MikeY137

My kids make fun of me because I actually give them general safety briefings as well as CT briefings depending on the area. Avoiding large gatherings, to include protests, is always on the check list.. haha!

@JennyJenny - I applaud your preparedness and appreciate your additional insight and education. I also agree that, in the end, we are all ultimately responsible for the safety of ourselves and our families. However, in my travel experiences, as an example, airlines give you a heads up if you are heading into potentially dangerous territories, and being on a cruise for many days at sea, it’s very easy to lose touch with reality. I believe everyone should heed your advice, and still, even the slightest heads up from RC would have been much appreciated. I’ve seen plenty of drinking going on around this ship, and yet, the families I referenced in my original post seemed relatively well informed, in general, and didn’t seem to be overly indulgent in the booze onboard. ? FWIW, and maybe I just missed it, there seem to be no advisories on DoS website related to PR and yet ‘More protests expected Thursday... Marches and "cacerolazos" -- protests with people banging pots and pans -- were expected across the island Thursday and over the weekend.’ as reported by CNN... https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/18/us/puerto-rico-protests-thursday/index.html I guess that just proves your point, that you have to find ways to stay informed and remain aware of your surroundings. Thanks!

Appreciate all for your input. I appreciate the education and now get how the extra distance really would mess up both days in port... Thanks for the math and the pointers to St T boycott. We have a sea day tomorrow and I look forward to reading more. Much appreciated!

I’m curious what others think as I got to wondering today about the following: We are on Allure now (14-21 July 2019). Originally we where supposed to go to St Thomas, USVIs, which I was really looking forward to visiting. We received an email a while ago about the change of port to Puerto Rico. While on the ship, we were monitoring the protests and other RC ships that skipped PR. We were a bit surprised to wake up this AM and find ourselves there docked at pier 3. We received a phone call around 0745 ship’s time stating that our Food Tour of Old San Juan was canceled - no further explanation given, but surely it must have had something to do with the ongoing unrest in PR. Additionally, we talked to others on the ship today who got off and walked around the city this AM but we’re never told there was an issue until they were already out of the port, by one of the local shops. That seems a bit negligent on RC’s part, but not the point of my question... This leads me to wonder - why did RC make us go to PR in the 1st place? I know very little about these big ships, but I can read a map and the difference between USVI and PR seems to be about 65 NMs. Seems like we have time to make the next port of call. We’ve been making 18-19 knts both SE & NW over the water and I think I read somewhere normal cruise for Allure is 20 knts. Even at 22 knts, the difference in time between the two islands and Nassau seems relatively small. Additionally, why take us to port at all with the already on going protest which are projected to get bigger..? I’m just curious if anyone else thinks we were routed to PR for other reasons yet told it was due to propulsion issues on the ship? I have no doubt there is an issue as I’ve read about the potential need for early dry-dock - but is that issue really the reason for an itinerary change that seems so small of a distance over such a period of time... Maybe I’ve had one too many sea days and I’m all wet... ?