Carnival Corporation has announced that they will be expanding its Fathom brand’s Dominican Republic social impact activities to six other cruise lines that have cruise ships that stop at Amber Cove.
In November, guests on Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises, and P&O Cruises (UK) will be able to participate in social impact excursions. These social impact excursions are currently only available to those who sail on Fathom and will give passengers a new opportunity to give back while on vacation.
The two social impact activities that will be available are:
- Hands-On Chocolate Experience at a Women’s Cooperative: Travelers will engage in an immersive cultural experience and make an impact in the Puerto Plata community during a unique, hands-on visit to a chocolate cooperative founded by enterprising local women. Travelers will visit the small community of Altamira where they will discover Chocal, a tiny organic-chocolate factory run by a group of local women committed to earning an income while remaining close to their families. Travelers will have the opportunity to work alongside these women to participate in the chocolate production process from bean to bar, a truly rewarding experience.
- Volunteer Experience at Recycled Paper & Crafts Entrepreneurship: For a rewarding experience that makes an impact on local communities, travelers may embark on an engaging and immersive cultural experience visiting artisans at a recycling micro-business. In the little village of El Javillar, travelers will find the RePapel co-op, a Recycled Paper & Crafts initiative that has taught local women to repurpose natural, recycled paper into treasures. Travelers will work side by side with these friendly women, discovering all aspects of the program, including creating new products for sale. At the end of their experience, travelers may purchase keepsake products to take home as mementos of their day.
These new impact activities will be in addition to the more than 40 excursion options that are currently available in the port.
Fathom is also currently exploring additional opportunities globally and with sister brands to bring the Fathom onboard and onshore engaging, purposeful experiences to a broader audience of travelers. New and additional opportunities for travelers to engage in the Fathom experience will be shared in coming months.
Tara Russell, President of Fathom and the global impact lead for Carnival Corportation, gave the following statement about this new expansion: “The feedback from our travelers and our local Dominican partners who have participated in Fathom’s social impact experiences in the Dominican Republic has been overwhelmingly positive and mutually beneficial. Our travelers repeatedly tell us the activities and alongsided interaction with the local Dominican people is very fulfilling, rekindling their hope and passion and inspiring a whole new perspective on life.”
Amber Cove opened in November 2015 and is a 25 acre development that added a new and exotic destination to the Caribbean. You can watch a brief video tour of the port below.
Since Fathom began its every-other-week voyages in May 2016 to Amber Cove – located on the northern coast of the Dominican Republic — its guests have been able to produce and install 730 water filters for local families, construct concrete floors for hundreds of people in 40 homes, plant nearly 16,000 seedlings and plants, and have provided approximately 17,500 hours of English conversational language skills training to adult and youth students.
