thodges

Booking yourself, even if the same tour/activity can be both cheaper and a better experience. The main one I remember was on one of the islands, you could go jumping down waterfalls. We booked with a private company, got picked up from the pier, driven to the start point, went down about 25 waterfalls in total. When we got to the last 8, there was a big line of people waiting to start/take their turn. Since we were already on the 'course', then our group automatically jumps to the front of the line just getting started. So, the big line of people were the cruise ship bookings. They only did the last 8 waterfalls, whereas we did about 25. They were in a big group with probably a lot of waiting. Our only waiting was when my wife would hesitate at the top of some of the waterfalls. I also believe ours was also cheaper.

We were on Horizon last month and discovered that we could send and receive iMessages from 'home'. This almost ruined our cruise. We had been dealing with a family medical emergency with my sister/father prior to the cruise. We were relieved that we would be unreachable for a week on the cruise. (Other family members would handle things in the meantime.) Later that evening after sailing, my phone suddenly receives a text from my other sister. In hindsight I should have ignored it, but instead replied. Once we figured out we were not unreachable, I told my sister not to tell anyone else. Thankfully, she kept communication to a minimum after that. We did enjoy the cruise. FYI, the medical issue is resolving itself, but my older sister will no longer live alone and has moved in with our father.

We tried something similar in 2021. It went bad. We had a 16 day Panama Canal transit cruise scheduled. It left us 3 days short of Platinum level. So we decided to book a short 4-5 day cruise beforehand to make the longer cruise all Platinum. On the short cruise I caught Covid. 2 miserable days quarantined at the end of the cruise. Based on that we decided to cancel the Panama Canal cruise. (Just so happened that the final payment was due a couple of days after getting off the short cruise.) It turns out that PC cruise ended up with alot of Covid cases on board and even made the national news. So maybe it worked out for the best. I hated 2 days stuck in a cabin, could you imagine 10 or 12. We are finally scheduled to sail again next month, crossing our fingers.