OT re gold -- Gold has been money for approx 5000 years. Other than that we'd need to start a new topic.

As for this Caribbean cruise, I don't see gold or silver being anywhere near necessary to get by, the US dollar is good just about anywhere. If the US dollar was close to collapse due to hyperinflation I'd put off the cruise entirely even if it meant losing the money already spent, but we're not there yet... maybe by August