Lane Hog

One of the two tagged for China could easily be redirected once the Chinese built is certified next year. I'd question whether or not Carnival will ever run a smaller ship under the Carnival brand, but I could see them shifting more ships around to create a smaller market brand. Carnival by Costa could have been the first dip of the toe towards a larger branding shift. I keep looking at HAL and Princess's target (older Boomers looking for an elite adventure) and wonder if that's a shrinking demographic which won't be backfilled as quickly as it's dying off...

For Pre-check they don't care about your choice of footwear. However.... if there's any supporting metal in the boots (e.g. an arch support or steel toe) it's going to set of the magnetometer, and you'll be asked to remove them and run them thru the x-ray. Depending on the boots, the eyelets for lacing them up might be enough to set off a sensitive mag. Crocs and Sketchers slip-ons have been my new airport shoes of choice. No metal.

I bought quasi fast-food trays on Amazon. They fit easily into my roller bag and as a side benefit offer some extra protection to wine bottles or a laptop. https://www.amazon.com/Carlisle-CT141803-Standard-Cafeteria-Polypropylene/dp/B06Y226G55 Runs around $5 and come in a variety of colors and sizes... The 12x16s work for me, but they come slightly larger if needed.

Or what if the father associates as the mother?... or there are two fathers?.... Let's not leave LGBTQ+ parents out of the loop here....... It's the same outcome regardless which parent they travel with -- the other is advised by some to provide a notarized letter of consent for that parent to take the minor out of the country so there's no accusations of taking a minor beyond the bounds of a custody or joint parenting agreement. And no, still being married to each other doesn't alleviate the need. All a moot point on a loop cruise, but an arguably valid concern for air travel or a land crossing.

Some people carry a permission slip and medical power of attorney. It's questionably necessary for a loop cruise but a few countries do require it for air travel.

The only value I found in the first episode was validation that trading a 50 for two 20's and change is maybe not such a great idea...

Ugh... just wasted 30 minutes. Move the show to the CBS app and spare everyone.

Sounds like something I want to watch on fast forward. The only reason people watched the original was to see glimpses of actors that they liked who had washed out of other shows. It was a formula that also worked for Fantasy island. Otherwise, the story lines were cheesy... My favorite was seeing Jean Stapleton not as Edith, and the episode where Florence Henderson and Robert Reed run into each other at the buffet but don't say a word. It's going to be a short list of actors left to make guest appearances from the original series. They've already used up two of the four who are still alive and able to travel. I don't think Bernie is going anywhere at his age, which leaves Grandy and Tewes. I don't count Ted McGinley and whoever the replacement McCoy was.

Mexico, like the US, is a big country with areas you want to avoid... People get themselves into trouble by not knowing where they should and shouldn't go. Fortunately, the tour operators are smarter than the tourists. And no, I wouldn't avoid cruising there, although I probably might think twice about venturing beyond the port and doing an inland tour in Ensenada or Mazatlan...

We're going the opposite direction. New physical licenses have to have all sorts of new security features. I'd much prefer it be reduced to a QR code on my phone or a card I can carry -- much harder to steal my personal info if it's not human readable, and any time it's going to be used for the purposes of proving my ability to drive, the officer is going to be able to validate it on a computer rather easily. But... since third parties (like bars, cruise companies, stores that sell alcohol or tobacco) want that validation of age or identity, we have to expose everything needed to perform identity theft.

Since the OP hasn't returned to share their disappointment in missing the cruise, hopefully that's a sign they were successful in getting on the ship? I suspect most people working behind the check-in desks are going to be reasonable and make exceptions where they're warranted... A few months back, we saw examples where someone got on a ship with a photo of their expired DL on their phone. I've always kept a copy of our DL's and passport face pages in protected cloud storage so that even if I lost my phone and wallet I'd have a way of trying to prove who I am if needed. It was an office policy at my past employer to have hardcopies of both on file with the admin office just in case we got stranded overseas.

Well, admittedly I'm a fan of the combo so I haven't noticed the press. It's my cheat day go-to. I haven't noticed a loss of either condiments or quality... they did disappear for a while during COVID but the self-serve catsup/mustard/relish have been back for the last six months. Sam's still has only the drive-thru packets. I just saw an article where the average grocery bill has gone up by 17%, not including meat. Eggs and poultry are up 31%. That's going to have to manifest itself in pricing for other products including cruises...

If they're charging Lyft and Uber, the port chart for shuttles wouldn't surprise me, but I'd think they'd be on a fixed access rate vs. per visit. Regardless, expenses for fuel are up. Way up/ Do you need any more of a justification for passing that cost to customers?... I'm sure wages and other expenses are probably up as well. At least Costco is holding firm on the hot dog combo. They might be the last one standing on price increases....

At Orlando, MCO should be open after 12:00 local Friday, however..... it's being reported that over half the airport's jetbridges may be out of service due to water damage with the motors, and that's possibly going to impact the number of gates that can be used. Looks like JAX won't be re-opening until Saturday morning at the earliest.

OK, I'm going to backtrack on this a bit. Driving is still a dangerous proposition, but flying on Friday may also be in question with the storm now turning earlier than expected. RSW/TPA/SRQ/PIE are all closing today and may not re-open until Thursday night depending on damage. MCO operations will stop at 10:30 EDT on Wednesday. Carnival Paradise is apparently staying overnight in Cozumel, and might not be able to return to Tampa on Thursday, putting the Friday departure also in question.

Yup. The trays I pack protect my wine bottles...

That's maybe not great advice. Rains will be hitting north Florida as far as Jacksonville Thursday morning into Friday morning. Unless you're driving it in one shot, you'll be driving thru the storm if it takes more of a turn to the east. If you have seats on a flight leaving Friday, I'd think you should be fine. Most airlines are pulling flights down Tuesday night from the western Florida airports, so they will have extra planes hanging around the larger hubs like BWI, PHL, EWR, etc.

The walkways could be back in a matter of weeks. It's just a matter of priorities and the cranes needed to get them in position.

Yes. In the end, smoking on a balcony isn't the risk. It's all about how the remnants are disposed of. If there's an ashtray on the balcony, people wouldn't be as prone to flicking.