Day 7 onboard the Carnival Horizon and one day closer to the end of this 8-Day Southern Caribbean cruise where today we are spending a second day in the Dominican Republic, this time at the Carnival-owned and created destination – Amber Cove. Near the resort city of Puerto Plata on the island’s northern coast, Amber Cove opened in October 2015 and is a frequent stop for Carnival as well as some of its other brands including Holland America Line.
Our stop in Amber Cove is pretty much a repeat of yesterday… there’s really not a heck of a lot to do here unless you’re booking a shore excursion and traveling outside of the port. Like our stop in La Romana, Amber Cove just features a large pool, poolside restaurant/bar, sun loungers, a zip line, water slide, and obligatory shopping. Once again, there is no beach here and if you’re looking to go to the closest one in Puerto Plata, it will set you back $70 for a round-trip taxi ride.
If you decide to hang around Amber Cove, the recommended option for precisely the same reasons I mentioned in yesterday’s report, you won’t have a hard time finding a spot in the sun to work on your melanoma. On this visit, there were plenty of sun loungers around the pool and a little further back and the pool itself wasn’t that crowded. Even when I stopped here while on the Carnival Celebration, which carries approximately 2,000 more passengers than Horizon, there were plenty of chairs to lay out on.
You can also rent cabanas for the day, but since there’s no beach, there’s not too much value in those considering one by the pool or what they call the “ocean” (without a beach) will set you back $500. A trip on the zip line will cost you $28 and should you want an umbrella, be ready to fork over $22.
For a good view of the port and the ship at the dock, a walk up to a cliff where you’ll find an outdoor bar will afford you some great views of the surrounding area perfect for taking photos.
While the port is pretty, again, it’s just a pool day. There is some construction going on directly behind the already-developed area so there may be some plans to expand the offerings at Amber Cove to make it more of a true destination rather than just a port.
It was a tad disappointing to have two of what I consider poor port stops on this cruise. Usually, a Southern Caribbean cruise will call on the ABC islands – Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao and then a day at Amber Cove. For this particular one, Bonairs was swapped out for La Romana making for two worthless Dominican stops.
All aboard was 4:30 pm and we sailed out promptly at 5:00 pm as we headed began our trek back to Miami with the final day of the cruise being a sea day.
The evening’s activities included dinner at the ship’s steakhouse, Fahrenheit 555. My traveling companions were all comped dinner by the casino, as they obviously donated more to the slot machines than I did!
Dinner started off with a small amuse bouche which was a beef-stuffed cherry tomato:
For a starter, I went with a shrimp cocktail which consisted of four medium (not very large) shrimp:
For a main, I went with the lamb chops which were three double-cut chops that I asked to be cooked medium and they were cooked perfectly:
Others in the group ordered filet and ribeye which they all agreed were delicious.
For desserts, we got a few different ones:
Apple crostata, which was way better than the dry, sand-like crust one the other night from Cucina del Capitano:
Ice cream, well… it’s ice cream:
And a very unappealing presentation of the chocolate sphere. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions as to what this looks like:
All around we had a great meal and definitely worth a visit if you’re down to pay the $48 per person for the experience.
As I mentioned, we’re on the way back home… so one more sea day and that’s the end to this latest adventure. Stay tuned for my next post which will be the overall recap and thoughts on this Carnival Horizon cruise.
Fun Times for Day 7:
The Fun Times for September 8, 2023, can also be downloaded as a PDF by clicking here.