GAPearl's Big BREEZE Review! 8 Day Southern Itinerary 9/28/13.

[gapearl]

Hi Kim...aka gapearl, I am loving your review! as usual. Ok..spill the beans, or did I miss it? I want to see a picture of G.

 

I am down here in Atlanta. I just got here about an hour ago. My daughter lives in Buckhead, so I am visiting. Left a rainy, cold DC area, and loving this beautiful weather you have here.

 

Welcome to Atlanta! I know, it's still hot here. I was out earlier, thinking this can't be October! Buckhead is a nice area, but wayyyyyyy too much traffic for me. I make it to Lenox maybe twice a year. Nope, not posting a picture of G. Sorry! :)

 

I'm still working hard on the La Romana chapter!

[LibratPDX]

Thanks for all your hard work putting this together, Christen!

 

No, I didn't win a ship on a stick. CC member LibratPDX gave it to me since I've never had one. Thanks again, Cala!

 

 

 

I second with a big "thank you" to Christen for organizing the meet & greet !

This was awesome because you didn't really expect me to bring you a ship on a stick - you're a winner in my book, and it was a pleasure meeting you and your mother :D

 

Haha I went to dig up that picture just for you! The original cornbread post that started it all! :D

 

Two years later, I say THIS IS STILL NOT CORNBREAD!!!! You can't just put corn on top of bread and call it cornbread. :rolleyes:

 

 

I'm not from the South, but this is just insulting......I'm shocked that anyone would think this is cornbread! When you commented about them finally getting it right, I thought maybe it was too dry or something, not that they didn't even really make it at all!:eek:

[anamarieus]

my southern mama would lhao at that "cornbread" hahaha!!!!!:D:p

[INCHARGE]

Welcome to Atlanta! I know, it's still hot here. I was out earlier, thinking this can't be October! Buckhead is a nice area, but wayyyyyyy too much traffic for me. I make it to Lenox maybe twice a year.

 

I'm still working hard on the La Romana chapter!

 

Kim, It's like every car in Atlanta is up here! Never been in this area until today. I still like this weather.

 

That white dress is so sharp, and the pink shoes you has on with the blue dress were fierce. Are you going to post tonight?

 

Ps.....I was really kidding about G, because I realize that there is a privacy thing to consider. :)

[Cruiser 2 too]

Great review. Thanks for taking the time to feed my addiction.(smile). I will be cruising Oct 5-12,2014 on the Pride. I have been waiting for this review with bated breath! You make me feel like I'm right there seeing it with you. The memorial was a reminder for me, one of the young men on that flight belonged to my church. I wanted to see it , thank you for that.

[gapearl]

I second with a big "thank you" to Christen for organizing the meet & greet !

 

This was awesome because you didn't really expect me to bring you a ship on a stick - you're a winner in my book, and it was a pleasure meeting you and your mother :D

 

I'm not from the South, but this is just insulting......I'm shocked that anyone would think this is cornbread! When you commented about them finally getting it right, I thought maybe it was too dry or something, not that they didn't even really make it at all!:eek:

 

I need to find some place special for my ship on a stick! I really enjoyed meeting you as well!

 

my southern mama would lhao at that "cornbread" hahaha!!!!!:D:p

 

When all else fails, turn to Jiffy! haha

 

Kim, It's like every car in Atlanta is up here! Never been in this area until today. I still like this weather.

 

That white dress is so sharp, and the pink shoes you has on with the blue dress were fierce. Are you going to post tonight?

 

Ps.....I was really kidding about G, because I realize that there is a privacy thing to consider. :)

 

And that's why I live outside of the city! Atlanta traffic gets me to cussing! lol I wore the pink shoes with the white dress as well, but it's not as noticeable in the picture. I was waiting for someone to ask for G's picture. haha

 

Yes, I will be posting tonight. I've been working on writing and editing these pictures for hours, haven't eaten or anything! I'll be getting started really soon. I will not go to bed until I've completed La Romana!

 

Great review. Thanks for taking the time to feed my addiction.(smile). I will be cruising Oct 5-12,2014 on the Pride. I have been waiting for this review with bated breath! You make me feel like I'm right there seeing it with you. The memorial was a reminder for me, one of the young men on that flight belonged to my church. I wanted to see it , thank you for that.

 

Thanks for reading! I love taking everyone along on my adventures with me. So sorry for the loss you and your church had to endure back then. I'm glad you were able to see the firsthand pictures of the memorial! Did you see his name on the large placard?

[gapearl]

 

 

 

 

 

[gapearl]

Tuesday, 10/1

 

Bear with me here for a few minutes, guys. Long rant, but it's relevant.

 

Our day started out really crappy!

 

I woke up early to the news talking about the government shutdown. *sigh* :rolleyes:

 

This would be my second trip to the Dominican Republic, but my first time to La Romana. I took a quick trip to Punta Cana back in June for my birthday. When I returned home and people asked me how I liked DR, I was conflicted about what to say. Out of all the places I have traveled to, I found many people in DR to be, well, not the friendliest folks in the world. In other parts of the Caribbean, locals are warm and helpful and will do what it takes for you to enjoy their island. I really didn’t get that friendly vibe then and was hoping for a better experience this time.

 

Well that was just wishful thinking!

 

This was a hard port to plan. There didn’t seem to be much to do besides go to the beach, and the closest one was 25-30 minutes away. Since I was with my mom, a long, lazy beach day wouldn’t work. Y’all see I am the queen of trip research, and I came up with nothing. That tells you something. I found La Tabacalera, which is the largest cigar factory in the world. It’s 5 minutes from the port, but the tour would only be an hour. Ok, so then what? I emailed a local lady on trip advisor, and she emailed the information of a tour guide she often recommended. Well I never needed to call him because a member of our group found a nice beach alternative through laromanaexcursions dot com, aka Seavis Tours. We ended up with a group of 38 people booked on the River Chavon Special Tour. This included a 45 minute ride down the river with a stop in the jungle for lunch, rope swing, kayaks, etc. The cost was $75 but we were given a 10% discount, so the new cost was $67.50 per person. I was the coordinator for this and did all the communicating between Seavis and the group. Also remember, our group had collected tons of school supplies and toys to bring to Seavis to pass out to local kids.

 

We met by the lobby bar on deck 3 at 8:30 am. I collected everyone’s money, and we were off the ship at 9 am. The first headache of the morning came when one member of the group got held up at security exiting the ship because he had supplies in a suitcase (someone at our meet and greet literally donated a whole suitcase full of goodies). The rest of us had all ours in shopping bags. Security searched the bag and wasn’t going to let him off without declaring everything. He ended up having to take the bag back to his cabin. Why didn’t I just take everything out of the suitcase and put in shopping bags like the rest of the stuff was? :confused: Lesson learned.

 

In the midst of all that chaos, I lost my mom. :eek: She’s not an experienced traveler and is usually always right on my heels. She’d NEVER walk off in an unknown area in a foreign country without me. Where the heck did she go? So for like 10 minutes, half the group and I were looking for her in the crowds around the debarkation area. She couldn’t have gone too far, so we kept walking figuring we’d bump into her at some point.

 

Seavis is not allowed to pick up cruise passengers from the port, so they paid for our taxi to get to our starting point. We get to the taxi area, and whaddya know. There my mom is with the other half of the group. :rolleyes: So, I start trying to get the taxis coordinated. One taxi coordinator guy had an email in his hand about us and called for the Seavis group. Half loaded into two taxis and were headed…..somewhere.

 

The other half of us stood around waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Only one guy spoke English. I told him we still needed two more taxis to get to the river. River? Uh-oh. The other two taxis were headed to Bayahibe. WTH? This man had an email that Seavis him about us IN HIS HAND on where we are going and STILL sent half our group to the wrong place. :mad: In the meantime, he’s arguing with other taxi drivers in Spanish, they’re arguing with each other, and we’re still sitting ducks. I really wished I knew some bad words in Spanish. Eventually another guy that spoke English came over. I BEGGED them to call Ingrid at the office to let her know what was going on and to track the other taxis that were already gone. When I say no one was willing to help us, I mean literally NO ONE was willing to help us.

 

And that’s when the flood gates opened and the tears came. Even though this was not my fault and no one blamed me, I felt SO bad. I hated that so many people had been looking forward to this for months and now it might not happen. I swear, I was with such an amazing group of people. People started giving me hugs and reassured me the day would still be ok.

 

At that point, people started getting worried and backing out. If it was going to be that hard getting there, will we have that same issue with getting back? Plus no one was helping us, so those people wanted to find something to do with their day while they still could. Honestly I can’t even be upset about that. I gave 20 people their money back. We were right next to a baseball diamond, and those that had toys passed them out to the kids there.Those that continued on with the tour gave our supplies to Seavis as planned. Regardless, many children were blessed as a result of so many generous people in our group! :)

Edited October 19, 2013 by Host Randy
removed Facebook reference to allow review info

[gapearl]

Finally after 30 minutes, someone pulled out a cell phone and called the Seavis office. I spoke with a lady that said the rest of the group was on their way to the right location. The rest of us that stayed got a taxi and finally got to the boat to begin our tour. Our guide, Kirsten, explained the whole taxi situation to us. Seavis has been having a very hard time with the taxis not wanting to take their guests lately, even though they pay double what Carnival pays them. It’s an unfortunate situation that Seavis has no control over and is trying to find a solution for, but in the meantime, it is what it is.

 

When all was said and done, we were only about 1 hour behind schedule. Kirsten promised us we would be back by 3 pm and there would definitely be taxis waiting to take us back to the ship. She introduced us to the crew working on our boat, including a photographer that would be taking pictures of us throughout the day and would have a cd for sale at the end.

And away we go!

 

 

Kirsten is originally from The Netherlands and speaks four languages. She gave us a lot of DR information. The average income is $250 a month, but the average cost of living is $200 a month. You can retire here for cheap.

Plates of fresh fruit were brought to each table. I was hooked on the pineapple!

 

 

How pretty is this view!

 

 

Here I am posing, showing off my results of pressing 270 pounds on the horizontal calf press at the gym. haha

 

 

There's my mom.

 

 

The two of us.

 

[gapearl]

I think this was a similar but shorter Carnival excursion.

 

 

More random scenery.

 

 

 

 

[gapearl]

Just sitting back and relaxing, taking it all in.

 

One girl came around with cups and poured some local rum, and another came behind her with soda. I was so on edge at that point I took the rum as a shot to calm my nerves.

 

A plate of some delicious cake came around next.

 

 

For the rest of the day, this hottie was known as Tarzan.

 

 

We enjoyed our 45 minute ride and the beautiful scenery surrounding us. Our crew put on some music and we started dancing.

Me with our photographer.

 

 

 

Leave Tarzan alone! You're not a cougar!

 

[gapearl]

We finally arrived to the middle of the Dominican jungle, and it was time for lunch.

 

 

 

We'll be back to these later.

 

 

Donde esta el bano? Aqui!

 

 

Looks like our food isn't quite ready yet. haha :p

 

[gapearl]

Lunch was served buffet style. More fruit plates were brought for dessert, along with a strong Dominican coffee you drink black.

 

Where the crew was working hard to prepare our food.

 

 

 

 

Chicken, rice, salad, and potato looking thing is yuca. Very good.

 

 

Fresh salad dressing.

 

 

[gapearl]

Our after dinner drink was mamajuana.

 

 

It’s a Dominican drink made from rum, red wine, and honey. Cinnamon is on the tree bark inside the bottle. Every bottle of mamajuana will taste different every time. She told us to sip it not “whop” it. I’m a rebel of course and “whopped” it.

 

Bottoms up!

What I thought of the mamajuana. It was strong! I still had a couple more shots later.

Kirsten brought her snake, Bo, a boa constrictor. Bo eats live chickens. He’s not poisonous. She said she doesn’t have to worry about Bo strangling her because she’s too big, and that would take up too much energy for him.

 

Photo bomb!

 

I've held two reptiles in one trip!

[alreadypacked]

We finally arrived to the middle of the Dominican jungle, and it was time for lunch.

 

 

 

We'll be back to these later.

 

 

Donde esta el bano? Aqui!

 

 

 

 

:eek::eek: Uh oh! What were those banos like? No plumbing to speak of I imagine. Odors? Bugs? Other critters?

[gapearl]

Up next was the kayaks. I got lucky and was in a kayak with Tarzan. He didn’t even give me a paddle. He did all the work and I just sat there looking pretty. :)

Off to the water!

 

 

 

Tarzan didn't speak a word of English! LOL I had fun practicing my Spanish with him. We actually had a pretty decent conversation!

 

Edited October 12, 2013 by gapearl

[2 cruzen]

:(. That's all?? Well it's 10:00 here so midnight there. You're young. I'm sure there will be more when I wake up. LOL

[gapearl]

And finally my favorite part of the day, maybe even the whole cruise! The rope swing!

 

Tarzan demonstrating what I have to do. Uhhh, nah, that's not happening.

 

 

Tarzan making sure I'm holding on tight.

 

 

THREE! TWO! ONE! GOOOOOOOOO!!!!!

 

 

That face is PRICELESS!

 

 

That was awesome! :D

 

[gapearl]

One more time, por favor!

 

 

 

Tarzan is just showing off now.

 

 

The two of us swinging together.

 

 

 

After a couple mamajuanas and swinging with Tarzan, I've completely forgotten about the mishap back at the port!

 

I was the only one from the group that did the rope swing, so I got to go over and over for about 15 minutes. That was way too much fun!

[gapearl]

Kirsten took those of us that wanted to go on a little hike and tour of the grounds. She pointed out many different plants growing in the area. Everyone else stayed behind in the patio area where we ate lunch.

 

 

Pineapple, of course.

 

 

I think this was cacao.

 

 

 

[gapearl]

I began having a painful flashback of the Gros Piton hike in St. Lucia. Thankfully this was only 10 minutes, not 4 hours.

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know what with me doing all that waving. haha

 

 

Kirsten's dog made it to the top with us.

 

[gapearl]

They were waiting at the top with cold water for us.

 

 

The great view we had at the top.

 

 

New friends Hugo and Nicole again.

 

 

The crew brave enough to make the climb.

 

 

Me with Kirsten. Such a sweetheart!

 

 

The staff that made our day so special.

 

 

Edited October 12, 2013 by gapearl

[Scooterpi]

I'm so glad it all turned out okay! (I'm sitting here refreshing hoping for more....)

[gapearl]

Video from our climb.

 

 

Once we got back on the boat, we were served more fruit, cake, and drinks, and there was more dancing.

 

 

 

 

A video from the ride.

 

 

I bought a cd with lots of pictures of me, my mom, and a few group shots for $40. We collected over $100 in tips for our crew. They were awesome to us and deserved it all. We made it back to our taxis just before 3 pm. Our day started out very rocky, but it turned out to be a lot of fun!

 

[Eeyoregon]

Kim: When are you sailing the Sensation?

 

Gina