BeagleOne

Sheriff is now saying that the entire airport is closed and will remain so until it has been entirely cleared. Lots of abandoned luggage to deal with as part of that. Looks like it will cause a lot of havoc and disruption, it already has, and it certainly has affected operations.

ATC just confirmed that the entire airport is closed. So much for claims that only T2 is affected or this might not disrupt things for this weekend's cruise passengers. Fact is none of us know how this is going to turn out or how much disruption this will cause.

At least five dead. I'm listening to the tower and they are having aircraft start up their engines again.

"See you in a week, honey! Enjoy the drive home, but be back to pick me up! Or get a hotel in Tampa."

When I travel I have all necessary documents in my purse. I check them the morning of departure. I check them on the way to the airport. I check them when I am checking in for my flight. I hope those people got to go on another cruise sometime...and the wife organized everything.

For those of us that lived in a world before disposable plastic bottles we know that it is possible to live without "bottled water"....but, ahh, the younger generation has been programmed and marketed to believe that water is only "good" when it "costs" something. I am sure all the hype has made a nice profit for beverage manufacturers the world over, not just for the "retail" end like a cruise line.

The whole bottled water thing is one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated, and the success is the result in most cases of naivete, gullibility, and susceptibility to marketing. And the "fitness waters" and "vitamin waters" are even sillier. Some of them have 7% of the RDA of sodium in one bottle, and others are full of sugar...and there are enough gullible people out there that the Vitamin Water developer is now a billionaire.

Not to mention the adverse effects on the environment of all of those plastic bottles.

Ummm....too much salt will make you retain water, OP, not have to get up more often to pee. And no doctor worth his salt (ha!) would get on the ship's TV and tell people they might have to adjust their blood pressure medications. Good grief.

1982, QE II first sailing out of NYC after being used as a troop transport during the Falklands War/Guerra de las Malvinas (depending on your side). It was a cruise to nowhere to get back on their TA schedule. They were still in the process of removing the protective wall and floor coverings from some of the public areas.

I was on the first westbound crossing after that war in 1982, so just before your cruise. Got the full fireboat reception in New York harbor. The trip was written up in People magazine, I still have a copy of it somewhere. That was back in the day when you could buy a one-way TA on the QE2 and fly home free, or for an extra $500, go on Concorde.

I was scheduled to sail to England for a summer college program, and fly back to NYC on Concorde. But the Falklands war stopped that, so I ended up flying over on Concorde and back on the QE2.

My first "ship trip" was a Great Lakes cruise on the Stella Maris in 1974. Then an eastbound TA on the QE2 in 1975, to Cherbourg. I remember crew throwing black garbage bags of trash overboard...things have changed for the better! We just missed being able to sail on the France before she became the Norway.

I don't think I'm the one who is confused.

:rolleyes: I don't think anyone is confused. Different people have different opinions. Nothing confusing about that.

Anti-bacterial wipes are right up there with Airborne tablets as a complete scam. In order to be effective, the surface to be disinfected needs to be wet for up to ten minutes. A quick swipe really does nothing except spread germs around. You'd need to wrap the wipe around the remote or whatever, or press it down on the counter, for ten minutes for it to do anything effective.

pofreesional ad vicdr in a social setting, is worth just what you pa for it.......... nothing. Ehastytrue dfoctor, proferssional does not know how to deal with tha? t has no value and mosg refuse to goddown thatt.road.

Not necessarily. I'm a true professional and I've given free advice in my field in social settings when asked politely, and that advice certainly DOES have value.

No one "needs" a cabana. No one "needs" a cruise either. Nothing wrong with just wanting something.

The whole "bottled water is better than tap water" thing is one of the greatest marketing scams in history. Fiji Water is one of the worst. If you want to pay for water you can just as easily get out of the tap in most places, that's up to you. But it's not better for you and it's absolutely not eco-friendly.

Remember your body absorbs minerals not just from drinking. Ship water is RO so everything is removed but spending after spending time in the ocean and salt water pools you will absorb salt and start to see edema

Not true.

If you are a doctor, and tell people you are a doctor, or have "Dr." on your sail and sign card, then people are probably going to ask you medical questions. If you aren't telling people you are a doctor, and they are following you to the point that you are uncomfortable, you need to say something! Surely, being a doctor, you have dealt with difficult patients and family members. If people are bothering you, it is up to YOU to speak up. Or call security if the situation is that bad.

Where will you be sleeping and showering? Haven't you booked a hotel room? Leave your luggage in your hotel. :rolleyes: :)

Um...the original post said they are going to be travelling around by bus, train, and tube. They aren't just checking into one hotel. No need for snark...or eyeroll icons.

Huge :rolleyes: at the people who complained that all they could see was steam when they went past the lava flow. I guess the captain is supposed to deploy a gigantic fan to blow it all away.

 

Do not let others naysay you. We took DD out of school the second and third week of her Junior (second to last year) of high school when she was 16. If you're a diligent student it won't effect your grades etc.

 

The British secondary education system and university application process is a LOT different from ours in the U.S. Exam results mean a lot more over there than they do here, and they're not like exams American students take like mid-terms and finals.

Having said that, if Bethany can make up a study schedule and stick to it, missing two weeks of school might not matter to her exam results.

Kind of incorrect. If you put them in multiple 3.2 oz containers, all are OK IF they are permitted on/off the ship per Customs. If you want something bad enough (like some REALLY good maple syrup, you do what you have to do if you carry on ;)

The containers all have to fit in that quart-sized ziploc though.

That's really cool! The landing lights look like shooting stars...or photon torpedoes. Thanks for the link!

The 140 mph winds are in a very small band around the eye, and at this point, the eye is offshore and may not hit land at all.

Haha, I love "gross uglitude"!

I was on the Zuiderdam years ago and found the decor awful, not sure if it has changed since then. IDK why cruise ship carpets are so busy and garish, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were to hide stains.

I might approach a person (if they looked approachable) and ask about their project, but I would NEVER ask them to make something for me. Good grief, some people are rude! But if the person was someone like bazbov making something for charity, I might ask if I could buy one for the cause.

I've been to A twice and C once. Never been to B. I wouldn't go back so IMO it's not worth the sea days to get there. If you do go, though, I hope you have a wonderful trip.

"Taking the mickey"? That's ridiculous. Quite apart from the fact that the twins will be creating extra work for the steward because of the sofa bed, they'll be creating extra work for the steward and the dining staff because they're young children. And it's even MORE ridiculous to complain because you are spending over 16K pounds on a cruise and then complaining about a few extra pounds. Good grief.

Depends on you, the ship, the balcony, and the itinerary. I'm generally not in my cabin enough to make a balcony worth it, and I don't care about sitting out there drinking coffee in my bathrobe. But others love them and use them a lot.

On one cruise my cabin's balcony was so tiny it wasn't worth bothering with, but since there were three of us in the cabin and the other two were clotheshorses who hogged ALL of the drawer and closet space it was a useful place for me to put my stuff. But my friends had a balcony that was bigger than the cabin and was just fabulous. I've never done an Alaska cruise, but I would get a balcony for that.