Anreise

  Arrival was as always unexciting and does not need to be detailed further here. Only the antigen test in addition to the PCR test done 2 days earlier, as well as the slightly longer search for the check-in counter for Eurowings Discover, could be mentioned.  

 

10 hours after the start (with closed cloud cover until shortly before the finish) we were exposed to a temperature difference of 25°C in La Romana in the Dominican Republic. We didn't experienced 30°C on Boxing Day before.  So, we were not angry that we were led directly from the airport apron into air-conditioned buses – without our suitcases (they would be brought to us), but also without passing through a border control or customs.

Another 2 hours later we finally reached our final destination for today: the cruise port of Santo Domingo.

 

 

    

 

I had some concerns about the long queues at the reception of the ship, as there were 5 buses on the way (apparently all the passengers of the Airbus A330-200). It was now ~8pm local time, so 1am at home, and I did not want to wait for long. But I was convinced otherwise. Embarkation took place over several small individual steps, and at each step there were 4 – 5 desks: checking the vaccination certificate and corona test results, comparison with passports and finally hand over the boarding cards, which acted as ship/excursion access, control of attendance, use for payment and cabin key. Still at the door to the terminal, there was the first welcome drink. 

Upon boarding the ship – wow what a big one! – this was logged and the bags were controlled by security (this process was repeated each time the ship was entered during all the journey). By elevator (!) we went to the 7th deck and after a short orientation we found our - as per my opinion - spacious cabin.

Well, there we were in our home for the next 14 days, - only the luggage was missing. As the captain informed a little bit later, the truck with the suitcases had a breakdown on the way from airport to cruise port. 

The first time it paid off that I always had everything for the first day and the first night in my board case. 

 

Mit dem ersten Cocktail dieser Reise ließen wir den langen Tag ausklingen.