markeb

Didn't want to imply that you had to use the app for the train. Just that you could. And it's worked well for us. On Amtrak, I'd guess 65-75% of riders depending on the train use a ticket on their phone app. I was a bit surprised last fall at how many people in Germany were using tickets on their phones. But the UK may have been the fewest last summer. A lot of people with the little paper tickets, probably from the kiosk at the station. And we certainly have our little quirks with electronic tickets. For baseball, I can add my tickets to my Apple Wallet and they're read by an NFC reader. The parking ticket also goes into the wallet for NFC, but the parking lot attendants have an optical reader (unless it has a hidden NFC reader), so I end up pulling that up separately in the app. Just keeps it interesting...

It's a bit funny. In the US, paper tickets, unless bought at the box office, are pretty much a thing of the past. Concert, theater, and sporting event tickets are mostly purchased through Ticketmaster, and they're all in the Ticketmaster app. The ticket is actually a dynamic, usually NFC enabled, "token". They tell you that a screen shot is not accepted; a static copy in your Apple (or Google) wallet is. That presumably dramatically reduces scalping. I don't believe you even receive a PDF ticket anymore. The last time we bought tickets for the London theater from the US (admittedly that was 2019), we were required to pick up a paper ticket from will call, also presumably as an anti scalping/fraud prevention system. Last summer we went to the BST Festival in Hyde Park and all the tickets were again electronic on the phone. I've been to a few concerts where I had to pick up a paper ticket, but that's been very unusual. I still have some souvenir tickets of memorable events, but more often than not the ticket just disappears as soon as I attend the event... As to UK train tickets, unless I've picked up a day return ticket from a kiosk, those have all been on the app for the operator as well. Same for DB in Germany.

I’ve always just shown the barcode or QR code in the PDF on my phone. I usually buy tickets once I’m in country and know what the weather looks like and have a better idea what I’m doing (I know you have a short trip). No printer. On one trip to Windsor Castle the staff actually suggested we buy the tickets on our phone while in line and all we needed was the reference number. Skipped right past probably 30 people in line. But yes, globally A4 is much more common than US letter size. Cruise Critic users must be the largest single group who still prints things in the world…. 😀

You know, I'd probably gamble and just go straight to Raw on 5 when you vacate the cabin. You're driving, so other than your checked bags it really doesn't matter. Will Guest Services give you an earlier bag tag? Do you want off earlier (I'm thinking yes. Tylenol only lasts so long...)

If you were post op pretty much anywhere in the US you'd be in PT immediately and the PT would teach you how to use the crutches. Greater than 50% probability you'd be in PT before the surgery if didn't happen "immediately". Unfortunately that's not your situation.

I wouldn't count on keeping it, but I wouldn't be surprised if you do. We came back on board a few years back in Cozumel with some really nice tequila and nobody even looked at us. YMMV. The rules are no...

It's a touchy subject... I'd say no. Not expected. More correct to say appreciated. Probably not unusual but by no means universal. And I won't WAG at an amount as people on the board have been all over the place on that. If you feel someone has really done something special for you or been outstanding, then a little extra (however you define that) is fine.

Yeah, it doesn't look the same as the app. Nor the same as the old Xpress Format when you'd print it. But that's it. Right under the screen that screams "download the app!". They are proud of their app... Edited to add: It's kind of ironic that with all the "use the app" messages on the web page they'd send out an email telling you to print it. And that when you go to the place to print it, they again tell you to use the app...

Not disagreeing, just a different experience. But to be honest, there's no reason the app SHOULDN'T be the gold standard. They put the dailies out with the evening service, which starts around 5:00 pm. That means they probably cut off the information at 2:00, 3:00 at the latest to allow time to print and distribute them. The daily planner then goes out to around 3:00 am the following day. The later events in the day are over 24 hours out of date. The app should be more or less "live". I don't know how they actually do it. Could be as simple as a "publish to app" button on the ship. You theoretically can change it as often as you need to, again depending on how they've set that up. I would hope that both the paper daily and the app are pulling from the same activity data base. It's certainly possible that someone is sitting at a computer with a calendar up on one monitor and a MS Word screen on the other and typing things across by hand. That would be very sad... (True computer war story. An organization I was in in the early 90s had a Wang computer that was used by the secretary for word processing. A year or so after I got there, they were upgrading(!) to Zenith 286 computers. Turned out she had been essentially copying pages for probably 5-6 years and she had one continuous document of probably 1000 or more pages that even on a DOS system was too big to fit on a single floppy to move to the new computer. I have visions of that...)

I don't dive, but I'm pretty sure you turn it in when coming through security. That used to be a FAQ that I read one time out of curiosity. They had a system to manage them.

For whatever reason tonight, I'm looking through pics of our last visit to London last summer. The timing revolved totally around the British Summertime festival (BST) in Hyde Park, highlighted by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. But we had an amazing visit to one of our favorite cities in the world. I suspect my British friends here on Cruise Critic will give me the same eye roll as I'd give them for places in NYC or Washington, but... If you're around Buckingham Palace and have a little time towards the end of the day, look up Duke's Bar. It's off Saint James, in Duke's Hotel. Supposedly the hotel was a rendezvous point for members of the royal family over the years. But in the 50's, the bar was frequented by a former intelligence officer and aspiring author, and in that bar he was inspired to describe a drink combining vodka, gin, and dry vermouth and name it after the female lead of his first novel. The Vesper. The author was Ian Fleming, and the male lead was of course James Bond in Casino Royale. There is a relatively relaxed dress code at Duke's (long pants and I think a collared shirt for men), and there can be a wait. Not too long generally as there's a strict two martini limit. They are unique and amazing and highly recommended. Forget the show of the martini bar on Celebrity!

What’s your definition of “best”? You can combine the subway with Jersey Transit with an Uber or cab. Complicated but less expensive. You can arrange a car service at different price levels. Simple but more expensive. You can Uber. Similar to a car service. You can take a cab. Probably horribly overpriced and likely a truly crappy vehicle. What level of service do you want? That’s a bit unfair, but there’s no one answer.

You can do that. It works exactly like Royal Caribbean. There will be a daily charge to your account that you settle with your outstanding charges at the end of the cruise. If you're not happy, you should work that out with their supervisors, not by removing gratuities. If you remove the gratuities and pay cash, they'll have to turn them in, just like 99% of the service jobs in the US, and they'll be pooled and distributed EXACTLY THE SAME AS IF YOU'D LEFT THEM IN PLACE. You can theoretically give additional gratuities directly to those serving you if the baseline (autograt) has been met. Enough about tipping for today.

I think it’s time to quit wasting paper. The IT department uploads what they’re given. The app functions fine within those limits.

Of course if you're talking summer in Singapore, there will be plenty of steam without a steamer... 😃