brillohead

I just KNEW someone was gonna mention lighthouses.... those darn things are gonna live FOREVER on this thread!!!!

A she-wee is a device that allows someone with female private parts to go "number one" while standing up like a guy. There are a few different designs/brands, but the basic premise is the same -- an "extender" that gets inserted through the fly of your pants. It is NOT a diaper, just gives gals a way to "spell their name in the snow" like guys can.

No, the new cruisers don't have access* to lunch in the MDR on the first day -- that is a special menu that is only available to consecutive cruisers. *For people who purchased The Key, they do have access to a DIFFERENT lunch in the MDR with a limited Chops menu on boarding day.

So, I was wondering about the Canada Kangaroo, so I googled it and found this:

Pretty silly, since the cost of treating shingles is so much more than the cost of the vaccine!!!

In my case, a blood test confirmed that I've never had chicken pox. There is literally no way to get shingles without having previously had chicken pox (shingles is a reactivation of the dormant virus in the body), so there is no need for a Shingrix vaccine for someone who has never had the virus in their body. For people who "can't remember" whether or not they had chicken pox as a child, getting the vaccine is the "better safe than sorry" route, because the VAST majority of adults over the age of 50 in the USA had chicken pox as a child because they used to have "chicken pox parties" when it came to the neighborhood to make sure all the kids got it out of the way at once. I would guess that 95-98% of people my age had chicken pox as a child, so most people who think they didn't have it as a child probably DID get it when they were too young to remember, or they had a mild case. That's where the recommendation for "everyone" to get the shingles vaccine comes from. But since me not having had it was confirmed via titer blood test, there is no need for me to get the shot to be better safe than sorry.

I had a pharmacist who looked over my vaccine records and tried to talk me into getting the shingles shot. I stopped him in his tracks when I told him I couldn't get shingles because I'd never had chicken pox! I'm probably one of the only people in this thread who never got the pox as a child. It had gone around our neighborhood before I was adopted, and I never did get exposed after that. I had asked my PCP for the chicken pox vaccine, and he didn't believe that I'd never had the pox as a child -- he said I'd probably had a mild case and didn't know it. So he had my blood drawn to check my titers and lo and behold, I hadn't ever been exposed to chicken pox. Then before I could get the vaccine, I was potentially exposed at my son's school!!! Here I had been trying to be proactive and get the vaccine, and then I spent a day volunteering in my son's kindergarten classroom and two days later found out that someone in the class had chicken pox that week. I then had to scramble to get the first dose of the vaccine on a Friday afternoon -- I got VERY lucky. I watched my grandmother suffer with shingles for years, so I'm very glad that it's something that I don't have to worry about dealing with.

I've been there a couple times, and I feel like the animals are well cared for. All of the animals are "rescues" or owner-surrenders (or naturally occurred from breeding there) -- they do not purchase animals at all. And while the cages might look small for the monkeys, they get time out of the enclosures when there aren't customers there. One time when I was there, a monkey and her baby got out of the enclosure when a guest wasn't paying attention when they entered, and many of the guests were kinda freaking out that the animal was going to run away, but the staff didn't even blink an eye and went about their ordinary business. That's when I found out that the monkeys get lots of playtime outside of the enclosures when people aren't around, so the staff weren't worried about the momma/baby duo on the loose, b/c they knew they'd just go back into the enclosure voluntarily later in the day when things quieted down. In fact, the sloths aren't caged at all -- they are just loose in the trees on the property along the water's edge. And the staff are very careful to make sure the guests holding the sloths know how to hold them securely and not to make any quick motions that might scare the sloths, etc. To me, an animal that is mistreated or unhappy is unlikely to breed and carry a pregnancy to term, and also is unlikely to voluntarily return to a cage. (They don't intentionally breed the animals, but they do allow nature to take its course.)

Do you have a rental scooter or wheelchair lined up for him to use on board? Because if he can't walk far enough to get onto the ship, he's going to have trouble getting around once on board. Symphony's a very large ship.

I don't think it's been done that way for several years. Or maybe it's just certain itineraries that have different customs/border patrol requirements. But I've certainly never done it on any cruise out of the USA over the past five years.

This spoof of Black Friday made me think of the Royal "sales":

For the cat people:

All the Kraken egg nog drinks made me think of this one:

The plan you choose really depends on how you use it. Like I said, I have minimal data usage because most of the time I'm on wifi. I was really impressed with the fact that they prorate the data -- I figured you'd have to pay $10 for each partial GB used, but if I only use .66GB, they charge me $6.60. The most I've used so far has been 2.25GB in one month, and that was when I traveled to AL for my family reunion, so I was using cellular data a lot more while I was down there. My bill that month was $47.13. Most of the rest have been $31-$33 per month. Tethering is when you use your phone as the wifi for another device, like a laptop or tablet.

As a nurse myself, I have to say that I'd rather stay on the ship than get off for medical care in Haiti!!!

If bringing your own cord from home, just wrap it up with the regular power cord in the CPAP case and they won't even notice it in the X-ray process. That's what I do with my extension for my laptop, and I have never once had it questioned (and I've been on 26 cruises since COVID).

The one leaving with her would need to get an "in transit" pass and the SeaPass for the second cruise at Guest Services the last morning. I would set it up earlier in the cruise so they have it printed and ready for you to pick up. After taking her off the ship to meet her ride, you'd then need to wait until General Boarding is started to get back on the ship. The "in transit" card allows you to bypass the checking-in process. When it comes to changing rooms, I prefer to go meet my new room's attendant the night before and make arrangements to bring my suitcases down to the new room around 8:30. This gives the previous occupants time to get out, and then I just put my items in the closet so they're out of the way of the cleaners. I also check with the new room attendant to see what time I can get into my room that day -- usually they have my room available by 11:00, so I can go in and get unpacked right away. You can leave your luggage for the room attendant to move, but they have so much to do that I hate to add on to their turn-around-day tasks. Plus, by moving them myself, I know for a fact that nothing got forgotten or lost or put into the wrong room (I know of people who have had that happen). Additionally, my belongings are available to me right away, whereas sometimes the room attendants don't get them delivered until mid-afternoon. There really isn't anything to "do" the morning of turn-around-day, so moving my luggage burns up a couple minutes of my time.

Yes, you'll need to let them know in advance that this is your plan, and then you can get your new SeaPass card and the "in transit" pass at Guest Services that morning. The "in transit" pass is what you show as you're arriving back at the terminal so people know that you don't need to go through the whole "check-in" process. You'll still need to go through security and the x-ray machines, but after that you just get on the ship without stopping at the check-in desk.

Have you looked into Google Fi for cellular service? I switched to them from Verizon last year and I'm only paying ~$35/month including fees and taxes. (I don't use a lot of data, as I have wifi at home and at work, so that plan works well for me.)

This isn't true.

Just be aware that the other person might not be notified that they received a message -- they might have to intentionally log into the app and check for new messages. You can also leave voicemail messages on the room phone.

I used to take a stool sample in to the vet's office every spring, and the dogs always came back positive for worms, just from hanging out in our yard (we get deer, bunnies, squirrels, chipmunks, and even the occasional skunk). So now I don't even bother with the stool sample -- why pay for a test when I know it's going to be positive? Now I just get them dewormed every spring, with a second dose to take home to give 2-3 weeks later.