Lane Hog

I'd thought the same as well. The family has also left Cozumel.

I feel worse for the family -- they have to live with how he died, and at this point, I have to believe this is the case. Some say taking him on that trip was a questionable decision, but it's letting him be unattended for just a few moments that's what was inexcusable and ultimately at issue. We share in the caretaking for my wife's parents who both have varying degrees of dementia, and would never think of letting one of them wander into a bathroom unescorted or monitored. You never know if there's a second exit. it's just short of two weeks without a confirmed sighting, and the island itself is 90% natural jungle. It could take years to find his remains, if at all.

Galveston's great to sail from. Admittedly ground transport to/from can be a challenge, but it's worth it to me to avoid the congestion you find in the Florida megaports.

It was reported the GPS necklace was also only good within 30-50 ft of his wife's phone, which makes it sound like an AirTag wannabe.

Didn't see this posted anywhere... feel free to merge if it's already being discussed https://nypost.com/2024/04/07/us-news/royal-caribbean-passenger-edmond-solomon-missing-in-mexico-vacation An American cruise passenger, who was recently diagnosed with dementia, vanished while he was on vacation with his family in Mexico Edmond Bradley Solomon III, a 66-year-old South Carolina resident, had taken the trip down to the Caribbean on Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas and had planned to spend the day at port in Cozumel, Mexico, according to WCBD-TV. The former VA critical care nurse had disappeared minutes after getting off the ship at the Caribbean port last week. Solomon and his wife Mimi disembarked from the ship around 1:30 p.m. on April 3 and stopped for a restroom break before leaving the terminal when the nightmare unfolded. “When my stepmom, Mimi, came out, he wasn’t there,” Miller said. “She thought he might still be in the bathroom so she waited for him for a few minutes. He didn’t come out.” A family member with the couple had gone into the bathroom to check on Solomon but discovered he wasn’t there.

Is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge really a limitation on what serves Baltimore? The two channels over the tunnels should be able to accommodate larger cruise ships.... charts show 45 ft drafts on the south tunnel, and 50 ft on the middle tunnel. Duh. Disregard.... I forgot about the bridge at Annapolis with almost the same name as the CBBT.....

Not that exact brand, but have used something similar. Worked fine for all our electronics, which had switchable power supplies.

There's nothing about this which would imply National Security is at risk. The major ports of national significance are all on Open Water or have tunnels carrying traffic under the shipping channels. You would be hard-pressed to isolate Norfolk San Diego Long Beach and Bremerton. Charleston is a little bit questionable but the bridge that is involved there is safely footed on land.

Biden has already declared this a Federal responsibility. Competing with private industry might not be a concern -- the Corps of Engineers does the planning, not the work. This won't be a case of lowest bidder. It will be a case of who can be onsite first with the right equipment. The only matter right now for private industry is how much of a premium they can extract. I'm there with the three month estimate.

Desantis authorized evacuation flights paid for by the State of Florida.

Taxpayers are already footing part of the bill for chartering planes or now cruise ships...... What actually gets assessed back to the evacuee (or their employer / insurer) is the market rate of a full fare airfare or ferry ticket prior to the need for an evacuation. Most people who can afford to be tourists or live overseas can figure out a way to pay for that. If they can't, then perhaps they shouldn't be living in a potential war zone...

Do the math of the cost of two packages and it might be cheaper to be go ala carte. Our son and daughter in law were with us on our Alaska cruise -- he wanted the drink package, and she didn't want the refreshment package. Since she's the financial comptroller in their household, he was allowed a budget of whatever the drink package cost. Think of it as the Dave Ramsey Envelope System for Cruising. Somehow, he came in well under budget. Win-win.

I wonder if the increase in kids on the ships when you don't expect them is due to the educational parallel to "work from anywhere" policies -- which is the increase in remote learning options for public schools as well as homeschooling or online charter schools where the kids can do their coursework when/where they want. When we were traveling by RV during Covid, we found a half dozen families in a campground near Yellowstone who had all hit the road during "remote school" so there's no reason to think that hasn't been happening with cruising where the availability of wifi is so much better.

So... I'll be Devil's Advocate on scooters. In non-accessible rooms that aren't a suite or larger, parking a scooter in the room might wind up blocking the exit for the room's occupants. Do you block the room, or partially obstruct a hallway? Back in June on QOTS, there were almost always three or four scooters overnight in our hallway on 10.

United and Delta have both canceled service to TLV thru the end of October. UA did add some flights to Athens for those who need to get in/out of the region, and is still flying to Amman, but I'd think both could see cuts if things escalate up north.