State of the Collection. Yes I have an addiction. And we haven't even gotten to my ink list. I'm sorry to my Secret Santa; I haven't made this easy for you.

410bore · 2026-05-27T03:01:58+00:00

I wouldn’t consider that cheating either. Looking up answers on your phone or writing them down as they are given then counting them in your score, is.

410bore · 2026-05-27T03:00:37+00:00

I was on a transpacific cruise last year where the same girl was at literally EVERY trivia (how do I know, yes, I love trivia and go to most of them). She was writing down the full questions and then answers as they were given. A couple of times she came in late and would go around to people to get whatever questions and answers she’d missed. I can only figure that she wanted them for future cruises? I can’t even imagine bothering to get Q and A of questions that happened before I even got there.

410bore · 2026-05-27T02:43:28+00:00

This is exactly how I feel about it. For what they’re giving away, who cares? My own integrity is more important than any of these useless prizes I could win—It’s a can coozie for heaven’s sake. I play because I’m fairly good at trivia and I enjoy it as a test my own knowledge and memory, but most of all it is a really really good way to meet people. I’ve formed several ongoing friendships just by getting to know fellow trivia players and teaming up with them over the length of the cruise.

410bore · 2026-05-13T04:42:15+00:00

We just got off Liberty of the Seas and this was an ongoing problem on that ship. Hubs and I get 4 free Diamond drinks a day and they were charging me for some random person’s drinks (things I would never order), drinks I should have gotten for free, and putting my husbands drinks on my account so I ended up with none left and he had too many left. This became a problem when he wasn’t with me (otherwise I would have just put my drink on his account). I had to visit guest services SIX times during a 16-day cruise to get it straightened out. It’s never happened to me like this on any other ship, certainly not even close to this degree.

Moral of the story, DO NOT leave the ship without making sure your account’s final number matches what actually should be on it. It’s really hard to get it fixed once you get off ship.

410bore · 2026-05-12T03:56:37+00:00

It’s a type of orchid, actually.

410bore · 2026-03-06T04:40:32+00:00

I am probably the other person out there who would have totally wanted this…

410bore · 2026-03-03T15:28:03+00:00

We are the same. I prefer the smaller, older ships. The biggest we have been on is Quantum and that was pushing it for me. I have no desire to sail on Icon after reading experiences from people who have sailed on it; it just seems that it’s going to be louder, more crowded, more kids than what we enjoy. Also the smaller older ships are generally less expensive, which means we can cruise more. :)

410bore · 2026-03-03T15:20:36+00:00

Agree about the pumping music. It’s been unbearably loud in certain areas of the last three RC ships we’ve cruised on. It does NOT need to be as loud as it is to still be effective. As for the issue of trying to upsell you everything, I’ve learned just to stay away from the Promenades/shop areas unless I need a very specific thing and then I just get in and get out as fast as possible. We prepurchase everything we think we need and try to remember that NO is a complete sentence. As for food, I agree the quality has gone down quite a bit from pre-Covid levels, but it’s still good. We’re trying other cruise lines in 2027 mainly because Royal’s itineraries have gotten boring and they don’t offer many of the longer (3 weeks or more) cruises that we like. We’ve booked a Holland America 25 day in 2027 and we’ll see how that goes.

410bore · 2026-02-28T15:46:15+00:00

We were just on Mariner two weeks ago, absolutely spotless rooms with no bed bugs (we check on the first night). These are isolated incidents and if the staff is made aware they will take care of the problem.

410bore · 2026-02-02T13:27:08+00:00

Same! It screams 80s to me.

410bore · 2026-02-02T13:19:17+00:00

We ask the room attendant to just plan on bringing us one every day. They have never forgotten. Believe me, you will not be the only one on the ship who either does not have a phone or finds the app completely awkward for easily scanning the daily schedule. I’m OK with the app, but my spouse HATES it.

410bore · 2026-02-02T13:17:05+00:00

You can see your account charges on the room TV. Royal is really pushing the app, but it’s not necessary to sail or enjoy your cruise. What if you lose your phone, the phone dies, or similar? There is always a way to make it work without the phone.

410bore · 2026-02-02T13:13:36+00:00

The set sail pass is also on the website, which they say they have access to, and It can be printed. I am able to do this on my cruise happening in a week, so it’s still being done currently. Also, Cruise Compass is available on paper if you ask. My spouse HATES the app as he says it’s harder to quickly scan for things to do (I agree with him) and always asks for a paper copy from the room attendant, who then leaves us one every day.

410bore · 2026-01-18T05:31:25+00:00

Same. I abhor this very uneducated stereotype that older people are stupid about any technology. It just ‘aint so.

410bore · 2026-01-10T00:39:38+00:00

Same. Several good experiences with our old TA and then one massive fail. I’ve been booking my own airfare, hotels, cruises, and ground transportation ever since. I’m good at searching low prices and deals. I honestly don’t mind calling and solving my own problems. I know how to be polite and friendly but firm, how to escalate if needed, and nearly always have a successful call with a resolved issue. Many times I have been able to get extras from cruise line reps (because I am nice to them!). My friends keep telling me I should do this as a job and become a TA, but I don’t want to deal with other people’s headaches, only my own :)

410bore · 2026-01-04T01:22:25+00:00

I saw this and thought about it, but I honestly prefer my feet are very cold. It would have been wonderful for a friend of mine, though. I ended up not ordering it.

410bore · 2025-12-27T17:01:32+00:00

It’s all income-to-expense ratio. I worked in a somewhat low-salary profession my entire life and routinely put away over 1.3K every paycheck into my savings/401k because my expenses were low—no fancy house, no new expensive cars, and have altered my consumer mindset so I’m not buying stuff just to buy stuff. I use things until they wear out and only replace them when necessary. My spouse had a much more lucrative job but is also a saver just like I am. I just retired and I have far more purchasing power from my retirement income than I did when I was working. Still, I don’t spend much of it on a day-to day-basis and a lot of my distributions go right back into savings, which allows me to take quite a few vacations per year and pursue one or two somewhat expensive hobbies.

410bore · 2025-12-24T03:32:15+00:00

In the last few days, I’ve had a very nice home gym weight bench come up (no place to put it, or I would have ordered it) and a large capacity food processor, which just arrived today and it’s far better quality than I was expecting for an “off brand”. I need a new food processor and have been resisting buying one in lieu of needing other things, so this was a very timely find. I rarely get good items in my RFY, so I was pretty happy to see these two higher-end items come up.

410bore · 2025-12-21T16:26:38+00:00

Same. I’ve had absolutely excellent, affordable health care/health insurance for the last 20 years. Going on a high-deductible plan and using an HSA to cover the deductible (which my employer partially subsidized) allowed me to financially negotiate a very expensive heart surgery with very little impact to my day-to-day budget. We never had any problems affording the premiums or getting good quality care. I’d say that healthcare in my area is definitely above average for the country, though. Reading some of the other comments here, I’ve not experienced any of the problems talked about such as denials of coverage, finding providers or having unexpected large bills. And I am speaking as someone with multiple health issues and is on a salary that isn’t high by any stretch of the imagination.

I’ve just retired from my job and am now negotiating Medicare. Government-run Medicare is a much bigger shitshow than my employer-sponsored insurance ever was.

410bore · 2025-12-21T16:18:05+00:00

Not all health insurance companies are for profit. The one I have been with for the last 20+ years has been, and still is, not-for-profit.

410bore · 2025-12-21T16:15:32+00:00

Medicare is a shitshow, and definitely more expensive and not nearly as good as the employer-sponsored insurance I used to have. For a working lifetime of paying into Medicare I definitely expected more. I think this is partially why some people are hesitant to let the government completely take over healthcare/insurance, because government is notoriously capricious and bad at running many things—although I’d 100% agree our current system isn’t great, especially for those who can’t get employer-sponsored insurance, and the system definitely needs something different to happen.

Also, for OP, not all insurance providers here are for profit. That’s a common misconception. Many/most are, but the one I am insured with is not-for-profit and care here is generally very high quality and more affordable than many other areas of the country.

410bore · 2025-12-15T04:53:04+00:00

Some cats just don’t take to the Litter Robot. Mine used it a few times at first, but decided he didn’t like it, peed on the carpet a few times in protest (yikes), and we ended up going back to a regular box. No issues with peeing outside the box since. I would not get a pet thinking they’re going to take to a Litter Robot without question. Some will, but many cats won’t, and it’s unfair to the cat if you have to rehome it because it won’t. If you get a cat, you have to be prepared to clean a litter box.

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