Can You Do Catalina Island or Bayahibe Beach w/o Celebrity?

[moondoggie]

We'll be in CdC in January, and do not enjoy cattle call excursions. Both Catalina Island and Bayahibe Beach look like the four of us (50 something adults) would enjoy either. We do not drink, so that is not a consideration. Is it possible to do either of these on our own, i.e. taking a cab, setting our own schedules, rather than signing up with the ship's excursions? And, is one location preferable to the other?

Thanks!

[Host Star]

you can take a cab to bayibe beach but catalina you would need a ships excursion as its an island off shore

[frugal one]

In my research, I've come across the following:

 

Catalina Island - it looks like this was/is being "sold" to Costa Cruise line. When I go to V...togo.com and pop this in as a port, it looks like Celebrity has one last stop in November and everything from then on is Costa. So... looks like this adventure is no longer.

 

Bayibe Beach - If you go to the bottom of the screen and extend the posts to those from the past year, you'll see that someone gives instructions on how to do this yourself. It looks fairly easy. Just be vigilant as you would in any Carribean Port.

 

I think in this particular port, we are going to stick to ship's excursions unless we can arrange for a personal tour guide to meet us at the dock and deposit us back there when we are done. Currently we are booked for the catamaran as we don't want to end up with nothing! And that's subject to change depending on what our fellow adventurers post here.

[CaribbeanBound]

You can definately do Bayahibe Beach on your own.

 

We chose to take the Bayahibe Beach Break excursion at a cost of $44 per person. An air conditioned tour bus took us to the Sunscape Casa del Mar La Romana Resort. This is a very nice all-inclusive resort on Bayahibe Beach, about 30 minutes drive from the ship. The excursion included transportation, beach lounge chairs, use of the resort beach and pool, and access to the open bars. This is an excellent facility for families. There is a big white sand beach and lots of shade. Food and watercraft are available at a small additional charge. The large pool has a 12-foot tall tethered floating "Iceberg" climbing wall/slide that the kids couldn't get enough of. We got hit by a late afternoon downpour, but it didn't dampen the fun. I do recommend it. We felt secure at all times. When you've got an excursion like this available, I do not recommend staying on the ship.

 

We would have done the Bayahibe Beach excursion on our own, but we couldn't get any enough information on the Ports of Call thread to feel comfortable about it. Let me remedy that right now. You can do this on your own, and you shouldn't hesitate. At the port, it is easy to arrange for your own transportation to Bayahibe Beach. (A fellow passenger arranged for a van for their group of ten for $10 per person. They got roundtrip transportation to Bayahibe Beach and the driver even waited for them for 3 hours while they enjoyed the beach). If you don't need the resort facilities, you can access and use the beach just East of the resort.

 

You can do the Sunscape Casa del Mar La Romana Resort on a Day Pass, which would be great if you arrive in the morning. A day pass runs $50 per person (less for children under 11), from 10:30pm until 5:30pm It includes unlimited drinks, food, and access to non-motorized watercraft, snorkel gear, beach chairs --- pretty much the works! The resort personnel are extremely friendly. Shirley Sánchez, the Chief Concierge, is very good at answering any questions you may have via email. A taxi for 4 should run in the $30 to $35 range each way. If the driver doesn't stay, the resort will get call a taxi for your return trip to the pier.

 

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http://www.lavasurfer.com/info/caribbean-secrets.html

These are our very detailed personal reviews, hints, and tips for ports of call that you will be visiting.