Zacharius

Taxi makes things really easy. Be prepared to share with a few other people. If you like a driver, grab their number for a pickup later if they're available.

I don't see that being a problem...the old passport is basically a meaningless document anyways (officially, at least).

My understanding is, if you are someone who needs to have a visa for your visit (due to length, being a student, worker, etc.), you do not also need ETIAS. One or the other, depending on your purpose of visit (or your citizenship). ETIAS is simply used to do the pre-screening that would already have been done on any visa applicants. Those who do an ESTA for entrance to the United States on the Visa Waiver Program do not also need a visa; those who have a visa do not also need to do an ESTA assuming their entrance in to the United States is for the same purpose their visa was issued (tourist, business, student, etc.); I assume ETIAS would be the same.

I don't have any direct answers, but a couple of things to consider: If you do find someplace, make sure it's an OFFICIAL immigration facility. Some places have fake touristy stamps, and those can invalidate a passport. Stamps are becoming less and less common as immigration systems go more digital and info is more easily shared between countries. Even if you do find a place, it's very rare that US immigration will stamp a US passport, and note that St. Thomas is the United States.

Because it's not fully implemented yet My understanding is that you need it to enter Schengen, but not to move between Schengen countries unless you leave Schengen in between (for example, you don't need to show it when going from France to Italy, but you would when going from France to Italy via Tunisia). I also understand it as being multi-entry, so the same ETIAS would work for any Schengen country that you attempt to enter. That being said, my understanding is they're targeting November 2023, so your June trip shouldn't need one.

The one they could get for the cheapest I mean, I have no idea, but I'm guessing that is part of it.

They may likely have a good answer, but I believe the truly definitive answer would come not from OP's embassy in the Bahamas, but the Bahamian embassy with charge over OP's country of citizenship since they're the one that would be granting any kind of visa/permission and would have the official word on rules.

The US does require six month validity on passports from many countries. There are some exemptions (quite a lot, actually, at https://fam.state.gov/FAM/09FAM/09FAM040309.html), but since OP doesn't state what passport they carry, I am not sure what rules do or do not apply to them.

I am a dual citizen and always enter the US on my US passport, so I don't have exact experience with this, but I am familiar with traveling to countries that require 6+ months, and know of many people coming to the US on non-US passports...experience has always told me that countries that enact this rule follow it pretty darn closely. Do you have time to renew your passports and get the US visa transferred to the new ones? Also, make sure you have the proper documentation to enter The Bahamas too, as they're an independent country with different immigration laws than the US.

As mentioned earlier, the biggest part of this is your citizenship. While I assume most are US citizens on here, not all are, and that's of critical importance. So yeah, US citizens can, but as far as I know, others cannot because their birth certificates may or may not prove citizenship or any kind. (Technically, US birth certificates don't either because one could always renounce US citizenship, but that starts getting way more in the weeds than needed. I'm a bit of a geek about these things.)

Gives you six more nights to find the next one

It depends. There was an eveving where we went through a pretty good storm, but because we of the way (and speed) we were moving, the rain all hit the front of the ship. We had the front-most balcony where you could not only see out the side, but out the front as well via a clear plexiglass shield. We sat out there for hours with drinks, watching the rain and the lightning over the open sea, and didn't get a drop of rain on us.

You can use it whenever you want. Whether or not it's comfortable is up to you. But we sit out there in pretty much any conditions as long as its relatively warm.

There are definitely cruises that hit places all along the west coast of Africa - Casablanca, Dakar, Banjul, Accra, Lagos, Libreville, Luanda, Walvis Bay, and of course Cape Town. They're smaller ships and I don't see a company like Royal Caribbean doing it anytime soon. But having been to all of those places, it would be a great introduction to Africa for those who are new to the region.

One option I always like to recommend - if you've been to Barcelona before, but haven't been to Madrid, take a look at that. Madrid is a great city (I personally prefer it to Barcelona quite a bit), and it's easy to get from Madrid to Barcelona. Madrid also tends to have more nonstops to the US than Barcelona does. So, perhaps fly in to Madrid, spend a couple days there, then take one of the many nonstop trains from Madrid to Barcelona (they're only about 2.5 hours, and yes, actually nonstop).

Been listening to a bit too much George Straight, eh?

Yep - go directly to the source, which for Italy is Trenitalia. Other websites may or may not be accurate on times.* * - I mean, it's Italy, so time is always just an idea anyways

I wear a hat like 90% of the time, but I definitely don't wear one to any kind of sit down restaurant. However, add me to the club of "you do you, boo"...I really don't give a damn what someone else does in a restaurant, whether it's Chili's or Capital Grille, if it doesn't impact me in any negative way. Interesting. As someone who is not religious and doesn't pray, I've never heard this one before. Makes sense, but it's a new one to me. I'm always hot...or at least, that's what my wife tells me.

Every cruise is a wine cruise if you have the right drink package! Lots of countries have lots of bad or questionable politics. If you start weeding them out, you suddenly have very few places to go to. It can even be said of places like the US and Israel, as well as the Middle East, China, etc. etc. Everyone is someone's enemy. Except Namibia. Everyone likes Namibia.* * - am from Namibia, assume everyone likes us

I mean, Nassau can be a pretty violent place - there's a decently high gang-on-gang violence rate around Nassau. Not in places that most tourists will ever go to, but it definitely can be a violent place.

Long Beach also has a LOT fewer flights than LAX or even SNA. Southwest has bumped up their presence, but it's still not a ton compared to the other airports. I would say, nine times out of ten, it's quicker to fly a nonstop in to LAX or SNA than it is to connect and fly in to LGB, even with Los Angeles traffic (my colleague is going to Long Beach for work next week, and she's definitely taking the nonstop to LAX and renting a car, which will still save her a good amount of time versus changing planes and going in to LGB itself).

Mazatlan may be changed due to the fact that it's in Sinaloa which is the main problem area right now. It's fairly far from Culiacan, where yesterday's violence was, but I would imagine Royal's insurers may not be thrilled about sending any ship to Sinaloa right now. But this is so recent, I doubt Royal knows yet which is why they haven't told you anything yet. I would say the other two stops are probably fine. But this is all a guess right now, of course.

SNA is almost twice the distance to the port than LAX, so it's definitely going to cost more and take longer. While SNA is a more efficient airport, most or all of the time saved will be lost during the commute. I don't have any specific recommendations on ground transport vendors other than Uber/Lyft, but do expect to pay quite a bit more if you fly in to SNA. EDIT - right now, at 9am local on a Thursday, Lyft is quoting pretty much the same price from SNA and LAX to the Port, so ignore my advice

I don't think any other nationalities could use their birth certificate so, by that definition, it's going to be only Americans with birth certificates.