well, i think that today is 2 for one day on the fruits and veggies at La Sirena.
- Thread starter Conchman
- Start date
Carnival Cruise Lines - Port in Maimon
well, i think that today is 2 for one day on the fruits and veggies at La Sirena.
Conchman, I really feel you should declare you interest in all of this- As part of the management of Ocean World you are getting a lot of clients - 28 groups of 4 off the first cruise and who knows how many of this one. You have probably signed a confidentiality agreement with Carnival so cant say much but you consistently "TOW THE PARTY LINE" - Carnival is great . But look at the bigger picture they are taking advantage of the DR with their investment but in reality they should be doing more to make it work. They have SUNK a lot of money into it and it is a shame that their management does not realise they too have to make it work even if that is making concessions to local interests.
Olly and the Team
Olly and the Team
Last edited:
Here is what I found in La Sirena (which looks unlike any big box store I ever saw in North America). (Hello, tourists want to see something different). It was all organized in a way I had never seen before, and with things I had never seen before. On my particular visit, I bought some pottery candle holders and pottery plant pots. A shell wind chime. Some shampoo and conditioner that seemed like it would be good for curly hair, and I can't find that stuff back home. I spent about $100. Sure, some of it was from China, but do I care? - they had different stuff in La Sirena than I can find in WalMart.
i have to agree with you on this one, Olly. the mere fact that Carnival has an agreement to price match the independent tour operators tells me that theirs is not a policy of live and let live.
Stop with the bitterness, Gorgon. Carnival only offers a limited number and scope of tours. If they want to price match with local operators - go ahead Carnival, fix the prices for the least creative, least interesting options. They will scoop off the 20% of people who are first-time cruisers, the people who are terrified of Dominicans, the 20% of people who think the only tour provider is Carnival (which promptly sub-contracts the work to local people).
Just concede the low-lying fruit to them. Now look a little higher. There's a lot of fruit on the trees that Carnival will never pick. People who want to have a day ashore, who don't want to pay for a crap bus tour. People who want to get beyond the windows in a huge bus. If all you do is compare yourselves to what the cruise tours offer, you are missing many opportunities.
Just concede the low-lying fruit to them. Now look a little higher. There's a lot of fruit on the trees that Carnival will never pick. People who want to have a day ashore, who don't want to pay for a crap bus tour. People who want to get beyond the windows in a huge bus. If all you do is compare yourselves to what the cruise tours offer, you are missing many opportunities.
Actually, I agree with you [when I originally heard La Sirena for tourists, I was apprehensive]. They do have a very good selection of DR-themed trinkets, at much cheaper prices than tourist trap stores, all sorts of items. I bought several really nice reusable shopping bags with images of Puerto Plata [at store in SD] for about 75 pesos each, if I remember correctly. Lots of pottery items were there too.
Yes we have a confidentiality agreement and have 'skin in the game' but I am only calling out posts that I see are filled with misinformation and trying to correct this with facts on the ground. They built the port with their money so they are in the driver's seat. They are tough business people and some of this creates some negativity, I perfectly understand this. But if I see a post that is a lie because I see things with my own eyes, I will correct it with the truth, whether the agreement between OW and Carnival is working out or not.
Some posters are slanting Carnivals operation into such negative light that are simply false or ridiculous, and I'm just the type to not let that slide when I see the opposite with my own eyes.
Some posters are slanting Carnivals operation into such negative light that are simply false or ridiculous, and I'm just the type to not let that slide when I see the opposite with my own eyes.
if you are looking for someone to fight with, i am not your guy. go look for someone else. i am a caribbean man. we are not the type to stalk people and start ish, so go find your partner elsewhere. my formal academic training is as a development economist. this is a subject that is dear to my heart, and i have done great amounts of research on it. i do not need your permission to comment, so do not come here labelling me as being bitter. you do not know me, so keep your acrimony for your friends.
people might wonder what got me so miffed at alfiefan, but just listening to some of her stuff just got me wired. here is why. i watched people standing along the walls on the POP malecon when the first ship came, with all their wares and trinkets, and their paintings, and not selling a single thing all day. i chalked it up to the soft opening blues, and felt it would be better today. well, it was worse. people were all decked out in their special little tee shirts, looking all spiffy, with their tables bedecked with the colors of the flag. they thought that they were going to make enough to pay the 10% per week vig that the loansharks charge for the money they borrowed to get ready for the showers of spending that the government told them were coming. i watched the buses drive past them, and i saw the looks on their faces when they figured out something was wrong. i saw some guys finally gettingthe message at 2pm, packing up their product, and going home, having sold nothing. so, maybe they will be back when the next ship comes, for more of the same treatment.
my beef with this whole thing is that the people were sold a bill of goods. that is all i have ever maintained. i do not care if Carnival and their cohorts take every penny for themselves. i care that these simple people were told that they were going to see a cavalcade of riches, and they are now in a hole. guys hired musicians to play for visitors who never crossed their threshold. so, alfiefan,you see abstractions. i looked at the grief on the faces of people i have known for years. then you come telling me i am bitter.
my beef with this whole thing is that the people were sold a bill of goods. that is all i have ever maintained. i do not care if Carnival and their cohorts take every penny for themselves. i care that these simple people were told that they were going to see a cavalcade of riches, and they are now in a hole. guys hired musicians to play for visitors who never crossed their threshold. so, alfiefan,you see abstractions. i looked at the grief on the faces of people i have known for years. then you come telling me i am bitter.
You do sound bitter. I don't know anything about local vig or promises made. If people got stiffed, I'm sorry about that. Nor do I know anything about the dealings Carnival has had with local politicians.
I have tried honestly to portray a picture of people who are on a cruise ship docking - they don't know anything about those issues either, and I'm sorry, they just don't care about them. Some of them want to arrive in a country they have never seen before, and find some ways to see something they haven't (and might not again) see. I've tried to offer some creative ideas about things the cruise ship could never replicate for excursions.
The lowest hanging fruit when a liner with 3,000 people on board docks is selling them trinkets.
I don't want any war of words with you, Gorgon. I think we both want the best for the DR, and what I've tried to do is show where the opportunities are.
I have tried honestly to portray a picture of people who are on a cruise ship docking - they don't know anything about those issues either, and I'm sorry, they just don't care about them. Some of them want to arrive in a country they have never seen before, and find some ways to see something they haven't (and might not again) see. I've tried to offer some creative ideas about things the cruise ship could never replicate for excursions.
The lowest hanging fruit when a liner with 3,000 people on board docks is selling them trinkets.
I don't want any war of words with you, Gorgon. I think we both want the best for the DR, and what I've tried to do is show where the opportunities are.
WW, great reference! A very great ice-hockey coach. Here's one back at you: do you recollect the Alfie I am such a fan of?
Lindy (yes, that's my real name)
you are a theoretician. that is nice when you are writing a book. it does not work so well when it has to get done.
let me try this again. maybe i should write in block capitals, to make my point, but that would be crass.
my only beef is that the DR government, as is its custom, promised people what could not be delivered, and guys are living in a world of hurt. as i said in my last posting, i have no skin in the game. if Carnival and its chosen few get all the corn, more power to them. i spent 4 hours of my day today trying to get a handle on this, and i will concede that the whole approach of the vendors is outdated. i see crap for sale that i used to see in Ocho Rios in the seventies. nobody needs that crap. there is no creativity , and the stuff is mindless. i have no idea why grown people would be trying to sell the old man in a barrel nonsense. that was 1975, not 2015. besides, whatever crap these guys have on the malecon wall is probably sold in the gift shops on board the ship. as it is currently formatted, the man in the street is going to make next to nothing, and the grumbling is going to get loud, real fast. if you think that such a prediction is bitterness, be my guest.
I feel what gorgon is saying and I also understand what alfiefan is saying. Obviously Carnival is not going to bring the cruisers to the little guy on the street selling his wares. This is where I believe the thoughts of alfiefan come in. If someone could arrange a small group tour in a van and bring the cruisers to the little guy on the street it would do wonders. The cruisers would have had a much better experience than the hordes on the big busses.
Let 50 cruisers off a big bus on the malecon and all hell will break loose when it comes time to round them up to leave. A small van with a group of 8 to 10 would be so much easier to handle and so, so much more could get done in the course of a few hours.
I don't know the answer but for the little guy to reap some benefits someone needs to find a way to get the people to them.
Let 50 cruisers off a big bus on the malecon and all hell will break loose when it comes time to round them up to leave. A small van with a group of 8 to 10 would be so much easier to handle and so, so much more could get done in the course of a few hours.
I don't know the answer but for the little guy to reap some benefits someone needs to find a way to get the people to them.
I am NOT a theortician. At all. I don't care what the DR government said or promised (and neither do any cruisers). Here's the deal. Cruise ships are docking. The cruise companies are offering crappy excursions at inflated prices. Some cruisers know about these ShLt offerings from the cruise lines and won't be taking Carnival (or any other cruise line) up on their crappy excursions, they are looking for something better. They need to find it and be able to book it online BECAUSE they are not willing to sacrifice their one day in this port on the off-chance they can just walk around by themselves and have a good time. That means most of them won't be taking a taxi to the Malecon - they don't even know what a Malecon is, or why they might like to go there.
Dominicans in the tourism industry (even those selling trinkets) need to understand the country has an undeserved, unfair bad rep as a place that is violent, where tourists are at risk. Unfair as that is, the country and the tourist operators have a chance to correct this impression because a cruise line (however much you think they are bad people) are delivering a LOT of tourists to PP in a few weeks.
So get with the program. These people are coming to your country, and they will report their experiences on Trip Advisor and Cruise Critic. You can start looking for those reports very soon - they are going to be online as soon as the first cruise tourists get back home and get the dirty laundry unpacked. How will the DR measure up against St. Lucia? or Greece? or Buenos Aires? That's the world you are in when the cruise ships start coming. You - and every other country.
So don't whine to me about how badly the government has handled this. The government is an A$$hole - all governments are and they all operate ten years in the past.
I can't believe you accused me of being a theoretician, and then cited all your academic credentials. Irony.
Dominicans in the tourism industry (even those selling trinkets) need to understand the country has an undeserved, unfair bad rep as a place that is violent, where tourists are at risk. Unfair as that is, the country and the tourist operators have a chance to correct this impression because a cruise line (however much you think they are bad people) are delivering a LOT of tourists to PP in a few weeks.
So get with the program. These people are coming to your country, and they will report their experiences on Trip Advisor and Cruise Critic. You can start looking for those reports very soon - they are going to be online as soon as the first cruise tourists get back home and get the dirty laundry unpacked. How will the DR measure up against St. Lucia? or Greece? or Buenos Aires? That's the world you are in when the cruise ships start coming. You - and every other country.
So don't whine to me about how badly the government has handled this. The government is an A$$hole - all governments are and they all operate ten years in the past.
I can't believe you accused me of being a theoretician, and then cited all your academic credentials. Irony.
If it makes you feel any better, I for one agree with your take on the situation 100%, the Dominican people & business owners were sold a DREAM, which will never come true.. In fact the More Cruisers who come to visit, the LESS they will get of the Total PIE..
they will get SCRAPS if they are lucky..
Only those CONNECTED with the Cruise Excursions and perhaps small shops and stores located where the Buses do finally make a stop, will see any windfall..
Anything ON the Malecon, Near The port itself will get next ZERO or Scraps ..
Since when is calling like it was predicted, and how its now playing out considered as " bitterness" ?
That just makes no sense to me.
thanks for reporting friom the Ground and please keep us posted.
Your expertise is much appreciated.