La Romana (Dominicana)

La Romana is a port city ranked as Dominican Republic's 7th-largest by population (around 130,000, metro around 215,000). The city is located opposite Catalina Island and approx 80 km (50 mi) from Santo Domingo de Guzman (Dominicana's capital). The town's patron saint is Santa Rosa de Lima.

Alternatively, some cruise ships may also dock at Punta Cana - located approx 80 km (50 mi / road distance) to the east of la Romana. Punta Cana is a resort town famous for its beaches and balnearios (seaside resorts). From Punta Cana and La Romana (as cruise shore The road distance between Punta Cana and La Romana (Dominicana's main cruise port) is approx 80 km (50 mi) to the west.

From Punta Cana (as cruise shore excursions) are offered activities like windsurfing, speedboating, snorkeling and scuba diving, catamaran and sailboat tours, deepsea sport fishing, banana boat rides, swimming with dolphins-sharks-stingrays, floating spas, party boats and private yacht charters, also land-based tours (safaris, dune buggying, horseback riding) and cruises to nearby small islands (like Saona and Catalina). Punta Cana Airport serves international flights and by annual traffic (2,4+ million passengers) is ranked the Caribbean's second-busiest (after San Juan Puerto Rico's Luis Munoz Marin Airport/aka Isla Verde).

The 2000-inaugurated La Romana Airport is located close to several other towns, including San Pedro de Macoris and the capital city Santo Domingo. The city is a hub for Dominican Republic's growing tourism industry, with several nearby beach town resorts, such as Bayahibe, Casa de Campo, Dominicus, also smaller resort villages.

The cruise port was inaugurated in 2002 with the arrival of Costa Cruises ship Costa Marina (scrapped in 2014 under the name "Club Harmony"). Port's owner and operator (also owner of Casa De Campo International Airport) is Central Romana Corporation. The company invested USD 12 million to extend the existing seaport by over 40,000 m2 (430,000 ft2). The harbor terminal has 2 berths and capacity to handle two big-sized cruise liners simultaneously.

La Romana is also used as a turnaround port (homeport) due to the ability to serve fly-cruises (mainly from the UK). Embarking passengers bypass Dominicana's Customs and Immigration and board their boat in just 12 min after airport arrival.

For winter season 2017-2018, here were homeported ships of the cruise companies AIDA (Germany), TUI (Germany) and Marella (UK). The port handled a total of 160 ship calls with 462,880 passengers.

During winter season 2018-2019, the cruise port had scheduled 138 ship calls and handled a total of 395,232 passengers.

In 2023, Port La Romana invested US$15 million to expand its docking facilities to be enabled to accommodate even the world's largest ships - Royal Caribbean's OASIS-class.

By annual passenger traffic (statistical data 2019), the Caribbean's top-10 largest airports are:

1. Luis Munoz Marin Airport/aka Isla Verde (San Juan Puerto Rico) with ~9,5 million pax
2. Punta Cana Airport (Punta Cana Dominicana/La Romana) with ~7,2 million pax
3. Jose Marti Airport (Havana Cuba) with 5,7+ million pax
4. Sangster Airport (Montego Bay Jamaica) with ~4,8 million pax
5. Lynden Pindling Airport (Nassau Bahamas) with ~4,1 million pax
6. Las Americas Airport (Santo Domingo Dominicana) with ~4 million pax
7. Piarco Airport (Port-of-Spain Trinidad) with 2,8+ million pax
8. Queen Beatrix Airport (Oranjestad Aruba) with 2,5+ million pax
9. Pointe-a-Pitre Airport (Pointe-a-Pitre Guadeloupe) with ~2,5 million pax
10. Grantley Adams Airport (Bridgetown Barbados) with ~2,3 million pax

This explains why these port cities are used as seasonal turnaround ports for homeporting (roundtrip itineraries) by many major cruise companies with ship deployments in the Caribbean.

La Romana cruise terminal