This was the quickest port to get in and out of! The employees were very friendly!

We had never been to the Dominican Republic, so we were anxious for this port. Apparently, Carnival just finishing building this port in 2015, so it is relatively new.We booked the Deluxe Sail and Snorkel excursion with Tip Top Catamaran and had a blast! We got off the ship and found our excursion guy holding our sign. We boarded a bus and drove about 45 minutes to our catamaran. The bus ride was not bad, as we learned lots about the Dominican Republic while we rode. We arrived on the beach and had to be shuttled via a dingy to our catamaran. It took about four trips to get everyone on the catamaran, and then we were off. We literally sailed about 10 minutes and stopped for our first snorkel. There wasn’t much to see and the wind and crazy waves made the water pretty murky. The waves kicked up, so we couldn’t stop at the second snorkel site. There was an open bar with free rum punch and local beer, soft drinks, fruit juice and water, lots of dancing, and a good lunch. The lunch was hard boiled eggs, coleslaw, pasta salad, tuna salad, chicken nuggets, chicken sliders, cucumber salads, bread, ham and pastrami cold cuts, etc. We ate, drank, and danced while we sailed all the way back to port. There was no bus ride on the way back. YAY! It was a fantastic day, and we even had about 45 minutes to shop in port before we had to be back on board.

We had been there before and knew there wasn’t much to do. We didn’t get into port until 12:00, so we got to sleep late. I have to tell you that I like arriving into port later. I was hesitant at first, but we got to stay out later, sleep later, and have places to ourselves since the other cruise ships leave port around 4:00. After eating lunch on the ship, we walked to the forts. We took lots of beautiful pictures and sweated a ton. Man, it was hot, but the history is so cool and the views from atop the forts are breathtaking! We found a couple in the square who would let you pose with their four exotic birds for $5. We took lots of great pictures, and the owners posed the birds in many different ways for the pictures. It was something different, and the girls loved it.

I am so glad that I listened to the advice on Cruise Critic and did not book at excursion. The cruise port there is so very nice. I was worried because our boat was the second one to arrive (we docked at 12:00), so I was afraid that there would not be any loungers available. Boy, was I wrong. We were one of the first families off of the Magic and there were tons of free chairs and umbrellas available. We walked off the dock and turned left to Margaritaville and there were tons of chairs available around the pool and beach. Because the ocean is so pretty, we decided to find chairs on the beach instead. We found a nice spot with four loungers under palm trees in front of the Flo Rider spot. We were very close to the DJ playing the music in Margaritaville, so we could hear great music while we looked at the ocean. There was a local selling cold beer under a red tent for $5 a bottle and 2 cups of rum punch for $5, so that is where we bought our drinks. The same beer in Margaritaville was $8.50 a bottle! We were chilling under the palm trees, and looking at the beautiful ocean when someone came by asking if we wanted to go on a banana boat ride. The girls did, so we paid them $20 a person and walked to their tent. We filled out a permission form, they climbed on the banana boat, and I hopped in the boat with the driver and took some awesome pics of them as they were being pulled around in that crystal clear water. They had a blast and said they wished it had lasted longer, but I was ready to get back to my lounger. After a while, the girls met up with their friends at the pool at Margaritaville and we visited the beer tent again. Heeding the advice of my cruise critic pals, we walked about 5 minutes down the beach to Jack’s Shack for lunch for some of the best jerk chicken I have ever put in my mouth. For $14 a plate, we had jerk chicken and fries (my daughter had rice and beans instead of fries), and we had plenty of it. We had signed up for a free shot of rum on Jack’s Shack website prior to our cruise, and got our free shots after our lunch. After lunch, we played ball with Jack’s dog, Topher, and headed back to our loungers. We passed a place that sold $4 beers, so we grabbed two. They weren’t as cold as the $5 beers, so I wished we had waited until we got back to the guy in the red tent to buy our beers. We had such a fabulous time and stayed on this beach until we had to be back on the boat. We did save about 30 minutes to shop in the stores. We found the best t-shirts here. This was an amazing port with plenty to do just a few yards from the boat. Highly recommend staying here for the day instead of booking an excursion.