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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]HHI $300k

White collar professionals with fancy degrees living in the dc metro area

We thought we weren’t (gasp) “cruise people” until we took a Disney cruise and realized how relaxing cruising is. No stress. No planning. Just show up and have fun. You have a picky eater? No problem! The waiters will literally bring you whatever you ask for, or you can just order room service for the kid before or after your dinner (and it’s included).

Go price out a Disney cruise for a family and you’ll realize it’s not a trashy lower-class trip. It’s $$$$$. We’ve done Europe for less than a cruise.

I chuckle at the quips about cruising not being “real” travel or less “authentic.” No clue how your weeklong stay on an island is more authentic than my day trips to 5 islands during a cruise. I mean, we hire a driver or charter a boat for the day, hit local spots for food, and spend the day on off the beaten path beaches or outer islands that you probably never saw because you didn’t leave your resort unless you were herded onto a catamaran for an excursion.

I wonder if the cruise haters simply hate the Caribbean.

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Disney cruises are expensive but still trashy.  Let’s not pretend your “day trips” off the cruise ship are filled with authentic food and adventures.  They aren’t.  They are places that are catering to cruise folk.  They know you are coming.  But I feel the same about all inclusive resort trips.  So at least we can agree on that [/quote]

I hire local guides who take me to bakeries (that’s my jam!) and restaurants that definitely do not cater to tourists. Islands basically have a tourist side and a local side. We are always the only tourists in the bakeries. The restaurants sometimes have tourists who clearly are airbnbing it with a rental car since they are on the other side of the island. If we have a driver, we end up on beaches where we are the only family. Literally. We pick up lunch on the way (sometimes at the bakery). When we charter a boat, we mix up fishing and beach time (sometimes on an outer island). We are never around tourists—or people, really. 
If we catch a good fish, we hit a restaurant to cook it. We’ve always met nice locals. I’m FB for some of them!

We’ve stayed on plenty of islands at resorts or private villas. It’s nice, but you really don’t interact with locals aside from those serving you. You definitely get more of a shared experience and personal insight spending the entire day with a guide or captain.

Re: tourist traps - easy to avoid. [/quote]

I'm not fancy enough to hire a guide, but I like to plan the same way I would plan for actual travel. Look up other walking tours and local spots and create my own walking tour and see what I find along the way. Ended up at a cool distillery that way that had a small tasting room but really was mostly a big warehouse. And a tiny winery that was empty and they did a tasting for us. There were locals outside with carts filled with something I didn't recognize. I asked the winery person serving us and she ran outside and got some of the fruits for us. We've rented cars are drove inland to small towns away from the hustle and bustle. Not way off the beaten path, but better than the tourist villages that the cruise excursions take you to.

I still love more elaborate travel to unique places but I've had fantastic experiences on cruises too.[/quote]

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