's cutting too close? Do they have a good reputation of being on time?

 

Any other suggestions with Grand Turk, Nassua and San Juan do it yourself tours are welcome. Thanks in advance

[golfadj]

We are going to La Romana and Grand Turk in January. Also visiting Nassau and San Juan. We are considering Seavis Tours at La Romana. They told us to take a taxi from the port to Bayahibe to meet up with the tour. We are supposed to meet up with another family at the pier where the taxi vans are so we can pool together to share a taxi. Could someone who has been to the La Romana port please tell us if these taxi are out side the "gate"? I read from an earlier post that there is some sort of a gate and only vehicles that are commissioned by Carnival are allowed within the gated area? Is it difficult to find these taxi vans? Do you just walk pass the security gate and they are all there? Could anyone please share their experience with Seavis Tour? The ship docks at 10 and leaves at 6pm. Seavis tour starts after we dock, and said they will be back at Bayabibe at 5pm. It takes half an hour to get back from Bayahibe to La Romana. The ship normally expect people to be onboard half an hour before sailing out. I wonder if it's cutting too close? Do they have a good reputation of being on time?

 

Any other suggestions with Grand Turk, Nassua and San Juan do it yourself tours are welcome. Thanks in advance

 

We are doing La Romana in Jan also and wondering what to do. I think you are cutting it a little close being back at 5 with Bayahibe a half hour away.

 

In San Juan have done the rain forest with Native Way and would recommend them. Grand Turk has a nice beach so no tour is necessary IMHO.

[RumpunchGirl]

hockeyluver - We have the Catamaran Snorkel ex. in Aruba booked through Carnival for our Jan 2012 cruise. I'm glad you enjoyed it. We booked because of our long port time, it leaves right away and is only 3 hrs. We'll have a lot of time left to explore Aruba when we're done. And, I hope it's 90+ degrees when we're there! We're leaving a Minnesota winter behind!:D

[hockeyluver]

hockeyluver - We have the Catamaran Snorkel ex. in Aruba booked through Carnival for our Jan 2012 cruise. I'm glad you enjoyed it. We booked because of our long port time, it leaves right away and is only 3 hrs. We'll have a lot of time left to explore Aruba when we're done. And, I hope it's 90+ degrees when we're there! We're leaving a Minnesota winter behind!:D

 

yes you will have plenty of time, also have your camera ready. It is a short walk to the catamaran from the ship, then when you leave you pass by the ship on the catamaran. We were back by noon.

[Notion_of_the_Ocean]

Good info! Keep it coming! :) Still got a long ways to go until this sailing in July.

[blue_water]

We're less than two weeks from our cruise. Anyone have any more suggestions? la Romana is calling us....should be a nice beach day....

 

There is a thread dedicated to La Romana excursions in the Caribbean ports of call forum as well as another thread like this one.

[brilliantseas]

Can't wait to do this itinerary on the Breeze. Originally planned for January 2013, but I'm starting to wonder if I should delay it until Carnival opens the new private port facility near Puerto Plata in the fall and do another Exotic Western in January instead. If it is anything close to Mahogany Bay, we'll have another great addition to the Eastern Caribbean to freshen up the same-ol' St. Thomas, San Juan, Grand Turk itineraries. PLEASE CARNIVAL, dump St. Thomas for Puerto Plata and bring back more stops in St. Maarten!

 

Not a big fan of Eastern/Southern except for St. Maarten and St. Kitts, and I don't want to do the Miracle cruise with 4 sea days, so I guess Western is my only choice.

[Ladybug75]

I am planning to go on this same cruise in April...so this has been very helpful. Thank you to all!

[celticd1]

Anyone back from this itinerary on the Miracle?

 

Would love more info on all these ports! :D

[Regestd]

We are also on this itinerary sailing on 3/1 - I'd love to hear more about the ports - what to do as well as what not to do! Happy Sailing all!

[momof4boys]

I am anxious to hear about these places. Expecially....Curacao at night!

 

The port thread are not as active so I hope people will come here and post reviews and pictures of these places.

[Snowball]

I am loving the reviews - thanks to all that have posted such useful information!!!

 

I am doing this itinerary on the Miracle in February, but our cruise is going to Catalina Island instead of La Romana. I've read about how beautiful the beach is there, and I am a beach lover so I'm very excited. Just curious - is there anything else to do there besides going to the beach?

[imluvncruzn]

We have a group of 14 booked with Seavis Tours for the "Saona Special" in January. I emailed Alexander today about the ending time of the tour as many on these boards (including myself) have expressed concern about the tour not getting back to Bayahibe until 3:45pm and we have to be back on board by 4:30pm for a 5:00 departure and it's a 25 min. taxi ride from port to Bayahibe. Alexander immediately emailed back and thanked me for the information because he had no idea that this was a concern for cruisers. I told him I would be much more comfortable with a 3:15 ending time and he agreed to change it. In fact, he's renamed it the "Saona Carnival Special" and has catered it specifically to Carnival guests and has changed the ending times on his website. I don't think I'm allowed to give the link to the website but if you google Seavis Tours Bayahibe it will show up. In addition, he has pre-arranged our round trip transportation with the taxi company and there will be a lady with a sign waiting for us at the gate to take us to Bayahibe. The price for the roundtrip van transportation is $15 pp and we pay Seavis Tours and he'll pay the taxi. If you have any questions, try emailing Alexander @ seavistours@yahoo.de He's been extremely helpful so far and quick to respond. I will post lots of pics and a review of this excursions when I return in January.

[blue_water]

Thanks, great job! I'm glad someone was thinking!

It would be helpful to more folks if you also add this post to the thread in the Ports/Caribbean/La Romana forum too.

[Paumavista]

We have made arrangements for a private taxi to take us to Bayhibe for a private boat tour next month on our cruise......after reading some of these posts I'm concerned about meeting our privately arranged taxi.......supposedly he will have a sign and be waiting for us as soon as we can get off the ship......how difficult will this be? This tour is NOT scheduled through the ship!

Will we probably be delayed getting "out of the gate"....how can we avoid this?

Someone said you should "Play by the rules"....what does that mean? I don't want to create a problem I just want to get off the ship and get my own taxi......we've done this MANY times at most of the ports we've visited......what makes this port so different and what can we do to expedite our day?

Will we also have trouble getting "BACK through the gate" when we return to the dock?

Any personal experience will be greatly appreciated? We have arranged for a private boat tour and they have arranged the transportation for us - maybe I need to warn them about these "gate problems"??......or maybe they know...but I connected with them through tripadvisor and they are not necessarily a cruise tour operator.

THANK you so much for any advice!

JUdy

[Sunnyday2010]

I am booked on this tour but Ill admit I am quite worried that the boat ride will be scary ? How was it ? Very crowed ? Bumpy? Were the boats trustworthy ? I really want to do this tour but I am a bit worried :confused:

 

Thank you for the info !!

 

 

 

I hate to see the negatives about the port in La Romana. It is like many other industrial ports. It is another cruise ship companies port, therefor their rules. Only their ships tour vendors are allowed to come directly into the port area. Once you know that, you know what to expect. Our cruise stop there was some of the first so it was trial and error finding reviews from other cruisers to tell us about it.

The walk to the taxi's is not that bad. Once you know what you are doing and ask others about the taxi fares you will be prepared. Seavis told me is SHOULD be $10 per person round trip. Once we got to the gate I told the gate lady I needed 4 vans with 10 pax each which filled the van. The gate lady (police) said it was $150 per van, so this was the standard rate apparently back in March.

I am sure for those that take some extra time to research things on the web, you will be so happy to get off the ship and see this beautiful place. I spent hours checking everywhere and found trip advisor to have some really good into.

I am sure the gate police are getting better aquainted with the process of handling those pax that are wanting to use the taxi service. It did take us a few extra minutes with the language barrier but all in all it was just fine.

Bayahibe is a 25 minute ride from the port for those that would like to do a tour on own. I agree that going to Dreams is just like staying on the ship but much less expensive. If you are beach people, try to get to one of the beachs from Bayahibe. They are beautiful!!

Saona is a small beach village and the residents are so friendly.

Paradise beach is, well paradise. A nice snorkeling "pool" just near the part of the beach where the Pirates of the Caribbean jungle scenes were filmed.

Think it was over 30-45 minute boat ride, I really can't remember for sure but do know it was quite aways. We also stopped a few times to get some history and play with the starfish on a sand bar.

I do not know if there are private boats that can take you there, we used Seavis which had good speedboats to get there and back. I am sure they can help set up other smaller tours as well since they have boats that take up to 24 pax. If not they are good to suggest other options with other vendors.

[mara93]

We have 24 booked for Seavis in La Romana next year. So far, they've been extremely courteous/helpful and quickly respond to emails.

 

Any recommendations for Aruba? We'll be there from 2 to 11:30pm. Haven't seen many excursions during this time.

[blue_water]

What type boat are you being tramsported on and what is the itinerary, the saona special?

 

We spent 16 hours in Aruba last trip, if you like snorkeling the wreck and reef snorkel was great. We did the horseback ride, not a big deal. The sunset sail is also nice. We plan to spend the evening having dinner on Palm Beach and going to the popular bar on thr pier. There are recommendations on the Aruba forum on tripadvisor, see my post there. The RII Palace on Palm offers a day pass for $110pp, I posted info in the Aruba forum on TA.

Stores downtown close at 5 I think so don't save your shopping until last. And of course we all know that Carlos & Charlie's is right by the dock.

[Frequent Floater]

I am booked on this tour but Ill admit I am quite worried that the boat ride will be scary ? How was it ? Very crowed ? Bumpy? Were the boats trustworthy ? I really want to do this tour but I am a bit worried :confused:

 

Thank you for the info !!

 

We had no issues with the boats at all. It can however get bumpy depending on the ocean conditions. I do not think you would have any cause for worry unless you are uncomfortable on the water to begin with. I had 2 non swimmers that I worried about but they did fine. You will be wearing life vests while in the boat.

[Frequent Floater]

We have 24 booked for Seavis in La Romana next year. So far, they've been extremely courteous/helpful and quickly respond to emails.

 

Any recommendations for Aruba? We'll be there from 2 to 11:30pm. Haven't seen many excursions during this time.

 

Not sure if this would be of interest or not for your group but mine has enjoyed this tour in Aruba several times now. It is the Kukoo Kunuku bus bar hop tour. Includes a really nice dinner, drinks at each stop, champagne toast at the lighthouse and tons of fun. The most unique tour my group has done. This is a night tour we do from 430 to 930 pm

It can be set as a charter and customized for your port time. You just have to see if your group will want to pay the rate to have the bus all to self. It was well worth it for us.

http://www.arubaadventures.com and ask for Cindy to set it up. Tell her you got the info from Frequent Floaters group as she has taken care of this group several times. Really nice to work with and very reliable. CCL shore tours even uses this company for its day tours.

 

For any of you doing the Seavis tour and are worried about time. Please do not! Alexander is wonderful at helping to make sure the boat captains are on time and the taxis are waiting for your return to the terminal. Our tour was customized to fit the time frame we had. It worked perfect.

The gate police thing may have gotten better with time. We had no issues getting dropped off and back thru the gate at all.

Not sure about the pre hired transports as we did not do that. My group just got into the vans at the gate after a bit of hassle but it was the way THEY want you to proceed not what you would think you could do.

 

Any questions fell free to email me, addy is after the countdown

[GCurry]

Grand Turk: Jack's Shack, walk about half a mile down the beach from Margaritaville as Buffett would do to Jack's Shack , one of those great off the wall waterholes.

 

Aruba and Curacao, think rent a car and shore diving or snorkeling. Aruba's National Park is well worth a visit and the car get's you all over the islands.

 

http://shorediving.com/Earth/ABC/index.htm

 

Curacao and "tugboat" is one of my favorites in all these years of cruises and snorkeling

as an old aquatic Marine, my ears can't dive any longer.

[Vols Fan]

We did this itinerary last Thanksgiving and had a great excursion in La Romana. We did the Saona Island, Vela Blanca Beach break. Speed boat ride along Dominican coast out to a natural swimming pool (3ft of crystal blue water; star fish and rum shots while enjoying the water). Then on to the beach. Beautiful water and sand, bar for drinks (not free) and very relaxing. We loved this excursion!