Carnival Cruise is beginning to promote Amber Cove, its new port of call on the north coast of the Dominican Republic. The port of call in Puerto Plata province is on Carnival itineraries as of 6 October 2015. The inaugural cruise will be a one-day call by Carnival Victoria.
The port was built to handle the largest cruise ships and is a starting point for a wide variety of onshore excursions. As well as visits to Puerto Plata city with its Victorian-style architecture, it will include stops to see the Colonial-era San Felipe Fort and up the cable car to the botanical garden at the top of Mount Isabel de Torres. There will be beach trips and 4×4 cross-country, coffee and chocolate plantation tours, and scuba diving excursions. Culinary tours focused on Dominican cuisine are also planned.
The cruise ships that will be stopping at Amber Cove in its first season are the Carnival ships cruising the Western Caribbean: Carnival Breeze, Carnival Glory, Carnival Splendor and Carnival Victory (Grand Turk, Amber Cove) from Miami, Carnival Conquest (Grand Turk, Amber Cove, Half Moon Cay in The Bahamas) from Fort Lauderdale, Carnival Sunshine and Carnival Valor from Port Canaveral (near Orlando), and Carnival Fantasy, sailing from Charleston, South Carolina.
The company expects the US$65 million port to host 100,000 passengers in its first year, with 37 port calls by eight Carnival ships between October 2015 and April 2016.