Explorer 12-14 Photos Casa de Campo port Altos de Chavon

[pierces]

I have an Olympus Camedia 3.8 megapixel with optical 3x zoom and seamless 12x zoom. I don't know much about cameras. I'm reading the front of it as I type this. Some of the pictures are mine and some are from the Altos website. I just put them here so that all of you will have an idea of what this area looks like before you go. :)

 

Very nice pictures and very considerate of you to post in response to a request.

 

Your "vintage" Oly just proves the point I brought up earlier. It's not the camera, it's the vision behind it.

 

Happy shooting!

 

Dave

[aqhacruiser]

Great Pics Seacruise!:D We missed this port in Nov. because of Hurricane Noel so looking forward to seeing it in April 2009! Thanks for posting the pics! :D

[sea-cruise]

Very nice pictures and very considerate of you to post in response to a request.

 

Your "vintage" Oly just proves the point I brought up earlier. It's not the camera, it's the vision behind it.

 

Happy shooting!

 

Dave

Thanks Dave! (I'm vintage myself and I finally figured out how to upload a camera's pictures to a computer last year)! :D :D :D

[ontheopenseas]

Sea-cruise, thanks so much for posting the pictures and the great information! I've been trying to send my four other cruisemates a "picture of the day" for our upcoming April cruise and I know these will help to get them excited! It was great to get some additional information about Casa de Campo too. We had planned to stay on the ship here, but after seeing the beautiful picutres, maybe we'll want to take a little side trip! Thanks again!!!

[sea-cruise]

Ontheopenseas, You're welcome. Yes, it was a nice little side trip for us. Don't miss the jewelry shop. There is a stone that is native to Dominican Republic that is beautiful (I forgot the name of it) and the jeweler handcrafts pieces using those stones. They are very expensive but very unique.

I only browsed because the earrings were $750.00 and I keep spending my money on traveling instead of jewelry these days. :o

[Guest Crazeecat5]

Hi Mary,

Thanks so much for posting the pictures. Just showed them to Robert. If it wasn't for my darned legs, we would have loved to have gone there. We love villages like that. My son went and told us it was a boring little village. Maybe someday they will make it handicap accessible and then my red scooter can zip me around there. LOL

 

Hope you and Tony have a wonderful News Year's.

Sheryl

[sea-cruise]

Sheryl, Don't feel bad...You didn't miss much....

You can just look at the pictures and see the same things we saw. Your son is right...It probably was boring for some people. He probably would have liked more action, as the younger people do.

I think my DD & SIL were probably a little bored too even though they said it was beautiful.

Hey, for only $7 per person round trip, it was a GREAT excursion for us...but if we had paid a lot of money to go there, I might have been a little disappointed, expecting a lot more.

Hope you and Robert have a HAPPY NEW YEAR!! :)

Mary

[aqhacruiser]

 

Hey Seacruise! I think I know this guy's cousin in St.Thomas:D

[sea-cruise]

So CUTE! There was one up ontop of one of the hills at St Thomas too...and it had the same big sunglasses on! :D

[safari njema]

These are beautiful pictures. Worth the $7/return shuttle. Definitely not stroller friendly either (but what Medieval village was? haha), and even on the "flat" ground it was still a bumpy ride! I wonder if anyone has pictures of the Marina $5/pp. I would like to see what I missed there. I tried to find it while we were sailing away but no luck.

[Sunny AZ Girl]

Thank you for posting the pictures! I can see the river is a good distance downhill. I would be interested in the Mississippi Boat Tour, but read that it is 300 steps down. I'm not sure if my 'trick knee' could handle that? Does anyone know how steep those steps are? Also, do you know if we would also have to go 300 steps back up?:eek:

[sea-cruise]

I've heard that there are hundreds of steps down to the riverboat as well. My DH's knees and hip would never allow him to do that so we missed the riverboat ride. I'll post here if I hear anything more.

 

[sea-cruise]

I've just found out that the reason we saw a free stageshow at the ampitheater, is that they periodically have these dress rehearsals during the daytime.

The show we saw was probably one of them, so I guess it would be hit or miss on the daytime shows there.

 

please click on thumbnails to enlarge them

[Lynn the Cruiser]

Your pics were great and I also learned alot!!!! I was there this June on the Explorer and RCI's first trip there and I learned more from you!!!! The village was beautiful as your pictures show, but we really knew little about the area. There were no shows in the ampitheater, in fact there really wasn't anything much going on, being it was the first time there. The ship even had trouble docking. We went in the jewelry store and did buy some larimar jewelry.

[sea-cruise]

Your pics were great and I also learned alot!!!! I was there this June on the Explorer and RCI's first trip there and I learned more from you!!!! The village was beautiful as your pictures show, but we really knew little about the area. There were no shows in the ampitheater, in fact there really wasn't anything much going on, being it was the first time there. The ship even had trouble docking. We went in the jewelry store and did buy some larimar jewelry.

Thanks Lynn! Oh I'm glad you knew the name of that stone! I kept trying to remember it. You have some one-of-a-kind pieces of jewelry that no one else has! All the items in that shop were gorgeous!

[lovetocruiserccl]

I love that question!!!:D

 

"Great book Mr. Hemmingway...you must have a really nice typewriter!"

 

"Mr. Picasso, where can I buy a brush that paints like that?"

 

LOL!

 

No offense meant...it just tickles me!

 

Dave

 

 

No offense taken.

I'm glad I can tickle someone.......

 

Some cameras take better quality pictures than others

[pierces]

No offense taken.

I'm glad I can tickle someone.......

 

Some cameras take better quality pictures than others

 

True! No dispute there! But an $8000 camera with a $2000 lens will not guarantee anything other than well-exposed snapshots while a $200 compact in the hands of someone with skill can produce images that inspire.

 

There is more to photography than megapixels and money. I've got some of the first and a moderate amount of the second invested...I'm still working on the skill!;)

 

Happy shooting,

 

Dave

[sea-cruise]

[irismike]

Sea Cruise: The pictures were great. When you saw the cigar factory, was that the Country Safari Adventure tour through RCCL? If you didn't did you do everything on your own? Can you walk to anything once you dock? Are there alot of steps that you have to walk in order to see the sights.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR and thanks for any help you can give me for this, St. Thomas and Puerto Rico tours.

[flyin]

I've heard that there are hundreds of steps down to the riverboat as well. My DH's knees and hip would never allow him to do that so we missed the riverboat ride. I'll post here if I hear anything more.

 

 

 

 

we were there and never found anything... didn't see the amphitheater nor cigar store... but my wife couldn't walk well... we didn't have a good map and found the place very boring... just seemed like a tourist trap.

 

glad you enjoyed it....

[sea-cruise]

Sea Cruise: The pictures were great. When you saw the cigar factory, was that the Country Safari Adventure tour through RCCL? If you didn't did you do everything on your own? Can you walk to anything once you dock? Are there alot of steps that you have to walk in order to see the sights.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR and thanks for any help you can give me for this, St. Thomas and Puerto Rico tours.

There isn't a cigar factory there, just a small cigar store, towards the backside of the village. In the courtyard there was a man cutting tobacco leaves and rolling cigars on a large table. The only factory I know of is a tour offered through the ship.

No, you can't walk to anything on your own at Casa de Campo...It's too far away.

As I keep saying here, this village is small. You might find it boring, but I posted pics so people would have an idea of what it looks like.

Next time we go, I think we'll try Bayahibe Beach being we saw the village.

Yes, we usually do everything on our own because we've been to 29 islands in the caribbean and bahamas and have repeated on some a few times, so we stopped doing tours in these areas long ago.

In San Juan, you can catch a free trolley at the ship and it goes through the shopping districts of Old San Juan and stops at two forts, then back to the ship. These trollies run every 15 minutes and stop every 4 or 5 blocks along the way.

You can catch a ferry boat for .50 cents and go across the bay to the Bacardi Rum Factory (their shuttles run from the ferry dock to the factory) and I believe the factory tour is still free, if not it is only a couple of dollars. You get free samples of rum.

In St. Thomas you'll probably dock at Havensight Mall area. There are newer shops there.

You can take an open-air safari style cab to the old area in town where there are tons of shops. There's a cablecar ride to the top of the mountain for only a few dollars round trip, you can catch taxi cabs to Coral World/Coki Beach for $9.00 one way pp, or to Megan's Bay, or other beaches (Sapphire or Morningstar). There is a ferry to St John's from the Red Hook area if I remember correctly.

Go to the Ports Board and you will find up-to-date current information on all fees and sites, before you visit these areas.

Lots to do on your own at these ports, but be sure you get back to the ship in time for departure if you go on your own. :) Have fun.

(P.S. I might not be back on Cruise Critic for a while...getting ready for a land based trip). :)

[sea-cruise]

IrisMike... Here is something regarding the Bacardi Factory tour in San Juan (Hope it is helpful to you):

There is no admission for the factory itself. They give you 2 drink coupons each for a bicardi drink of your chioce or drink the reserve straight. On the tour see the history and see some hands on or smells on exhibits;) During the tour, they allow you to send a video message to anyone. Take email addresses to send a video message After the tour, they drop you off at the gift shop. You might want to buy some of the very special limited release 12 year old they sell only at the factory. You can either take the spanish or english tour.

Directions: To get to Bacardi from old San Juan, you just go to Pier # 2 and take the ferry. The ferry from downtown San Juan is 50 cents pp, per way. There is a fee for the shuttle bus from the ferry to the factory

[irismike]

Thanks Sea=Cruise for all your help.

[aqhacruiser]

Just bumping up for those doing this port soon! :D

[sea-cruise]

This was difficult to find again, so I'm just bringing it up to the first page for a couple of pax on the Explorer thread... :)