Favorite Dominican Republic excursions/Shore Things

[katie8203]

Hi, headed on our first VV cruise in August (Dominican Daze). What are some of your favorite excursions there, and will the boat wait for you if you are late coming back (not due to any fault of our own)? I know when we previously cruise with Disney we were told not to book excursions through anyone else but the cruise line because those excursions required them to wait for you to return. Outside companies? They would leave you if you weren't back in time. Thoughts?

[cantgetin]

VV operates like any other cruise line in terms of getting back from excursions.  If you book an excursion thru the cruise line and the excursion is delayed for any reason, the ship will wait.  If you book on your own, you are responsible for being back on board by "All aboard" time/before the last excursion booked thru the cruise line gets back.  For example, if a road is closed and no traffic is getting thru, you will be OK IF there is a cruise line booked excursion that is in the mess also and you get back before they do.  If they have closed the ship's doors and untied the lines, you will be out of luck.  There is a SMALL amount of leeway between the "all aboard" time and the time they close the doors, but not much.  Some private excursion companies guarantee that they will get you back on time or pay to get you to the next port.  Another consideration might be to do a morning excursion when the ship has a late afternoon departure.  In any event, we always plan to be back at least an hour before "all aboard" time.

 

Another thing--the name and phone number of the Ship's Agent is on the VV app and also on the paper daily schedule that you can get at Ground's Club, Sailor Services, and a few other locations on board.  It is a good idea to always take this number with you when you are off the ship.  This is the number you would need to contact if you had an emergency or had to get in touch with the ship for any reason.  They will relay the information to the ship and do whatever is necessary in the situation.  Whether this is a car accident causing you to be late, a medical emergency, or whatever, this is how you communicate your situation to the ship and elicit their help.  Every ship has an agent at each port.

 

But bottom line, the ship is charged for the time it is docked.  In general, they will not wait beyond their scheduled time for people who are off on their own or private excursions not thru the cruise line.

As Captain John on the Disney Magic said, if 2500 people can be back on board on time, there is no excuse for three who can't.

Edited February 6, 2023 by cantgetin

[dukefan94]

I will be following, as we are stopping in Puerto Plata on our 8 day itinerary next month!

[singleflyer]

Any other insights regarding Shore Things?  I'll be visiting Puerto Plata on Scarlet Lady in two weeks and trying to decide.

 

Does the ship dock near the "town" or do you really have to book an excursion?  Thanks!

[garycarla]

Yes, some will ONLY book ship sponsored tours. I get that.

 

But, if you book on your own with plans to be back 2 hours before "all aboard", that leaves you plenty of time to deal with traffic. And as said, often it is the same traffic as the ship tours.

 

We prefer on our own for many reasons.  Smaller groups - 2-12 is the norm for us.  Less waiting for others.  More flexibility, especially if nobody else is with you. And the cost is the same or less.

[raphael360]

On 2/6/2023 at 12:49 PM, katie8203 said:

What are some of your favorite excursions there,

Are there any shore excursions worth taking?  Anyone?  

 

I did book the 'intro to Puerto Plata' walking tour but it was canceled by VV a few weeks ago due to Technical issues according to VV.

[cantgetin]

2 hours ago, garycarla said:

 

 

But, if you book on your own with plans to be back 2 hours before "all aboard", that leaves you plenty of time to deal with traffic. And as said, often it is the same traffic as the ship tours.

 

We prefer on our own for many reasons.  Smaller groups - 2-12 is the norm for us.  Less waiting for others.  More flexibility, especially if nobody else is with you. And the cost is the same or less.

We much prefer private companies as well, but check them out first.  Many are excellent, some not so.  I may be delusional, but it has been my experience that if you are in a vehicle with 4-12 people, where likely you are all talking with each other, etc. there is far less chance of some idiot showing up an hour late at the meeting place than if you are on a bus of 50 people.  Many excursions have a small amount of "on your own" time, and that's when people tend to not come back!  The most memorable excursions we've had were small groups, whether we arranged it, or our travel agent did.
 

Another huge advantage is that wildlife is far better without a crowd.  For example, we walked to the butterfly farm in St. Thomas and arrived just as the DCL group was getting rounded up and preparing to leave.  They were complaining about the butterflies not being active.  As soon as that huge group left on their bus, the butterflies came out from everywhere!  We were one of 2 families in the place, and it was far more quiet.

[CruisingWalter]

On 2/6/2023 at 12:49 PM, katie8203 said:

Hi, headed on our first VV cruise in August (Dominican Daze). What are some of your favorite excursions there, and will the boat wait for you if you are late coming back (not due to any fault of our own)? I know when we previously cruise with Disney we were told not to book excursions through anyone else but the cruise line because those excursions required them to wait for you to return. Outside companies? They would leave you if you weren't back in time. Thoughts?

 

Cruise lines are required to either wait for you OR get you to the next port if the ship has to leave. It's an either / or, they are not required to hold the ship and wait for you if it will impact the ship's arrival time to the next port.

 

The ship will absolutely leave if you're not back on time. I've seen ships wait 30 minutes quite often, but after that, it's up to the captain whether he's going to wait.  A really good third party tour operator is Shore Excursions Group. They vet the operators and offer a return to ship guarantee that will also get you to the next port if the ship leaves.

 

As for the DR, there are quite a few options there from adventure/zip lining to beach days. The last time we were there we actually made it a ship day so we could enjoy the pool on Scarlet Lady. It was a fantastic day. 🙂

 

 

[Cloud9 Bob]

 

5 hours ago, singleflyer said:

Any other insights regarding Shore Things?  I'll be visiting Puerto Plata on Scarlet Lady in two weeks and trying to decide.

 

Does the ship dock near the "town" or do you really have to book an excursion?  Thanks!

The ship docks near town, but I would definitely book an excursion. I did the one through VV where you ride the cable car and also get lunch. It was great. We had a nicely air conditioned small bus of about 20 and it even had wifi. Our guide was very interesting and enthusiastic. It was reasonably priced too.

[neverendingcruising]

Can't speak for the Caribbean as we almost never get off the ship there anymore, but our excursions in Europe with Virgin were really great for the most part, many of them were less than 10 people. The beach we did in Spain was the worst with our 40 people on a larger bus and the beach was terrible (we're spoiled in Florida).