<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px; background-color: white;"></span><p><span style="color:#0000CD;"><span style="font-size:20px;"><strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 21px;">5 Obvious Caribbean Cruise Tips</span></strong></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px; background-color: white;"></span><br></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 21px; background-color: white;">?I’ve been to the Caribbean dozens of&nbsp;times, and with every trip comes more knowledge about this beautiful and exotic&nbsp;region.</span></p><p>On my last sailing on Carnival Freedom I was reminded of these five Caribbean cruise tips:</p><p><br></p><p>1. <strong>Research your ports.</strong> Make sure you know what you do when you get to port. Some ports, like Nassau and Aruba offer things for cruisers right off the pier, while others, like La Romana, Dominican Republic don’t offer much right off the ship. When booking your cruise make sure you do research through the cruise line, message boards or excursions companies like&nbsp;Shore Excursions Group.</p><p>2. <strong>Change is good</strong>. This tip is mostly valid if you cruise the Caribbean June-November, or hurricane season, as you may know it. The captain’s decision to skip a port is usually in the best interest of the cruise passenger or the structural&nbsp;integrity of the ship.</p><p>3. <strong>Don’t miss the boat.</strong> Make sure you stay on ship’s time and not island time on your cruise. A big Cruise Director joke is that one of the best shots you can take of the cruise ship is when it’s sailing away from the pier. It’s a very true statement but you don’t want to be the one taking the photo. Get back to the ship on time and don’t always rely on your phone to tell you ship time. If your phone is on, it will sync up with the local time.</p><p>4.&nbsp;<strong>The ship is not a bank</strong>. On my last cruise people were complaining that the service charge to use the ATM was outrageous, and they were right. The ATM surcharge aboard the ship can go upwards of $8 per transaction.</p><p>There are two typically two ways around paying this surcharge.</p><p>Go to a table at the casino and buy chips, take those chips and cash them right after you make the transaction.<br>Think ahead and bring enough bills with you when you get on the ship. One of my last stops before I leave home is stopping by the ATM.</p><p>*Bonus* Be cautious when using ATMs in other countries. I used my ATM in Hondurus a couple years ago and someone got my card and tried to purchase an airline ticket to Europe. Luckily my bank stopped it before they processed it.</p><p>5. <strong>Keep an open mind.</strong> As long as you stay safe and keep your surroundings in mind, don’t be afaid to go against the status quo when you’re on vacation. If you see a little market, go in it and see what they have.</p><p>Earlier this year I was visiting Aruba and had the bus drop me off downtown and I walked backed to the cruise ship. I found all kind of cool places to eat, casinos and markets on my way back to the ship.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>