An unusual series of circumstances caused on Royal Caribbean cruise ship to spend the day at a rival cruise line's port.
Freedom of the Seas spent Thursday docked at Amber Cove alongside the Carnival Magic.
Carnival describes Amber Cove as it's "exclusive Dominican Republic cruise port" and has been operating it for about 10 years.
Royal Caribbean passengers were able to walk around the port area, and take advantage of the complimentary pool and lazy river, as well shop and eat at the various extra cost restaurants.
Why a Royal Caribbean ship visited Amber Cove
The strange occurrence of a Royal Caribbean ship going to Carnival's port is the result of a weather and logistical circumstances.
The November 10 sailing of Freedom of the Seas was originally scheduled to sail a 5-night voyage that would visit Royal Caribbean's private island of Perfect Day at CocoCay and Cozumel.
However, Freedom would not visit either of those destinations.
About a week before the cruise, Royal Caribbean informed passengers their visit to Cozumel was being replaced with a visit to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. They never specified why there was a change, but it's likely related to other ships being re-routed to Cozumel because Jamaica's cruise ports are closed due to the Hurricane Melissa aftermath.
Then on embarkation day, the ship's Captain updated passengers again that they would have to skip CocoCay because of a cold front moving through the Bahamas that would close the private island.
Instead, Freedom would visit Amber Cove.
How the visit came about will never be known, but it certainly came as a surprise.
Not a private island
As a Royal Caribbean cruiser, it's easy to quickly draw comparisons to what I'm familiar with. But Amber Cove isn't like something I've been to before exactly.
The closest comparison I can come up with is Amber Cove is like Costa Maya, Mexico but with more options.
Being a cruise port, you don't have to spend the day there. There are excursions and tours to take you around the nearby area of Puerto Plata. Or you could hop in a taxi and do your own thing.
Inside the port, there are lots of shops and a few restaurants too. Food and drink here cost extra anywhere within Amber Cove. All of the retail and food and beverage spaces are leased out.
The pool and lazy river within the Aqua Zone are included at no extra charge, similar to Taino Bay or Costa Maya.
There are also upsell options with day beds, cabanas, a water slide, or water craft you can rent. I was surprised how inexpensive cabanas cost compared to Royal Caribbean. I could have gotten an over-the-water cabana for just $500 for up to 8 people and it included some snacks and water craft rentals.
One notable feature you won't find is beach access. Amber Cove has a lot of pool space, but no beach. You'll need to book an excursion to any number of nearby beaches in Puerto Plata for that.
It was strange, but a fun day at Amber Cove
It felt a little surreal being in a Carnival port, but I suspect most passengers on Freedom of the Seas had no idea this was Carnival's port unless they were told by someone else.
Because Carnival leases out all of the operations, it doesn't have an overtly obvious Carnival motif to it. I didn't see Freddie the fun ship mascot, or anything else that screamed Carnival.
As a lifelong Royal Caribbean cruiser, I was struck more by how there wasn't a true similar product from my preferred line.
Royal Caribbean has private destinations in CocoCay or Labadee, but you can't leave those places and a lot of the food and drink is included. That's not the case at Amber Cove.
Truly, it felt like Taino Bay's port is an attempt to copy Amber Cove and has a free pool and lazy river for guests, along with extra cost restaurants and bars. Plus, you can leave Taino Bay on a tour. However, Taino Bay isn't exclusive to Royal Caribbean.
I'm not sure I'll ever have a chance to try Amber Cove, but it's nice having an easy day to relax in port or bypassing it all and heading out to try something else around while in the DR.
