Day 3 - Monday - Puerto Plata - Dominican Republic - We Enjoyed the Amber Museum

Amber Museum in Dominican Republic

Cathedral - Dominican Republic

Monday was a beautiful day - as the newlyweds plus 54 years - walked the streets of Puerto Playa in the Dominican Republic. Temperatures were in the 80s as we walked from shade to shade across the city. It started around 9 am as we disembarked the ship - lobbying our way thru the hucksters. She loves it - I hate it - but tolerate it. I keep one hand on my iPhone and one hand on my passport pouch. 

We walked thru a downtown that had many motor scooters - many of them were Hondas like ours at home. Dominican families live on about $14,000 a year. The weather is also favorable to scooter riding and we saw scooters carrying 3 people at a time. 

In the main square of the city - we went into a cathedral - and saw a new wedding. We then walked east to the Amber Museum. It has the biggest collection of amber in the world. We took a guided tour - security is tight - some samples are very valuable. 

Next we walked farther east to a large department store - similar to a Walmart. Lulu shopped as I found a food court that overlooked the whole shopping floor. Lulu said that prices were low. A washer/dryer unit that we bought for $2000 was only $1000 here. But their income is much lower. 

Next we walked the coastal road back to the ship. We stopped to have tropical drinks - then took a tuk tuk jitney - right to the gang plank to get on our ship. 

We never showed our passport to anyone getting on or off the ship. Our ship room key card served as our ID. As I write - we are cruising along the north coast - where my grandfather's ship went down in 1942. 

 

Drinks after the long walk around town. 

Our bar tender

Notice the gutters - very deep - just paving

Puerto Plata

Brand new shiny red super stock dodge

Old chevy

Tour town in a T-bird

Buick

Chevy

Stretch limo

Amber Museum porch

Amber with insect inside

My first Honda 

We crashed a wedding

Lulu is the professional photographer

Lulu an the horseman

Town square

Umbrella Street was pretty.

Solar panels serve as summer shade

Tuks tuks - I love these

Fort on 500 year site

Lulu on the rail in the morning 

Military boat

Pulling into port at 8 am - Porta Plata.

Day 3 - Monday - We Dock in Puerto Plata

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic is the largest economy in the Caribbean. It makes up 5/8th of the island of Hispaniola. Christopher Columbus visited the country in his 1492 trip to America. It is much wealthier than its western neighbor of Haiti. Much of the world stays away from Haiti because of political unrest. We visited Haiti in 2003 on our first cruise - but our destination was a contrived village called Labadie that was fenced off from the rest of the country. 

Monday we will dock in Puerto Plata. It is a city of 170,000 people. It supposedly has 100,000 hotel beds. It is a major trading city. Their chief product is sugar. They have the third largest gold mine in the world. 

See Samana on the map. On July 4th 1942 - a German U-boat torpedoed the USS Norlandia - a freighter that had Merchant Marine Roy Everhart in the engine room. It was 13 miles off the coast of Samana There were only 23 crew on the ship - 19 survived. Everhart did not. I was born 6 years later. 

Two life boats made it to the Dominican Republic with 19 on board. When the German Uboat surfaced to finish them off - the captain threw them some brandy - and pointed the way to Samana - 13 miles. 

This was the famous Uboat Battle of the Atlantic in 1942. 

I do not know how close we will get to the spot - but will acknowledge it just the same. 

Day 2 - Sunday Morning - Cruising Toward Dominican Republic

 

Our cabin has a front window

Deck 12 - Front Left Corner

Our Cabin is Below the Bridge

Lots of Room and Big Bathroom
 

We are on the Norwegian Joy - heading toward the Dominican Republic. It is bright and sunny with mild seas. 

We left Tallahassee at 8:30 Saturday by car - and got to the ship at Port Canaveral at 2:30. We were the last ones on. Our red car did the driving all the way. There were some delays in Orlando. 

The ship is big and colorful. It is 1100 feet long - 167000 tons - 4000 guests - 1600 crew. I slept like a log last night - did not feel any movement at all. We can see where we are going out of our front window. It does not open. We have a nice big bathroom - I will send a cabin video to follow. 

I heard crew saying there are 4 empty cabins. There are more kids than we are used to. There are a lot of people that bought the drink package - walking around with two drinks :-) Port Canaveral looks like a nice little town. They have pretty beaches - and the best views of the rocket launches. 

We look forward to 8 days of relaxation - I would like to say vacation - but I am always on vacation - 22 years now. You may recall I taught 33 years - I hope to exceed that in vacation years. 

We bought the internet package - it is $30 a day. It allows streaming to watch your internet shows. It streams at 80 mbps. 

We each brought one bag - I think I counted 14 outfits for Professor Barbie. 

Our first stop Monday is the Dominican Republic. Off the north coast of this country - my grandfather - Roy Everhart - was killed in the war. July 4th - 1942. 

There is a Go Kart track on top deck - also - water slides. 

We have cruised with Norwegian several times to Alaska - Canada Quebec - Mediterranean - Sweden - Denmark. 

Norwegian Joy - We Are Going On A Thanksgiving Cruise Next Saturday

We are going on an 8 day cruise next Saturday. We were originally scheduled to go to England for Thanksgiving. But since we are booked on a Switzerland trip of Christmas - I thought it was too much for this old body to fly to Europe two times in a month. All that jet lag and all that cold - it is too much for my Florida bones. We were able to get full refunds. 

We booked this 8 day cruise on Norwegian Joy. It leaves Port Canaveral next Saturday - and goes to the Bahamas - Dominican Republic - St Thomas USA Virgin Islands - and British Virgin Islands. We will be able to spend some of our saved up English pounds there. It was heavily discounted to $529 a person - plus several ship credits to spend. It will be much more relaxing - and warm - than the winter trip to London - Wrexham - Liverpool. 

We will take the self driving red car to the port. One suitcase each. The car will sit in covered parking. Lulu already put away her summer clothes - she will have to pull them out again for some tropical breezing.  

Who ever thought retirement would be like this.