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markeb

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Everything posted by markeb

  1. That would be like the argument that the irony in Alanis Morissette's "Ironic" is that none of the events are actually ironic...
  2. +3 on the Zacapa Old Fashioned! Never saw a Singapore Sling on a menu. But the last time (and only time) I had one was actually at The Long Bar at Raffles. Not sure I want to risk that memory!
  3. I suspect this is the real problem with what people are seeing. The CD/Activities Staff is producing the daily, probably in MS Word, and probably by typing over an old version. Or they have a stand alone database of content they merge into daily format. So the content they're putting into the daily isn't linked to the content in the app. They should be the same content from the same source, but that takes work and probably quite a bit of training...
  4. Shouldn't be. I don't recall that at all. The printout is presumably pulling from the same database the app is using. If it's not, fire the IT department and review your entire architecture. Unless they're cutting and pasting events, which is absurdly inefficient, the events on the printout should be the exact same events as in the app. That's relational database 101. The basis of their point of sale and accounting systems. And scheduling systems. None of those should be separate in 2022!
  5. But that's a failure in execution. Are any of us demanding it? I saw the same thing on Equinox in August. Wine tasting may have been in the app. Johnny Walker event wasn't. Maybe others. They were essentially treated as "offline", because they weren't making their vendors use their scheduling system. So the event didn't populate the app. But the Johnny Walker event also wasn't on the printed daily. So no difference.
  6. True. And a frustration. But they’re not on the daily either. Some events are, but the daily shows the spa hours, not you appointment.
  7. Stick with the app. It's searchable. You can add events to your calendar. It doesn't require printing and it doesn't create waste to recycle. But that's how I do almost everything. The only highlighter I've used in years is the highlight option in Adobe and Office applications. The phone will almost always be with me because it's also my camera. But if all they're doing is delivering a PDF of a paper formatted document, then no. It's not readable on a phone. The best electronic deliveries don't try to look like the paper version. But that's me...
  8. I don't know if you're planning on booking first class on the Acela (Acela has "First" and "Business" for some reason). navybankerteacher suggested hanging out in the lounge, but the Metropolitan Lounge is only for First Class and Select Plus or Select Executive Guest Rewards members (there is now a $50/person day pass). That may or may not be worth it to you. Amtrak used to have an arrangement with United, but that's gone. But, Moynihan Train Hall is MUCH nicer than Penn Station. If you get there early and can't get into the lounge or don't want to pay for it, there's Red Cap service (highly recommended; they'll walk you down before the train is announced) and you should be able to drop your big bags. (They take tips...) There are a number of nice bars and eateries if you have time to kill (fewer places to grab a quick lunch to take on the train!). If the train originates in New York (not sure on north bound Acela), the Red Cap can probably get you on the train 40 minutes before departure, and before the mass of people rush to the train. Which is kind of silly these days because ALL seats on the Acela are reserved. Car 2 is the quiet car; the ticketing system will always pick something other than Car 2, but you can change seats online or in the app. It should be an easy cab to Moynihan from the cruise terminal. And with the new Moynihan Train Hall, it's a pleasant experience. Highly recommended.
  9. Did you try the Uber web page? $65 more or less right now. I’d probably reserve a ride. Uber won’t reject it, but that doesn’t mean a driver wants it. Especially if the can do multiple FLL runs. At least with a reservation, you have a driver “for sure”.
  10. Moving every three years or so for an Army career cleared out a lot of those collectibles. That and newer play and concert tickets are usually delivered on the phone, and if not, they're thermal printed and fade pretty fast. But people's pictures of $2 Springsteen tickets at the Bottom Line in 1975 will always be cool! Wish I had my Playbill and tickets for Les Mis at the Palace in London in 1995!
  11. I don’t recall getting any Norwegian Krone on our last Fjord cruise. (I’m sure we did, but it wasn’t much.) That was 2015 and I believe credit card use is even more common now in Norway. I’d be hard pressed to convert more than £100.
  12. I'm really curious how 1776 plays in a post Hamilton world! Never saw it on stage. The movie was sort of surreal! Couple you listed I wasn't familiar with. I guess Take Me Out is taking over the Schoenfeld from Come From Away. Is that a fast turnaround? I don't have any experience with installing a new show on Broadway!
  13. So it was a bit of an exaggeration, but I'm not so concerned with what's playing now as with what will investors support in the future. Phantom is arguably one of the surest things out there, and people apparently haven't come back to it. Still need to see Six (couldn't convince DW to go to the tour at the National Theater). The top of your list are all amazing shows. None were inexpensive to product. Come From Away closes in just over a week. Dear Evan Hanson was a huge success; it closed on Broadway yesterday. Hamilton, Book of Mormon, and Come From Away are all original (pretty sure the same applies to Six, but I haven't seen it). They were all risky at the time, and part of me worries that risk is heightened now. I'm hoping those worries are misplaced. Disney and jukebox musicals seem safer to investors these days. Although Disney can certainly be massively expensive to produce! Fingers crossed.
  14. I'll have to keep them in mind next time I'm headed to the airport. They sound interesting.
  15. They are actually not allowed. YMMV on getting them onboard... My bold. Prohibited Items: Firearms & Ammunition, including realistic replicas. Sharp Objects, including all knives and scissors. (Note: Personal grooming items such as safety razors are allowed. Scissors with blade length less than 4 inches are allowed.) Illegal Drugs & Substances CBD Oil / CBD Products Candles, Incense, Coffee Makers, Clothes Irons, Travel Steamers & Hot Plates. (Items that generate heat or produce an open flame. This includes heating pads, clothing irons, hotplates, candles, incense and any other item that may create a fire hazard. NOTE: The only exception to this policy are curling irons and hair straighteners. Matches and normal lighteners are allowed onboard. However ""torch lighters"" and novelty lighters that look like guns are not allowed onboard. Torch lighters emit a powerful concentrated flame, and therefore are prohibited.
  16. Never saw it on Broadway. We did see one of national tours in Austin years ago. I hope this doesn't mean that every musical on Broadway is going to be Disney or a jukebox musical. ALW has his detractors, and his biggest shows were a generation (or two) ago, but they were original at the time.
  17. I haven't made that trip, but I'm pretty much doing Uber these days when I don't drive. There are limo services, mostly based out of DC, but I haven't had much experience with them, or much luck when I tried them in the past. NoVA is a pretty big place, and arguably getting bigger. Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax County, Prince William County? You almost have to put Fredericksburg to the south and Loudon to the west into NoVA. Big range of possibilities. But the options haven't been great...
  18. Agree with the others. If they're open and you ask, they'll seat you there. If they're not open, it won't matter.
  19. So, no dressing like people who are members of an organization that requires it's members to have served in hostile areas, usually under threat of fire. Got it...
  20. Back to the OP in the Retreat. If you're not carrying large amounts of cash, which frankly I NEVER do these days, ask the Retreat Concierge for the additional tip form. Tips to the dining staff are pooled. I believe that's a simple "period" with no qualifier. Tips to housekeeping will got to your stateroom attendant (or whatever they're calling them today) and tips to your Butler (earlier post said they'd reverted to that terminology) go to them. If you want to add a by name, the concierge can add their employee number (the Retreat bartender, for instance). They'll turn it in to guest services. Bizarrely, mine just posted to my credit card today and we've been home over a month, but so be it. And the concierge explained all of that. I believe as someone stated above that the concierge in the Retreat is fully salaried. Last cruise, we bought a couple of bottles of wine in Luminae and a wine tasting. Added extra to both tabs. There are different opinions, including on this thread, but it's a cash free ship (and more and more society), and a lot of gratuities get added on automatically. Your choice whether to add more, but I can honestly say on Equinox I don't recall seeing anyone give a cash tip at a bar. I'm sure it happened, but you used to see it.
  21. They were eventually in the planner on Equinox, at least on board. There was a flyer for them in Craft Social with the dates and times. And no tickets. Just name and cabin number on a list.
  22. No hard facts, but... Bourbon has become highly allocated over the last several years, and I've found them somewhat hit and miss ashore. Others haven't had those issues. Most cruise ships I've been on have had much better selections of Scotch whisky than bourbon. RCG appears to have a strong contractual relationship with Diageo, so that's pretty much Bulleit (which they did have in July/August on Equinox). It's really hard to explain Woodford Reserve since they have no apparent issues with Maker's Mark, but I have seen Woodford shortages in Virginia and at the military exchanges in the area, so that's not unique to RCG. They had plenty of Tennessee Whiskey (Jack Daniels). For Scotch, they seem to do OK with Macallan and Johnny Walker (the latter also a Diageo brand). Others single malts were somewhat scarce this trip, but it's been a month and I don't remember. Previous cruises they had Oban and Lagavulin (World Class Bar), but they didn't have either on Equinox that I saw. No obvious issues with rum, even the aged Zacapa, which is also distributed by Diageo. Appeared to be plenty of gin and vodka, but those aren't aged spirits. So it's kind of hard to figure out what might be going on. Bourbon grew significantly in popularity when Scotch prices went up dramatically a few years ago. But a number of us have noticed limited bourbon availability on Celebrity.
  23. Around here, Maker's and Woodford are pretty similar in price, and I like a wheated bourbon... (Although I normally buy Maker's 46 not the standard Maker's.) I don't know how RCG keeps their supply chain so screwed up on whisk(e)y. I gave them the benefit of the doubt initially, and I still suspect some of the big boys went elsewhere for market when the cruise lines shut down. I honestly don't remember bourbon ever being a big part of Celebrity's inventory. I'm trying to remember what they had in July on Equinox. The first day they had Buffalo Trace, Maker's, Woodford, and something else. But never a great selection. Scotch whisky was better, but still nowhere near as good as pre-pandemic. Same on wine. I'm not a big fan of most Wagner Family wines, but many if not most of those were out of stock as well. Of course they had all the freaking vodka you could ever dream of! End booze rant.
  24. There were two of these threads going. Looks like the posts I made were in the other one... Search Amazon for USB C charging hubs. They'll pretty much all have both USB C and USB A ports. Your iPhone 11 is a USB C to Lightning charger. The iPad could be USB A if it uses a Lightning plug. Most newer iPads are USB C to USB C. Either way... For two iPhones and two iPads, with the option to switch off to charge a Fitbit or the like... Something like this: https://smile.amazon.com/Charger-KOVOL-Desktop-Charging-Station/dp/B09G31HM68/ref=sxin_15_ac_d_hl?ac_md=2-1-Q2hhcmdpbmcgc3RhdGlvbnM%3D-ac_d_hl_hl_rf&content-id=amzn1.sym.3663916c-38f6-4d73-9801-2e9551111db6%3Aamzn1.sym.3663916c-38f6-4d73-9801-2e9551111db6&crid=1TOI154ZV7ZBI&cv_ct_cx=usb+c+charging+hub&keywords=usb+c+charging+hub&pd_rd_i=B09G31HM68&pd_rd_r=5c8f01d6-a7c5-4185-9f8a-37f62b908d83&pd_rd_w=Eq7Ut&pd_rd_wg=tENoX&pf_rd_p=3663916c-38f6-4d73-9801-2e9551111db6&pf_rd_r=G76X4HG0QVX3S5BZ28A7&psc=1&qid=1662427659&sprefix=usb+c+charging+hub%2Caps%2C117&sr=1-2-25fd44b4-555a-4528-b40c-891e95133f20 Very compact. If you go to Amazon, there are pictures of it in hand. I have one similar to this that's great. For more devices, adding more USB C ports, look at something like this: That gives you 3 USB C and 3 USB A. https://smile.amazon.com/Charger-Sacrack-Charging-Station-Portable/dp/B09GJXVHVK/ref=sxin_15_ac_d_hl?ac_md=1-0-T3ZlcmFsbCBDaG9pY2U%3D-ac_d_hl_hl_ac&content-id=amzn1.sym.3663916c-38f6-4d73-9801-2e9551111db6%3Aamzn1.sym.3663916c-38f6-4d73-9801-2e9551111db6&crid=1TOI154ZV7ZBI&cv_ct_cx=usb+c+charging+hub&keywords=usb+c+charging+hub&pd_rd_i=B09GJXVHVK&pd_rd_r=5afa2ed3-83c3-4dec-8c75-9799eb5fbc95&pd_rd_w=HhnRU&pd_rd_wg=0RmFy&pf_rd_p=3663916c-38f6-4d73-9801-2e9551111db6&pf_rd_r=YWT2KZE2KA5PYGXZRMY0&psc=1&qid=1662427936&sprefix=usb+c+charging+hub%2Caps%2C117&sr=1-1-25fd44b4-555a-4528-b40c-891e95133f20 Both have detachable 2-prong electronics cords. They'll sit on the desk and won't pull out of the wall with devices plugged in. For what you're talking about, you don't need additional outlets. If you do need both 110V outlets at the same time, get a European E/F adapter and plug the USB hub into it; they're 110-240V capable. That's my recommendation. It's essentially what I've travelled all over the world with for year. You'll need cables, but those are easy.
  25. Thats all you’re charging? What iPad? Lightning or USB C. You don’t need the outlets, only the USB C. It’s probably not going to be confiscated, but it’s not a good tool for what you need. If you use the outlets, it will almost certainly pull out of the wall. Get a USB A/C charging hub with a cord. Forget the add on outlets. There are multiple better choices in this thread.
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