I have hundreds of 1/10oz gold eagles and I paid $40 each for them. They are the size of a dime. I can easily stash away a couple thousand dollars of emergency money using these. Unlike people in the US who don't really know anything about gold, I've found that people in other countries are completely familiar with it and comfortable using it for barter in good times and bad. I hope I never have to use it but I am completely confident that I can successfully use it if necessary. I have no qualms about "raising flags" if I needed to convert some gold into cash to buy airline tickets.

I really like Glock-A-Roo's tip about 1st/2nd/3rd line of gear. Very compelling. I'm going to incorporate this philosophy.

The handpresso looks very cool too. I found out today that we have no baggage limits - I was reading a list from Carnival Cruise lines but we're on Royal Caribbean so carrying a coffee kit is now a possibility.

As for the "don't become friends with the crew" - I've been on a a few cruises and I've always done the complete opposite. I severely over-tip the cabin steward/housekeeper for my room and go out of my way to make their job easier and I try to be as friendly as possible to every crew member and make friends with them and it's fun listening to how they ended up working on a cruise ship and getting to know them. This has paid off in countless ways on many trips. Royal Caribbean does not automatically add gratuities to your room or food bills so tipping can go a long way towards getting the staff on your side especially if there are a lot of European and South American passengers who aren't used to tipping and don't tip at all. But perhaps the original comment about the crew is digging at something deeper. I'm not a big drinker so I would never go down into the bowels of the ship to some wild drinking/drugs party with the crew. Now that would be putting yourself in a dangerous spot of vulnerability in my opinion.