cayo laventado, dominican republic

[susiesan]

"... smacks of restraint of trade and a monopoly..."

 

Are you deliberately trying to get a rise out of us?

 

Sort of.

 

Whether or not Samana is run down or considered dangerous by Oceania, I'm a big girl and I can take care of myself. Many other cruise ships stop here. I found a delightful man who organizes and runs shore excursions to waterfalls, beaches, and other sights in the DR. In fact, all the same places the O shore excursions from Samana go to. If the place is so awful, why would O show 7 shore excursions in Samana ranging in price from $69 to $119? If I could go in the tender to shore I could take a similar shore ex on my own for half of what O is charging, but O is going to prohibit me from engaging in economic activity, hence restraint of trade. I'm guessing O has made an agreement with the local operator of their shore excursions not to allow pax on shore without a tour to in exchange for a that tour operator having a monopoly of the business from Oceania ships. If I'm wrong, perhaps someone from O can weigh in on the truth about why they will not allow pax to visit Samana on their own.

[susiesan]

I just got this message from Oceania about our port stop in the DR, Samana:

 

"We wish to advise you of a change to your scheduled call to Cayo Leventado. To ensure a more comfortable tender experience, the ship will now be tendering into Samana. We thank you for your attention to this change and your understanding."

 

So I'm assuming all passengers can now go to Samana without being on a ship excursion, free to make our own arrangements. I wonder what caused the change in policy? Maybe the complaints here on CC?

[thatbloominplace]

i just contacted terry, who has received great reviews on this site, and he told me that the regatta did, indeed, send passengers in to samana who were not on the ship's excursions last week. he is now accepting reservations from oceania passengers for his tours. we are looking to add additional passengers to the tour we just booked with him for jan. 9. it is a 4-5 hour tour in an open air truck through the countryside and small towns with a fish and chicken bbq on the beach...$65.00 p/p.

 

his email address is toursamanawithterry@hotmail.com.

 

his wesite is toursamanawithterry.com the tour i mentioned is tour #5.

 

steve

[LHT28]

i just contacted terry, who has received great reviews on this site, and he told me that the regatta did, indeed, send passengers in to samana who were not on the ship's excursions last week.

steve

You should post in your ROLL CALL for tour sharing

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1168624

[susiesan]

Now after changing their policy to allow pax to get off in Samana, it appears O changed it back again. When I look at the ports listed for the Feb. 25 Regatta sailing it no longer shows Samana. It shows Cayo Levantado again. The man who I'm trying to book an ATV tour with, Terry, emailed me that he thinks O may have reversed themselves one more time. I have a call in to my TA to contact O to find out what the heck is going on with the Dominican Republic. Are we going there or not?

[susiesan]

It's been confirmed by O; first it was Cayo, then Samana, then Cayo. When I spoke to them on the phone today, the O CSR could not give me a reason for the constant changing nor why I cannot go to Samana on the tender. And this time there was no official notice from O about once again changing where the tenders go. O is looking like they do not have their act together concerning this port. I'm beginning to wish they would completely drop it and go somewhere else. My sailing is not until Feb. 25 so there is time to find another place to go as this seems to be a near universally despised place according to posters on CC who have been there with O. But not with others who have written about heir visits under the ports of call. Must be something about O pax.......

[DOJO466]

We have been living in the small town of Samana for about 9 months now and we absolutely love it ! The Town of Samana is a work in progress, yes, it was run down for the last few years, but now all of this is changing. The new Mayor, M. Miguelin Bezi is doing an excellent job of keeping the town and port clean and safe at all times, new business are opening, new restaurants, new bars and terraces with WIFI, new entrepreneurs are giving a face lift to this lovely little town surrounded by sheer beauty of the Samana Peninsula and the Bay of Samana...

You will find a lot of information on this new website of the town of Samana :

http://gosamana-dominicanrepublic.com

 

Truly Enjoy and Explore Samana !

;) Jon

Thank you for posting Jon. It's wonderful that the new Mayor is trying to better everything and hopefully ships will be tendering to Samana on a regular basis.

[susiesan]

Jon,

I appreciate your invitation to visit and explore Samana. Unfortunately I will not be able to visit your lovely town as my cruise line, Oceania, will not allow me to come there unless I purchase an expensive shore excursion from them. They will only allow passengers on their own to go to Cayo Levantado. On March 6, you will see Oceania Regatta anchored in the bay but probably not a whole lot of visitors from the ship. Too bad for you and me.

Susie