06/2013 - Can Sosua ever be changed into a Cabarete??

[Westy]

Sure, just not together.

The Port of San Juan...

Port of Sint Maarten...

Port of Aruba, Cruise Ship Dock...

Been to all three of them, as a cruise-ship tourist, but that was years ago, while my Dear Mama was still around. (One cruise by myself, after she passed on, was enough for me to decide I'd had enough of cruise-ship vacations.)

Other applications at other destinations follow the same patterns and in order to secure the route approvals and accessibility ratings to get their North Coast and South Coast Cruise Terminals active and running with multiple cruises per day the Dominican Republic will have to tow the line and tow the line they will, daam the mongers because tens of thousands spending hundreds and thousands each, every day creates the opportunity to launder a whole hella lot of drug money and all the profits and taxes from the vendors will be the icing on the cake.[/QUOTE]

Now THIS begs the question: Is Sosua far enough from Maimon, awkward and out-of-reach enough for shore excursions, to be acceptable?

People are going to be loaded onto air-conditioned buses at "Amber Cove" and whisked away to "acceptable" destinations: Ocean World, Puerto Plata (the Old Fort and the Amber Museum, with lunch on the Malecon - and some well-placed, well-informed "someone" will build an open-air, ocean-view restaurant to accommodate those hordes), Isabel de Torres National Park, some kind of snorkeling excursion (heck, there's Scuba Caribe in Riu Merengue Village to run that show!), and guaranteed some kind of Pirate Theme Rum Cruise that might go as far down the coast as Ocean World, but wouldn't really even have to leave Maimon Bay.

I don't know about Carnival, but I haven't heard that its customer-base is all that significantly different from what I've observed in the cruises I've taken. Most of the passengers will be older-to-elderly, with a tendency toward obesity that's aided and abetted by the midnight buffets and the foo-foo drinks with the umbrellas on the top. They'll be warned about straying away from the Approved Areas, and they'll probably be too timid to go as far down the Malecon as La Sirena. A few of them might be younger, bolder, and more energetic (as I was, arranging my own dive excursions) - but 95 percent of them will spend their time and their tourist-dollars where Carnival Cruise Lines takes them to spend them

Of course, Princesa Ilana Von (Alfred E.) Neumann wants a cut of those dollars. She's probably slavering at the thought of it. And she's ready to bulldoze the beach and build new, antiseptic "shopping plazas" for the sake of bringing the Carnival crowd to Sosua. But is Grupo B&R, and the spun-off "tour company" they'll put in place to handle the passengers, going to see any real benefit to hauling busloads of tourists down to the Su? For what? Beaches? Lunch? Sit on the beach? Souvenir-hunting - when the Ranniks and their cronies can sell the same tourist-crap at Amber Cove for three times the price, and pocket the difference? And you've got the much-larger city of Puerto Plata to absorb the tourists who make it off the boat without going on a canned excursion, and who make their own way past the port facilities' own souvenir shops and duty-free jewelry/rum/luxury-goods stores.

I'm just basing this on what I've seen, and heard, and observed, in my own cruise travel.

Maybe this is wishful thinking on my part, hoping that someone somewhere will be able to rein in the "Disneyfication" of our playground in Sosua. But I'd be surprised if Amber Cove brings much of anything to the Su. Just because you build it, Ilana, doesn't mean they'll come.

[deezl]

...and Disney Japan...and Disney Hawaii (Aulani)...and this company is big enough to absorb the losses of any one site until they can work it into the black and they ALWAYS work their companies into the black eventually.

How many countries are connected by the cruise ship industry? Ships passing right by the island every day.

Name a developed country without a direct flight to one of D.R.'s International Airports...now how many are available on a 1 stop itinerary through EWR, IAD, CDG, ORD, ATL, ETC, ETC, ETC??

And nearly all those cruise ships going through the Caribbean began the trek out of the East and Gulf coasts of Florida, within a few hours drive of Orlando.

If Disney was going to build a park in the Caribbean (and I don't think they would due to proximity to Orlando) it would be in the Bahamas or Puerto Rico.

[Irie]

They are tiny. Aruba has a population of 101,000 (up from 66,000 in 1991) and Sint Maarten is 55,000 (up from 5,000 in 1968) and eco groups are going nuts as these waters are obviously "fished out" as far as tourism is concerned and so new venues must be developed.

Most of the work force has to be flown into those countries from other places in the Caribbean Basin but the D.R. has a huge base of prospective employees and the potential for a logistical renaissance and I'm forecasting this cruise ship port thingy to get bigger and bigger in the D.R. until at some point folks will no longer be flying to MIA or FLL and boarding outbound cruise ships but one day they will have USCIS personnel permanently stationed at SDQ, POP, PUJ and LRM just like they've had at AUA to process American tourists since they renovated the terminals in the late 90's and got rid of the roll out ramps. Cruise passengers from the USA will start and end their oceanic cruise journeys from Dominican ports one day, mark my word. There are fortunes to be made as the winds of change are blowing at gale force and screaming: "Out with the old and in with the new!"

There will be a Disney Resort and theme park in the Dominican Republic one day.

Resort maybe but Theme Park? Never happen. Not unless the Dominican economy goes through a huge boom. Disney would never build a (multi-billion dollar) theme park that relies so heavily on the fickle hand of tourism and little to no local customer base. Water park, maybe. Theme park? No chance. The DR will have a space program before they get a Disney Theme Park.

Unless you meant that as sarcasm in which case.... lol

(courtesy of http://www.gringo-times.com/articles...erto-plata.php)


Disney to open in Puerto Plata

10 FREE Tickets Up for Grabs...

Disney’s share price rocketed last week on the announcement by Michael Eisner of Disney’s plans to build a theme park on the North Coast of the Dominican Republic.

The new resort, dubbed “Disneyland Dominicana” is set increase Disney’s theme park empire while boosting the local economy and providing thousands of new jobs for the area.
Allegedly, Disney has already purchased several large tracts of land using various holding corporations around the Long Beach and Costa Dorada area of Puerto Plata.
We went to talk with Disney’s head of PR, Lyon King and find out more about their plans.
He was keen to fill us in...
“We’re really please to be opening up in the Caribbean. We don’t want to ruin the local Dominican culture and make the resort too Americanized. Local food such as plantain and mondongo will be served to visitors. Hot-dogs will be offered, as and when they wander in.”

Hotdogs - two for 100 pesos

“To transport visitors around the resort, we’re investing in some two-wheeled vehicles with their own autonomous pilots. Although they are only about 5 feet long with one seat, they can carry 6 people comfortably. These things do make quite a noise, a cross between a hair-dryer and a grass cutter. And they emit some noxious gases, so should be entertaining whilst at the same time functional.”

Coming soon to Puerto Plata - Dominican Republic

“We were going to build a vertical drop ride, but we’ve got permission to use the cable car on the Isabela de Torres mountain which we’ll tie in with the Moto Ride. We’ll add in some wind machines, some waterfalls and increase the cable car drop speed. Should be quite a ride!”

Engineer’s sketch of one of the planned rides

“Instead of the Swiss Family Robinson house, we’ll have the Casa Dominicana, which will never be finished. Every week, we’ll add a couple more blocks to it.”

A prototype of one of the rides

“We’ve got some great new rides planned, some of them will be unique to Disneyland Dominicana. The Valley of Darkness is where people take a trip underground. Every so often, the ride will stop and they’ll be plunged into darkness.”
“Thankfully, we don’t need any special equipment for this. We’ve spoken to the local electricity provider and they’ve assured us that the power will go on and off intermittently anyway, so this ride will be easy to set up.”


“We’ve got some 30 foot tall screens coming for our new Gua-Gua 3D simulation. The idea is to simulate the experience of being a passenger in the local minibuses that travel around the Dominican cities. We’ll squash 40 people, some chickens and a donkey into a 10 foot by 6 foot room and try to create the Gua-Gua experience. There will only be 6 seats, so people will have to stand or sit on each other. There’ll be no air-con, and we’ve got a great merengue soundtrack to liven things up. The big screens will show motorcycles coming at you from all directions, loud horns blaring, trucks and SUV’s narrowly missing you and people crossing your path pretending you aren’t there. We still have some work to do on this one, as in early tests people were so frazzled by the experience they couldn’t last the whole simulation.”

A design for one of the new attractions

Some of the local Dominican companies are keen to be involved. Brugal will be sponsoring the Brugal Run roller-coaster.
Instead of “Sleeping Beauty’s Castle”, we’re planning the “Sleeping Security Guard’s Castle”.
Obviously, we’ll be doing a Pirates of the Caribbean ride, but we’ll be using real pirates this time.
“We’re training up some local staff to be able to give a great local feeling. They’ll be trained to ask all visitors where they are from and ask if they can they polish their flip-flops. Any visitors who avoid eye contact or look like they haven’t been there before will be offered a free tour of the facilities for 20 dollars.”



We’re not quite sure when we’ll get the go ahead to start building. I was speaking to the lawyers over there yesterday, "but they said that setting up a corporation there is a complicated process and takes months and lots of money. Don’t know why, but hey, gotta accept what your lawyer says, right? They said we needed to provide the names of 7 shareholders and I said no problem, Mickey, Minni, Goofy, Snow White, Cinderella, Bambi and the Jolly Green Giant. Oh, he’s not one of ours, is he?"

Michael Eisner being interviewed by the Gringo Times.
You think he’d have told us he doesn’t work for Disney any more!

“How much will entrance to the theme park cost?” we asked.
“Well, we’ve decided to leave that up to the staff. As long as we get 50 dollars each entry, they’re free to charge what they want. I imagine they’ll probably quote around 300 dollars and then it’ll be up to each customer to haggle them down.”
“But won’t that mean customers will have to wait longer just to get into the park?”
Well yes, I guess so. But hey, it’s the Caribbean. They shouldn’t be rushing around. They should relax while they’re queuing. I’m, sure there’ll be lots of street vendors providing the queues with interesting items to buy."
“Do you know if Michael Eisner plans to oversea this project personally?”
“Heck no! He resigned in 2005. Bill Igor is now in charge.”
“So why was Eisner making the announcement.”
“Who knows. "

[Westy]

...and Disney Japan...and Disney Hawaii (Aulani)...and this company is big enough to absorb the losses of any one site until they can work it into the black and they ALWAYS work their companies into the black eventually.

How many countries are connected by the cruise ship industry? Ships passing right by the island every day.

Name a developed country without a direct flight to one of D.R.'s International Airports...now how many are available on a 1 stop itinerary through EWR, IAD, CDG, ORD, ATL, ETC, ETC, ETC??

IAD?

DCA.

(Just messin' with you. I've flown out of National since Eastern served it with Lockheed Constellations.)

[greydread]

Most American families won't fly to another country for Disney when we have the best one in Florida.

Think big picture with me for a moment, Jimmy. Disney started with a cruise ship. "Crazy idea" right? "Never make a penny, market's already saturated". Okay so now they've got 4 ships sailing the Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean and Mediterranean and are picking up new ports every year. They're running around the world securing 15 year contracts with the ports and committing long term project development $$$.

Disney has opened up a whole new market and has rapidly (since their 1st launch in 1998) expanded the business, the infrastructure and their customer base. Once in a childhood is enough for any single theme Park.

Anybody Remember "freedomland" and "Palisades" Amusement parks?

They were great. They just didn't have the Disney "vision". Build and profit and renovate and upgrade and profit and always add something new and innovative and always tap a new market and reinvest your profit and build and profit and renovate....

[greydread]

IAD?

DCA.

(Just messin' with you. I've flown out of National since Eastern served it with Lockheed Constellations.)

Problem is their list of direct flights to foreign airports is tiny.....I don't count Canada and Mexico.

International flights are served out of BWI and IAD in the DMV.

[Jimmydr]

Think big picture with me for a moment, Jimmy. Disney started with a cruise ship. "Crazy idea" right? "Never make a penny, market's already saturated". Okay so now they've got 4 ships sailing the Pacific, Atlantic, Caribbean and Mediterranean and are picking up new ports every year. They're running around the world securing 15 year contracts with the ports and committing long term project development $$$.

Disney has opened up a whole new market and has rapidly (since their 1st launch in 1998) expanded the business, the infrastructure and their customer base. Once in a childhood is enough for any single theme Park.

Anybody Remember "freedomland" and "Palisades" Amusement parks?

They were great. They just didn't have the Disney "vision". Build and profit and renovate and upgrade and profit and always add something new and innovative and always tap a new market and reinvest your profit and build and profit and renovate....

Since I don't own Disney Stock nor do I go to the North any more, neither mean much to my plans. If you think 100% of the Dominicans will be employed and not hooking, that will never happen.

[Westy]

Whoa! Irie! That's incredible!

I guess if you read it in the Gringo Times, it's got to be ...

oh, wait a minute ...



... just maybe, not all that reliable.

(Although that One Love Mini Cooper would be a cool ride for Seaweed, in Negril.)

[greydread]

Since I don't own Disney Stock nor do I go to the North any more, neither mean much to my plans. If you think 100% of the Dominicans will be employed and not hooking, that will never happen.

Why would I ever think anything that stupid?

100% of American hookers could get jobs if they really looked for one but they won't, for whatever reason. That's the difference.

I knew a hooker in Montreal back in 1979 who decided to quit Ho-ing and got a job at Simpsons Sears, downtown and enjoyed a prosperous career which took her well into management. I can tell you similar stories about successful Senior Executives in the Federal employment sector who started out "dating" and screwed and blew their way into SES and Project Management and some even started their own contracting firms, succeeding over decades of hard work with billions in future earnings now.

For every one of them I can show you 1,000's who just don't get it and will never get beyond what's right in front of them. Some don't even see that, they're still looking for the last thing. Don't worry, Jimmy....there will always be hookers, enough to go around.

[Westy]

Okay, back to Maimon, and Carnival's cruise port.

I found a diagram of the plans for Amber Cove on Google, from a story published in the Miami Herald, and used a little Photoshop Magic to scale it, size it correctly, and superimpose it onto this image of the bay at Maimon.



We see tens of thousands of square feet of "souvenir-shop" space ... a wide beach to the north, for people who want to chill out in the sun on the sand ... a swimming-pool complex for those who want to go swimming, but not in the "dirty" waters of Maimon Bay ... parking-and-transfer spaces for dozens of big air-conditioned tour buses to whisk those visitors away on their cruise-line-approved excursions. There's dock-space for two cruise ships ... and they claim they'll have the facilities to handle 8000 passengers per day; but they're projecting 250,000 passengers the first year of service, which divides out as two Carnival Triumph class vessels a week, each with 2500 passengers or so.

The passengers on the cruises I've taken were mostly mature-to-elderly, sedentary, overstuffed; Carnival MAY be different in this respect, but I'd have to see it before I'd believe it. They've spent the last couple of days eating too much, and drinking way too much. Where are they going to go? Just for silly-grins, let's take a look at some of Carnival Cruise Lines' excursions for a port that might be comparable - Montego Bay, Jamaica:

Dunn's River Falls: A long trip from Mo'Bay; the more-adventurous walk up the falls, hand-in-hand-in-hand, in long queues following their certified guides. Others admire the falls from observation plazas to the side, where native craftsmen vend their wares. I think we could compare this to Damajagua Falls, down by Imbert, a few miles southwest of Maimon.

Grand Palladium Resort All Inclusive Day Pass: Port Amber is right next to Riu Merengue - a slam-dunk!

Mountain Valley River Rafting and Plantation Tour: Think the operators could jin-up something like this? Sure...

Montego Bay Catamaran Adventure: Sailing, snorkeling and rum punch, boarding next to the cruise ships.

4x4 Safari - a rugged drive through the mountains in a 4x4 truck that looks like a guagua.

Irie Mon Beach Party with Lunch - substitute bachata for reggae and Presidente for Red Stripe.

What else do we need in excursions? How about Ocean World, for the dolphin shows and the casino? How about the Teleferico ride up to Pico Isabel de Torres, or even a bus ride to the peak? How about the old fort in Puerto Plata? How about a few blocks of "shopping street" along the Malecon, with shops like H. Stern and Little Switzerland, and drinking establishments like Carlos & Charlie's? Maybe golf at Playa Dorada, a visit to the Brugal warehouse, horseback-riding up in the hills back of Costambar, and a pirate-themed rum cruise that leaves from the cruise-ship dock? They can do all of that, without even passing Field Of Dreams.

Sosua is - what? Maybe a half-hour past Puerto Plata "centro"? With four hours typical for shore excursions?

Maybe I'm whistling in the dark, but I still don't believe Sosua is going to see any tourist-dollars out of Amber Cove.

[MrHappy]

Okay, back to Maimon, and Carnival's cruise port.

I found a diagram of the plans for Amber Cove on Google, from a story published in the Miami Herald, and used a little Photoshop Magic to scale it, size it correctly, and superimpose it onto this image of the bay at Maimon.

Click to see pic

We see tens of thousands of square feet of "souvenir-shop" space ... a wide beach to the north, for people who want to chill out in the sun on the sand ... a swimming-pool complex for those who want to go swimming, but not in the "dirty" waters of Maimon Bay ... parking-and-transfer spaces for dozens of big air-conditioned tour buses to whisk those visitors away on their cruise-line-approved excursions. There's dock-space for two cruise ships ... and they claim they'll have the facilities to handle 8000 passengers per day; but they're projecting 250,000 passengers the first year of service, which divides out as two Carnival Triumph class vessels a week, each with 2500 passengers or so.

The passengers on the cruises I've taken were mostly mature-to-elderly, sedentary, overstuffed; Carnival MAY be different in this respect, but I'd have to see it before I'd believe it. They've spent the last couple of days eating too much, and drinking way too much. Where are they going to go? Just for silly-grins, let's take a look at some of Carnival Cruise Lines' excursions for a port that might be comparable - Montego Bay, Jamaica:

Dunn's River Falls: A long trip from Mo'Bay; the more-adventurous walk up the falls, hand-in-hand-in-hand, in long queues following their certified guides. Others admire the falls from observation plazas to the side, where native craftsmen vend their wares. I think we could compare this to Damajagua Falls, down by Imbert, a few miles southwest of Maimon.

Grand Palladium Resort All Inclusive Day Pass: Port Amber is right next to Riu Merengue - a slam-dunk!

Mountain Valley River Rafting and Plantation Tour: Think the operators could jin-up something like this? Sure...

Montego Bay Catamaran Adventure: Sailing, snorkeling and rum punch, boarding next to the cruise ships.

4x4 Safari - a rugged drive through the mountains in a 4x4 truck that looks like a guagua.

Irie Mon Beach Party with Lunch - substitute bachata for reggae and Presidente for Red Stripe.

What else do we need in excursions? How about Ocean World, for the dolphin shows and the casino? How about the Teleferico ride up to Pico Isabel de Torres, or even a bus ride to the peak? How about the old fort in Puerto Plata? How about a few blocks of "shopping street" along the Malecon, with shops like H. Stern and Little Switzerland, and drinking establishments like Carlos & Charlie's? Maybe golf at Playa Dorada, a visit to the Brugal warehouse, horseback-riding up in the hills back of Costambar, and a pirate-themed rum cruise that leaves from the cruise-ship dock? They can do all of that, without even passing Field Of Dreams.

Sosua is - what? Maybe a half-hour past Puerto Plata "centro"? With four hours typical for shore excursions?

Maybe I'm whistling in the dark, but I still don't believe Sosua is going to see any tourist-dollars out of Amber Cove.

That's my old house at the bottom center of the picture. If you've got it placed in the right place, I guess my old place won't "feel the heat"