is Puerto Plata still a port stop for NCL?

[kitkat343]

I'm booked on the Getaway, which is scheduled to visit Puerto Plata in January.  I am currently booking excursions now, and  just read a thread that said that NCL hasn't docked there in 2-3 months.  Could anyone please confirm if they have recently been able to dock in Puerto Plata or if not, where have you gone instead?  We are a family with 3 children, and need to book private tours so our children don't ruin everyone else's cruise excursions so it is a lot better if I could research alternative ports now.  Thanks so much.

Edited December 12, 2022 by kitkat343

[Laszlo]

7 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

I'm booked on the Getaway, which is scheduled to visit Puerto Plata in January.  I am currently booking excursions now, and  just read a thread that said that NCL hasn't docked there in 2-3 months.  Could anyone please confirm if they have recently been able to dock in Puerto Plata or if not, where have you gone instead?  We are a family with 3 children, and need to book private tours so our children don't ruin everyone else's cruise excursions so it is a lot better if I could research alternative ports now.  Thanks so much.

You can follow this post

 

What date is you're sailing? My wife and I are on the 1-8-2023 cruise

Edited December 12, 2022 by Laszlo

[kitkat343]

We're on that one too!  Hope everything goes well!

[MountainMermaid]

As in the thread linked above, we were changed from Puerto Plata to Amber Cove and they talked about it like it was a completely different location, but it is just the Carnival port a few miles outside of Puerto Plata.  Any tour company you book with privately would probably just pick you up at the other location, but you might want to confirm when you do book that they can do that.  Our booked excursion with NCL did not change.

[kitkat343]

32 minutes ago, MountainMermaid said:

As in the thread linked above, we were changed from Puerto Plata to Amber Cove and they talked about it like it was a completely different location, but it is just the Carnival port a few miles outside of Puerto Plata.  Any tour company you book with privately would probably just pick you up at the other location, but you might want to confirm when you do book that they can do that.  Our booked excursion with NCL did not change.

That's perfect. Amber Cove would be absolutely no problem, but on another forum they said the port was missed altogether and there was some discussion of visiting a different island, which would be more of an issue for us. 

[European_CruiseGirl]

26 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

That's perfect. Amber Cove would be absolutely no problem, but on another forum they said the port was missed altogether and there was some discussion of visiting a different island, which would be more of an issue for us. 

I guess the problem with Amber Cove is that it is a Carnival Corp built port and only accommodates two ships max. So if there are already two ships scheduled at Amber Cove by Carnival, HAL, Princess, Seabourn, Cunard, Aida, Costa or P&O cruises on any given day NCL won’t go there. Those Carnival Corp ships always take the spots at the port before other cruiselines ships. 
 

So the best that you can do is to check the Amber Cove port schedule and if you see on your day 2 other Carnival Corp ships there you can assume you might not get to Puerto Plata at all. There seems to be some kind of trouble at the other Puerto Plata port for NCL and they are not using it currently. However if Amber Cove has only one or zero other ships scheduled for your day you could imagine that you’d likely go there. From what I have read when NCL has skipped Puerto Plata it has gone to either Nassau or Great Stirrup Cay. 

Edited December 12, 2022 by European_CruiseGirl

[AwesomO]

does anyone know when's the last time a ship has gone to Taino Bay? I'm hopeful that maybe some of the smaller ships are docking there more easily than the big ones... 🤞 I booked a February 2023 Grand Turk and DR cruise two years ago and Grand Turk (and St. Maarten for unknown reasons) were removed a week ago, and if DR gets removed too, it will be just a huge bummer. Theres 4 ships scheduled to be in port that day, from my knowledge, so it doesnt look good if Taino Bay isnt being used.

 

I know it is what it is, but just sucks to look forward to a cruise for two years and then its basically not at all what you even booked because of all the changes. I know it could be worse, don't book for the ports, etc., etc. 

[vivalv66]

The ship did run aground there in March. Might have something to do with it. 

 

[flarad]

15 minutes ago, AwesomO said:

does anyone know when's the last time a ship has gone to Taino Bay? I'm hopeful that maybe some of the smaller ships are docking there more easily than the big ones... 🤞 I booked a February 2023 Grand Turk and DR cruise two years ago and Grand Turk (and St. Maarten for unknown reasons) were removed a week ago, and if DR gets removed too, it will be just a huge bummer. Theres 4 ships scheduled to be in port that day, from my knowledge, so it doesnt look good if Taino Bay isnt being used.

 

I know it is what it is, but just sucks to look forward to a cruise for two years and then its basically not at all what you even booked because of all the changes. I know it could be worse, don't book for the ports, etc., etc. 

We are also booked on a late Feb cruise that is supposed to include Taino Bay. I read that NCL is dredging that channel in hopes their larger ships can navigate it. I guess it just depends on when that will be complete. There are so many Carnival Corp ships the chances of Amber Cover don't seem very good. 

[AwesomO]

22 minutes ago, flarad said:

We are also booked on a late Feb cruise that is supposed to include Taino Bay. I read that NCL is dredging that channel in hopes their larger ships can navigate it. I guess it just depends on when that will be complete. There are so many Carnival Corp ships the chances of Amber Cover don't seem very good. 

Yes, I knew about that incident. But I don't think Taino Bay has been sitting empty since March. I believe ships have stopped there, but I'm not sure if any have been from NCL. Has the new dredging actually been started? 

 

Our DR day has been rescheduled with the new itinerary and currently 2 Carnival ships and the NCL Escape are due on our new DR day. It just doesn't sound good. I really don't want Nassau or GSC. We already replaced Grand Turk with Bermuda (in February 😭) and St. Maarten with Puerto Rico. I'm running out of ports to look forward to. And the Gem, while a nice ship, isn't exactly a destination in and of itself, particularly with young kids. Anyway, I'm just whining now. Hopefully we get some further reports about Taino Bay soon. 

[smeck]

Last week we docked at Amber Cove. 

[dbrown84]

was on the Getaway in October.  We were switched to Nassau.  NCL knew before we left, but didn't inform us before hand.  I found out when looking at the excursion sheet when I got onboard and it had Nassau as a stop.  I thought it was a typo at first, but when I asked some at guest services, the confirmed that we were indeed going to Nassau instead of Puerto Plata.  I really was looking forward to that stop the most (a lot of folks on the ship were also), so much so that I'm booked on the Escape for next April that is supposed to stop in DR.  I got my fingers crossed.....

[AnitaVacation]

We were on the Getaway 11/28-12/8... we were scheduled for Puerta Plata.... the cruiseline never said anything different.... then we were given new excursion tickets for our Puerta Plata excursion with a new meeting place (I didn't look at them very closely and threw them away at the end of the cruise)... we didn't go to PP.... we didn't go to Amber Cove because it was already full....then they changed our schedule to include GSC instead....that didn't happen either.... then... they refused to refund our port fee!! 

[kitkat343]

11 hours ago, Laszlo said:

You can follow this post

 

What date is you're sailing? My wife and I are on the 1-8-2023 cruise

 

9 hours ago, European_CruiseGirl said:

I guess the problem with Amber Cove is that it is a Carnival Corp built port and only accommodates two ships max. So if there are already two ships scheduled at Amber Cove by Carnival, HAL, Princess, Seabourn, Cunard, Aida, Costa or P&O cruises on any given day NCL won’t go there. Those Carnival Corp ships always take the spots at the port before other cruiselines ships. 
 

So the best that you can do is to check the Amber Cove port schedule and if you see on your day 2 other Carnival Corp ships there you can assume you might not get to Puerto Plata at all. There seems to be some kind of trouble at the other Puerto Plata port for NCL and they are not using it currently. However if Amber Cove has only one or zero other ships scheduled for your day you could imagine that you’d likely go there. From what I have read when NCL has skipped Puerto Plata it has gone to either Nassau or Great Stirrup Cay. 

Laszlo I quoted you in this post because we are on the same cruise and I wanted you to see European Cruise girl's post.  Unfortunately, two Carnival owned ships  are scheduled to dock on January 17th (

Carnival Celebration07:00-16:00

Nieuw Statendam) 

in Amber Cove.  

 

I have trip insurance.  One of my three young children is quite sensitive and can sometimes get overwhelmed, so we normally book private tours for just our family so we don't run the risk of  ruining everyone else's vacation on  a group tour.  Would my trip insurance cover us if I purchase nonrefundable excursions on the DR?  We haven't yet been notified that the DR has been cancelled (and it sounds like it might not be, if they are attempting to dredge  Taino port).  Amber Cove seems highly unlikely but I'm not really sure what will happen.

 

[Turtles06]

2 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

Would my trip insurance cover us if I purchase nonrefundable excursions on the DR?  

The only way to know that is to look at the specific terms of your own policy. 

[Greygooser]

I was just on the Getaway. We were told earlier in the trip we weren't going to Puerto Plata, but rather Great Stirrup Cay. No reason given. We didn't end up going there either because the waves were allegedly too dangerous to tender to the island. So, we had three straight days at sea. Now, many of us are asking for our port fees to be refunded, and NCL is flat out refusing.

[Laszlo]

25 minutes ago, Greygooser said:

I was just on the Getaway. We were told earlier in the trip we weren't going to Puerto Plata, but rather Great Stirrup Cay. No reason given. We didn't end up going there either because the waves were allegedly too dangerous to tender to the island. So, we had three straight days at sea. Now, many of us are asking for our port fees to be refunded, and NCL is flat out refusing.

Thats what I'm afraid of, if we miss it will have three sea days in a row back to NYC

[asmit4]

We are already going to GSC--so it's either 'sea day' or Nassau I guess. I know cruisemapper is a place to look--wondering where else we might see the ship list for Amber Cove in February. It's not posted on the main website for AC yet. 

[kitkat343]

If the ship docks at GSC, can you easily get to Nassau?  I think my kids would actually really like one day at the Atlantis so is that possible to arrange?

[European_CruiseGirl]

4 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

If the ship docks at GSC, can you easily get to Nassau?  I think my kids would actually really like one day at the Atlantis so is that possible to arrange?

I do not believe there is an easy way to get to Nassau. GCS is NCL’s own private island so there aren’t normal passenger ferries operating to/from the island. 

Edited December 14, 2022 by European_CruiseGirl

[droundtheworld]

I was on the Sky last week and we docked at Taino Bay at Puerto Plata on Friday. It had a great free pool area.

[zqvol]

8 hours ago, kitkat343 said:

If the ship docks at GSC, can you easily get to Nassau?  I think my kids would actually really like one day at the Atlantis so is that possible to arrange?

There is no way to get to Nassau from GSC.

[kitkat343]

4 hours ago, droundtheworld said:

I was on the Sky last week and we docked at Taino Bay at Puerto Plata on Friday. It had a great free pool area.

That's great news!  Does anyone know if the Sky is a larger ship like the Getaway (sorry I sail for itinerary and don't know much about the individual cruise ships).

[mking8288]

10 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

Does anyone know if the Sky is a larger ship like the Getaway (sorry I sail for itinerary and don't know much about the individual cruise ships).

Sky is 77,000 in tonnage vs. Getaway, Breakaway & Escape, etc. in the *.Away/plus class size at 145,000 to 160,000+ size (practically 50% difference or half sized) 

[European_CruiseGirl]

13 minutes ago, kitkat343 said:

That's great news!  Does anyone know if the Sky is a larger ship like the Getaway (sorry I sail for itinerary and don't know much about the individual cruise ships).

Sky is one of the smallest ships NCL has.