MacMadame

I'm holding out hope that, as someone upthread said, they accidentally hooked up to a test database. It's unlikely. But I have hope. 😄

Define recent. 😄 They made this change when they did a bunch of other changes including instituting casual dining. My email about it is dated August 23, 2023.

If so, their IT is beyond bad. The 2026 cruises should only be changes to the database, not to the code that runs everything. You can't find mine. I actively check these things and get them removed. They aren't going to message about the breach until they (a) know exactly what happened and who was affected, (b) fix it, and (c) run that message by upper management and legal. It's not something you do on the fly while fighting a fire. For one thing, you have to tell people what you are going to do to fix it and you can't do that until you know exactly what happened and how it was fixed.

I researched this when I booked my PC westbound cruise and the consensus seemed to be to book a portside cabin. Not because you are going to spend the entire transit of the canal on your balcony but because of what you see from the portside throughout the entire cruise. So that's what I booked.

I would.

Or maybe staying in a suite where you get a free Specialty Dinner on Embarkation night?

Is there any reason one of these GoPros couldn't do it all?

I received really strange looks from cashiers of all ages when I used them back when they first came out. 🤣 @Thrak is from California though. Fast food employees here do make $20 / hr. And more power to them! That's a crap job.

I expect what is popular to continue to evolve. What that means for new ship builds remains to be seen. I think a smart cruise line will have a variety of types of ships from small to mega. Btw, for those saying Boomers aren't good at technology or at least don't use it and your evidence is that a majority say that it isn't designed with them in mind, this is not evidence that Boomers don't use technology just that they want it to be designed differently. Here are some statistics on Boomers and technology: 70% of Boomers own smartphones and 52% own tablets. Over 70% of Boomers use social media platforms - but Facebook is the most popular which is not true for younger generations Boomers use the internet for most of the same purposes that other generations do though they are more likely to get their news from TV than from the internet Boomers prefer their UIs to be simpler and easier to learn

And Massachusetts and one other state I don't remember. Companies think these laws will spread so that is why they are doing it for all customers and not just the ones whose state requires it.

The other way is to listen to customers and give them exactly what they ask. Customers know their problems and pain points but they don't necessarily know all the possible solutions. They will be replaced with what makes sense at that time. So not necessarily with mega ships that are floating amusement parks. It will depend on what cruise lines think the market will want by the time the ship is finished. Do they have kettles in all the staterooms without being asked? Then it's a UK-focused line. 😉

IME, people don't read and they don't listen. So being able to search for the info doesn't even come into play. 🤣

It sounds like it's one of those "oh, you can wear shorts in the MDR" things where it's true most of the time but not 100% of the time. 😄 My daughter always looked older than her age from about 12 on and once when we were in Vegas, I asked a teller how old she was. He thought 21 but she was 16! Her brother had the opposite problem as he looked younger.

I know what it means. That's why I stopped reading the OP's post as soon as he used it in a culture war way.

I was going to say under 6! 🤣 I have a general policy that if anyone uses woke unironically, I stop reading the post. 😉

Most of the lines take your picture when you embark. It's not physically on the card, if that is what you meant, but it is part of your account information.

Can you see any difference now that they are 5G?

I *love* the Staten Island ferry. I find it very entertaining. I try to ride it every time I visit NYC! 😄 They have a new ship. It's not rusty and it does longer cruises. So that's probably why it was suggested. I've only been on ships that would be considered small these days. I've seen videos of the larger ships and it seems like some are well-designed so that there are lost quiet spaces and all those masses of people get spread around. And some... are not.

Aren't the mostly all though? It's part of the deal of being a bridesmaid.

Which is why I'm not worried about runaway inflation.

Public companies need to grow to keep their stock prices up. Closing stores doesn't do that. Things will get to equilibrium. I was working in the 80s when inflation was 18% and we didn't have the issues South America is having. It's more complicated than inflation.

If wages don't catch up, homelessness increases. Maybe companies could lower prices instead and stop making obscene profits.

Good. Inflation has outpaced wage growth for ages. It's time wages to catch up.

I was replying to someone who wanted to know why we tip *everywhere* including places where it's not the system.

Why do Americans want to tip everyone? It's a combination of habit and guilt. It's necessary for a lot of service workers in the US and it's hard to turn off the brain telling you that not tipping is for cheapos and mean people. 😄 I also factor it off pre-tax dollars as I've been taught. But I wouldn't leave 20% for crappy service. 10-15% tops. CA isn't the only state where servers make minimum wage regardless of tips, btw. The full list: Alaska California Minnesota Montana Nevada Oregon Washington