Mike981

Possible the toothbrush was used for cleaning and left behind?

Amazing PICTURES!!! Thank you~

I can't remember the actual price, but I was amazed at the price of a bottle of water at (I believe it was) O'Hare. Maybe I'm spoiled by the Minneapolis airport where there are plenty of water bottle filling stations, I never saw one at O'Hare. I'm not saying they don't have them, but I am guessing you need to know where they are.

For us it is an absolute difference in food. We took our adult kids on a Carnival cruise and then DW and I did a Celebrity cruise a few months later, the MDR food was more similar than different. It was no where near what Celebrity MDR was twenty years earlier and we new that going in. It was still a bit of a surprise. I have had coworkers who love to bash Walmart and then would do all of their shopping there. Some people just feel better when they complain.

When I was on the radio, I had our staff meteorologist on every morning. We would talk about how once you get past 36-48 hours big changes can happen. I believe in our current climate it is very true. Here in central Minnesota I can look at my 10 day forecast and see no rain for ten days, but we will get "popcorn thunderstorms" pop up at anytime. And don't get me started on the lousy winter forecasts. It seems that forecasting (guessing) weather is a lot like fishing. There's a reason they don't call it catching.

*my $.02 worth* In our experience, customer service was going down hill well before Covid in many industries, not just travel. Companies were/are figuring out the tipping point of making money with less staff, I should add well trained staff. Our first cruise was January of 2000 on Celebrity, and there was no comparison to our cruises in 2018 & 2019 to that first cruise. Not just staff, but food. We are not ready to cruise yet, but when we do we will be looking at all options, including not cruising and land travel.

This ^^^^

I love the Bluetooth feature, especially for phone calls. I was to the point that I rarely talked on the phone and had to bother my wife to make the calls for me. Even with the app settings and builtin equalizer I still have issues, I know for a fact that a big reason is that I am a voice actor and am rather picky. Also if you are really taxing your hearing aids they can get wonky trying to figure everything out. Food is subjective yes? Well so is hearing loss and hearing aids, what works for one doesn't always work for another. Unfortunately I need to go with the higher end aids and have a lot of contact with my audiologist. On my app I can send her a message with a request to 'fix' something and she can do it remotely and send me an update to my phone. I then download it and I am on my way. For those new to hearing aids, or just starting the process, note it takes time. Patience is a big help and it will take your brain a while to adjust to all of this new information. When I got my first set I had to remind my wife and kids, "I can hear you!" As they were so comfortable with my lack of hearing.

My son is going back to college to get his masters in education. We are happy and proud of him for following his dream, and at the same time worried about another student loan and all of the horror stories I hear from current and past teachers. But hey, this is from a guy who traveled the country chasing his dream of being a radio announcer.

Good advice truly, but... I have been wearing hearing aids for 20+ years (started when I was 30) and recently spent $6,000 on a pair. As much as they help, certain situations just don't work. When in a loud environment, the aids try to pick out certain sound that 'they feel' are the human voice. It is unable to know what 'voice' you are wanting to hear, so they often increase all frequencies that fit the human voice. And it is like being in a car full of people talking loudly and the radio also playing loudly. You just can't make out enough to have a decent conversation.

Sadly you are correct. Having watched grand parents, parents and the children over the past 30 years because of my wife's in-home daycare, I can affirm that we are moving in a negative direction. Generation after generation is getting worse. I saw someone post here on CC years ago not wanting to travel where there are feral children around and I thought it was harsh, but it sure seems to be going that way.

Same here. Besides what you have mentioned there is the constant shifting of sands on protocols and that makes it even worse, so many employees are not on the same page so who do you believe. Lacking in customer service employees on cruise lines, airlines and anything in between. And then there are the constant reports of travelers not playing nice with Covid and so many coming home with it. We have a finite amount time and money we can spend on travel and we can't risk major delays or getting Covid again. I really am happy for those who are traveling and having a wonderful time, I wish the same for everyone.

I have booked a few cruises for our family during hurricane season. Only once was I concerned, I let my wife know but didn't tell the kids as to not worry them. Weather was lousy on our way out of port but that was it. It was the smoothest and most cloudless cruise ever. Just stunning. And I will add that I get insurance for all of our cruises, summer or winter.

We have done a fair amount of cruising, but all of it in the Caribbean. Being from Minnesota we always look for warm weather and warm water. My favorite would be our first cruise, it was our honeymoon 10 years in the making. We sailed on the Celebrity Mercury and it was fantastic. So many firsts and so much fun that we did the unthinkable, after promising to not cruise again for a while because of $$, we booked another cruise shortly after returning home. We fell hook line and sinker into cruising.

Best of luck, I am the same. I will do everything I can to get my wife what she wants. ❤️

For those talking about Longshoreman and wages, here you go. Not sure how accurate it is and of course they don't have a way of knowing how much they make in tips. This reminds years ago we had a DIRECT flight from Minneapolis to Orlando and the airline lost two of our four bags. On a seven day family of four trip, it took three days to reconnect with the lost bags. Luckily for my wife and daughter we mix up clothes when we pack, so they had some of their clothes and were able to shop at the stores on the ship. Insurance covered everything.

I get that funny feeling it's ending on a 10 day cruise, I can't imagine what you two are going through. Just a really fun blog, I'm so glad I came across it. I read it every morning and then as my wife and I prepared the daycare lunch I share what I read. I am sure that we would love to have your company on one of our trips, such fun positive people. Thank you from both of us.

Thank you, yes we are/were.

Maybe it is the only warship that sunk after going 1,300 meters. I can't imagine the feeling they must have had when it went down! Years and years of work and so much money. It looks amazing. As a side note, my wife and I got Covid this past January and we are both dealing with long term symptoms. Just today she got hit with the feeling of being totally drained. They seem to last a couple weeks, then we are good for a couple of weeks, and then we get hit with something else. Wishing you both only the best.

Your smile says it all, you look like a couple of kids.

Fantastic news on Arlona!

I know we have had moments where we were disappointed, but I honestly can't think of one at the moment. One that was a good surprise was the Queens Stair Case in Nassau, mainly because we had no expectations and we were just doing a free walk on our own. A funny side to that, we got a bit lost. Then we came upon six steps going no where and a local guy sitting on one of them, "Is this the Queens Staircase?" I asked him, "ya'mon" and he walked off. Luckily we came across the 'real' staircase and it was pretty cool. Sad on how it was built, but we could say that about a lot/most places.

We used to do just carry on when we did eight days in Jamaica, but after 911 and the change of regulations for liquids and the amount that you could pack in your carry on, we had to go with checked.

Once again showing what a class act both of you are and that you exude such positivity. Truly a wonderful trip report, I'll miss you guys.