Help ! Excursions & *weak bladder* syndrome

[crusin mom n daughter]

I will be cruising this December aboard RCCL with my 72yr old "spunky" mother. She is extremely excited but "concerned" as she frequently needs to urinate and wonders if some of the excursion we are taking (land tours by bus, boats, etc) will be equipped with washroom facilities onboard or if not, do the drivers make periodic washroom breaks. At times, an hour can seem like an eternity for her.

 

I will briefly outline the tours we are schedule for and if anyone can offer information regarding "facilities", that would ease her concerns tremendously.

 

She has her heart set on daily excursions (some which surprised me immensely) including: Swimming with the Stingrays (Antigua), Para sailing and Buck Island snorkel (St. Croix), Land and Sea to Soufrier (St.Lucia), El Yunque Rainforest Tour (San Juan), the Sea and See Tour (St.Marten) and the Underwater Submarine Tour (Barbados).

 

Thanks to anyone who can calm the nerves of a "young at heart" senior! :o

[rjscott]

I would think that most of the boats for the watersports activities will have "heads" or marine toilets, so she will be ok with those. The tour to El Yunque may be questionable, as the transportation we had when we did it did not have an onboard bathroom, and once the bus entered El Yunque, there was nowhere to stop, although we did stop at a fruit stand on the way back that did have a rest room passengers were able to use. Same thing on St Lucia; the facilities may be few and far between. What your mom may want to do is to discuss with her Dr and see about getting some meds that will help repress her need or frequency to urinate, so that it is less of a concern for her and she can relax and enjoy your excursions.

Hope this helps!

[OTRlady]

She has her heart set on daily excursions (some which surprised me immensely) including: Swimming with the Stingrays (Antigua), Para sailing and Buck Island snorkel (St. Croix), Land and Sea to Soufrier (St.Lucia), El Yunque Rainforest Tour (San Juan), the Sea and See Tour (St.Marten) and the Underwater Submarine Tour (Barbados). :o

 

Let's see; I can't speak to all of these, but a couple.

 

Land and Sea to Soufrier we've done. There's no facility on the "bus" --which is really more like a van. Most of these tours spend at least a short time at the Fond Doux estate, and there are facilities there. Whichever way you go on the boat, there should be facilities on board.

 

El Yunque Rainforest Tour. We haven't done El Yunque as a ship's excursion, but when we were last in Puerto Rico, we drove over there. There are some nice facilities at the visitor center, including restrooms. I'm surprised that the trip rjscott describes didn't stop there, as there's a gift shop, which is always popular with the tourists. Maybe you all could suggest it?

 

Sea and See (St. Maarten). We've done this tour in Aruba; I'm assuming the setup is similar. The "sea" part is a semi-submersible - no facilities on board the one we had. The "see" part is a sightseeing bus or van; ours had no facilities on board, but there were facilities at some of the stops we made. I'm imagining that one of your stops would be Orient Beach; there are facilities there.

 

Underwater Submarine Tour (Barbados). We've done this tour in Cozumel, though it's been a while now. If it's the Atlantis tour, there is generally a 15+ minute boat ride out to where the submarine is. There should be facilities on that ride, though it may be a bit bumpy! There were no facilities on the submarine. Then, you have the return boat ride with facilities again.

 

We've never done anything like the other two tours, so I can't say for sure, though I would think there will be some kind of marine "head" or even a restroom on the boat that takes you snorkeling at Buck Island.

 

Good luck!

[crusin mom n daughter]

Thanks to the both of you ...

 

At least we have a little better idea of what to expect. We will definitely heed your advice RJ and seek some medication from mom's family doc ... that should aid considerably.

 

Thanks for taking the time to answer a "silly" kind of question ..... but it's not so silly when you are the individual with these concerns.

 

Cheers from Canada! :o

[rjscott]

CrusinM&D, not silly at all! ;) Have a great cruise!

[jtsbusiness]

This is not a silly question and one that is also concerning me as my father has to self cathetise and needs to do this mid-dayish. We too are touring the islands and in particular are concerned about St Vincent and doing a boat trip on Barbados. Are the boats ok for this and is St Vincent an island where there are public toilets etc.

 

Sorry to bring down the tone of the thread, but not really sure where to ask these questions. Can anybody help?:o

[MargaritaPlease]

SOMEBODY has to mention... On tours that include swimming and snorkeling and such... Nobody will know if you use the ocean.