We had rain today. And thunder. And lightning.
But we'll get to that later.
The day started sunny and warm as we backed into our berth at Amber Cove, Dominican Republic. It was just before 7 AM. I had just finished breakfast and was taking my usual walk around the ship. Soon, our Cruise Director Alex made the announcement that we had clearance to disembark and start our day at the last port of call for this voyage.
Just before that, though, another ship arrived. The Norwegian Getaway was berthing on the opposite side of the dock. Slightly larger than our Carnival Legend, the Getaway is the first ship we've seen out here since we departed Baltimore. This makes Amber Cove the first, and only, port we'll share on this trip.
Amber Cove
Amber Cove is located just outside the city of Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. In the movie world, the Dominican Republic is where part of the original Jurassic Park was filmed, and the famous piece of amber that starts the whole story was found in a fictional mine in the Puerto Plata area.
The port of Amber Cove itself is huge, and well worth the trip here just for this. In addition to the usual shopping, there's several bars, restaurants, and a good-sized aqua park with a giant pool, water slide, and kids' area. There's even a ziplining run.
The pool is where I spent my time in Amber Cove. While there's no official lazy river with a current like an actual lazy river, the main line of the pool does go in a loop, with the larger pools jutting off this line, one with a swim-up bar. The one note I would make about this area is that there's no lockers, so you do have to hide your valuables, wallet, etc (I brought my new camera with me) deep in whatever bag or backpack you have.
After a few hours in the pool, I take a walk around the shopping area, then head up to the top of the hill to the Sky Bar. The view is amazing.
Overall, while I frankly don't have much interest in the Dominican Republic generally, I would come back to Amber Cove again.
The Rest of the Day
After returning back to the ship just in time for lunch, I head back to my room and see that my Room Attendant has taken the laundry I prepared. This is another of my Premium perks, and the one that I was looking forward to the most. In fact, as I started to write this paragraph, it was returned all nice and clean. This is great! I wasn't expecting it until tomorrow! This cruise of sufficient length that I actually get two rounds of laundry, so I can actually have what I wore today done. I love this.
As we were pulling away from the port right on time at 3:45 PM, the skies opened up for about a half hour and produced the above-mentioned weather. It was amazing, but ultimately no harm done. Once we got past the storm, the skies were clear and the sea calm.
So, that's it for today. Tomorrow is the second to last day on the ship. We are heading back to Baltimore, and we are out to sea until then.
Comentarios