Administrator
If you enjoy flying then fly. Do what you enjoy since life is short.Originally Posted by Westy
I'm with Greydread on "less money for gas = more money for ass."
Did my share of gas-guzzling thrill-machines in the Eighties and Nineties:
Click to see pic
I don't fly any more; now, I sail - and the wind may be free, but new sails sure-the-hell aren't!
(This is with the old sails ...)
Click to see pic
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Mr. Big
If you think it's love try not paying in the morning..
"Do not regret growing older. It is a privilege denied to many."
Chica Aficionado
Sure, just not together.
The Port of San Juan, just steps from the intersection of Old San Juan and the most expensive 4 star string of hotels on the island. Used to be whore bars all over that joint and now it's the safest place in the city all day, all night and if a street walker showed up they'd send a SWAT team after her. The Hotels have Casinos, high end bars and 5 diamond restaurants and from May to November they spend most days mostly empty.
Port of Sint Maarten. Phillipsburg is about as far as most cruise passengers get in Sint Maarten. They generally stay confined to row shops, street bazaar, duty free tobacco, booze and jewelry stores, trinket outlets restaurants and casino found up Front Street all the way to the KFC Circle and all the way down Back Street. Once again, if a Ho was to show up and start trying to work this area there would be murders. Now a taxi ride away from downtown Phillipsburg to the "Salt Pond" and the Carnival Grounds about 10 minutes drive away the tourist will find some of the best organized, safest, economical and well stocked Ho Houses in the Caribbean and as one continues around the Salt Pond and out toward Oyster Bay, the "Border Bar" (Casa Blanca) and the French side of the Island, St. Martin.
Port of Aruba, Cruise Ship Dock. Right across the street from Oranjestad's own Renaissance Hotel, Royal Plaza Mall and Marketplace where cruise line passengers file out of the customs are to be greeted by a myriad of shops, bars and restaurants including the infamous Carlos & Charlies' (made that way as the last place Natalee Halloway was seen alive) and to Irasquin Blvd where a very efficient public bus system is available to whisk day trippers to Palm Beach and Eagle Beach and all the resorts and restaurants and tourist sights in the Northwest or they can wander around Oranjestad's blocks and blocks of downtown shopping area, hit the casinos or take any of dozens of half day tours and trips on a boat, on a donkey, in a jeep or on a helicopter but the one thing that they will not see is a Ho. Not even a lost one. Now there may be a few shady Bitches at the bars but they are so undercover that they don't even know when they're working or not. If you want to get laid you either take a taxi ($50) or rent a car and travel to the Southeast end of the island and Sint Nicolaas where the party never stops and you can pretty much buy whatever you can afford to pay for.
Other applications at other destinations follow the same patterns and in order to secure the route approvals and accessibility ratings to get their North Coast and South Coast Cruise Terminals active and running with multiple cruises per day the Dominican Republic will have to tow the line and tow the line they will, daam the mongers because tens of thousands spending hundreds and thousands each, every day creates the opportunity to launder a whole hella lot of drug money and all the profits and taxes from the vendors will be the icing on the cake.
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
- Benjamin Franklin
Administrator
They have welfare and public housing in this State whereas they have nothing in the DR.
They also pay the Police well and the cops have a retirement program where as in DR, they just have bribes.
Paid subscriber of I.S.O.C. & member of the Stash.
Grand Paradise in Samana (Galeras) has most EXCELLENT food, very high quality.. although not as good as couple years ago... way better than Casa Marina in sosua, which sometimes serves SHIT i would not feed my dog if i had one.. (same Corporate Outfit Amhsa Marina)
So , it depends on WHERE you are, even if the AI has the the same, or owned by the same corp.. I Never generalize about AI's , they are all completely different. Like Snowflakes and Mongers..
Chica Aficionado
You know I've spent more time in review and assessment of my life in this, my 60th year on the planet and in this skin than at any other time ever and I can assure you, when you start counting every blessing from your very 1st breath, binky and baby blanky to the last really unforgettable all nighter-bucketlist-quality-Pornshow-worthy session with a Woman young enough to be your granddaughter you begin to realize that life really IS LONG and if you're living it right, one time around is enough.
Don Rico & "A Designated Diver"
I did enjoy flying, up until 9-11-2001 and the flight-restrictions and the Washington, DC ADIZ ... plus other factors, that added up until flying wasn't worth it to me any more. I loved it, and I'm proud of it, but I've played that game enough and it was time to move on.
Now ... I love sailing. I'm challenged by it; I find a lot of joy in surmounting the challenges and building my competence. My goal for the 2014 sailing season (April through October or so) is to get myself comfortable living (part-time anyways) aboard my present boat, sailing the Chesapeake Bay ... and maybe in 2015 or so I'll move up to enough boat that I can live aboard full-time, cast off the shore-lines, and Sail Beyond The Sunset.
It's as Chuck Yeager said ... do what you love, as long as you can; and when you can't do it any more, find something else you love and do that.
I'm still "Just A Lurker."
The Chinese virus infected the Western world with Chinese-style totalitarian politics. - Gladiator
The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary. – H. L. Mencken
Administrator
I was hanging with a 29 year old Swiss Girl in Boca last week and she was young enough to be my daughter.
Administrator
We do more in one 12 day trip than most people do in 5 trips which may take them 20 years to finish.
Chica Aficionado
They are tiny. Aruba has a population of 101,000 (up from 66,000 in 1991) and Sint Maarten is 55,000 (up from 5,000 in 1968) and eco groups are going nuts as these waters are obviously "fished out" as far as tourism is concerned and so new venues must be developed.
Most of the work force has to be flown into those countries from other places in the Caribbean Basin but the D.R. has a huge base of prospective employees and the potential for a logistical renaissance and I'm forecasting this cruise ship port thingy to get bigger and bigger in the D.R. until at some point folks will no longer be flying to MIA or FLL and boarding outbound cruise ships but one day they will have USCIS personnel permanently stationed at SDQ, POP, PUJ and LRM just like they've had at AUA to process American tourists since they renovated the terminals in the late 90's and got rid of the roll out ramps. Cruise passengers from the USA will start and end their oceanic cruise journeys from Dominican ports one day, mark my word. There are fortunes to be made as the winds of change are blowing at gale force and screaming: "Out with the old and in with the new!"
There will be a Disney Resort and theme park in the Dominican Republic one day.
Administrator
I think DR will always have a massive poor population which will service the few of us that know how to farm these poor chicas.
Chica Aficionado
In 20 years the floaters across the Mona Straight will be travelling in the other direction.
B o D - Probationary - 03/07/2013
Resort maybe but Theme Park? Never happen. Not unless the Dominican economy goes through a huge boom. Disney would never build a (multi-billion dollar) theme park that relies so heavily on the fickle hand of tourism and little to no local customer base. Water park, maybe. Theme park? No chance. The DR will have a space program before they get a Disney Theme Park.
Unless you meant that as sarcasm in which case.... lol
Administrator
DR will always be a service and cheap labor country since they don't have oil, or invent anything.Resort maybe but Theme Park? Never happen. Not unless the Dominican economy goes through a huge boom. Disney would never build a (multi-billion dollar) theme park that relies so heavily on the fickle hand of tourism and little to no local customer base. Water park, maybe. Theme park? No chance. The DR will have a space program before they get a Disney Theme Park.
Unless you meant that as sarcasm in which case.... lol
Administrator
Guys like you and me have a plan while most others do first and think later.
Chica Aficionado
Bro, I laugh and joke with the best of them but on this, I'm dead serious.Resort maybe but Theme Park? Never happen. Not unless the Dominican economy goes through a huge boom. Disney would never build a (multi-billion dollar) theme park that relies so heavily on the fickle hand of tourism and little to no local customer base. Water park, maybe. Theme park? No chance. The DR will have a space program before they get a Disney Theme Park.
Unless you meant that as sarcasm in which case.... lol
Disney made their initial venture gambles work, not on the further development of already well developed areas but building in Anaheim at a time (1955) when there was plenty of farmland available and not much else was there. They built the original on a 160 acre lot. They expanded in 1966, 1972, 1993 and 2001. and to date the property has hosted 630 million visitors from all over the World, not a local market because in 1955 there was no local market. There were over 16 Million visitors to Disneyland in 2011 with almost 66,000 jobs supported by this single resort.
Then there's Disney World, opened in 1971 and was created out of a swamp in the middle of farmland and the way that they obtained the land around their building sites without starting a speculation free-for-all was nothing short of legendary in historical perspective. Walt Disney may have been the creative genius from whence the concept sprung but Rou Disney was 100% gangsta and long story short, they get 52.5 million visitors a year, covers 25,000 acres and houses 24 themed resorts, 4 theme parks, 2 water parks and a whole buncha' other shit, employing 66,000 with 1.2 billion in direct payroll and $474 million for benefit costs. EVERY YEAR.
Imagine a Disney operation or two in the D.R. employing 10's of 1,000's but at the Dominican wage and benefit scale, even improving that scale to attract the best and brightest and secure employee longevity for decades to come.
Imagine the support industry and logistics improvements and the people supported by that. Disney is just one employer but they're dying to do something in the Caribbean to expand on their cruise lines having added destinations and ships their expansion plans could very well take hold in the D.R. and with their aggressive Transatlantic and Panama Canal crossing and adding Sicily and Ibiza and a dozen other spots to the European ports of call they are blowing the fuck up and I think the D.R wants to get in on that type of action. They are well positioned and there are billion$ to be made.
It's like bidding to host the Olympics....but on a waay smaller scale. A lotto ticket to catapult an infrastructure in transition and inconsistent and aid-dependent economy and a work force living hand-to-mouth into a growing, vibrant economy with a well employed and well motivated work force (and well situated). I don't blame the Dominican government for taking a shot.
Administrator
A third one was opened in France and is failing.
I believe you can fly to the US from every country in the world. Getting to DR would be hard for many.
Chica Aficionado
...and Disney Japan...and Disney Hawaii (Aulani)...and this company is big enough to absorb the losses of any one site until they can work it into the black and they ALWAYS work their companies into the black eventually.
How many countries are connected by the cruise ship industry? Ships passing right by the island every day.
Name a developed country without a direct flight to one of D.R.'s International Airports...now how many are available on a 1 stop itinerary through EWR, IAD, CDG, ORD, ATL, ETC, ETC, ETC??
Administrator
Most American families won't fly to another country for Disney when we have the best one in Florida.
B o D - Probationary - 03/07/2013
And one in Tokyo, one in Hong Kong, soon to be one in Shanghai.
They have a few things in common - large MODERN cities, people with money, not dependent on tourism from outside the country for customer base...
The vast (VAST) majority of people in the DR couldn't afford to go to a Disney Park (they're fucking expensive) and the ones that can afford it can easily hop a flight to Orlando.
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