brianlojeck

As long as you don't drive to the port. :-)

One of the bonuses of Indian food is that it improves over time, as the spices reach their full flavor bloom. This makes leftovers even better, which is why we cook up a couple of meals' worth. Usually, it reaches peak flavor by day three.

And "leftovers" is not a bad word in our house.

Indian food never lasts long enough to be leftovers at my house.

I had surprisingly good results from two options I tried:

1: disposable waterproof cameras purchased at a drug store... the kind pre-loaded with film where you take the whole camera to the developer

2: putting my pocket-sized digital camera into a "DiCAPac WP570 Underwater Waterproof Case for Large Cameras"

The tags are part of the boarding documents you print from your web site account as the cruise date approaches.

Think back to when the European Space Agency landed the Philae craft on a comet. The scientist got in all kinds of trouble for wearing a shirt decorated in comic book style sci-fi "babes with guns".

I have that shirt. A cruise ship is about the only place it doesn't look out of place and bizarre.

We've enjoyed RCL but on/before this class. I generally do Celebrity if doing the RCL brand now but might really have to check out one of the ships. Is it just the "Oasis" type that have them?

 

BTW your last post, gotta agree the hairs on the back of my neck started standing straight up! Must have been some sort of chant, maybe to "beloved ones" that have gone before them?

The Oasis ships have a massive "central park" that takes the promenade concept to its logical absurdity.

What I'm talking about is more like a long, tall hallway where most of the bars can be found... The RCL ship I was on was... The Mariner. Much smaller than Oasis.

Fwiw, My boots may not be stylish, but they keep traction, even on wet tile. :-)

My hypothesis: people fall, or crash their cars, when they get complacent.

Those stairs are an odd size. The tread is either way too long or way too short.

Much like a traffic circle, then, this creates enough anxiety to break the complacency, and is thus safer in terms of actual accidents, despite being more dangerous appearing.

The room AC can get downright cold if you crank it. The public areas are, to me, very comfortable, but my wife likes a sweater. It's basic office room-temp.

OK, one more, genuinely strange.

Princess ship, leaving Seattle to Alaska. We'd just left Seattle, and the weather was appropriately miserable. Foggy, cold, windy, and a tiny bit of rain.

DW and I are exploring the ship after dinner. So, it's foggy, rainy, windy, and DARK on the deck.

We get up to one of the higher "sports deck" type areas, and I see... something... on a bench near the railing. I also hear... something...

As I get closer, I realize what I'm seeing is three people, women, wearing thick "double stuffed" down coats with hoods drawn over their heads, sitting on the bench. They are sitting side by side, shoulder to shoulder, facing the ocean.

Absolutely motionless.

Not moving in any way.

But they are all talking.

Walking up closer, I can hear that they are all speaking, at the same time, in what sounds like Korean. They are speaking very quietly and rapidly, without stopping. Without pausing. Not talking WITH each other, but all just talking.

Absolutely motionless. In the dark. And the fog. And the rain.

I don't know if they were chanting or praying, or who they were praying to, but if this was a horror movie, THIS would be the moment when they turned around with blood on their muzzles and the captain's body at their feet.

My wife and I left VERY quietly.

Now that would be something to see! Did they all just fade away as the last song ended?!

I seem to recall they came back and had a few drinks...

Never been on one of the RCL ships that have the inside Promenade but have thought about it, now you got me thinking penguins Waltzing down it!

I really like RCL, even if most of my ship time is on Princess. The promenade is one of my favorite features...

I've got two. Neither really compares to the wild stories I've read here, but they sure entertained me.

2: Dancing in the streets

I was on a Royal Caribbean ship going to Victoria, BC. Night after night, we would run down to the British-pub-themed-bar to get good seats for the guitarist. I forget his name, but he was a heavyset Irish gentleman with incredible guitar skills and an amazing, resonant voice. It was kind of like listening to Morgan Freeman talk about penguins and dolphins, but with alcohol.

He wasn't vulgar, but he certainly wasn't family friendly. He'd often comment that he "Spent 6 years at The Royal Music Academy to sit up here, get druink, and sing you songs about d*cks and t*tties..."

It was late, he was getting ready to close up for the night, and the pub was mostly empty. All of a sudden, about 20 people dressed in their finest clothes (real tuxedos and ball gowns) came in and sat down. It wasn't formal night.

He stopped mid song. He stared at them, they stared at him. Finally, one of them revealed that they were a ballroom dancing group. They had planned to go dancing, but the dance floor on the ship was far too small, and tied up all night with the pop-music band.

He thought for a moment... "I know a waltz or two..."

They jumped up. The bar was far too small, so they took over most of the Promenade outside the bar.

He played "Tenessee Waltz", and they waltzed in the hallway. He played a few more songs, and they danced away, spreading through the hallway like some flock of black and white birds.

The rest of us could do little more than sit and stare in amazement.

He left the ship mid-cruise, and I felt bad for the kid who replaced him. No matter how good the new guy was, he just couldn't fill the first performer's shoes.

I've got two. Neither really compares to the wild stories I've read here, but they sure entertained me.

1: The Love Boat

I was on a Princess cruise to Ensenada. The Mariachi band was playing on the bottom level of The Piazza which, for those of you not Princess-enabled, is a 3-story open area containing the shops, bars, and customer service type stuff. The jewelry sale was taking place on the third floor, so tables and sales people abounded.

The guitarist/lead singer for the band was, in the words of Steve Buscemi: "The biggest Mexican I've ever seen." Dude was easily 6'5" and 3 bills. Didn't need amplification to be heard singing. The guitar looked tiny in his hands.

I noticed that he never looked at the audience. In fact, he appeared to be looking at... the ceiling?

Oh... he's singing to that really cute jewlery sales girl on the third level...

and it's working.

For 40 minutes, he sang song after song to her, and whenever she wasn't tied up with a customer she watched him intently, batting her eyes and making kissy-face.

I've seen guys with game before. I've never seen a guy with game so strong it worked from two floors down.

Where-ever he is now, I assume he had a pleasant cruise that trip. :-)

I agree, for the most part, except whether it is debatable that crime (at least in the US) has decreased since the 1990s. (Too many statistics there.)

it's not. Crime is down to levels not seen in 40 years. The fact that people are terrified isn't relevant.

for future reference, I usually do the following when there's no magnet:

1: buy the ship's christmas ornament

2: using a jeweler's wire-saw (maybe $12 on Amazon) I cut off most of the projections on one side. No need to be overly neat.

3: using superglue and the very strong silver-colored magnets from Home Depot (the black ones are weaker) I make my own magnet.

I've got several collections of sand and water, including water I gathered while hiking atop a glacier. :-)

Onboard, I use ziplock bags and bottled-water-bottles.

(EDITED TO ADD: it's not letting me put full URLs... these all come from tiny url dot com)

Once home, I use glass bottles like these:

http://*******.com/j29m6v4

http://*******.com/jlpfog5

http://*******.com/zf5ld9c

and seal the corks with this:

http://*******.com/z5wc9hw

If you're worried about getting sand confiscated, just don't put it in your bags. If you have no metal on you, your pockets won't get checked... and I've never had a half-drunk water bottle questioned by the ship.

Even better, I always seem to have an actual bottle of booze with me coming back onboard... it distracts the ship's crew.

If they spend the extra $4 to hire someone who knows that you have to turn the heat up to cook a rare steak that isn't grey and pallid on the outside, I'm all for it.

The last time I treated my FIL to a cruise we prepayed the tips for his room. The steward didn't treat him any differently.

I don't think you need to stress over this.

Lead shot was outlawed and replaced in the US over twenty years ago. The waterfowl (ducks and geese for instance) suffered from lead poisoning when they ingested the spent shot.

 

It was replaced with steel shot... but I am sure that would not be welcomed in the ocean either.

Lead shot is outlawed WHILE HUNTING, only IN SOME STATES and even then only IN SOME SPECIFIC HUNTING AREAS. Since the ban, virtually no improvement had been found in the lead levels in the condors the bans claimed to protect... The ban hasn't worked because lead shot was not the source of lead in wildlife, and those who supported the bans know this.

Now, having said that, the idea of a biodegradable load is an interesting one... Especially since, unlike condors, fish tend to thoughtlessly eat tiny objects.

The hulls and wadding can be paper. Fast burning powder will avoid residue... But the shot itself has to be heavy, durable, and water soluble...

It's an interesting question...

Carnival paradise to Ensenada. At the time Ensenada want nearly as nice as it is now. I remember walking out of an industrial port til I found a taco stand.

Do I use my actual name here?

. .

Hopefully were all smart enough to... Oh nuts... :-)

Wow....I'm really surprised at how poorly they are treated. On DCL they get a balcony cabin' date=' can bring travel partner free, and give 3 lectures during a 7 night cruise. They can usually negotiate to bring 2 kids along also at no charge. If they are full time Disney employees, air is provided. If they are not, they provide their own transportation unless negotiated otherwise.

 

These people are typically connected with Disney in some way--we've seen Broadway performers, execs, Imagineers, etc. It is a different deal if they are on the ship as "entertainers," doing concerts, etc. rather than talks. We've also seen them volunteer for additional lectures, demos, classes, etc.[/quote']

 

From what I've read here, Disney is more selective over who does their lectures... More like a Destination Lecture On princess... Makes sense they'd pay better

1: if the service is always so bad, why not go with a better cruise line?

2: I'm always amazed how much people complain about the damn muster drill.

Everything the app did was really done by the ship's website.

Firefox and the Princess website don't seem to like each other right now. It's a new issue, though...

Chrome and IE seen to work OK...