Just off Vista - did Carnival's "Dominican Culture - Cooking, Coffee, & Casa Typica" excursion

[geochick73]

I've seen questions about this excursion on this board before and I wanted to report back that we (me, my husband, and 18yo son) did this excursion last week.   I was skeptical of all the 5 star reviews this excursion gets, but I totally agree with them.  All of us enjoyed it!    We agreed that this might have been the best Carnival excursion that we have ever done.   We were in port from 7:00am - 3:00pm and I believe this excursion left the pier around 7:30am and returned at 12:45pm.   The tour guide, Logan, was fantastic.   He was very friendly and engaging.   He kept us entertained on the way to each stop (there were 3 stops altogether...first stop where we learned about cigar making & mamajuana and had the opportunity to buy some souvenirs, 2nd stop where we visited a "casa typica" and had coffee & popsicles, and the last stop (mofongo & the beach).    We were given a ton of samples to try on this excursion (cigars, mamajuana, drinking chocolate, spiked lemonade, fresh brewed coffee, pineapple popsicles) and then we made our own mofongo for lunch (we could add ingredients according to our own tastes).    The beach they brought us to at the end of the excursion was absolutely beautiful...we spent about 50-60 minutes just swimming in the water before heading back to the port.  We had about 1.5 hrs at the port to shop, etc. after the excursion was over.   I really felt like I learned a lot about Dominican culture on this excursion and I would do it all again.

 

If anyone has any questions, please let me know.

 

Pictures below:

1. Putting the finishing touches on a cigar

2. Coffee we sampled at the "casa typica"...nice & dark

3. Mofongo station at our last stop (featuring my son & husband)

4. The beach at our last stop

[WKJ21]

Where you able to buy the Mamajuana, coffee, or cigars from the locals to bring back on the ship? With the cigar sample if you didn't want to smoke it there do you know if anyone brought them back to ship also?

[geochick73]

On 7/2/2024 at 4:40 PM, WKJ21 said:

Where you able to buy the Mamajuana, coffee, or cigars from the locals to bring back on the ship? With the cigar sample if you didn't want to smoke it there do you know if anyone brought them back to ship also?

Yes, we were able to purchase these items and bring them back.  My husband bought a box of cigars to bring home.   I didn’t smoke the one I was given, and I brought it back onto the ship with me.  We didn’t buy mamajuana, but it was available.  

[RazorPokesHoney]

Thank you for the review. We are on Celebration next month and generally do not book excursions through the cruise line. We booked this based off the 5 star reviews. I'm really looking forward to it.

Edited September 18 by RazorPokesHoney
added word for clarification