ilikeanswers

If you think $100 note is problematic try a $2 note. Americans don't believe it is real money😂.

All the cars I have rented included CDW (Collision Damage Waiver) or LDW (Loss Damage Waiver). My travel insurance covers the excess cost up to $4000 or $6000 depending on the company.

Gift cards should be treated like cash when you receive them put them straight in the wallet. Had a friend who was doing a house clean out found $600 worth of gift cards, more than half had already expired😭.

But if it is 92c you save with cash since that rounds down.

Maybe try some coconut scented soap. Apparently mozzies don't like coconut scent: You really are a mosquito magnet. Here’s what you can do about it.

For small flies we would use to get take away containers punch little holes into the lid and fill the container with a mixture of vinegar and water. Hated emptying that thing out🤢.

I haven't read the Mount Tamborine story but are we certain they are not cut off people who ran out of resources? Sometimes looting can be out of desperation if you are cut off for longer than expected. I remember that happened during one of Florida’s hurricanes, people were pretty peeved about being labelled looters😂. They even paid for the stuff they took when the shop owners returned.

I suspect it is all about population. Australia and New Zealand pop is only about 30 million combined compared to USA with 332 million or Europe with 741 million. The reality is not everyone cruises and if the cruising population is 10% it would be significantly more people out of 332 million than 30 million. Combine that with the trend towards bigger and bigger ships the cruise lines need a population they know can fill those ships. Unless we can convince the growing middle class of China and India to hop on a Pacific cruise I just don't see how we could have the numbers to sustain year long cruising🤷‍♀️.

That is really the main point. If the OP doesn't see value in the travel agent then perhaps either find another travel agent or start booking direct. Personally I have yet to find one of these amazing travel agents that offer anything better than what I find myself or go above and beyond to service me. My experiences have been either exasperating or disappointing.

I'm always curious why people with severe sea sickness chose to cruise. I see threads pop up all the time asking what drugs to take to alleviate sea sickness and I wonder is a trip really worth being drugged up to survive it? I suppose it is not that different to having to take Malaria tablets at some destinations, though personally I wouldn't be repeating that trip again and again😂.

I suppose that would assume what the cruise ship crew tell the authorities is the reason for wanting to disembark the passenger. They may choose to leave out the part about the drugs and only tell them it was because of his behaviour towards other passengers.

Out of curiosity if a ship wants to disembark a passenger would they need permission from the country they want to send the passenger to? I would assume the country would want some proof that said passenger can realistically make their way home in a timely manner from their forced disembarkation point🤔?

If there are cameras something must have been wrong with them because the OP was asked to ID the perpetrator from a selection of photos. The OP even said the first selection of photos were of black and Asian men when they specified it was a white man. If there was video then the staff should not have made that mistake🤷‍♀️.

That is lucky. The last place I knew that made that pie closed down. As such is life🤷‍♀️. Fancy pie last night butcher made chicken and tarragon. Ver nice flaky pastry and really nice succulent chicken. Definitely one to buy again. Tomorrow trying the lamb ragu pie.

Sadly Vietnam will have less junk soon: Vietnam's popular sailing junks face extinction

The residents definitely said the businesses are owned by the cruise companies subsidiary corporations. I know cruise companies can contract local operators to work for them but the residents were complaining that cruise companies let those contracts end and replaced them with their own businesses providing the same services. Maybe the 80% was an exaggeration on the person interviewed then again if you could keep all the profits instead of sharing what corporation would ever want to contract a local business?

Unfortunately that does seem to happen in tourist hot spots. I remember an article years ago of central Amsterdam residents complaining about having to travel to the outer suburbs to get their grocery shopping because all the local shops had been replaced by souvenir shops. Maybe local councils in places like that need to consider quotas on tourist stores so there can be space for businesses that cater to local needs. The only reason I had focused on the cruise owned businesses is because I had seen a couple of days ago a news piece of one of the Alaskan ports (can't remember the name and having never travelled there I am not familiar with the area) where the residents complained that 80% of the tourist business was owned by the cruise company and they had effectively pushed out most the local businesses. One of them had said they would be quite happy for those businesses to shut down so the locals could "take back the tourist dollar". Maybe there is a conversation to be had about whether cruise companies should be allowed to run on shore businesses🤔.

In case it is not Iceland I'd guess Tel Aviv?

From what I read a lot of locals seem to complain about local stores being replaced with cruise company owned businesses so they might actually be pleased with those businesses shutting down😂.

To me travel blogs in general have gone down in quality. I remember reading blogs that recounted experiences good, bad and the mundane while giving real practical advice. There was one blog years ago that helped me navigate the border crossing between Belize and Guatemala. The bloggers photographed all the buildings you needed to find to get all the documents. Sure it wasn't pretty but it was useful. Now everything is Instagram perfect photos that look like screensaver shots with gushing descriptions of destinations but light on details about transportation, tickets, times or how to visit or just any advice to make your travel easier. IMO travel blogs seem to have turned into nothing but pretty advertising.

It would be nice if cruise (and I would also add airlines to this pet peeve) websites clearly listed all the additional payments. One of the things I hate is having to do a mock booking just to discover the additional payments. A simple drop down box with all the listed prices of add ons displayed on the selection page would make working out the total cost of a cruise or flight much less tedious.

You should check if there is not a refund due to medical reasons clause. My mum's flights were suppose to be non refundable but I did a little digging in the terms and conditions and found you could be eligible for a refund if the reason for not travelling is medical. So we gave it a go sending mum's discharge papers through their enquiry box and it worked she got refunded. It was a pleasant surprise to an otherwise horrible situation.

I really feel for you as my mum had similar situation with her trip. She was suppose to be in Greece right now but a week before flying out a cyclist hit her breaking a bone in her foot. Doctors say it might be up to six months before it is back to normal. Sadly it is the second time she has had to cancel her Greece trip, the first because of the Covid pandemic☹️. It really sucks to have to cancel a long awaited trip. Hopefully you can retry for your trip when you recover. Good luck and heal well🫂

Hawaii is an archipelago state so I would assume based on my experience with island countries the airport was built with the goal for islanders and goods to be able to get on and off the islands. I am sure there is always hope for tourism when building an airport but I think it would be a heck of a gamble to build an airport to try and attract tourists. If you build it they will come only works in the movies😂.

I think you misread my comment. I clearly said tourism is an incidental benefit so I never said tourists do not use airports but airports are not built for tourists the way cruise ship ports are. The main purpose of airports is to connect locals to wider communities and networks. It is why so many airports around the world are in debt and usually heavily subsidised by governments because they view isolation as having worst consequences than the debt of an airport. Obviously if a place becomes touristy resulting in more people using an airport it can lead to expansion of the airport because of tourists but airports don't get commissioned for the sole purpose of tourists.