9-night Southern Caribbean Cruise on the Disney Fantasy Day 6 - Dominica

Monday July 25 - Dominica

Strap in, I took a lot of photos in Dominica! We were all excited for Dominica. It was the first time for DCL in this port and nobody was really sure what to expect. We had originally booked a canyoning (repelling down waterfalls) tour. We did something similar in Costa Rica (before Emmaline was born) and it was pretty amazing. But then Emmaline broke her ankle 4 weeks before the cruise so we scrapped that idea. By then, all the DCL excursions were full (though we don’t normally do ship-sponsored tours) and all of the private companies I could find reviews for on Trip Advisor were completely booked up. So I was Googling and I found a little taxi and tour service with no reviews on Google or Trip Advisor and one little review blurb on their website. But they had a tour that looked good that we could customize to do what we wanted and I emailed them and had a good vibe so we took a chance. This is unlike me. I like well-vetted companies or guides with lots of 5-star reviews. But everyone starts somewhere, right? So we went for it. 

The day dawned grey and rainy and we weren’t certain how that would play out. DCL gave us ponchos as we disembarked and as we put them on and got off the ship the rain stopped. Figures. Off the ponchos came and the rain mostly stayed away - we did have a few little bits of rain off and on throughout the day, but nothing major and certainly nothing that caused us any grief. A rainy day on vacation is better than a sunny day in the office, right? 

We found our guide, Jean-Marie, very easily. We loaded into his van and off we went. He pointed out different things of interest here and there and stopped a couple of times to show us some interesting plants like lemongrass and cinnamon—the leaves, when crushed up, smell like cinnamon, but actual cinnamon you might buy in the store is the bark scraped off the tree. 

After about a 45 minute drive, we arrived at our first destination, Emerald Pool. It was quite beautiful and reminded me a bit of Hamilton Pool outside of Austin. The water was super cold (but you got used to it after a bit). We saw lots of beautiful plants and cute little fresh water crabs along the pathway and near the pool. We actually got really lucky and arrived just as a bigger tour group was leaving so we mostly had the pool to ourselves. 

After we were done enjoying Emerald Pool, we hopped back into the van and made our way back down to Roseau, the main town where the ship was docked (pronounced “Rose-Oh”). Then it was back up up up into the rainforest to Titou Gorge. If you’ve ever seen Pirate of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest, the island where the native tribe thinks that Jack Sparrow is a god and then tries to roast him on a spit is Dominica and specifically there is a scene where all the pirates go through a sort of cave and this is Titou Gorge. 

We all agreed after that Titou Gorge was a highlight of our entire trip (and none of the photos do it justice in the slightest). Jean-Marie got us all into some floats (Emmaline befriended a cat named Puss Puss while we waited for him to get the floats). Snorkeling floats or life jackets are required - the current is strong in places. Then he showed us where to go and we made our way into the cold water and into the gorge. It was so cool inside. Emmaline was a little hesitant to go in, but I reminded her of something Will Smith said in his recent show on National Geographic: he said that his grandma told him that some of the best things in life can be found on the other side of fear. So she nodded and went in. There were basically three different “rooms” inside the cave-like area. It’s not really a cave, because it’s slightly open on top with a little crack letting light in. In the third room at the very end was a waterfall. There was a strong current from the waterfall pushing into the middle room and Emmaline didn’t feel comfortable traversing it (she took her brace off for the swim into the gorge) so I waited outside with her and we just sort of peeked inside. Roger went in and checked it out and got some photos (none of which came out due to the water spray). 

There was a little food stand at the gorge so we got something to eat and Roger had one of the local beers that Jean-Marie had brought along. Emmaline and I had some cold water he had provided us from the same cooler. We left Titou Gorge and wound our way back to the Trafalgar area, which is where Jean-Marie said he lives. We asked him about his little tour company and he said he’s been driving a taxi around Dominica and giving tours for 30 years. It was his daughter who suggested setting up a website to pre-book passengers coming off a cruise ship and we were the very first website customers. Indeed, Jean-Marie seemed to know every other tour guide on the island that we passed by and his knowledge was vast. He clearly loves his island and enjoyed sharing it with us. This is just the perfect kind of private tour service that always makes for a stellar experience when we explore a new port of call. 

The Trafalgar valley was beautiful and we stopped for a scenic overlook before going to the two falls that make up Trafalgar Falls. It was about a 10 minute walk to the falls from the parking area/ranger station building. Both Emerald Pool and Trafalgar Falls were located inside national parks which Jean-Marie covered the entrance fee for as part of our tour fee. The walk was fine for Emmaline’s ankle. It wasn’t paved, but it was a gravel pathway and she had no problem at any location (there was a guy on crutches at Emerald Pool which I wouldn’t have wanted to do, but it was doable). After we enjoyed the falls, Jean-Marie took us back into town and we parted ways with one of our top experiences of our trip.

We shopped a bit for our customary fridge magnet. We like to find unique magnets not made in China when we can, but everything was kind of the same tacky touristy stuff at each market stall we encountered so we settled for something and got back onboard around 3:00. We all made our way through the shower, started some laundry and grabbed some snacks from deck 11. The washing machines are tiny and there was only one that wasn’t in use in the room near us so we only ended up being able to do half our washing before it was time for the new Thor movie in the Walt Disney Theatre at 5:15. 

Emmaline hasn’t seen many Marvel movies, just the first Guardians of the Galaxy, the two Ant Man movies, Captain Marvel and the new Ms. Marvel show on Disney+ but it seemed that the new Thor endeavored to be a standalone affair and told quite a bit of backstory throughout for those that didn’t have it. We all enjoyed it well enough. It wasn’t amazing, but it was fun and had some good moments in it. 

After Thor we changed into our pirate costumes and took some pirate photos which didn’t turn out very well, unfortunately so no photos of our pirate outfits this time around. We opted not to attend the pirate deck party at 7:30 between the show and dinner and instead worked a bit on our scavenger hunt for the day before dinner. After dinner, we completed the hunt, turned it in and then went up to deck 12 to watch the 10:30 pirate show and fireworks. After that, we were pretty beat so we went to bed. We’re never hungry for the pirate buffet in Cabana’s, plus, for some reason, it seems to bring out the worst in people. I have no idea why. The fireworks were a perfect ending to a fantastic day.

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