tetleytea

We walked Old SJ from the ship, and finding banos were indeed a challenge. There is one toward the beginning of La Princesa, and the forts have restrooms.

I heard second-hand that doing the waterfalls independently is better than going through the ship. Maybe the water is getting shallower, and the ships don't want to risk you diving or jumping in from high up.

No one replied, but we did Monkey Jungle and that zip line was good (so were the monkeys!). The tour admission/tips support a good cause, providing medical care to underprivileged Dominicans. However, the ride there was a good 2 1/2 hours away one-way. The taxi ride (a good experience in itself) and Monkey Jungle left us with only about 1/2 hour left for us to look around Puerto Plata. We had to skip the cable car.

We rented from Rascoes Rentals and had no issues. He was just a guy in a third world country who saved up to buy a few golf carts, to make some money. I'm pulling for him. He doesn't have very many carts, though.

Ah, 100 shares of Carnival is cheap. Isn't that great?

We rented a golf cart in Grand Turk for a hundred bucks and drove to the other end of the island in the cart. We found a nice quiet beach in front of the national museum away from the touristy stuff. The waves were like a 4-inch surf. LOL. I have never swum in beach waves that small. My favorite part were all the wild donkeys. You can feed them at the lighthouse. They are also very thirsty for fresh water--do bring along a used bottled water, have fun, and help out a poor donkey. Another cruise passenger brought off an apple from the ship and fed the donkeys that (I don't advise that, but the donkey ate the evidence). In San Juan we had construction on Paseo de la Princesa, and had to reroute our walk by a lot. I hope others find that out sooner. Found out (fortunately not the hard way) that renting a car in Amber Cove is a bad idea! We got a private cab driver for the day for only 20 bucks more than to rent a car. Also heard that the ships' waterfall tours there are making you pay cash for lockers to hold your stuff. And that Carnival/Princess are not letting you make one jump in the water, whereas independents were allowed to.

I tried Value Trips but they were unable to get me in. I was not notified until 6 days had passed. In the end I just booked Comfort Suites, since I'm a loyalty member there. That wasn't too bad.

There might be some confusion between wearing military decoration (or military anything) on formal night, ON VETERANS DAY, vs. just wearing it on formal night. We honor mothers on mother's day, birthdays & anniversaries, etc.. I see nothing out of place by wearing anything military (or poppies) on Veterans Day. The ship will even make a big Canada cake for Canada Day. They'll honor Canadians on July 1st, and all they did was be Canadian.

I think no less of you for it.

Not knowing the exact prices, it's hard to say that is not just Princess marketing and positioning. Clearly the Princess Plus deal is better than the vanilla one, but you still have to compare that Princess Plus fare vs. other cruise lines and other cruises to see if that is truly a good deal--not just a better one than the vanilla fare.

[quote]LOL how heavy do you think they are? Hubby packs more weight in all of his cufflinks![/quote] When they get lost or stolen--as is likely when you travel somewhere--zero.

I'm sorry, but if you went to all the trouble to pack a medal on a cruise and wear it for people whom you don't know to see, then sure it is. That's exactly what it is, that's how it comes across. Whether male or female.

It's a formal night. Wearing formal stuff on a formal night does not disparage others. The question was asked whether you should wear your military medals on a cruise. I say, you are certainly free to. But don't expect me to look up to you for it. If, however, you reach out to the waiting staff and crew on a formal night, get to know their lives, and try to make their job easier--then I am impressed.

Okay--I include elementary school gold stars as equivalent. Are we good?

Not stirring anything. A question was asked, and I answered it. Sorry if it's not the answer you like. Of course not. You want to be "special". You want your thing that you are proud of to be more special than everyone else's. I'm sorry, but if the cruise degenerates into a bunch of high school kids wearing their letter jackets, trying to impress people they don't even know with patches showing how they're better than everyone else, that makes me look down on them--not up. You want a special case for only military medals. Condescending. Thus I stand by what I said all the more. Perhaps you don't understand what a fashion statement is: it is not about what is going on in YOUR head. It is what is going through everyone else's heads when they see what you want everybody to see. You look down on people like that, and that makes me look down on you. Not up. Likewise. Correction: no type of US military medal that SHOULD be offered for murderous conduct. There is plenty of controversy out there about that. At least when I earned my medals--which I am not even showing off on any cruise--the way I earned them is very simple: there is a stopwatch. The stopwatch stopped before everyone else's did.

Since the question was asked.... I generally frown on wearing anything that is not egalitarian. It's a cruise--you're with a bunch of people you don't know. I'm not a fan of the different-colored medallions--and I'm not a fan of wearing medals. I earned my medals running 5k and 10k, too, and after the race i would wear those; but I certainly wouldn't pack them on a cruise. Second, people from other nationalities are on cruises. Do they wear their medals, too? People can earn their medals in pretty disgusting ways in other countries' militaries. And arguably it happens in the U.S., too. I'm not against people making fashion statements, but beat-the-Joneses is not one of them. This falls in that category.

Here's the thing, though: that would make sense.

Is this discount only for the actual teacher, or is it for the stateroom? I supposed Christmas/New Years is all blacked out--like--you know--when the teachers aren't actually teaching?

Are all the public buses running on Grand Cayman? I show a free bus going around Georgetown and 3 routes going around the West End, but all the websites I'm seeing seem to have been last updated in 2021. Looking to go from the ship to the Turtles and from there walk to Hell. thanks!

Hi, I've never been to Amber Cove before, but online I'm finding two ziplines: Monkey Jungle, and Country World Adventures. Anyone do either of these ziplines and know more about them? It seems CW is more of an adventure park and offers several other adrenaline activities, while Monkey Jungle's other activities are more benevolent in nature. But what about the zip lining itself? Any big difference between the two (or if they're even open to cruise passengers)?