Turtles06

Puerto Plata: our second visit (Feb. 14) On our second port call to Taino Bay, we had a private city tour of Puerto Plata that we’d booked with Marysol Tours. They were an excellent company to deal with; all of my emails were answered promptly, they were ready to shift things around if we wound up at Amber Cove, and on the day of our visit, our guide was waiting outside the secure gate as had been planned. Our tour started with a visit to the local rum factory. There was a mildly interesting video about the history of their rum production, but much of the time was taken up in the tasting room. This was not really my thing (especially at 10am and especially not without Coke or the makings of a piña colada), but I could see that other folks who were there on a ship’s tour were getting pretty “happy,” since eight different rums were poured in order, and there were no dump buckets that we could see anywhere. Everyone got one cup to use, and if you wanted to taste another rum, you needed to finish the prior sample. I’ll just say it got a little rowdy in there. 😂 After that, we visited a small Amber Museum, which was more about the Museum “guides” trying to sell us their amber products than anything else. But there were some interesting displays, including this one of a lizard trapped inside the amber: At the Amber Museum, we also learned about a blue stone called Larimar, a rare blue variety of pectolite that is found only in the southern Dominican Republic. I fell in love with the color, and on the way back to the ship, I bought a Larimar rock at the Blue Stone store in Taino Bay. (There was of course ample --- and pricey -- Larimar jewelry to be purchased for those so inclined.) We also visited Puerto Plata’s small Central Park (really a plaza), and the cathedral, and walked through the colorful streets, including a paseo dedicated to Doña Blanca, who had been instrumental in the early development of tourism in Puerto Plata in the late 19th Century. Everything in it is painted pink, her favorite color. Most interesting for me was visiting the Fortaleza de San Felipe, the small Spanish fort guarding the harbor, with beautiful views of the ocean. Like other Spanish forts of the era, it has the iconic garitas. Fortuitously, we were there during a temporary exhibit of some whimsical public art, which was sharing space with the cannons and fortifications. The fort was just across the water from the ship, giving us a nice look at the Gem. As we had after our first visit to Puerto Plata, we had a lovely sailaway, going right past the Fortaleza. For some reason, Cruise Critic insists on re-inserting the rum bottles again. I can't delete them, so let's just end the day with them! 🙂

You're welcome. I covered our visits to San Juan in my posts above (comments 35 and 38). Old San Juan is very hilly. The ship will dock at the bottom of the hills, and unless you are just walking down along the water, it will be steep uphills from there. Taxis and Uber are good options for getting to where you want to go if walking is an issue. I described our visit to St. Thomas in comment 20 above -- we went to Magens Bay Beach via the multi-person "taxis" available at the pier. (They are vans and open-air tram-like vehicles.) There's more to St. Thomas, of course, than the beaches. So how you get around will depend on what you want to do. The Gem skipped Bermuda as I mentioned. I've been there before. You can get around by bus, taxi, and ferry (and ship's tours of course). St. Maarten and Tortola were not on our itinerary. May I suggest you head over to the Port of Call forums for each of your ports and do some reading there. You'll get a good sense of them, and of course can ask questions about what your options are, given what you might want to do in each. Hope that's helpful.

Thanks for you kind words, I really appreciate them!

Thanks for the kind words. If we'd known how lovely those pools were, we'd have taken our towels and bathing suits. 🙂

You'll love it! But despite the great view, and especially if this will be your first time through the Canal, please don't spend all of the transit on the balcony. Be sure to see the locks from all different perspectives around the ship -- high, low, fore, aft, midships. (Apologies if you already knew that!) Have a great cruise!

A great sign outside one of the bars in the Taino Bay complex.

Ports: Taino Bay, Puerto Plata X 2 The Gem was scheduled to dock on both legs of our B2B at Taino Bay in Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic. However, for some time over the past year, because the NCL Escape had run aground last March in Taino Bay, most NCL ships had not been calling there. Sometimes the ships would dock at nearby Amber Cove, or would have a sea day, or go to another port (like Nassau). So until our cruises grew near, there was a bit of a question mark about whether the Gem really would make it to Taino Bay, but we did, both times. Our first visit (Jan. 31) On our first visit to Taino Bay (we had a tour scheduled for the second one), we wandered through the Taino Bay "cruise port," which is a complex of swimming pools, shops, food huts, and bars, all contained within high, secure walls intended to keep cruisers in and locals out. It’s somewhat like a private island but on the mainland, and without all the bells and whistles. (The facilities are being expanded though.) If you want to leave the port, and you’re not on a ship’s excursion, it’s a bit of a maze-like walk through the complex to find your way to the exit. (I really don't think they want you to leave.) As soon as you step one foot outside the gate, a lot of people will be trying to sell you tours and taxi rides. For those who are wondering, it’s close enough to walk into the center of town, and there are “tourist police” around. We didn’t take that walk, so I can’t assess the comfort level of doing so. Throughout much of the complex, there were tropical birds just hanging out along the walkways in their own little thatch huts And there was also this: It had been a pretty long walk just from the Gem to the end of the pier and the entrance to the Taino Bay complex, and the hot sun did not help. On our way back to the Gem, we discovered there was a free shuttle service – little three-wheeled tuk-tuks being driven back and forth from the ship to the entrance of the complex. Please tip the driver. 🙂 Getting back on board, we enjoyed the rest of the as a “ship day," working out, having lunch, and spending a good portion of the afternoon on our balcony, as the weather was splendid and we had a beautiful view of the water and of the fort just across the bay (which we explored during our second visit to Puerto Plata). Late in the day, we noticed a cruise ship sailing from Amber Cove, some distance off to our west. It was the NCL Dawn. Small world.

And the Panama Canal (photos taken on our just-completed B2B on the Gem):

My pleasure. I hope you make it to Seydisfjordur. We were scheduled for a port call there in summer 2018, but weather prevented it. I was very disappointed, as we are huge fans of the Icelandic TV series “Trapped” (available on Netflix). The first (and best) season takes place primarily in, and was filmed in, Seydisfjordur, and we were really looking forward to seeing it in person. Of course, those are the risks that come with cruising. Good luck!

Same here

Um, we visited St. Lucia, St. Kitts, and Barbados on the Celebrity Silhouette 14 months ago.

The sky just after our first sunset, on January 26. I sure miss these views when I'm back on land.

I saw your post in your other thread and was going to tell you that the Vok [note the spelling] Baths looked pretty interesting from the Trip Advisor reviews and other info I could see. In terms of getting there from Seydisfjordur, apart from the question you asked here, why not email the Baths themselves and see if they may be able to give you some information. No downside to asking. Their contact info: hello@vokbaths.is Note that their FAQ say this: "What is the best way to get to Vök Baths? For those who are not by car we recommend taxi service by Ásgrímur, tel +3548984044 or email asgrimtaxi@gmail.com" (of course, that may be from Egilsstaðir) https://vokbaths.is/hopabokanir/ Also, especially regarding the bus info, you could email the Information Center in Seydisfjordur: info@sfk.is https://visitseydisfjordur.com/

I can't speak as to the mall in Colon, but our guide in Panama City a few weeks ago said that any "Panama Hats" bought there should say made "made in Ecuador." 🙂

@BamaVol We've just returned from our 3d and 4th full transits of the Panama Canal. All of these cruises have taken us to tropical locations, including Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia [note the spelling], Nicaragua, and Guatemala. Before each such trip, we always check the CDC page for each country and then visit a local travel clinic. I recommend you do the same (or see your doctor), and get medical advice from experts. That said, I can tell you our experience (in addition, of course, to keeping up our routine immunizations). We've been vaccinated against Hep A, which is prevalent throughout the world, including here in the U.S. It's a good immunization for anyone to have. Before our Canal cruises, we've also made sure that we are current on typhoid vaccine. That's it, no Yellow Fever vaccine (we're too old for that anyway) and no malaria prophylaxis. When we go ashore in the tropics, we use a good insect repellent. Our preference is picaridin over DEET, as its less greasy. YMMV. On all four of these cruises, we never saw a single mosquito. It's unusual for cruise ship passengers to be ashore at dawn or dusk, a more likely time for mosquito activity. Still, we lather on the picaridin (after we've put on our sunscreen and waited 10 minutes). Hope that's helpful, but please do visit a travel clinic. Enjoy the Canal, it's incredible!

In-person muster drills As I already knew from Cruise Critic, NCL had recently returned to in-person muster drills, having used e-musters since the re-start, and indeed we had in-person drills on both legs of our trip. The first was a debacle. Starting about half an hour before the drill, the Cruise Director announced numerous times that there’d be a mandatory muster drill at 3:30pm. The announcements prompted many guests to head to their muster stations pretty early. As we’ve usually done about ten minutes before a muster drill, we went down to our muster station (in this case, the Stardust Theatre) so that we could get a seat. UNLIKE any other muster drill in which we’ve participated, however, the doors to the Theatre did not open until the start of the drill. As a result, hundreds and hundreds of guests were crammed into the passageways on both sides of the ship, probably backed up all the way to Guest Services. When the doors finally opened, there was added chaos, because crew members had directed many guests to the wrong side of the ship for their specific muster stations (e.g., A1, A2, and so on) within the Theatre. This had guests climbing all over the seats trying to get to the other side of the Theatre. Once inside, there was constant talking – the safety announcements simple could not be heard over the incessant din. The muster drill on leg 2 was entirely different. The Cruise Director made one announcement in advance. The doors to the Stardust Theatre had been opened early, people were sitting quietly, and you could hear a pin drop. I have NEVER experienced a drill so quiet. I’m sure having the crew better organized since the first muster helped, as there was no chaos when guests were able to enter the Theatre. In any event, I hope this kind of muster drill has continued. I know some people occasionally ask whether, if you're on a B2B, you must attend the muster drill on the second leg. Yes on the Gem (and I suspect all ships).

All-board for our Feb. 13 departure from San Juan was 5:30pm. Shortly after, we heard the call over the PA system for specific passengers to call Guest Services, usually the tip-off that we're about to have some pier runners. I happened to be standing on the promenade deck waiting for sailaway, and there they were. IMG_2650.mp4

You have mail. 🙂

San Juan – the second visit The day of our second visit to San Juan (Feb. 13) began with a very early morning rain, which gave way to a stunning rainbow. We hoped this was a good omen, and it turned out that it was, as we went on to have one of our most enjoyable port days of the entire trip. Before any of us could start our visit to San Juan, we had to go through a mandatory U.S. Customs and Border Protection inspection in the cruise terminal, since the Gem was now back in the United States, and present our passports to a CBP agent. In fact, everyone had to leave the ship, and a zero count had to be obtained, before anyone could re-board. This process took a little over three hours, with guests called down by deck. Since our plan was to head into the City, not reboard immediately, this was not an issue for us, we just needed to disembark and clear CBP and be on our way. Because we were in a suite, we were led off the ship to a separate waiting line to show our passports to a CBP agent, and that got us on our way very quickly. (Some folks apparently did not carefully read the information we’d been given about this, and mistakenly thought that if they got off early – at 7am – and went through the CBP process, they could turn around and reboard. Sorry, no. They had to wait to re-board until about 10:15am until everyone had gotten off.) We emerged from the cruise terminal to find that the rain had given way to a beautiful sunny day, hot but with a refreshing breeze. Our plan was to visit El Castillo San Felipe del Morro, one of the two huge fortresses built by the Spanish to defend San Juan and the island. To save time and our knees, we took a cab up the very steep hill, directly to the fort. We’ve visited El Morro before, but it’s always interesting to explore this fortress, situated right at the entrance to the harbor on a hill overlooking the beautiful water. In anticipation of visiting the fort, we’d brought our National Parks Senior Passes with us on the trip, which give us free entry to all NPS sites, including El Morro. (Best 10 bucks ever spent!) Oddly, the ranger at the entrance insisted that we show him not only our passes, but also a photo ID that had our respective signatures on it. What? We’ve never, ever, at any NPS site, been asked to show anything with our passes but a photo ID (and often not even that), never anything with a signature. Indeed, the back of the NPS pass says “valid photo ID required,” it says nothing about a signature. Nonetheless, the ranger would not accept our Global Entry Cards as proof of our identities – good enough to get us back into the U.S. from abroad but apparently not into El Morro! Had it not been for the fact that we were carrying our passports with us because of the CBP inspection (we typically leave our passports in the cabin safe when we go ashore), neither of us would have had an ID with our signatures with us that day. Finally gaining admission to El Morro, we proceeded to have a wonderful time walking through the fort, looking out over the beautiful water, and, of course, photographing the iconic images associated with San Juan, the garitas. After visiting the fort, we did something we’ve never done before -- we walked down the long, grassy hill and followed the wall along the ocean, bringing us to several points overlooking the Old San Juan Cemetery, with its striking white graves and tombstones. Quite a sight. By now, it was time for lunch, and a quick Uber ride brought us to Raices, where I’d had my first mofongo lunch many years ago; I've wanted to go back ever since. Fortunately, we’d arrived just before the local lunch rush; by the time we left, it was so crowded that people were being turned away. I had a delicious skirt steak mofongo, but I have to admit that my wife’s fish tacos might have been even more delicious. It was a wonderful lunch, and a great way to cap off our visit to San Juan. Our sailaway had originally been scheduled for 6pm, but the delayed arrival of the harbor pilot pushed that back. This was unfortunate, since an on-time departure would have had us sailing by El Morro lit up by the setting sun. Still, we had a beautiful evening sail out of San Juan, passing the Celebrity Apex, and, as we left the harbor, El Morro.

Thank you. I've seen those 4pm arrival itineraries and thought -- what a shame. Not much to do except get off the ship and have dinner. We were lucky on both of our calls to San Juan that we had real days there. 🙂

Thanks for the kind words. Handheld, taken from our moving ship with my iPhone 13 Pro. Ever since I got that phone last summer, I have been so amazed by its camera that I have pretty much stop schlepping a "real" camera and all the gear around with me.

Ports: San Juan x 2 We enjoy Old San Juan very much, and were fortunate that the Gem had a port call to San Juan on both legs of our B2B, on January 30 and again on February 13. For these port calls, and the others that were common to both cruises, I’ll combine my entries. San Juan – the first visit On each of the Gem’s visits to San Juan, we were docked right at the foot of the Old City, which made it easy to explore on foot, or quickly take a cab up the steep hills to the fortresses. The day of our first visit was oppressively hot, and since we knew we’d be back in two weeks (and since we’d been here before), we kept things simple with a leisurely and lovely walk along the Old City walls, through gardens and past palm trees, and then through the only remaining 17th Century gate -- the big, red, La Puerta de San Juan -- into the heart of the Old City itself, with its pastel buildings, blue cobblestone streets, statues, and piragua carts. On our walk, we came upon something we’d never seen before, a pigeon park! El Parque de Las Palomas! Hundreds of pigeons hanging out, waiting to be fed. The gates were locked, however, so we couldn’t go in. Not that we necessarily would have – lots of pigeon droppings, not to mention the sign warning that pigeons spread disease and mites. 🙃

I'll just add that we were in Taino Bay last week aboard the Gem. There is a secure area of shops and lovely-looking pools built within the cruise terminal complex (sort of like a private island, only on the mainland), so that guests, if they want, never need step out into the "real" Puerto Plata. The pools did look great; we didn't take advantage of them as we'd booked a private city tour with Marysol Tours. We visited the central plaza, the Cathedral, a rum distillery, a little amber museum (which was more about trying to sell us their wares), and, my favorite, Fortaleza San Felipe, the small fort built by the Spanish to guard the coast. There's not all that much to see. Some folks did an excursion to the waterfall, I think others went to a beach.

Which is a fantastic plus for any of the staterooms with forward-facing balconies. There is little light pollution in the bow at night, and this makes for fabulous star gazing (weather permitting). It's no big deal to keep the curtains drawn at night. It's not as though you can see out after it gets dark. From our forward-facing balcony last week on the Gem (even better in person):

Two people pay $20 each (total of $40) and they get 2 chairs and 1 umbrella.