Santo Domingo changed tp San Juan???

[BACON227]

Just spoke to friends fresh off the Grand Princess this morning. They told me that one couple on the ship was robbed and another couple were the victims of an attempted robbery while in Santo Domingo. Our friends heard from crew that these were not the first incidents in Santo Domingo and that Princess was going to swap the Santo Domingo port with San Juan on the remaining 14 day itineraries for this year.........anybody else hear anything about this?

[Toto2Kansas]

I haven't heard anything, and google didn't bring up a word about this switch. All I can say is that as much as I do not like San Juan, anything is better than Santo Domingo. If we were to ever visit Santo Domingo again as a cruise port, we would just stay onboard the ship. It was not a great place for a cruise port IMHO!

[BACON227]

I haven't heard anything, and google didn't bring up a word about this switch. All I can say is that as much as I do not like San Juan, anything is better than Santo Domingo. If we were to ever visit Santo Domingo again as a cruise port, we would just stay onboard the ship. It was not a great place for a cruise port IMHO!

 

 

That's exactly what our friends said.......they said don't even get off the ship......

[Hlitner]

That is interesting. When a cruise passenger (a young girl) was killed by a bullet near Coki Beach none of the cruise lines cancelled the port. Passengers have been robbed, mugged and worse in Jamaica for years and the ships still go to that port. Cruise ships still go to Acapulco despite folks losing their heads (literally) in that port city. One could almost think that there are other factors at work regarding Santa Domingo. We would add that we were in Santo Domingo on a Grand Princess cruise a few months ago and actually loved the port. We went off on our own and had a great time, but did hear an awful lot of folks who took excursions complain they did not like the city. It was also a very difficult harbor for our ship which barely cleared the shallow entrance. Our Captain later told us that he had the aft pool drained to slightly raise the stern which had very little clearance. The DR is a poor country and it certainly shows. But Santo Domingo does have charm in some areas and a crime rate probably no worse than in St Thomas. On the other hand, we did not see any Diamonds International or Columbian Emeralds in Santo Domingo (there is a God) which probably upset many passengers.

 

Hank

[seastar2]

Has anyone with on the next two sailings of the Grand heard directly from Princess or their TA about a port change????

 

We sail on the 28th of Feb ....

[Toto2Kansas]

On the other hand, we did not see any Diamonds International or Columbian Emeralds in Santo Domingo (there is a God) which probably upset many passengers.

 

Hank

 

Thanks for the reminder, there was one great thing about Santo Domingo, as you mention above. ;)

[Carolina Cruisr]

We are on the Jan 31st sailing and have not been notified yet if they are making a change. I will keep an eye on our personalizer.

 

We were on this same cruise last year and they changed the itinerary from Santo Domingo to San Juan. The reason given was the harbor needed dredging as there had been to much silt gathered. It was too shallow for the ship to clear safely.

 

Either way cannot wait to sail!

[FLACRUISER99]

I haven't heard anything, and google didn't bring up a word about this switch. All I can say is that as much as I do not like San Juan, anything is better than Santo Domingo. If we were to ever visit Santo Domingo again as a cruise port, we would just stay onboard the ship. It was not a great place for a cruise port IMHO!

Strange, I absolutely loved Santo Domingo, It was my favorite port on my November Grand trip. I guess different spokes for different folks,

[Richie2pies]

I would guess that Dominican Republic and Jamaica probably offer the cruiseline a better deal financialy. Why else would they continue to go to a place that most people don't like? Maybe Princess doesn't care?

[Cariad3600]

Re: Santo Domingo .. if the change does happen we will be a bit disappointed as it was one of three ports we had never visited. Can't judge what we haven't seen. On the plus side (for us) would be San Juan as we both love to walk along the seawall in Old San Juan. We have had nothing but great experiences there on our past cruises.

[1 HappyCruiser]

We were there in mid Dec. and the probable reason is the outbreak of Cholera more so than any crime incidents. They passed out a warning bulletin before leaving the ship not to eat anything on land & be cautious about any contact & I doubt if things have gotten any better since then. San Juan isn't much better as far as crime goes but at least it doesn't have the disease problem or harbor problems. It's no big loss.

[pms4104]

I tend to think the swap out of San Juan for Santo Domingo is based on vessel safety ... when we were onboard in October, the Captain stated at his farewell that, even with the aft pool emptied, there was only 20 cm (less than 2 ft) of water beneath the Grand.

[compozer]

When we stopped in November, we decided just to get off the ship and go for a long walk. A policeman came up and told us not to go in one direction. We walked about four blocks the other way and felt very uncomfortable - turned around and went back to the ship.

 

Couldn't understand the fact that they have a beautiful terminal but only a small area is used. Doesn't look like more than one ship can dock at a time so why did they build such a huge building? Or did the cruise lines build it?

[Pia1913]

When we stopped in November, we decided just to get off the ship and go for a long walk. A policeman came up and told us not to go in one direction. We walked about four blocks the other way and felt very uncomfortable - turned around and went back to the ship.

 

 

Interesting, since that's exactly what happened to us; in Atlantic City.

[2552phxcrzr]

Loved Santo Domingo when we were there in December. Spent the day in the Colonial City, wandering all over town on our own. Then went to the Columbus Lighthouse. We'd asked if we could walk to the lighthouse and were discouraged from doing so; ended up taking a cab for that portion of our day. As in any city in the world, a little common sense goes a long way towards having a great time. The Politur (tourist police) were visible all around the Colonial City and very helpful.

 

I guess whether you like Santo Domingo or not depends on what your expectations are. If you go thinking it's just like any other Caribbean port with lots of shopping and whatnot, you'll be disappointed. If you go and just stay around the port area (esp. if docked in Sans Souci) you'll be disappointed.

 

There is a shuttle from the Sans Souci cruise terminal to the Colonial City on the other side of the river. $5/person R/T. The shuttle is accompanied by a government-trained/certified tour guide, and for an additional $5/person you can get a short, guided walking tour of the Colonial City when you reach the shuttle drop-off point.

 

http://2totravel.blogspot.com/2010/12/santo-domingo-ciudad-primada-de-america.html

 

http://2totravel.blogspot.com/2010/12/santo-domingo-part-ii-faro-colon.html

 

Video Only: http://2totravel.blogspot.com/2010/12/video-santo-domingo.html

 

By the way, my understanding is that the Sans Souci terminal was built by Royal Caribbean.

[FLACRUISER99]

Loved Santo Domingo when we were there in December. Spent the day in the Colonial City, wandering all over town on our own. Then went to the Columbus Lighthouse. We'd asked if we could walk to the lighthouse and were discouraged from doing so; ended up taking a cab for that portion of our day. As in any city in the world, a little common sense goes a long way towards having a great time. The Politur (tourist police) were visible all around the Colonial City and very helpful.

 

I guess whether you like Santo Domingo or not depends on what your expectations are. If you go thinking it's just like any other Caribbean port with lots of shopping and whatnot, you'll be disappointed. If you go and just stay around the port area (esp. if docked in Sans Souci) you'll be disappointed.

 

There is a shuttle from the Sans Souci cruise terminal to the Colonial City on the other side of the river. $5/person R/T. The shuttle is accompanied by a government-trained/certified tour guide, and for an additional $5/person you can get a short, guided walking tour of the Colonial City when you reach the shuttle drop-off point.

 

http://2totravel.blogspot.com/2010/12/santo-domingo-ciudad-primada-de-america.html

 

http://2totravel.blogspot.com/2010/12/santo-domingo-part-ii-faro-colon.html

 

Video Only: http://2totravel.blogspot.com/2010/12/video-santo-domingo.html

 

By the way, my understanding is that the Sans Souci terminal was built by Royal Caribbean.

Great Video I really enjoyed it. Let me add, a lot of folks just can't leave home home.

[PrincessE]

My husband and I are on the January 31st sailing of the Grand. We haven't received any notifications of an itinerary change. I just got off the phone with a Princess agent (in regards to a separate matter) and before signing off I inquired about the possible change in ports.

 

The agent said she had not heard anything and the system didn't state any changes. She said she's been to Santo Domingo and it's a lovely city (in her opinion).

 

I have mixed feelings on visiting Santo Domingo. It's actually one of the reasons we booked this cruise - we wanted a lot of new ports (new to us). The more I'm hearing about Cholera and Dengue Fever though the more I'm hesitant to get off the ship. We're pretty adventerous people and we've been in some third world countries before, but we're just a tad nervous about Santo Domingo.

 

San Juan, PR is one of our most favorite cities in the world so we're kind of hoping we'll be changed to San Juan for Santo Domingo.

[MGnut]

My husband and I are on the January 31st sailing of the Grand. We haven't received any notifications of an itinerary change. I just got off the phone with a Princess agent (in regards to a separate matter) and before signing off I inquired about the possible change in ports.

 

The agent said she had not heard anything and the system didn't state any changes. She said she's been to Santo Domingo and it's a lovely city (in her opinion).

 

I have mixed feelings on visiting Santo Domingo. It's actually one of the reasons we booked this cruise - we wanted a lot of new ports (new to us). The more I'm hearing about Cholera and Dengue Fever though the more I'm hesitant to get off the ship. We're pretty adventerous people and we've been in some third world countries before, but we're just a tad nervous about Santo Domingo.

 

San Juan, PR is one of our most favorite cities in the world so we're kind of hoping we'll be changed to San Juan for Santo Domingo.

 

Hi PrincessE... I'm with you (literally - same cruise), and I would like it if they changed to San Juan. We have never visited there.