Best things to do Amber Cove

[momonthego17]

Ditto on the 2 reef snorkel catamaran through Carnival. My DH and I did this, loved it and we booked it for our cruise in 3 weeks with our 2 DDs. Great crew, lots of fish, good lunch and lots of fun!

We also spent a day around the pool on another cruise(had booked same excursion but it was cancelled) and that was nice.

Have a great cruise !

 

 

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[robin16ak]

We were there in June and did the waterfall tour with Iguana Mama Tours. We did the 12 falls tour and loved it. My favorite cruise excursion ever.

[RenoNanaOz]

We are going to be there for the first time next May. We opted to do the Private Villa excursion through Carnival. I can't find any reviews for it on here but there are a few on the Carnival site. Looks pretty amazing.

[glorog]

Renonanaoz, if you are going to Lifestyle Resort you will have a great time. We have done both of the tours offered there and will be doing the Private Villa again in March.

[csoud68]

i am excited about this stop. even if we stay in the port area it looks to have exceptional views.

[RenoNanaOz]

Renonanaoz, if you are going to Lifestyle Resort you will have a great time. We have done both of the tours offered there and will be doing the Private Villa again in March.

 

It doesn't say the name but it must be. We are very excited, we have 3 beach days prior so lounging around a private pool that last day sounded amazing to us. Thanks for your input:)

[Krisco]

I like Amber cover. the pool and ziplining is an option if you like to stay close to the ship. We went on the best excursion we have ever been on called Outback Terracross Adventure. It's around $100 pp but it's abut 6 hours including transport time and you are served a fantastic authentic Dominican lunch. The actual time on the ATV was just over 1.5 hours. Highly, highly recommend this.

 

Good to know, we are doing this in December. I was even able to get Carnival's excursion guarantee credit on this as the site was about $15 cheaper, even though they said not allowed to pick up at cruise port. Have done dune buggies when Carnival stopped at La Romana port and it was a blast. Might be same one. Hope so. Covered in mud and everyone was jealous when we got back asking what we did.

[Jelly_Toast]

We went on a carnival excursion, museums and the fort. We got to see a lot of local sights as well and it was an eye opening experience for my kids. The people were really friendly and I enjoyed this much more than I would have staying in port.

[angela12345]

We don't take a lot of excursions. Maybe once per cruise, sometimes not even that. In Dominican Republic, we had a taxi driver for the whole day. He was FANTASTIC ! In addition to the sites we wanted to see, we asked him to take us to see how people really live there. He showed us many things and told us about stuff along the way. When he took us to sites, he would either come in with us, or waited for us and picked us up at the front door as soon as he saw we were done. He took pictures of us at the different sites with our camera so we were all in the group pic. He also took us to a grocery store to buy vanilla. He came in with us, called the manager over to ask questions about the different vanillas we could choose from, paid for the vanilla himself with his own money (he had DR currency so we didn't have to pay exchange fees), and he gave us each some DR currency as souvenirs. We tipped him an extra $100 on top of the $80-90 that was the taxi fare for 4 of us (there was room in his minivan, we could have taken 6 maybe 8) edit: my hubby thinks we gave him $100 total so $20 tip, the other wife also thinks we gave him $100 tip, now I'm not sure other than I do know we tipped him extra:). By the way, buy vanilla in DR at a regular store !! We paid approx $2-3 for a BIG BOTTLE like 32oz I think. In the cruise port it was about 2-3x the price for a tiny little bottle.

 

Walk out of the port and there will be people with price signs that will help you get a taxi driver. Ask for an English speaking driver !!! Our driver name was Johnny.

Wow, what a difference 12 hours can make. We ended up booking a last minute cruise just hours after I made the above post. We booked on Friday at 1:30pm and were on the ship less than 48 hours later on Sunday !! This cruise went to Amber Cove and this time we stayed around the pool so hubby could go down the water slides 20 or so times, haha. I hung by the pool, looked in the shops, and made my way over to the taxi area to see if I could find Johnny and say Hi to him. I even used the pic I posted in this thread to show to the other drivers, I felt like a detective "have you seen this man", LOL. We had a nice chat and took a new pic together. I got his full name (with correct spelling : ) if anyone else wants to ask for him ... Jhony Cid Ventura. Please tell him Angela sent you !!

This is the pic from last time

 

I also checked the vanilla prices in the port while I was here again. It was $8-10 for 16oz bottles at the resort/cruise center, they did sell smaller bottles for less. That's waaaay more than the $3 for much bigger bottles at a regular grocery store in town. Jhony even called one of his buddy taxi drivers to see if they would pick up some vanilla for me while we were chatting, unfortunately they had a fare with some tourists and were on the other side of the island and didn't know when they would be back. But so nice of Jhony to remember about the vanilla and make the attempt !

 

One other tip ... there are kids on bicycles that pull little carts you can ride in down the dock from the ship down to the cruise center and later back up to the ship. They are free, the kids work for tips only.

[marshhawk]

I really dont understand why these massive cruise outfits are stopping at locations in the carribean with water thats not clear or where you cant swim..

 

Could it be that its more profitable for the company? I answered my own question..lol

 

 

I just read that the port was built as part of the Fathom dream, as in helping the economy of certain world areas, bringing first world to third world. But the Fathom didn't work out so well, so now we are bringing money to third world, and getting none of the shiny pretty things. I do see that they offer "helping the community" excursions, but chocolate, and education (without enough info to explain the excursions) doesn't seem like enough.