Any news on Taino Bay?

[jpcdds6]

We are on the Escape 1/28 sailing, and as of today the Amber Cove port schedule has 4 ships listed for 1/30. The Escape, 2 Carnival Ships and The Virgin Valiant Lady. If Taino Bay isn't ready for Breakaway Plus class, I guess we would head to Nassau changing sea days? Nothing from NCL or my TA.

[rigs32]

I'm on the Pearl docking on Jan 25.  As of today, it's listed at Taino Bay.  NCL seems convinced we'll be at Amber Cove.  Hopefully our tour guide will just figure it out.  I did let him know about the confusion.

[BirdTravels]

1 hour ago, jpcdds6 said:

We are on the Escape 1/28 sailing, and as of today the Amber Cove port schedule has 4 ships listed for 1/30. The Escape, 2 Carnival Ships and The Virgin Valiant Lady. If Taino Bay isn't ready for Breakaway Plus class, I guess we would head to Nassau changing sea days? Nothing from NCL or my TA.

 

See

 

 

 

[sun~]

On 1/12/2023 at 10:36 AM, jpcdds6 said:

We are on the Escape 1/28 sailing, and as of today the Amber Cove port schedule has 4 ships listed for 1/30. The Escape, 2 Carnival Ships and The Virgin Valiant Lady. If Taino Bay isn't ready for Breakaway Plus class, I guess we would head to Nassau changing sea days? Nothing from NCL or my TA.

I am looking at the schedule for Taino Bay, Virgin Valiant Lady and NCL Escape are supposed to dock there 1/30.

 

In Amber Cove on the actual website, it is Carnival Spirit and Carnival Magic are there Jan 30th.

 

I have been to Amber Cove a whole bunch of times. I have only seen two ships there at the same time. 

 

It is best to look at the actual websites, and not one that is a general one for DR. 

[Turtles06]

25 minutes ago, sun~ said:

I have been to Amber Cove a whole bunch of times. I have only seen two ships there at the same time. 

 

And that's because Amber Cove only has the capacity for two ships.  🙂 

[sailingships]

We were there last week on the Sky. Maybe only the smaller ships ?

[European_CruiseGirl]

1 hour ago, sailingships said:

We were there last week on the Sky. Maybe only the smaller ships ?

Yes the Sky has been there consistently on every  scheduled port stop. It is so small compared to NCL’s megaships that it has never had this docking problem at Taino Bay. 

Edited January 14, 2023 by European_CruiseGirl

[pmatawan]

Dawn stopped there last week.

[kaprin02]

16 hours ago, sun~ said:

I am looking at the schedule for Taino Bay, Virgin Valiant Lady and NCL Escape are supposed to dock there 1/30.

 

In Amber Cove on the actual website, it is Carnival Spirit and Carnival Magic are there Jan 30th.

 

I have been to Amber Cove a whole bunch of times. I have only seen two ships there at the same time. 

 

It is best to look at the actual websites, and not one that is a general one for DR. 

This.  Cruisemapper combines both port schedules for Puerto Plata, but still calls it Amber Cove, which confuses lots of people.  People are much better served looking at the actual port websites, rather than cruisemapper for Puerto Plata.

[LittleJAF]

I'm also on the Escape January 28 and  Amber Cove can only take 2 ships from what I understand so it's likely we are not able to dock there since there are already 2 Carnival ships in port the same day. So either we dock at Taino Bay or maybe we stop at Nassau the day before which is what I believe the Escape did this week. They are dredging Taino Bay maybe if it's completed we will be the first to dock there? Not sure I want that lol!

[dbrown84]

On 1/12/2023 at 11:42 AM, rigs32 said:

I'm on the Pearl docking on Jan 25.  As of today, it's listed at Taino Bay.  NCL seems convinced we'll be at Amber Cove.  Hopefully our tour guide will just figure it out.  I did let him know about the confusion.

The pearl should be small enough to dock at Taino Bay 

[lfdemt]

3 hours ago, LittleJAF said:

. They are dredging Taino Bay maybe if it's completed we will be the first to dock there? Not sure I want that lol!

Other cruise lines mega ships have been docking at Taino bay recently. It’s just NCL large ships that aren’t allowed to. You would be the first from NCL but wonder of the seas has been there with zero problems. 

[mking8288]

Norwegian Escape ran aground or into the soft sandbar, damaging her bottom, etc. last year with a pilot boat escorting her out of Taino, as I recall.  Has anyone seen the (final ?) incident report but it is still going to be an asterisk on ship captain's career history ... and subsequently disrupted sailings, etc. etc.

 

Amber Cove isn't far away, 20 minutes car/taxi ride but realized, it's not a cheap Uber/taxi ride ... still not as bad as overpriced ship tours booked if you can DIY.   Rates are posted & regulated by authorities.  

[kitkat343]

On 1/12/2023 at 10:36 AM, jpcdds6 said:

We are on the Escape 1/28 sailing, and as of today the Amber Cove port schedule has 4 ships listed for 1/30. The Escape, 2 Carnival Ships and The Virgin Valiant Lady. If Taino Bay isn't ready for Breakaway Plus class, I guess we would head to Nassau changing sea days? Nothing from NCL or my TA.

You might also just have an additional sea day added to your cruise.  Or some cruises have reported stopping in Great Stirrup Cay.

 

The 1/8 getaway lost the DR,  plus the morning in Antigua for environmental reasons, and according to NCL.   That was replaced with a sea day.

 

They did not update their website and continued to advertise and sell this cruise as visiting the DR and having a full day in Antigua.  People who bought after the stops were cancelled were not told of the changes, even when they booked directly with NCL.

Edited January 16, 2023 by kitkat343

[chengkp75]

4 hours ago, mking8288 said:

Has anyone seen the (final ?) incident report but it is still going to be an asterisk on ship captain's career history

As it's been less than a year since the incident, I would not expect the Bahamian Maritime Authority report for another 4-6 months.  And, as I've said in many threads about maritime incidents, the maritime industry has moved away from the "blame culture", and uses the "root cause analysis" method of investigating incidents.  If individuals are not blamed for the incidents, it is found that they tend to give more truthful reports of the incident, and the "root cause" is more easily found.  If the Captain followed the prescribed procedures per the ISM manual, then no blame will be apportioned to him, and it will not be a "mark" on the Captain's history.  Only if found to have not followed approved procedures will any discipline be made against the Captain.

[rigs32]

As an update, the Pearl did dock at Taino Bay on Jan 25.  Much like other built up ports, we had to walk quite a distance in order to exit the port area and meet our independent excursion.  At one point, you have to walk through a store to continue on, which was even more shady, imo.  They appear to be building a lazy river to go along with the pool that is already open.  

 

Low tide that day was at 6pm, which was the time we were scheduled to leave.  We ended up leaving around 7pm, but since I was on a music cruise, I now have some amazing photos and video of the shows with the island in the background.