brillohead

Saw this and it made me think of @A&L_Ont's love of all things raisin! 🤣

Pretty much anywhere that sells beds will sell you a Split King Adjustable Bed. I got my (full size, non-split) adjustable frame and a memory foam mattress from Sam's Club probably 4-5 years ago, and I love it!

Greg, with your love of holiday decorating (and your love of KC sports teams), I think the Jellyfish Lighting is something that will bring you a lot of enjoyment for years to come. You put the investment into the artificial turf for the back yard, so it makes sense to make an investment in the front of the house, too. If you weren't planning on being in the house long-term, I'd say go on a cruise instead, but since you plan on being there for a long time still, the lighting is something that will make your life a LOT easier for the foreseeable future.

I have NEVER seen this allowed, and I've been on quite a few Oasis class cruises.

Then you will DEFINITELY not like Oasis class. For me, Freedom class is the "just right" size for me. The Solarium is bigger (than Voyager class) with more shaded loungers, and you don't spend half the day walking from one end to the other (like Oasis class).

Any chance that someone in your group is a small child? They usually don't count little kids.

Bring back Tutti Salad in the MDR for lunch!!!

I don't see Royal ever sinking Big Money into Labadee like they did Coco Cay.... the government in Haiti is just too corrupt and unpredictable to make an investment there like Royal did in the Bahamas.

No, one person books the cabana and then ANY seven other people can join in.

This is the BEST add-on service ever, IMO. Totally worth the fee to not have to deal with collecting your luggage in the terminal, lugging it through the CBP line, lugging it to whatever mode of transport you're using to get to the airport, lugging it into the airport terminal and through the line to get it checked in, etc. Probably the ONLY thing I ever charge to my onboard account, other than the daily service charge. I'll NEVER turn down this service!

I'm guessing the pool right at the edge of the first one, versus the other one just being on a beach.

Same for Southwest Michigan! It's not unusual to see a whole bunch of them beside the road across the street from a pharmaceutical plant. Makes me wonder if they're getting "turkey superpowers" from chemical contamination! 🤣

And then you have to add in the fact that the average age of a cruiser (particularly on the "smaller" ships that don't appeal to families as much as the Oasis class and such) is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than the average age of the US population, which further increases the chances of mortality on each sailing.

That's why I loved doing the co-author thing with @Ozark_Kid... I didn't feel obligated to post something regularly, because I knew he'd be posting as well. I don't think I'd enjoy doing a Live Thread all on my own, especially with how slow the internet can be once in a while on board!

That's why my doc insisted on testing me.... he figured I had it when I was too young to remember having it, because it was VERY rare for someone born before 1990 to not have gotten chicken pox in childhood. It's an EXTREMELY contagious disease that spreads like a wildfire in California. He was shocked that I was correct and had never been exposed to the virus!

I just KNEW someone was gonna mention lighthouses.... those darn things are gonna live FOREVER on this thread!!!!

A she-wee is a device that allows someone with female private parts to go "number one" while standing up like a guy. There are a few different designs/brands, but the basic premise is the same -- an "extender" that gets inserted through the fly of your pants. It is NOT a diaper, just gives gals a way to "spell their name in the snow" like guys can.

No, the new cruisers don't have access* to lunch in the MDR on the first day -- that is a special menu that is only available to consecutive cruisers. *For people who purchased The Key, they do have access to a DIFFERENT lunch in the MDR with a limited Chops menu on boarding day.

So, I was wondering about the Canada Kangaroo, so I googled it and found this:

Pretty silly, since the cost of treating shingles is so much more than the cost of the vaccine!!!

In my case, a blood test confirmed that I've never had chicken pox. There is literally no way to get shingles without having previously had chicken pox (shingles is a reactivation of the dormant virus in the body), so there is no need for a Shingrix vaccine for someone who has never had the virus in their body. For people who "can't remember" whether or not they had chicken pox as a child, getting the vaccine is the "better safe than sorry" route, because the VAST majority of adults over the age of 50 in the USA had chicken pox as a child because they used to have "chicken pox parties" when it came to the neighborhood to make sure all the kids got it out of the way at once. I would guess that 95-98% of people my age had chicken pox as a child, so most people who think they didn't have it as a child probably DID get it when they were too young to remember, or they had a mild case. That's where the recommendation for "everyone" to get the shingles vaccine comes from. But since me not having had it was confirmed via titer blood test, there is no need for me to get the shot to be better safe than sorry.

I had a pharmacist who looked over my vaccine records and tried to talk me into getting the shingles shot. I stopped him in his tracks when I told him I couldn't get shingles because I'd never had chicken pox! I'm probably one of the only people in this thread who never got the pox as a child. It had gone around our neighborhood before I was adopted, and I never did get exposed after that. I had asked my PCP for the chicken pox vaccine, and he didn't believe that I'd never had the pox as a child -- he said I'd probably had a mild case and didn't know it. So he had my blood drawn to check my titers and lo and behold, I hadn't ever been exposed to chicken pox. Then before I could get the vaccine, I was potentially exposed at my son's school!!! Here I had been trying to be proactive and get the vaccine, and then I spent a day volunteering in my son's kindergarten classroom and two days later found out that someone in the class had chicken pox that week. I then had to scramble to get the first dose of the vaccine on a Friday afternoon -- I got VERY lucky. I watched my grandmother suffer with shingles for years, so I'm very glad that it's something that I don't have to worry about dealing with.

I've been there a couple times, and I feel like the animals are well cared for. All of the animals are "rescues" or owner-surrenders (or naturally occurred from breeding there) -- they do not purchase animals at all. And while the cages might look small for the monkeys, they get time out of the enclosures when there aren't customers there. One time when I was there, a monkey and her baby got out of the enclosure when a guest wasn't paying attention when they entered, and many of the guests were kinda freaking out that the animal was going to run away, but the staff didn't even blink an eye and went about their ordinary business. That's when I found out that the monkeys get lots of playtime outside of the enclosures when people aren't around, so the staff weren't worried about the momma/baby duo on the loose, b/c they knew they'd just go back into the enclosure voluntarily later in the day when things quieted down. In fact, the sloths aren't caged at all -- they are just loose in the trees on the property along the water's edge. And the staff are very careful to make sure the guests holding the sloths know how to hold them securely and not to make any quick motions that might scare the sloths, etc. To me, an animal that is mistreated or unhappy is unlikely to breed and carry a pregnancy to term, and also is unlikely to voluntarily return to a cage. (They don't intentionally breed the animals, but they do allow nature to take its course.)

Do you have a rental scooter or wheelchair lined up for him to use on board? Because if he can't walk far enough to get onto the ship, he's going to have trouble getting around once on board. Symphony's a very large ship.

I don't think it's been done that way for several years. Or maybe it's just certain itineraries that have different customs/border patrol requirements. But I've certainly never done it on any cruise out of the USA over the past five years.