K32682

It's a bad practice to travel with credit cards at or near the limit. Credit isn't hard to get and I always travel with at least two high-limit cards to cover most eventualities.

For cruising and travel go small but don't go cheap. The big Steiners shown above are great until you want to take them on a shore excursion. Try a few in the store. I prefer 7x-8x because 10 and above tends to amplify any unsteadiness you have in your hands. My binoculars for travel are a now-discontinued pair of Bausch and Lomb (now Bushnell) Elite 7X36. Were I to need to replace them I'd be looking at Zeiss, Leica or Swarovski in the $1,000-$2,000 range. Expensive but good optics are worth it.

Panic is the result of poor preparation and not paying attention. I've been on two flights during which the oxygen masks dropped. A few of us put them on immediately but most people just stared at them wondering what to do next. How many flight safety demonstrations had they been through? Every single one tells you what to do when the mask falls.

The manner in which the question is asked makes the automatic assumption that cruising is the best type of vacation. The are reasons cruises are desirable and reasons they are not but they are not automatically the "best." It depends on personal tastes and what you prefer to do on vacation.

It isn't.

$24USD per year is worth every Lincoln cent. With NEXUS/Global Entry I avoid the imbecile line at airport security, go through YYZ pre-clearance in minutes, breeze through at land crossings and avoid the horror show of customs and immigration when entering the U.S. from another country.

The people who would do that are cruisers who know nothing about what they are buying and fail to realize that when they step off the big boat they are marks, walking ATM machines, who are there to be fleeced in every possibly manner. You don't find many reputable art dealers at dockside. Caveat emptor.

It's one thing if you know what you are buying is made elsewhere. No doubt there are cruisers in for a shock should they try and sell what they believed was genuine indigenous art from the Arctic and for which they paid full price.

Might want to check the name on the bottom. You may have bought a fake. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-alaska-philippines-made-indigenous-art/ "The stone carving depicted a bear grasping a fish in its mouth, its supposed authenticity sealed with the engraved name of its Tlingit artist, Kilit. It was sold at a shop in Ketchikan that catered to the millions of cruise ship tourists who pass through this coastal town eager to bring home a piece of coastal Alaska. The price: US$3,200. But Kilit did not exist, and the carving did not originate in Alaska. It was made in the Philippines, as part of a sophisticated operation that, for many years, stocked two shops in Ketchikan with humpbacks, bears, dolphins and eagles sculpted 10,000 kilometres away."

I bring prescription medications in the bottle with the label but not those medications I can buy over the counter.

If you are a Street Foodie you may never see the inside of a Michelin Starred Restaurant. Amazing street food in Tokyo.

I've been to both cities. Sydney as described above is certainly more user friendly which is to be expected in any place where everyone speaks English and you can read the signs. Otherwise it's just another English-speaking city among many. But if you've never been to Japan and have an interest then I would definitely take that option. It is a fascinating city, with a very different culture, history and things to see and do. I have zero interest in going back to Sydney but would return to Tokyo.

I have no quarrel with vegetarian food and eat it often but one taste of a Beyond burger and I was off the program. It is perplexing that the vegetarian movement seems committed to promoting food stuffs and look like and sort of taste like meat if you are sufficiently intoxicated.

As you are not certain you will need cash I would suggest waiting until you are there and decide. ATMs are very common in Japan and consider any transactions fees as the cost of convenience. In the greater scheme of things the difference between a good deal and a bad deal on currency exchange is not that significant or worth jumping through hoops over.

"Best vegetarian burger" falls into the category of damning with faint praise. The reason you probably couldn't get one last year is lack of demand. If you know anyone in the casual/QSR dining space they will candidly admit these offerings are there more for political reasons. Despite the media hype they aren't as big sellers as the vegetarian mafia would have you believe.