Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic – Caribbean Cruise 2026

Friday, February 20, 2026

Greetings from Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic, in the Caribbean. Gregg and I are on the Norwegian Gem which recently began porting in Jacksonville, Florida from November to April.

There are three people from our church on this cruise, including Father George, a retired priest. Gregg asked him if he planned to bring ashes with him for Ash Wednesday. He did and we had a short yet special service for imposition of ashes. 14 people attended.

Throughout the day, people stopped us and asked us where we had received ashes. They asked Father George, too, and he decided to do another service at 4pm. Just before 4:00, a lady asked me. We quickly walked to the chapel but the service was over. Thankfully, Father George was still in the hallway, giving asked to two other women, so he said a short prayer, imposed ashes on my new friend, then gave a blessing.

She returned with me to the outdoor buffet where Gregg was sitting. She and her husband sat with us and talked for a while. We’ve enjoyed meeting new people during this cruise.

After a few days at sea, we’ve arrived at our first port for this trip. We’ve not been to any of the countries/territories this cruise will visit so we look forward to adding more pins to our world map when we get home.

As I mentioned in my previous post about upcoming Aunt Kitten Coloring Book Versions of my first two books, Gregg is retiring! Well, retiring from the company who has been good to us for 28 years. He LOVES programming so he will continue to use his passion, but in a different way. He will be working remotely for his brother’s company. We are both very excited (okay, and maybe a bit nervous about the unknown) to enter this new season in life.

Gregg had accumulated a good amount of vacation time. His company has a “use or lose” policy on vacation time so we’re enjoing USING it up. Thus, our many vacations close together in the past six months.

Back to Puerta Plata. We got off the ship at 7:30am with no plans other than exploring on foot. There is a very nice resort area for cruise ship passengers if you just want to sit on their beaches, float in their lazy river, and shop, eat, and drink without going into town. They also offer swimming with pigs and other activities here.

It wasn’t easy getting to town, only because we were asked a dozen times to hire taxis, walking tours, and more. Once out of that area, we could see the Cathedral straight ahead, up the hill, so you know we made a beeline in that directions.

Along the way, a dog decided that Gregg was her long lost friend. She excitedly led us to the church. She even went inside and sat in the aisle while we prayed – until someone shoo’ed her outside. She was pleased when we emerged and she led us to the town square where students were playing the national anthem and making presentations. Gregg’s dog-friend didn’t realize it was polite to stop during the national anthem (all the traffic stopped, too) and she befriended another group. It was fun while it lasted.

We walked down a pink alley where the first hotel had been located. Then Gregg found a festive walking street covered with umbrellas. We went into a very nice, family-owned coffee and chocolate shop. We may or may not have purchased coffee, cocoa powder, and dark chocolate bars. Okay, we did.

From the ship, we had seen an old fort and lighthouse so we headed away from the old town to see if we could find it and anything else interesting. We did find a very nice, wide sidewalk which was mostly shady and it ran parallel to the water, between it and the main street (very busy.) The breeze was lovely! After a few miles of walking, we turned around towards the port.

On the way, we found the old fort and lighthouse.

We were hot, tired, and contented with our exploration so we reboarded the ship at 10:30am. Now we’re sitting outside on the 12th deck in an outdoor buffet area. It is covered and the breeze is lovely.

Until tomorrow after we visit Tortola, the largest of the British Virgin Islands.

PS – Well, I can’t seem to get photos to upload. I am tired of fighting with it. If you are on Facebook, Gregg posted some good photos and tagged me.