Zacharius

Not surprising, and if so, I sure hope they don't get a bailout. I would personally much rather my tax dollars go to struggling small business owners rather than mega corporations that pay relatively little in taxes.

I would say that's a little unfair to say Royal Caribbean passengers don't know how to use Google Maps. Certainly, Matt knows all about Labadee and that it's in Haiti...he and I just disagree about our definitions, no biggie. I think if someone shows up on a cruise in Labadee expecting to visit family, they clearly haven't done one ounce of research. And if you really do want to visit Haiti, I recommend it highly, it's a great place with friendly people. I have enjoyed my time in Cap-Haitien and Port-au-Prince both.

Advising someone against cruising isn't the same as banning someone from cruising. If the government comes out and actively says "look, we don't think you should do it", that doesn't mean you can't. Heck, in my mind, that's great...cuts down on the crowds 😉 Nothing I see in that article says they're considering an outright ban, just an advisory against.

I think we may have to disagree about rural. I've been to Cap-Haitien and it's really about 200,000 to 250,000 people, and is literally only 10 kilometers of winding roads from the gate to Labadee. Yes, you aren't getting anyone in Labadee who isn't a worker, and it may seem like you're in the middle of nowhere when you come in on a ship, can't leave, and head out on a ship without seeing anything else, but I personally wouldn't call Labadee "in the middle of nowhere".

"Middle of nowhere" may be a bit of a stretch. It may seem like that when you're not allowed to leave, but it's only about 10km of windy road (even less as the crow flies) from a city of nearly a quarter-of-a-million people.

Labadee is Haiti in name only. It's nothing like the real Haiti in any way whatsoever, with pretty much none of the concerns either. (That being said, I love the real Haiti and I love Labadee)

Actually, either the article was update or I completely missed it, but it was a medical screener whose last LAX shift was February 21st, so sounds like a non-issue for me personally. Last time I was at LAX before this week was November-ish.

Well great, I flew to LAX on Monday, out of LAX on Tuesday. Was supposed to fly back to LAX last night, but ended up changing plans and flying straight home instead.

For me, it would be to take a break from the people for a bit. Spend a few hours there, head back to my room to enjoy the quiet on my balcony, and then head back for a few hours. Obviously that would change if I had any kind of private space on the island.

Dear god, 30 minutes between boarding and a drink?

Go to Google Maps and zoom in to the general area of your desire. In the search bar, type in "hotels". It will then pull up a date search, where you can enter your dates. It'll then place those prices on the map for comparison.

If cruises were going out half empty, I would book one immediately! The worst part of cruising is the people 😉

We have done JR a couple of times, and in both cases were on Freedom class ships where we sat outside, overlooking the water, and the place was almost dead (for dinner). That alone made it worth it to avoid the busy, loud indoor establishments and enjoy a quiet meal in the fresh air. Food is meh, of course, but it has been an enjoyable (and filling) experience.

List of ferry times can be found at https://www.vinow.com/travel/virgin-islands-ferry-schedules/stjohn/. Here's what I would personally do. Grab a taxi right off the ship at 12pm, hit the 1pm ferry which arrives around 1:20pm. Grab a cab to your destination, spend a few hours there. Take the 4pm shuttle back (gets in around 4:20pm), back to the ship around 5pm. It's not ideal, but it leaves the 5pm shuttle that will still allow you to get back on time should there be any problems. St. John is so great that I would still not hesitate to do it even for just a couple hours on the beach, but if that seems like a lot of work for a little time, there's plenty of beaches on St. Thomas that will be quicker to get to/from.

I mean, you can walk if you really want to. I've done it. But it's not exactly relaxing 😉