DCThunder

Well, what did the "heartbroken child" want? A big hug and apology from Stanley Bear? (And from the picture, the kid looks to be about 19 so he's hardly a child.) The OP NEVER said what they wanted, just that this incident had ruined Christmas. And don't forget, we're only hearing one side of this "tale of woe". The B&M Manager might have a completely different take on the situation, especially if there's an irate husband and father storming around the Piazza and Guest Services desk.

What I don't quite understand is what the OP wants Princess to do. She acknowledges that she understands her son isn't eligible to win and that a mistake was made to ask them to be in the Piazza for the prize ceremony. But what remedy does she expect from the "higher ups" that her husband is going to refer the matter to? If $100 in OBC (or comped dinner) isn't enough, would $500 in cash soothe that "heartbreak" that everyone had? Or would it take a grand?

That was essentially what I was trying to say. You were much more economical with your words.😉

It would seem to me that if HAL can become an "expedition lite" type line it could get into a nice market. Let the Lindblad/Nat Geo and Hurtigruten do the small ship, heavy duty and expensive expedition cruises, but if HAL can get a clientele for the type of cruises described in this article (as well as some bread & butter Caribbean itineraries), it could be a very profitable business model. I agree with the poster above who said that you can only go to St. Thomas, Antigua, and St. Lucia so many times before they get boring. Let the Monstrosity of the Seas sail there with 6000 drunks.

Have people seen this article from The Points Guys about HAL shifting focus to longer cruises? Shifting focus: This cruise line is betting bigger on long cruises and unusual itineraries - The Points Guy

I've done seven solo cruises in 2022 (six with Princess, including 3 TAs). If you travel solo, it's up to you how much you'll enjoy the cruise. Do you live alone or enjoy traveling by yourself? If so, you'll have a good time. If you're used to traveling with others, perhaps not you will not. If you travel by yourself, you can do what YOU want, when YOU want. There is usually a "solo group" organized through the CC Roll Call and also a daily meeting time at a given bar. If you enjoy meeting new people, go to a couple of those meetings and see if there are people, you're compatible with. You can end up hanging out with them during parts of the cruise. Tell the headwaiter you'd like to share a table at dinner in the MDR. You'll meet interesting people and even if you don't like them, at worst, you've spent 90 minutes with them and may never see them again. This answer is sort of all over the place, but in my opinion, traveling solo is what you make of it.

Best Western Ft. Lauderdale Airport/Cruise port on W. State Street is the one I stayed at.

DO NOT stay at the Best Western. It is one and a half steps up from being a dump. You can do better. I stayed there this past spring mainly because I had Best Western points I needed to use up, but it was not a pleasant stay. It was totally safe, but the hotel really needs a refurbishment.

After May 7, 2025, everyone will need a "REAL ID compliant" drivers license to board a domestic airline flight, carrying a valid passport for all travel by common carrier should be the default position. Identification | Transportation Security Administration (tsa.gov)

+10000

Both Regal and Enchanted had Texas Hold'em tables as of late September 2022 and December 1, 2022. I can't tell you about limits or tournaments or the like, but they had electronic tables on both ships. Haven't been on Sky so can't speak to that ship. There was always a notice in the Patter for a time for players to meet, usually sometime after 9 pm.

I wish I had been so lucky. The Paxlovid did a great job, but the Covid fatigue is lingering. And I wasn't aware of some of the weird dreams you could get during the time the Paxlovid is doing its thing. Did you know that there is a secret simulation of World War Two (involving over 2billion participants) that is somehow linked to the Matrix movies.

This. +100 Since I'm old, I prefer paper boarding passes so always get them at the airport when I check my bags. Several times the TSA Pre-check hasn't been on the boarding pass and the check-in agent has always been able to correct this,

The most important question is if the baby had the Princess Premium package, did she get top shelf breast milk?🍹

The odd thing to me is that they passengers were IN Belgium when the boarded the aircraft. The only reason that a visa was required was because the flight had to return to Brussels due to a mechanical issue, and at that point, the visa-less pax couldn't leave the airport other than on another flight out. So how/why were these visa-less pax without visas? I hope that makes sense but it seems very curious.

I walked off Regal a week ago today feeling fine. Sunday morning, I wasn't feeling so great any more so did a test Sunday afternoon and got the dreaded Double Lines. Toughed it out on Monday and Tuesday, but finally went to an urgent care center on Wednesday. I had the body aches, serious fatigue (but difficulty sleeping), loss of appetite, and heavy cough, but only a mild fever. The NP at urgent care wrote me a RX for Paxlovid and benzonatate which I've been taking faithfully. Today is the first day that I feel like I'm going to get over this WuFlu. This was my seventh and last cruise of 2022. While vaxxed and boosted, I seldom wore a mask, but did try to observe the social distancing recommendation as well as hand sanitizing. For 2023 cruises, I doubt I'll do much different.

Angry Passengers Block Terminal After Being Stopped From Leaving Airport (businessinsider.com)

Alex, the ED on Regal had his baby daughter on this cruise, but I believe that she was older than 12 months.

Solely from observing others play, the electronic table deals the virtual cards, asks each player in turn if they want to fold/check/bet, moves virtual chips around the table top, flips out the common cards and reveals them in the appropriate manner, and then runs the rest of each hand, It's really no different from playing in a virtual cardroom. I have no idea how a rake works, but I'm sure there is one, and it's probably hefty.

If you have status on an airline (meaning you get 1 or 2 bags checked free) do you still have to pay the per bag fee or just the $25 overall fee?

Yes, I try to leave a hand-written note of thanks along with a tip at US hotels. Depending on how long I've stayed in a hotel room and how much service housekeeping has done, I'll usually leave $2-3/night. When/if I make it to Oz before I die, I'll remember that I don't need to do this Down Under. As for AirBNB, I don't leave the owner squadoosh since they're probably charging me a "cleaning fee" on top of all the other nickel and dime charges that seem so prevalent nowadays.

I always do in the US, and have assumed that this was the proper etiquette practice elsewhere in the world, but I don't want to be accused of "flashing cash for better treatment".😉

LOL, from the headline I thought you wanted the kid in Economy while you and hubby were in First Class...

Is it the general practice in the UK (or elsewhere across the pond) to leave a few pounds/euros in the room for the housekeeping staff at a hotel at the end of a stay?

If you think that's bad, you should go read Quora.