La Romana, Dominican Republic

[joan24]

Has anyone been to La Romana? It's a port for us on our Feb. 26, 2006 Regatta cruise and I've been hearing some disturbing things about safety there. If anyone is familiar with this port, please post. Thanks.

Joan

[timbo89]

We've been to La Romana before, and will visit again on the Regatta 2/14/06 cruise. I am unfamiliar with the safety rumors that you refer to. We were there with Celebrity, and the only "safety" issue we saw was the way the locals ran up the earth banks to tie up the ship.

 

There is really very little to do here, especially on your own. If you like to play golf, the "Teeth of the Dog" course is rated the best in the Caribbean, and can be arranged through the ship. There is a village close by (Altos de Chavon) which is a place made to appear old and quaint, but doesn't quite succeed. You can take a day trip to Santo Domingo, (if you like long bus trips). Or you can catch a cab to go to a nearby beach (Bayahibe). Celebrity had a trip to an island that a couple people we knew said was quite fun, but this is not offered on Oceania. I have valiantly attempted to find private tours, but to no avail thus far

 

In short, it is quite disappointing. We might wander up to the village to have a drink or something - just to be on land after 2 days at sea !! I would suggest that you don't have high expectations of this stop.

[Fetchpeople]

I echo the sentiments of your first responder. I have stopped there on Celebrity in November 2004; it was a largely wasted day.

 

The Village is attractive, but it is just an entity founded, I believe, by RCL to provide something to do on the stop. I must assume the stop is geographically desireable as it offers nothing of historical interest and the beaches aren't very close to port. The Village does not even have an Internet Cafe. It does have some fairly upscale women's clothing shops and a restaurant or two. Candidly, the whole set up reminded me of a modest movie set: all dressed in front, but nothing in back of it. The resorts in the area, as mentioned previously, have outstanding facilities and golf courses. On my trip, there really wasn't time to play 18 etc. Plan on a wasted day, frankly.

 

As for security, I recall asking the very helpful Concierge on Celebrity about the beaches. He replied that he had been told they were not safe, as there was more than a slight chance of being robbed. He also said he was going to check them out. He told me the next day that he sensed no safety issues and he had a fine day.

[Mike2131]

The main attraction is Casa de Campo. I spent 4 nights there on a company trip about 5 years ago. timbo89 and Fetchpeople have pretty accurately described the the options - great golf (if you are interested), some shopping, a beach I did not find very attractive, etc. We are considering a history tour (if offered) through the ship. When I was there, we were cautioned not to go off the property (for safety reasons), so I would stay with ship's tours in this port.

The one correction I will make is that the artist colony (Altos de Chavon) is actually part of the Casa de Campo property. I don't think RCI had anything to do with it. All in all, probably this stop will not be the highlight of the cruise.