My last post wrapping up the Carnival Vista trip recap teased that another cruise was coming soon. It’s real soon as in I’m boarding the Carnival Horizon tomorrow.
Sister T had nice casino offers and asked me to join her on this sailing.
Itinerary
This cruise has an 8 night Southern Caribbean itinerary. In all 30 cruises I’ve sailed with dozens of ports, I’ve never been to Dominican Republic. The Carnival Horizon not only stops there but with two ports for two different experiences.
I haven’t been to Aruba or Curacao since 2005 which was on a family cruise that Sister T was part of as well. It’s about time to go back!
Ports
So what are we doing in the four ports? Let’s talk about our plans.
Aruba
Originally we booked an all-inclusive day at the Aruba Barcelo resort via CaribbeanDayPass.com. At the time it was clear this might not happen but they were expecting it to open to day pass guests in October. Well, this week we learned it wasn’t going to happen. The other two options for Aruba were over $50 more per person so we opted for refund.
Now we’re going to take the public bus, accessed right by the port, to Eagle Beach. We’re going to get off by Amsterdam Manor where we can rent chairs with an umbrella and have food and drink service.
Curacao
Curacao has colorful architecture and the oldest continuously-used synagogue in the Western Hemisphere (with sand floors to boot). We saw those last time so are planning on hitting the beach.
Our plan is to take a taxi to Mambo Beach and spend the day there with beach chairs, umbrellas, food and drink.
La Romana
This was the hardest port to find something to do. It doesn’t seem safe to go off on your own. Also we will have less than six hours of ashore time once cleared. So we decided to book a ship’s excursion.
Our selection was the Bayahibe Beach break with open bar. There’s no description, photos or reviews on the Carnival website so it’s a leap of faith. Hopefully the shore excursion desk will have more information.
Amber Cove
This is our fourth port day in a row so we’re not doing anything taxing. Carnival developed Amber Cove in the Puerto Plata area in 2015. We plan to stay there and enjoy the large free pool.
The Ship
I’m not worried about liking this ship. The fairly new (2017) Carnival Horizon is sister to the Carnival Vista which I loved.
She has even more features such as two more specialty restaurants (Bonsai Teppanyaki and Pig and Anchor Smokehouse), RFID entry to cabin and smart elevators among others.
We’re both looking forward to the vacation and I’ll be back mid-October to share it with you.
Leave a Reply