brillohead

17 hours ago, loman said:

I didnt realize they let people stand at the back , not seated. 

I have NEVER seen this allowed, and I've been on quite a few Oasis class cruises.

12 hours ago, goldfish65 said:

The ship is too big for our taste. So much walking.

Then you will DEFINITELY not like Oasis class.  

For me, Freedom class is the "just right" size for me.  The Solarium is bigger (than Voyager class) with more shaded loungers, and you don't spend half the day walking from one end to the other (like Oasis class).  

Any chance that someone in your group is a small child?

They usually don't count little kids.

Bring back Tutti Salad in the MDR for lunch!!!

5 hours ago, irun5k said:

Yes, Labadee back in the day was so chill.  It still has a lot of that vibe for the most part, but I hope they don't theme park it.  If they do that they'll want to get more and more ships in there concurrently and it won't be a recognizable experience.  

I don't see Royal ever sinking Big Money into Labadee like they did Coco Cay.... the government in Haiti is just too corrupt and unpredictable to make an investment there like Royal did in the Bahamas.  

3 hours ago, Mick B said:

BTW does anyone know if the 8 people have to be from the same family or group?

No, one person books the cabana and then ANY seven other people can join in.  

This is the BEST add-on service ever, IMO.

Totally worth the fee to not have to deal with collecting your luggage in the terminal, lugging it through the CBP line, lugging it to whatever mode of transport you're using to get to the airport, lugging it into the airport terminal and through the line to get it checked in, etc.  

Probably the ONLY thing I ever charge to my onboard account, other than the daily service charge.  I'll NEVER turn down this service!

3 hours ago, SG65CB said:

What is different about the hideout cabana that makes it $900 more than the hideaway cabana?

I'm guessing the pool right at the edge of the first one, versus the other one just being on a beach.

5 hours ago, jmh2006 said:

@DaniDanielle  we have lots of wild turkeys here in Southeast Michigan!

Same for Southwest Michigan!

It's not unusual to see a whole bunch of them beside the road across the street from a pharmaceutical plant.  Makes me wonder if they're getting "turkey superpowers" from chemical contamination!  🤣

13 hours ago, SRF said:

US death rate is about 1% per year. 1,043 per 100k people per year.  So a big cruise ship has over 7000 pax and crew, so per year, expect 70 deaths or more than one per week

And then you have to add in the fact that the average age of a cruiser (particularly on the "smaller" ships that don't appeal to families as much as the Oasis class and such) is SIGNIFICANTLY higher than the average age of the US population, which further increases the chances of mortality on each sailing.

On 12/6/2023 at 3:11 PM, bobmacliberty said:

I'd go for it if you're at all thinking of doing so.  Don't feel pressured to post on any frequency or with any specific content.  If you feel like it's too much after a few days, just stop.  Do what works for you. It's your vacation.

 

From personal experience, live reviews can definitely take a fair amount of time, especially if you want the content to be well edited/polished.  It's sometimes easier just to treat it like a journal where you dump thoughts from your brain into words, with accompanying pictures as you see fit.  No matter what you do, someone will complain, but many more people will recognize that you're on vacation and appreciate your efforts.

That's why I loved doing the co-author thing with @Ozark_Kid... I didn't feel obligated to post something regularly, because I knew he'd be posting as well.  

I don't think I'd enjoy doing a Live Thread all on my own, especially with how slow the internet can be once in a while on board!

On 12/8/2023 at 6:39 PM, jagsfan said:

My younger brother had a bad case of chicken pox. I was at least 13 or 14 and remember it clearly. 
My other brother and I never caught it. 
3 years ago, after a friend went through hell with shingles, I asked my primary about getting Shingrex.
He tested Dick and me and we both had the virus in our systems. 
Neither  of us has any recollection of having chickenpox. 

That's why my doc insisted on testing me.... he figured I had it when I was too young to remember having it, because it was VERY rare for someone born before 1990 to not have gotten chicken pox in childhood.  It's an EXTREMELY contagious disease that spreads like a wildfire in California.  

He was shocked that I was correct and had never been exposed to the virus!

On 12/7/2023 at 10:21 AM, Keksie said:

Lately it is so hard to not post but it is the Holidays and I don't want to play Monopoly.  Sigh.  Therefore, I am going to make a couple different cookies for the tractor party tomorrow and put together a white elephant gift for my yarn party Sunday.  

On 12/7/2023 at 10:49 AM, Ocean Boy said:

But you know I love lighthouses.

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

On 12/9/2023 at 5:10 PM, voyager70 said:

Hate to ask but is a she-wee the Aussie version of a porta potty?

On 12/9/2023 at 5:21 PM, Coralc said:

Diaper. No port-a-potties in the pen. 

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.

9 hours ago, screenname2004 said:

in the instructions, they did mention about lunch at MDR starting at 11:30 am but I think is is the same lunch for the new cruisers and not anythin special for consecutive cruisers.

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:

 

3 minutes ago, sgmn said:

No idea, think its historic.  As I said it's being lowered from 01Sept 23 to 65, but us guys who are over 65 but below 70 will have to wait till over 70 which is a bit frustrating 

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

45 minutes ago, d9704011 said:

The CDC recommends Shingrix for older adults whether they recall (or know) if they had chicken pox.  Believe it or not!

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.

14 hours ago, A&L_Ont said:

I’m seriously contemplating getting the shingles vaccine as I know a few that have had it and I’d rather not get it. 

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.

16 hours ago, chloes_mom said:

I was wondering if the monkey and sloth place felt like a sanctuary or more like a zoo. My daughter is concerned about the welfare of the animals. 

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.

12 minutes ago, PhillyFan33579 said:

I have never heard of a consecutive cruisers meeting the second to last day of a cruise. Is this something new? I haven’t done a B2B since this past January on Wonder. 

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: