Last port stop Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

Just like yesterday we arrived at a port that we haven’t been to but have been to the Island. We have gone to the Punta Cana many times, this is our first time doing touristy stuff, usually we spend the week in the pool, eating and drinking. We got up early as we had an early excursion and wanted to get some food on our stomachs since we missed dinner last night. There was a real nice sunrise as we were entering the harbor.

Yes, Lisa is fine and the seas are supposed to calm down this afternoon and even more tomorrow on our final sea day. This port is a lot like San Juan was where it is a real rough entry and they even were towed in by a tug boat, I haven’t seen that in many, many years. The Tug was pulling us into the harbor backwards, that way we can just sail our forward on the way out.

Well our excursion today is called Buggies and Beach off road, we really weren’t sure what to expect as we did one like this before and it was kind of lame. Well this one wasn’t lame, first they picked us up in a comfortable open air truck and we got to see a bit of the city on the way to the Buggy location. When we got there we could see the buggies and they were as expected, they gave us a safety and instructional talk and we put on our helmets and away we went.

They had a photographer along the way taking pictures and you could buy the whole package of shots for $40 and I figured that was a bargain so I wouldn’t worry about getting them myself. Of course that is if he delivers on the pictures as promised 😊 I will update this post if the pictures show up, they should be pretty good shots from where he was shooting them. Let’s just say for now at the half way point we stopped at a beach and it was a relief to get the mud off of us, even though it was for just a short time. The pictures did show up late Saturday night so I held off posting until I could get them arranged.

Here we are all nice and clean enjoying our Country Drive!

The roads got a bit more bumpy and had to avoid lots of animals and of course what the cows left behind, didn’t want cow pies hitting you in the face!

Now things got real and we knew at this point that it was time to just have some fun and give it the gas!

Well it was nice to get to the beach and take a dip to clean up a little bit

So much for the beach cleaning, now its time for our mud bath!

We returned to the ship around 12:30 and headed back onboard and we both showered to get rid of all the dirt, even though we used a shower at the Buggy location. We headed down to lunch and there was only one other couple there and 3 people working tables. We figured out where everybody was when we sat down, they were all out lined up with umbrellas welcoming guests back onto the ship. It was funny to see all the cabin stewards, dining room staff, cooks, even the executive chef and most of the Officers lined up welcoming back everybody.

Our final sail away was a beautiful day and a great sail out of the harbor, which is a very scenic location with Fortaleza de San Felipe at the entry to the harbor.

As you leave the harbor you can get a view of the King Neptune statue located on a large rock off the coast.

We had a great day in the Dominican Republic and to cap it off we were treated to a wonderful sunset!

I am carrying on this post into Sunday morning as we will be busy tonight and tomorrow catching our flight and getting back to reality on Monday. We got up early this morning and got our walk in and headed to breakfast. It was nice doing the walk early as nobody else was up there. We also got to see a nice sunrise off the back of the ship as we sail up the coast of Cuba.

Well I guess you know when your cruise is over when you get back from breakfast and the room is cleaned and you come back to this!