brillohead

On 12/8/2023 at 6:39 PM, jagsfan said:

My younger brother had a bad case of chicken pox. I was at least 13 or 14 and remember it clearly. 
My other brother and I never caught it. 
3 years ago, after a friend went through hell with shingles, I asked my primary about getting Shingrex.
He tested Dick and me and we both had the virus in our systems. 
Neither  of us has any recollection of having chickenpox. 

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!

On 12/7/2023 at 10:21 AM, Keksie said:

Lately it is so hard to not post but it is the Holidays and I don't want to play Monopoly.  Sigh.  Therefore, I am going to make a couple different cookies for the tractor party tomorrow and put together a white elephant gift for my yarn party Sunday.  

On 12/7/2023 at 10:49 AM, Ocean Boy said:

But you know I love lighthouses.

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

On 12/9/2023 at 5:10 PM, voyager70 said:

Hate to ask but is a she-wee the Aussie version of a porta potty?

On 12/9/2023 at 5:21 PM, Coralc said:

Diaper. No port-a-potties in the pen. 

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.

9 hours ago, screenname2004 said:

in the instructions, they did mention about lunch at MDR starting at 11:30 am but I think is is the same lunch for the new cruisers and not anythin special for consecutive cruisers.

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:

 

3 minutes ago, sgmn said:

No idea, think its historic.  As I said it's being lowered from 01Sept 23 to 65, but us guys who are over 65 but below 70 will have to wait till over 70 which is a bit frustrating 

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

45 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

The CDC recommends Shingrix for older adults whether they recall (or know) if they had chicken pox.  Believe it or not!

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.

14 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

I’m seriously contemplating getting the shingles vaccine as I know a few that have had it and I’d rather not get it. 

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.

16 hours ago, chloes_mom said:

I was wondering if the monkey and sloth place felt like a sanctuary or more like a zoo. My daughter is concerned about the welfare of the animals. 

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.

12 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

I have never heard of a consecutive cruisers meeting the second to last day of a cruise. Is this something new? I haven’t done a B2B since this past January on Wonder. 

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.

This spoof of Black Friday made me think of the Royal "sales":

 

For the cat people:

All the Kraken egg nog drinks made me think of this one:

 

On 12/1/2023 at 12:49 PM, Tree_skier said:

Top 5 greatest Christmas movies that must be watched each year... 

 

5. Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer (1964)

4. Frosty the Snowman (1969)

3. How the Grinch stole Christmas. (1966)

2. A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

 

 

 

 

< insert drum roll here>

 

 

 

1. Die Hard. (1988)

 

 

On 12/3/2023 at 8:10 AM, Ourusualbeach said:

A couple of miles north of me this guy escaped from the zoo and is successfully eluding those trying to find him.  Not everyday you can drive down the road and see a kangaroo in Canada.

4 minutes ago, Jimbo said:

Looking at it now, we would probably need Simply Unlimited for 2 phones ($80 per  month).

 

Paying  extra $10 per GB for data  in Flexible plan would really jack up our cost per month.

 

What does 5 GB of hotspot tethering mean?

 

Looks like Google Fi uses Tmobile towers.

The plan you choose really depends on how you use it.  Like I said, I have minimal data usage because most of the time I'm on wifi.  I was really impressed with the fact that they prorate the data -- I figured you'd have to pay $10 for each partial GB used, but if I only use .66GB, they charge me $6.60. 

The most I've used so far has been 2.25GB in one month, and that was when I traveled to AL for my family reunion, so I was using cellular data a lot more while I was down there.  My bill that month was $47.13.  Most of the rest have been $31-$33 per month.  

Tethering is when you use your phone as the wifi for another device, like a laptop or tablet.  

On 12/2/2023 at 5:41 PM, sandebeach said:

Two days ago on Symphony we had a medical evacuation on the Labadee pier. 

IMG_2256.mov

As a nurse myself, I have to say that I'd rather stay on the ship than get off for medical care in Haiti!!!

If bringing your own cord from home, just wrap it up with the regular power cord in the CPAP case and they won't even notice it in the X-ray process.  That's what I do with my extension for my laptop, and I have never once had it questioned (and I've been on 26 cruises since COVID).

12 hours ago, sadiwest said:

If we pay to bring our dd on the free 5 night (assuming capacity allows for it)....I'm wondering how getting her off the ship will work. I know "continuous cruisers" have a specific process, but I've seen minors on board asked to step aside when their parents weren't around to walk them off.   Might we be able to leave with her (one of us anyway) to meet someone picking her up, yet leave our stuff on the ship?

The one leaving with her would need to get an "in transit" pass and the SeaPass for the second cruise at Guest Services the last morning.  I would set it up earlier in the cruise so they have it printed and ready for you to pick up.  

After taking her off the ship to meet her ride, you'd then need to wait until General Boarding is started to get back on the ship.  The "in transit" card allows you to bypass the checking-in process.  


When it comes to changing rooms, I prefer to go meet my new room's attendant the night before and make arrangements to bring my suitcases down to the new room around 8:30.  This gives the previous occupants time to get out, and then I just put my items in the closet so they're out of the way of the cleaners.  I also check with the new room attendant to see what time I can get into my room that day -- usually they have my room available by 11:00, so I can go in and get unpacked right away.

You can leave your luggage for the room attendant to move, but they have so much to do that I hate to add on to their turn-around-day tasks.  Plus, by moving them myself, I know for a fact that nothing got forgotten or lost or put into the wrong room (I know of people who have had that happen).  Additionally, my belongings are available to me right away, whereas sometimes the room attendants don't get them delivered until mid-afternoon.  

There really isn't anything to "do" the morning of turn-around-day, so moving my luggage burns up a couple minutes of my time.  

5 hours ago, Jussabitconfused said:

Thanks for this information. My daughter wants to go to the sea life center in Seward, Alaska on a B2B in May. I was hoping we could get off early go to the center and get back on, without too much effort, later. Do I get this card at Guest Services?

Yes, you'll need to let them know in advance that this is your plan, and then you can get your new SeaPass card and the "in transit" pass at Guest Services that morning. 

The "in transit" pass is what you show as you're arriving back at the terminal so people know that you don't need to go through the whole "check-in" process.  You'll still need to go through security and the x-ray machines, but after that you just get on the ship without stopping at the check-in desk.

On 12/2/2023 at 1:23 PM, Jimbo said:

Just switching over the cable TV to (You tube TV) and Cell Phones to (Verizon)

Have you looked into Google Fi for cellular service?

I switched to them from Verizon last year and I'm only paying ~$35/month including fees and taxes. (I don't use a lot of data, as I have wifi at home and at work, so that plan works well for me.)

6 hours ago, George C said:

from what I understand cruise line charges a couple of hundred a day for a service animal.

This isn't true.  

Just be aware that the other person might not be notified that they received a message -- they might have to intentionally log into the app and check for new messages.

You can also leave voicemail messages on the room phone.