WE ZIPLINED TOGETHER FOR VALENTINE’S DAY IN AMBER COVE, D.R.

Carnival Celebration
Amber Cove, Dominican Republic
Tuesday, February 14, 2023 / St. Valentine’s Day
83F, Sunny
 

TK took this photo of Amber Cove near the zipline entrance

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone, including favorite sons Randy and Brian, their beautiful wives Coleen and Denise, and our precious granddaughters, B1 and B2! And, my favorite brother Bill. Happy Birthday to dear sister in law, Marge, who had the good fortune of being born on Valentine's Day! And our favorite son Paul, too!

Since this was going to be a short stop in Amber Cove, Dominican Republic today, we were off the ship by 8:30 a.m. to visit a port that Carnival Cruise Lines created, sort of like an “out island.”  We thought this would be a beach area on the sea, with lounge chairs under palm trees like Princess Cays and Half Moon Cay, with a lavish picnic area where the ship’s crew served picnic fare. 

Instead, Amber Cove is a private port destination similar to a private island, for use only by Carnival Cruise Lines ships (Holland America, Princess, and Carnival) with shops, restaurants, and bars. There is no beach here, but there is a large resort style pool with a swim up bar. Ziplining, water slides, and water sports toys are available.  

 

To get the whole sign in, we had to be little people

Lush greenery at a photo op for Janie

We found lounge chairs in the shade with palm trees and the pool within sight, to share with our 7000 new friends. Holland America’s Nieuw Statendam was also in port. I am sure that many passengers stayed on the ships, others shopped, or took shore excursions, so maybe we shared the pool area with only 3500 friends.  The atmosphere was very festive with live music and recorded music, people enjoying the sun and water, and  ambience.

By 11 a.m. the pool was quite crowded

The swim up bar is under the thatched roof structure 

TK, Donna, and I decided to try ziplining. It was something I always wanted to do, but I always said I would only zipline in a country that cared whether I lived or died. That turned out to be Dominican Republic!!  It was quite a hike up the hill, and soon, for $28 each (we could go 10 times for $28), we were outfitted and ready to go. The experience was enjoyable, and it is something I would try again. I am not a fan of heights, but it was exhilarating to fly overhead with the birds.  Donna tried it again, but TK and I were satisfied with one time. Lawrence was nice enough to take photos of our adventure.

Janie and TK start the descent

Janie and TK ziplining

Janie and TK ziplining

I will admit this was not far nor high

Baby steps--next time more!

Water slide

Donna!

Donna swooshed down the water slide too, which was free all day—quite a bargain.  While she was doing that, I made new friends, Doreen and Steve, from Pensacola Beach area, originally from Philly, and we talked about cruising, the Florida Panhandle, New Orleans, and our love of detective books. I hope we see them again on this huge ship.

By 11:30 we had enough fun in the sun, so we walked along the shops which turned out to be very interesting. We learned that one of my favorite colored stones, Larimar, is only found in Dominican Republic—it is a rare blue variety of the silicate mineral pectolite.   And, Dominican amber is amber from the Dominican Republic derived from the resin of the extinct tree, Hymenaea protera. I might have bought a Larimar/Amber slide for my Omega necklace.  TK was happy to find another Cariloha bamboo tee.

We also learned that some of the scenes from Spielberg’s 1993 Jurassic Park were filmed in Puerto Plata, which is where Amber Cove really is.

Carnival Celebration docked at Amber Cove 

Back on board, we tried the pizza (kind of chewy), so we actually found real grilled ham and cheese sandwiches at the Deco Deli, perfectly made.  The rest of the afternoon was spent reading our the shady balcony overlooking Amber Cove, live music from the Lido Deck playing cool tunes!

Very nice mural of the ship

Janie

TK

 

Amber Cove as seen from our balcony

Amber Cove.from balcony

For dinner tonight we headed to Cucina del Capitano on Deck 8, an Italian restaurant. The food was good, caprese salad, spaghetti carbonara, and so on. The atmosphere was much better, and the dining area was more subdued, not red everywhere. We will probably eat here again. The “traveling” magician came to our table and did a couple card tricks. Donna and I both signed the six of spades card, he shuffled the deck, and then pulled the same card with our names out of his inside jacket pocket. “How did you do that?” I asked.  His reply, “Magic.”

Cucina Dining Room--photo does not do it justice

 

Card we signed that ended up in the

 magician's inner pocket in his wallet

After dinner we went to the Punchliner Comedy Club to see Doug Williams and his R rated relationship show, special for Valentine’s Day. He is funny and I can’t give you any clues, but the show was raw.

Tomorrow we arrive in San Juan—the last time we were there in 2018, it was only four months after Hurricanes Irma and Maria, and people were still suffering. Electricity was still sketchy in parts of Puerto Rico at that time. I  hope things are much better now.