Toofarfromthesea

It's not about controlling anyone, it is about avoiding situations where you are forced to deal with things you don't want to deal with. As in, if you don't want to be around predominantly Europeans rather than Americans, and are discomfited by the child rearing practices of certain European cultures, then MSC, my favorite, wouldn't be a good choice.

I second the train ride in Flam. Maybe you could contact your cruise line and see whether they can make a wheelchair available to Mum for excursions? Alternatively see if you can rent a lightweight folding wheelchair for the duration of the cruise.

No one can answer that question that long into the future.

Wow, almost none of her question had to do with insurance, which was completely tangential to her ta question, and most of you got into a big insurance discussion that had nothing to do with her real question.

How does asking her if she wants to transfer the booking and get some perks translate to pushing hard? Where does offering a incentive end and pushing begin?

One of my favorite cruises was the length of the Mississippi from MN to NOLA. But mucho expensive - definitely a one shot deal.

I've never cruised Carnival, but in the unlikely event I ever cruise again it will likely be in the MSC Yacht Club, on Celebrity, or on Holland America, in that order.

Yes, well, people say a lot of foolish thing because they fail to look at empirical facts. Me? I'm an empirical guy.

I have a little list They never will be missed

The real problem is that Carnival eliminated the raw beefsteak and the frozen bag of peas late night options for the brawlers. 😝

I can't definitively contradict you, but I'd be astounded if that was correct.

Avoiding Carnival is the best solution, apparently. I just googled XXXXX Cruise line brawl, for Carnival, RCCL, NCL, MSC, Holland America. One altercation came up for each of NCL, RCCL, and MSC. None for Holland America or Celebrity. But each Google search came up with several links to brawls on Carnival ships. My favorite was a 60 person brawl on Carnival Magic last July apparently caused by a passenger 3-way followed by cheating complaints. In all likelihood fueled by copious amounts of alcohol.

For a change, you and I are in complete agreement, which is why I expect my sailing days are over.

All those CLs look alike.

Absolutely agree. Krakow in particular. I was there as a college student in the summer of '74 for 5 weeks and then went back in 2016 as a retired tourist. Night and day. If for some reason I couldn't live in the US, Krakow, Poland would be my first choice.

Check out this one. https://www.amazon.com/THERMOS-FUNTAINER-Stainless-Vacuum-Insulated/dp/B00DAPQV0K?ref_=ast_sto_dp&th=1&psc=1

We have had good success, at home, with a combination of a house-wide (but not garden) water softener and reverse osmosis going to a kitchen sink tap and the water/ice maker on the fridge. This was in both CA and AZ, both of which had foul tasting water.

That's true, but once you add other things it really isn't distilled water any more.

While ship water is purified I highly doubt that it is distilled water, as distilled water tastes bad. I'd guess that they use some kind of reverse osmosis.

I can't speak to this practice, but in some European countries, some of the worst currency exchange ripoffs I saw proudly posted the Western Union logo. So beware and be aware of what the exchange rate should be. When I want some foreign currency for a trip I simply order it from my bank, Wells Fargo.

If you never gave a cc number I seriously doubt if you are actually booked.

I agree. We look at our cards as profit (in points) centers, not fee centers.

We did 2 cruises, Med and Baltic, in the yacht club - Divina and Meraviglia - and loved it. If we ever return to cruising it will be in the yacht club.

To be fair though, it wasn't really expressed as 'I'm going to look for a better deal elsewhere' so much as 'they did me wrong and I'm going to punish them'. That may or may not have been the intent, but that is how they came across, IMO. I would also add that it is exactly because life can get crazy that they made calendar and alarm apps for phones.

It is hard to imagine forgetting dates when we are surrounded with technology we can use to give ourselves reminders.