My husband and I (60 and 63) did the falls with Carnival in April 2022. The walk up wasn't bad at all...I was expecting worse. I was disappointed with the number of falls we did, which was only 7. I believe it was supposed to be 8, so it's not like we were expecting 12 and got 7. I'm not sure why it was that amount....plus, for that day, we were told we were not allowed to jump at all and can only slide down....which was fine with me. (or climb down the ladder). But my hubby was disappointed, he really wanted to jump at all the falls. I assume the water levels were low? The water was icy cold, but we got used to it fairly quickly.
If you do not have water shoes, they have them for rent for $8...Lockers are also $8, if you do an excursion with Carnival, they charge it to your room (not sure about the shoes, I assume so). Lockers are a good size, you can probably fit a small back pack in it. They attach the key to the life vest with zip ties. After getting your helmet and vest, they give you 1 bottle of water and you have to dispose of the bottle at the last rest stop. The walk up was about 40 minutes or so...didn't have a watch or my cell phone, so not sure.
I had asked in CC about tipping etc. but got no response, so I will answer my own question here if anyone wanted to know.I was initially told by Carnival excursion desk, that tipping was one big jar....but for some reason, the 2 guides we had were not affiliated with the falls and had to be tipped separately, we tipped our photographer as well. We purchased the photos....not sure if it was worth $55 but we didn't bring our phones on the jumps, so wanted some memories of them. Not much time at all, after we got back but we managed to get a beer and a Mamajuana drink, for a great price...I believe the bottle of beer was about 24 oz for $4 or $5...can't beat that. We had to drink them on the bus.
All and all we had a great time....and would highly recommend this excursion.