Mike981

5 hours ago, gordylad said:

Jim Do the sleep buds help with tinnitus? I have tinnitus/pulsatile tinnitus so would take any recommendations?

 

Cheers

I also suffer from the same issue. Years ago I spoke to my audiologist about getting help with tinnitus and she said at that time they were having issues with the tinnitus increasing it's natural level as the devices tried to mask it. It sure is no fun.

I might have cracked the code, here is a decent article ranking websites for music. They reference Audio Jungle and I 'believe' that is the one I used.

18 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

I'm going a bit off topic myself - 

 

Many of you that have a problem sleeping due to noise, snoring or just a busy head know that I have used Bose Sleep Buds.   About 2 years ago they dropped to product and discontinued production.

 

I personally love the device -   They use a process of noise masking vs noise cancellation of many products.

 

 

Bose sold the technology to a group of employees and they started to design a totally new replacement --  using the same footprint of the Bose Sleepbud.

 

The new Company OZLO Sleepbuds are finally here.  

https://ozlosleep.com/

 

About a year ago I signed up for Crowd Funding to bring the product to market.  Iain' been telling my for months I was scammed...    They are finally released to funders and pre-orders.    I just got a notification mine were delivered to my home -   Will give a review when I get home.

 

These look identical to the Bose Product but unlike Bose as a Stand Alone bud these can play anything - music, books etc in addition to sounds.

 

 

 

l just shared this with my wife and she is VERY excited to hear your review.

10 minutes ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

The part that takes me the longest in producing a movie is to find some music that works.   The big restriction is that YouTube and others do a copyright check to make sure the music isn't copyrighted.    CapCut has a huge library but so much of it is geared to the 18-25 age group or kinda wonky.

I am sorry Jim I can not remember the name of a website I used for music for my voice over business, unfortunately that has been put on the back burner because Covid didn't play nice with my voice and lungs. Lungs are back, voice is still off and not consistent. It was four years ago this past March that my wife and I both got it, while we were enjoying a staycation.

I will keep trying to find the website for you, I felt the price was good for their offerings and they had a lot to offer. I believe they have the usual buy for one month or buy for a year for less.

20 hours ago, princeton123211 said:

Most of the time when I'm in New Orleans it's about eating and drinking with a little history mixed in here and there.

Thank you so much princeton, this is exactly what we are looking for with some music mixed in.

3 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

 

I think it is back on our list for tuesday.    Today I am finally going to get to snorkel ..... I hope.   I had to stop at Walmart to buy some Petroleum Jelly.    With a mustache the only way to avoid water leak is to make a seal of Petroleum Jelly  .... Ugh... sounds disgusting.

Hmmm, handle bar mustache?

Your photo's look they were taken on a movie set, fantastic.

Thank you very much for your fun and educational review.

Oh you are going to love it, my wife and I had a great trip. It is a great ship.

23 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Mango 🤔

I would have take my wife to medical 😁

No mango for her 

This made me chuckle. In our daycare, mango is the favorite fruit and I have labeled myself the mango man in honor of a Jimmy Buffet song. So when I offer more, the kids respond "yes please mango Man."

2 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

That Photo even got me a message from my Favorite Mother --- OK my father had 6 of them and Penny was my age.   She is the only one I stay in touch with. 

Jim you and Iain have lived such a fascinating life. I hope our paths cross sometime so I can just listen to you.

Thank you again for being such a valuable asset here at Cruise Critic

14 hours ago, Oville said:

Good story.  Now back to Jim and Iain’s great adventure.

Thank you.

It was my understanding the Jim likes when people converse during his trip reports.

2 hours ago, Oville said:

I live in Florida and Spam is never part of our hurricane rations.  We all have different tastes 

My wife makes a great Spam salad and it has been known to 'help' pregnant woman give birth.

We joke about it, but three times we have had friends that were past their due date and served them the salad, and soon gave birth.

Edit to add that this discussion about Spam is rather funny as I live a couple hours north of the manufacturer.

Thank you @9tee2Sea.

Well isn't this a fun thread, thank you all!

You got me excited to try to use our Sous Vide again. My wife and I didn't have very good luck our first few times, I think one of the issues was our steaks were not thick enough. I have to get over making mistakes as I learn, but that is a tough one as it was ingrained in me as a child, "we do not waste food."

I'm sure we will figure it out as we both love to cook.

Has anyone tried fish using your Sous Vide?

Copied and pasted from our roll call:

Just saw that the drink upgrade cost is back to 35% off again. Last time I got it, it lasted just one day.

Edit to add, that the dining packages are at 15% off. Not enough for me to pull the trigger and if it doesn't come down before our cruise I will decide on the ship on a daily basis if I want to eat in a specialty restaurant. Constellation is limited with their specialty restaurants, so that weighs in for me.

I have found that when you have others traveling with you, it can make it hard to meet new people.

As others have said, my wife and I get a long very well and enjoy each others company. And this is after we have worked and lived together 24/7. We will proudly be celebrating our 35th anniversary in a couple of months.

20 hours ago, Jim_Iain said:

We rarely order steaks as I fell I can cook a better steak than any restaurant.     I use to work the grills in a steak house when in University. 

I would gladly listen if you were willing to share any tips, my wife and I love steak.

@jgmpuma thank you very  much.

4 hours ago, Ex-Airbalancer said:

Since Oceania and NCL are own by the same same holding company it makes sense for them to use the dock 😉😁

I forgot about that, thank you for reminding me.

Dang Bigboy, that stinks.

I wish I could help, maybe reach out to Christopher Elliot. This is what he does and the very least, his website should have options for you.

I have come to believe that the travel industry is controlled by a few players. When I have done research to see who owns any of the big travel websites, it typically comes down to a couple of the same companies. It is all so intertwined it makes sense that it seems to be an industry wide problem.

It is scary for a company to be a leader/changer in an industry, and I am sure they know that it is costing them money, but it isn't enough to change the status quo.

7 hours ago, ExArkie said:

Not specific to M/S class or to any ship, really, but if the elevator is going up and people have been waiting on it, do not get on and push the button for a lower floor. Some elevators will cancel the original direction and take the direction indicated by the first button pushed. 

Thank you, I did not know that.

3 hours ago, cruisestitch said:

Mercury predated the M class ships.

 

 

Thank you.

3 hours ago, bigbenboys said:

If I remember correctly Mercury was Century Class. I remember the Mercury, it had an escalator. The 4 ships were the Century, Mercury, Horizon, and Zenith.

Century class, that sounds right. Escalator, my wife and I do not remember one.

3 hours ago, WestLakeGirl said:

But then thread drift took over

I love this.

It has been a long time since I have cruised a M ship, I'm not sure what the Mercury would be classified as but that was our first ever cruise, then we followed up with the Millennium the next year. We are booked on the Constellation this coming January and really looking forward to it. Don't let the age of a ship throw you or the size of the ship. My DW and I like the smaller ships. I study the floor layout before our cruise to get and idea, but there isn't anything like actually walking around and seeing for yourself. It eliminates a lot of frustration on trying to get from one area to another, if you know you need change a floor to get there.

I will add what I have always said and my adult kids live by, learn to go with the flow.

EVERY trip will have things pop up that are not great, how you deal with it makes your trip. Remember, everyone with you is on vacation and want to have a good time.

I can relate to not liking to fly long distances. Four hours is long for me, we used to go to Jamaica and once to St. Lucia and they were tough. I now have had both hips replaced and it makes it even harder, I do purchase larger seats but those long flights are still tough.

Now if I could purchase those first class seats that Jim had, that might change things.

My wife and I will be visiting New Orleans for the first time this winter and I have been researching different tours and tour guides and one thing I keep seeing in the reviews is, "we should have just done our own tour." Even some who felt the tour was good, but still felt they could have had a better time on their own.

So I am wondering what your opinion is for two folks who will be traveling down from the frozen north for their first visit to New Orleans.

For reference we will be sailing on Celebrity Constellation, visiting on January 4 and our planned time at port is 9:30am - 10pm.