rattanchair
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Posts posted by rattanchair
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19 hours ago, clo said:
The "riffraff" aka locals are my favorite part of traveling. Anywhere.
They are great, until you get your pock picked.
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17 hours ago, ontheweb said:
I wonder how the natives of islands feel about the riff raff that come off the cruise ships.
Dear otw, You "hit the nail on the head".
I have ‘railed’ about this riffraff, this ‘crème de la crap’, this hoi polloi, the ‘great unwashed’ that I have seen of late aboard these cruise ships. It must be the exceptionally low prices like $299 for a week that has enticed the ‘street people’ to park their shopping carts under some over pass, pack these contents into a carry-on, fold up their cardboard signs and high-tail it to the nearest port for a dream vacation. You can instantly discern the ‘chaff’ on formal/chic nights when they present themselves all over the ship in their pajamas, ship supplied bathrobes (worn all day as well) or the same ‘street’ clothes they wear while ‘working the streets’.
“What a revoltin’ development this is !”
Edited just now by rattanchair
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When we were young, we enjoyed port intensive cruises, like hitting every attraction in Disney, Epcot , etc all in one day. Now the days seem shorter. No more 'death walks' in Florence, climbing Ayers Rock, or the pyramids of Egypt. Today a leisurely walk from the cabana, to a rainfall shower, to a gourmet lunch, to a balcony lounger for an afternoon nap on the high seas, followed by another rainfall shower, dressing up for another gourmet dinner, followed by a 45 minute show and throw in a jazz ensemble before being tucked into bed with sweet dreams of repeating everything tomorrow. Reminds me of the story of the old bull and the young bull on a hill over looking the herd down below....but that is a story for another time.
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4 hours ago, George C said:
Would you cruise if only ports were private islands or just a cruise to nowhere? This would not bother me at all I like being on a ship but do want to visit at least one beach. We stay on board for many Caribbean ports and all of them that tender.
Dear GC,
These private islands are the best destination besides the ship. No island riffraff, cleaner environment. My dream cruise ! I would only get off the ship for a private island.
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16 hours ago, Fogfog said:
May instead choose to be off early next time.
Dear ff, We always choose to get off first by using the services of our butler asking him (or her) to make sure we are the first to be escorted off as soon as the ship clears and further that we do not wish to assemble as a group to do this because there is always a 'slacker' in the YC group holding everyone up. I make this request as I am handing him several $100 bills for the week's service the night before. We have been taken so far the last three cruises, to a special gangway and are the first to get off the ship. Our luggage (8 suitcases) are the first (as all YC) off the ship in a separated area from the other luggage. We get the first porter to get us and our luggage out through customs. To this point MSC is the 'gem' of the cruising elite.
Now the hard part, getting through customs at 7:15 am with only 1 (ONE) customs officer on duty till "God knows when" and the line forms with all the other passengers that slipped by us with ONLY carry on luggage for the week cruise, as we were collecting our luggage via the porter. Then "to add insult to jury", the officials decide to break the one line into 2, just behind us, to squeeze more passengers into the terminal. So we are now at the end of the first line and everyone behind us goes ahead and is merged into one line again for the same ONE customs official at the front of our original line. Hardly MSC's fault. What could take a few minutes takes an hour. Then there are your fellow passengers that decide to leave the ship separately from their party and find when they get to this 'one' customs officer that he has his wife's passport and she is still on the ship with his, another big hold up, instead of step aside, special protocols have to be met before the line can continue.
In spite of all the terminal/customs 'rigamarole' we feel this has nothing to do with any cruise line and all to do with everything run by government inefficiency, inherent all over the world.
I am not a "friend" of any cruise line, but I am a "happy camper" of MSC.
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Some responses "are like water off a duck's back" with me. I am "willing to give the benefit of the doubt" to MSC and "look the other way" at some of their 'missteps' because I so much enjoyed their YC product. "Sticks and stones", "sticks and stones" and "your little dog too".
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'Fair-weather friend' is an idiom.... "Like barking up the wrong tree" or "Devil's advocate".
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I am not 'sick', but I am 'tired' of reading on this site, all the bemoaners wanting their money back and threatening all sorts of 'never agains'.
I am 'still 'a MSC cheerleader of their Yacht Club product in spite of this pandemic. I have two fully paid YC cabins with only 100% (not 125%) being transferred to something down the road. I have complete confidence that cruising and MSC will make a 'comeback' , as will most of the other cruise lines. What better way to show MSC I support them. I am making practcally 0% interest with it sitting in a bank account ( now if I could double my money before a comeback...hah,hah). No, I believe in "enough is enough". Is it MSC or are the other cruise lines attracting such a class of 'fair-weather' friends?
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It is a waiting game. I am going to 'guess' that there will be no cruises from US ports, from those lines which do not sign off on the CDC "expectations" ( I like your choice of words). It is obvious to the US that the $50 billion/ year (?) that the cruise industry brings to US ports does not have any 'weight' in 'this' CDC decision. The wait is until a vaccine is widely available, or will it? A variant of covid next year?
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This person was symptom free but but had virus for 40 days.
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5 minutes ago, Flatbush Flyer said:
Let's be clear that it's not ALL cruise lines (just like it wasn't all cruise lines requiring the ridiculous MD notes.
Just those cruise lines that wish to use US ports. I did start a topic a about a month ago , Will cruise lines stop using US ports?
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Cruise companies are allowed to disembark and repatriate people still trapped on ships around the U.S. by private transportation as long as their executives sign an agreement with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that holds the companies accountable for the process. They are refusing to do so. April 30, 2020 Miami .
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Dear bf, I am "cruising again",
In order to ameliorate my personal situation having taken the FCC on two fully paid and cancelled cruises and one just deposited for July 2020, and refunded deposit. I took ' to heart ' a reviewers sour cruise review I read here on CC last year of a cruise he took somewhere. He stated ,bluntly , that a week in his garage would have been better than his week cruise. So I moved our cars out of the garage (I have more 'living space' than most ships' suites); ordered 2 deck lounge chairs with 4" cushions (2" is standard for ships, delivered to my front door by Walmart); nice plush beach towels (minus ship's logo, unless you managed to not 'forget' to not pack the ship's); my decorative "Boca' towel clips to hold down said plush beach towels. I set up 2 box fans to provide my 'ocean breezes', have a TV set up ( though have not found the time to watch anything being 'hooked' to the CC message boards waiting for the CLIA to come up with "robust" protocols to satisfy the CDC to rescind the 100 day No-Sail-Order). And besides there is really no time considering my morning and after lunch naps in my deck lounger.
I have this huge double door refrigerator (never threw out the old one) plugged in , filled with my favorite libations and a dozen 'big' cans of pringles (not those 10 chip ones you all complain are never refilled in your cabin). DW provides me with a lunch and dinner menu ('verbal menus' so as to cut down on virus transfer). And when it is balcony time, which is all day, I simply press a button from my lounger and the garage double door automatically goes up. I have this great view of the sea that I fondly remember from all my past voyages (No, I do not live on the water, I just envision it and 'voila' it appears).
I choose to live "La vida loca". 'Attitude' is the only thing in life we get to choose.
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In order to ameliorate my personal situation having taken the FCC on two fully paid and cancelled cruises and one just deposited for July 2020, and refunded deposit. I took ' to heart ' a reviewers sour cruise review I read here on CC last year of a cruise he took somewhere. He stated ,bluntly , that a week in his garage would have been better than his week cruise. So I moved our cars out of the garage (I have more 'living space' than most ships' suites); ordered 2 deck lounge chairs with 4" cushions (2" is standard for ships, delivered to my front door by Walmart); nice plush beach towels (minus ship's logo, unless you managed to not 'forget' to not pack the ship's); my decorative "Boca' towel clips to hold down said plush beach towels. I set up 2 box fans to provide my 'ocean breezes', have a TV set up ( though have not found the time to watch anything being 'hooked' to the CC message boards waiting for the CLIA to come up with "robust" protocols to satisfy the CDC to rescind the 100 day No-Sail-Order). And besides there is really no time considering my morning and after lunch naps in my deck lounger.
I have this huge double door refrigerator (never threw out the old one) plugged in , filled with my favorite libations and a dozen 'big' cans of pringles (not those 10 chip ones you all complain are never refilled in your cabin). DW provides me with a lunch and dinner menu ('verbal menus' so as to cut down on virus transfer). And when it is balcony time, which is all day, I simply press a button from my lounger and the garage double door automatically goes up. I have this great view of the sea that I fondly remember from all my past voyages (No, I do not live on the water, I just envision it and 'voila' it appears).
I choose to live "La vida loca". 'Attitude' is the only thing in life we get to choose.
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31 minutes ago, kwokpot said:
Another subscription to view content.
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Are you the marketing agent for the Washington Post? In order to read or watch this video I have to subscribe for $49.I get all the news I desire on the CC for free. Thanks.
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1 hour ago, JT1962 said:
we will be checking body temperatures of all guests intending to board our ships using temporal scanning thermometers.
I can just see us all arriving at the port popping 2-4 tylenol tabs before getting in line for the thermal scan.
And at every port of call, being accosted by hawkers of acetaminophen, should the ship continue thermal scanning before re-boarding the ship.
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The question still remains. Will any passengers be allowed to re-enter should they be found infected when cruising begins again? There is a second wave predicted for this fall.
P.S. Caveat emptor...
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1 minute ago, jimbo5544 said:
Understand what the no sail said, was expressing my thoughts as why they had to reply in 7 days if they cannot sail for 60
Because saying something and putting it into practice takes time, in US opinion 100 days or less.
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Here is my hope. Cruise lines stepped up to the plate after the Achille Lauro terrorist attack and put in place protocols that to this day have worked. Today the cruise lines have another 'terrorist', Covid and all its cousins to come. They can stick their heads in the sand and hope it goes away for now or they can be proactive and instead of building 2 or 3 more ships put the money into protocols that make cruising the safest, most sterile mode of travel. One in which people book 100 day cruises to 'no-where' to avoid a future pandemic, knowing that cruise ships have become a 'safe' haven.
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16 hours ago, jimbo5544 said:
Since the date is still 2 months away, what’s the rush?
They were given 7 days from the second "Framework" proposal April 9. Read the No-Sail-Order.
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1 hour ago, LHT28 said:
as I said just have cruises for US citizens embarking/disembarking in the USA only 😷
This new Order would probably include 'trips to no-where'. Page 5 "The director of the CDC finds that cruise ship travel exacerbates the global spread of Covid.... and has not been controlled sufficiently by the cruise ship industry...cruise ship travel increases the risk and impact of Covid outbreak within the US. If unrestricted cruise ship passenger operations were permitted to resume, infected and exposed cases would divert medical resources ..." "The Director also finds evidence to support a reasonable belief that cruise ships are or may be infected or contaminated with a quarantinable communicable disease."
It appears this Order might be extended past 100 days ("If permitted to continue").
Times are a changing..
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1 hour ago, Elaine5715 said:
Federal law trumps state and local. US Citizens with proof of citizenship cannot be denied re-entry into the US at the border.
US officials notified passengers aboard the Diamond Princess that they would be denied re-entry "until you are no longer at risk of spreading infection during travel."
Would you cruise if only ports were private islands?
in Ask a Cruise Question
Posted
There is a nice thing about port intensive cruises, it empties the ship for a more enjoyable afternoon.