Zacharius

If you look out the window of Pan Pacific and don't see it, I'd be concerned (well, look out SOME window of the Pan Pacific. Maybe not your room window depending on where you're facing)

Pan Pacific is great, highly recommended. But the port is right in the city centre so there's plenty of hotels within walking distance, even with luggage.

Honestly, I find the food pretty mediocre so it's easy for me to eat fairly reasonable portions. It's also really easy to load up on fruits and veggies, and I walk a TON. I've never even seen the inside of an elevator on a cruise ship. And I do a daily run on sea days, and often on port days too. Alcohol, however? Oh boy, watch out.

Meh, it depends on what you're interested in. My wife and I are pretty adventurous travelers, so we always go to the local spots away from the port and get some drinks and local seafood. We'll hit up the okay (decent, but not great) brewery right in town on our way back. But like I said - we love getting outside of the comfort zone when it comes to travel, and we're pretty adventurous travelers who aren't dissuaded by pesky things like governmental travel warnings

I read this as "Shake Shack" and got really excited for a 'Shroom Burger. Mmmmmm.

"Would you trust RCCL flights" is sort of a misnomer. It's not like they have their own flights. They're sticking you on an airline with non-RCCL flyers, so they really have no control over anything. And you're right - mechanical or weather delays may cause big issues, but that's more of a symptom of arriving the day of departure rather than booking airfare through RCCL. RCCL tries to make their air arrangements sounds perfect, but of course they're not. Here's some things to at least consider and realize: If you miss a flight, you may or may not be able to get on the next one. Sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn't...not having a buffer between flight arrival and ship departure makes those options shrink significantly. An airline isn't going to involuntarily bump another passenger just to get you on. Since RCCL airfare is sometimes, if not often, specially negotiated fares, the fare restrictions may keep you from being put on to another airline. It may also mean you're the "bottom of the barrel" as far as an airline goes, so you may be the bottom of their priority list to accommodate. Each ticket is different so the fare rules can vary drastically, and aren't always clear. The guarantee says they'll get you to the next port, but that isn't always easy. It could be a couple of days before your next port. There may not be any seats on flights to get you there. The first and third points are really more of a reflection of you flying in the same day rather than a day or two before, but it's something RCCL tries to make sound like it's not an issue. But it can definitely be an issue.

Yes, I've used mine several times instead of my drivers license. The only issue is that you'll sometimes run in to TSA agents who don't realize it's a valid form of ID...not common, but it has happened to me and others I know. It gets cleared up, but does delay the process a bit. Comes down to lack of TSA agent training, unfortunately.

Technically they could, sure. Anything is possible. Feasibility is a different question. Can you reliably and reasonably use Haitian military or police, and if so, are they trained properly in large enough numbers? Otherwise, you're bringing in some kind of outside security force, which is not cheap nor very feasible. But yeah, I think it really comes down to Royal's insurance backers not wanting them anywhere near Haiti at this time.

I don't see any way they stop in Haiti anytime soon. Just not worth the risk to them (and their insurance underwriters) most likely.

Yep, everything from here on out is pretty much done through AA. Go to the AA terminal, check in with AA, keep an eye on AA's baggage rules, that kind of stuff. As someone who pretty much lives on AA flights (both domestic and longhaul), I can assure you they're fine...you won't love it, you probably won't hate it, but in the end it won't be much different than BA or any other airline getting you from New York to Athens in Economy (or even Premium Economy).

No you didn't. You found a BA codeshare nonstop from JFK to Athens. The only place BA flies nonstop from JFK is London-Heathrow (formerly also London-City and Manchester, and I think even Gatwick...but now, just Heathrow, and definitely not Athens). What you likely found was the American Airlines seasonal JFK-ATH nonstop - I am guessing you are looking at BA1642, which is actually AA334 - American Airlines plane, American Airlines crew. This is important because the airline you are actually flying on will dictate who you check in with, what terminal you use at the airport, any seat selection and luggage rules, etc. So definitely be aware of the "Operated By" part of this.

Note this is by no means the 100% right answer, but due to the amount of international freight that comes in to SDF and clears customs (due to being the main UPS air freight hub), my understanding is that they have an entirely separate Customs & Border Protection building (where as an airport of its size would normally just have a small office). This building is just east of the main terminal, and I would guess this is where the Global Entry stuff takes place. The CBP website lists an address of 650 Administration Drive, which does appears to trace back to this same building on Google Maps.

The worst part of cruising to me are the people, so I would love to cruise right now. My greatest cruising memory is when I had the entire pool to myself for two hours during a storm on Freedom of the Seas. Full ship, and I had the pool to myself for hours. Would love to recreate that.

I pretty much live on the road and have had Global Entry to many years now. It's great, you'll love it. The interview is really pretty easy. They'll usually just confirm you are who you say you are, maybe ask you a question or two to make sure your answers match your application, do your fingerprints. Sometimes they'll show you how to use the kiosk, but not always (they showed my wife, but basically told me to figure it out myself). That's it. When I did mine, it took less that 5 minutes at DFW. My wife did hers at ORD and it took maybe 10. Both done on layovers while we were passing through said airport (with appointments, of course).

I'm not sure I want to know the origin of that nickname

It was early May, I think. So not quite as early in 2018 as I thought, now that I actually put brain power in to it. We were on Freedom of the Seas too, though, as it re-positioned from Ft. Lauderdale to San Juan via Nassau, St. Thomas, and St. Maarten.

Back in 2012ish, we stopped in Labadee and did this small 20-person or so excursion which was basically just a half-day floating in the water and drinking. They took you on a 25-30 minute boat ride far from anyone else, to some small little "island", and you basically just floated in the crystal waters and drank unlimited Prestige and rum punch. That was it. That's the excursion. I have such great memories of it...and then at some point in the day, the memories end. Note the unlimited Prestige and run punch. We did that one in early 2018 and had a great time too. It wasn't long after Hurricane Irma and the guide (the owner's son...Brett? Brent?) told us about his story of escaping the storm, and had a good mix of showing us the real impacts on St. Maarten (including sunken boats and yachts, destroyed homes, etc.) while also making sure we had a blast and enjoyed the vacation.

I personally think Turks & Caicos Islands are one of those places that just needs a land-based vacation. I've been a few times to a few different islands, and the place is just...outstanding. Out of this world. I couldn't imagine rolling in on a cruise ship and only spending a few hours. Just my opinion (and I have not been to Grand Turk, just Providenciales and a couple of the Caicos islands).

I'd say that depends on what your definition of "better" is. A lot of people use "better" to mean "cheaper", but I don't think that's quite fair. To me, "better" means "better value". If you're paying 15% more for a product that's 30% superior, you're getting a better price, even if it's not a lower price. Being a frequent flier, I look at everything from a flying standpoint, so here's another example - I can fly an old United Airlines 777-200 to Hong Kong for $100 less than a new Cathay Pacific A350. It's a lower price, but I'm going to pay that $100 to have a vastly superior soft and hard product experience.

And note there may be two sets of fees for something like this - one for the travel agency, and one for the airline. It would all be in the fine print when booked or reserved.

Here's what we have done - very little. We get off, we walk around, get out of the tourist core just a bit (some people find it unsafe, we are okay with it, but are experienced travelers in the developing world, so we're never too worried...but judge your own comfort level), get some local food at a non-touristy place that we can't get at home (especially conch), get a few beers at Pirate Republic (not the best beer, but it's vacation so mediocre beer tastes better than usual), head back to the ship, and enjoy a relaxing remainder of the day onboard.

We don't have any standard hotel as long as it's a Hilton property (I have a ton of Hilton points), so we just open up the Hilton search engine and see what's available and rated well. As far as pricing - I totally get ya. I would just urge you to do the math. It may work out, it may not. It may be worth it to you, it may not (and "worth" means time and ease in addition to money, only you can decide which one is most important for you). Last time we did it in 2018, hotels outside of the airport/port area (they're essentially next door to each other) were like $50 cheaper, whereas a rental car with gas was about the same. So price wise, it was a wash. And while it added a bit of time to pick up the car and drive, it opened up our abilities to explore new places on the afternoon we flew in, eat at different (cheaper or not) places, buy some drinks at the liquor store to drink in the room that evening, grab some stuff from the store, go out to breakfast the next morning, and just have a sense of freedom.

I'd like to go against the grain here and recommend the possibility of a rental car and a hotel further afield. Hear me out here, because it's what we do every time - land at the airport, rent a car, and then the entire metro area is your oyster...go where you want, eat where you want, hotels are often cheaper with more options. Then, return the car the next morning to the cruise port (a few companies have locations at the port itself) and take their free shuttle to the dock. Just an idea that I like to share because it works so well for us.

It's getting back to normal. I've flown first class quite a bit domestically during Covid, albeit on AA, and the service has definitely come back from the April/May days. I got fairly buzzed on an AA DFW-SEA flight last month ?

I like the idea of "Formal Longshoremen" unloading container ships wearing tuxedos.