La Romana

[aaalynn1]

Never been to this port and are needing ideas on things to do here. I wouldn't mind finding a beach with snorkeling and a bar, but also wondered about exploring the city.

[KD Travel Adventures]

We were in La Romana, Dominican Republic in September 2013 and went to what was then known as Dreams Resort La Romana.  It is now called Hilton La Romana (the new management took over in November 2018).  It is a true resort that offers day passes for cruisers. I believe it went under renovation last year (but not positive). We will be in La Romana in October and I contacted them late last year to see if they still had the cruise ship day passes for $65 and they said they did, so I made our reservations.  It was $65 per person, and I believe the taxi is about $35 each way (it's about a 25 minute drive, if I remember correctly).  The pass included the swim up bar, beach, a huge pool with water sports and just swimming, drinks are all-inclusive, and they had a buffet (I kind think the buffet opened at a specific time for lunch, but can't remember for sure).  To be honest, I didn't verify that all of this was still included, but I did mention the day pass as Dreams Resort and they said they were still honoring it. I also brought my own snorkeling gear and while its by no means great snorkeling, I did see some fish and starfish, which I never saw before and haven't seen since while snorkeling (but that's not to say you would see the now).

 

When we were there in September 2013 we felt like we had the beach to ourselves, but some coworkers went in March 2014 and they said it was packed.  Keep in mind this was several years ago and it is now under new management, so I'm not sure what to expect.  But, my husband and I really enjoyed it, thus the reason we plan to go back this time. 

 

There is a downside (in my opinion), at least for us with the time we are in port, which is 9:30am-4:30pm. I think in 2013 we arrived in port at 8:30, so we are losing an hour this time.  But, we will probably only have about 4 hours or maybe a little more at the resort.  I'm basing this off the time to get off the ship, walk up to the taxis and then get to the resort (hoping to arrive at 10:15 to 10:30.  If the ship is leaving La Romana at 4:30, they will probably want us back on the ship at 4pm.  We could probably leave the resort at 3:00pm, but I want to give us plenty of time to make sure we are back on the ship.  As other cruisers know, it is very bad to miss the ship leaving port.

 

One other important detail, I would rather communicate with people via email because I don't do a lot on Facebook, but I remembered from 2013 that they were not responsive to emails, but very responsive to Facebook. I used Facebook again this time, and they responded within 24 hours, and I made my reservations through Facebook.