Puerto Plata is a city and major cruise port located on the north side of the Dominican Republic. This was our last stop of the cruise before heading home.
Something happened this morning causing data service on all of our family phones to be suspended. The tet from AT&T indicated that it would still be suspended when we arrived back in the US, too, so restoring this service became a priority for today. I called the phone number AT&T included in their message and their call center wouldn’t open until 10am our time.
Before the cruise we’d booked a zipline excursion for all four of us. Once son sprained his angle, we took a wait-and-see attitude, since we had lots of time for healing before we made it to this port. Ultimately we canceled him and my wife, and daughter and I still went.
It was a good call. He’s able to handle straightaways and stairs now, but getting to some of the ziplines involved some angled stairs, uneven ground, and climbing some tall towers. On the other hand, my wife probably wouldn’t have cared for the heights.
Video (click):
At zipline six, for the less-heavy people momentum doesn’t carry them all the way to the end, so a staff member on a horse horse rides over and pulls your ankle the last 20 meters or so. I didn’t have this problem, (un)fortunately.
Video (click):
Looking good, Billy Ray:
I made a few notes from our excursion to San Felipe De Puerto Plata and the zipline place:
- At the port and on the way to the bus outside the confines of the port our tour guide was adamant: stay with the group, don’t follow anyone else.
- There was a really talkative guy in front of us (a house painter from Pompano Beach, which he started pronouncing Pom-PAH-no after a drink). He was having the absolute time of his life. Good for him.
- Of all the ports we visited this trip, the DR was the pushiest one with respect to forced reviews and tips, similar to what you’d encounter in The Bahamas. The ABC Islands were much more chill in this respect.
- Multiple places hadn’t heard of Diet Coke, only Coke and Coke Zero.
- It looked like the same facility also offered ATV and horseback trips. They may have even offered lodging, not sure.
Taino Bay is the secured area between the ships and the city, with shops, restaurants, pools, and lazy river. It’s a nice resort-style area but very much at odds with the city just beyond its walls. When returning back to Taino Bay from the excursion, a security person came into the bus and had everyone show their ship cards. They’re not kidding around.
After the excursion, Siena and I walked around Taino Bay and stopped for coffee so I could use the wifi and try to fix our broken data service. Unsurprisingly, the mall’s wifi was pretty bad. But the coffee was great! Siena pleaded with me to take the tuk tuk service back to the ship and I relented. I’m usually a walker.
Back on the ship I made a call to AT&T and had things sorted after about 20 minutes. Truly I have no idea what our cell bill will look like, and may have to make more calls to AT&T in a month (or get a HELOC) to sort it all out.
Later in the afternoon wife and daughter went to to Taino Bay to enjoy the lazy river and resort area. I caught up with them a bit later and then we all walked back about half an hour before gangway up. Daughter tried ‘splash surfing’ attraction, also. The pool, river, and splash surfing were all free for cruise passengers. The NCL ship had left earlier so there was plenty of space to move around.
So long, Puerto Plata:
