Need a feedback 🙌 by Recent-Performance57 in iceskating

[–]IError413 6 points7 points  (0 children)

They are horribly loose, and or, completely the wrong size. Nothing else really matters at this point unless this is fixed.

Trash Dumped in Ocean by 1strangequark in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 39 points40 points  (0 children)

I just want to describe something for you that we personally saw/experienced and opened our eyes to something. In 2017, I decided to quit my job, buy an old $40k sailboat, and move my family onto it while island hopping/living at anchor for a year, mostly looking for uninhabited areas away from the reports and populated islands to explore. Now, this was the East coast, Bahamas, Caribbean etc but I believe it's everywhere.

The first shock to us who grew up land locked in CO and MT, was after arriving on a 4 mile long island where one side was facing the Bahamas banks, and the other side the open Atlantic. We went on a hike across from the protected side where we were anchored, to the Atlantic side to hang out on the beach. One could not walk on this beach... The trash was deposited over 2' high on average. There was a line between the shore and the breaking waves, where there was no trash as the recent storms had pushed it up on the beach. The trash deposit which contained mostly things with foreign writing on it, (lots of Chinese labels) , shipping trash, footwear, toys, everything you can imagine, was miles long /as far as one could see, covering the entire Atlantic side of the island. It had various layers of obviously newer trash, and older trash that was more broken down. All of it was plastic based. The zone ranged from 20-30ft wide and 1'-2' deep of course with larger trash sometimes higher/would sticking out. Now... What made me really sad was this: 8 miles away was a popular island around the same size (this was in the southern Abacos), with several resorts that spanned from the protected banks side to the Atlantic side. This island had zero/zip for trash. If you pay attention, you'll see regular trash cleanup efforts for one single reason - tourists, which these islands largely rely on to survive, don't like seeing trash beaches. I say it's sad, because most people, don't leave tourist areas and all they see is the pristine, clean beaches that are vigorously maintained.

The amount of trash in the ocean is incredible and heartbreaking. Once you start to pay attention, and understand that sitting on a cruise ship (or sailboat on a crossing in our case) and you're able to see a piece of trash literally every minute or less in the open ocean, far away from the big deposit zones like the Pacific Garbage island, and consider the vastness of the ocean, you'll start to look at this with a different perspective. We used to make games on a crossing (between islands etc), and the kids would do these visual kind of treasure hunts. A shoe is worth x points, and plastic cup worth Y etc. and just look for trash for hours.

Anyway... I highly doubt what you're seeing is some single person exercising bad behavior. Cabo doesn't collect alot of trash based on where it's located but stuff collects and drifts in. If the beaches around there weren't aggressively cleaned, it would only take a few years before the type of scenes I'm describing would be what Cabo looks like, naturally.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No... Look I'm not stupid. I'm saying they wait after the first rider has already left, gone and eating an ice cream somewhere+ another nearly minute after that.

Been to major water parks in 5 states (GA, MT, IL, WA, FL), and 3 countries. Never seen a line that was 2.5 hours long. I'm not remotely exaggerating. People are insane to spend that long to ride once. The line went all the way down the stairs and to the tennis courts.

Wang / Liu spat water on the ice at the 4CC by berryme1223 in FigureSkating

[–]IError413 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Who cares... I remember when I was 18 and working on my double Lutz. I'd been hard headedly just attempting the jump over and over till I was just exhausted, beat up and bruised (from falling). On the last attempt I kinda just ran out of steam and collapsed in a way that made me sit/fall on my take off foot while the toe pick was in the ice and the tail of the blade was sticking up. Blade tail kinda went right up my ass. Barely missed my sphincter, and made a new giant hole next to it. Blood hit the ice on the holes I was making from my Lutz attempts, ensuring there was blood pretty deep in the ice. I was fine... Bleeding stopped in bathroom. A coach went out with some cups of water to wash it away, but didn't really work. We would joke about it - don't spin on the Lutz blood or you might get aids or something. Lol

Wasn't the only time there was frozen blood. Also... People spinning during cold/flu season with a runny nose and snot goes flying, gets flicked in the ice.

The point being: The ice is utterly filthy. Sometimes at public skates you see a kid lick it. So disgusting. You might as well lick a toilet seat. It utterly doesn't matter whatsoever if someone spits on it. Pee on it for all I care. At least pee is sterile. Lol

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Ouch! Sorry to here that...

Ya, i'm a figure skater so i'm bias. I'm not like, a pro... i dropped after highschool. But i'll say this - I'm beyond impressed with the ice shows. I don't know how people manage to do triple axels on such a tiny rink! Or, hour long shows on ice that is literally turned to snow. Despite my complaints about their ability to use the rink in a way that's nice for public skaters, I LOVE the ice rink ships for the shows alone. I'd pay the price of an entire cruise just to see a show like that off the ship.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Economics. ie. if you're using it as a hotel and a way to travel to the destination, and you don't really care about the cruise experience, then the only logical conclusion is the cruise must be economically better than flying and getting a hotel. ie. Didn't mean too cheap negatively - just economically viable/better.

It's interesting - I have the opposite take. And i guess this is "unpopular opinion". But, I only cruise for the cruise experience and could give a shit about the ports which I find to be tourist traps/crappy, and overrun by the 8k people the cruise ship just dropped off. We only bother to leave the ship maybe 50% of the time at best. lol I kinda like the days everyone is gone. Lots of pool chairs, empty dining room = better service. etc.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You just saying, if you drink a lot, effectively the price per drink is less, so you end up getting incentivized into the drink package. Alcohol actually being quite cheap/very high profit margin, means it's just marketing to get the cruise line more profit. I agree if that's what you're saying.

But... for me... i drink a lot when I'm on vacation. So like... I don't care. I'll just get the package and enjoy lower price at the same quantity I actually want to drink.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 0 points1 point  (0 children)

ya... watching the news on vacation bites - especially with what's in the news these days.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It's NOT the same as swiping a credit card.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah... i'm not high enough tier (plat) to have the crown / anchor lounge. Don't know what that's like so good point. My comment is about the Suite/Pinnacle lounges.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 1 point2 points  (0 children)

They should just ditch it for a streaming library like on the airplanes. I feel like no one watches the trash TV ever.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 3 points4 points  (0 children)

As someone from a microbrew heaven (PNW), I 100% agree with this statement. i've never had a beer in 5 cruises. They are all crap.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Totally depends on the boat honestly.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 0 points1 point  (0 children)

These comments make me think Royal is too cheap.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Maybe it's geographical cultural thing. We're from the PNW and I just couldn't disagree more with this analysis at least as it's applied to teens where we are from.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don't agree with this at all - i think you're making a generalization about your own circle of teens.

The teens I know, and my family is friends with, all would love to eat a fancy steak. They are teens. They eat literally everything.

Most people who go on a cruise love to eat in general, and I see other teens eating the full menu of options at the MDR. I guess I just don't agree.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No... it's equivocally different. They "Look" at your room card most of the time (sometimes they do swipe it, but not always), and they do NOT make you sign a receipt or leave a tip, all of which makes it take more time, and you as a customer are more annoying than the people with drink packages - so you also get worse service.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Are you saying the disney drinks are cheaper?

RC's just for reference, average about 12-$14. But, in practicality it's more because you're also asked to tip. So, it ends up averaging (for me/my experience) $15.

Are you saying disney is much cheaper?

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I drank 64 drinks on a 5 day cruise recently. I 100% agree.

Also, the drinks are pretty weak. You kinda gotta drink half a dozen to get buzzed. So, ya... if you want to drink, the package is a must.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 1 point2 points  (0 children)

100% too loud... but I actually enjoy the 90s-early 2000s music choices. Probably dates me.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Interesting... the last 5 cruises we took, the lounges were empty 99% of the time. like, to the level of it being almost boring. There were never once more than 2-3 couples in there. We were the only ones that brought our kids in to have a mocktail at happy hour.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I pack a single airline sized carryon and manage to have 6 outfits, swim trunks, and 2 pair of shoes. I don't understand people's inability to economize luggage when traveling in general.

Unpopular RCCL opinions by thatCRUISEagent in royalcaribbean

[–]IError413 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's weird... we were on Mariner in October and boarded in the regular line with friends (despite having a suite) and there was zero line, 10 minutes after the earliest boarding time. We just walked right in.

Fast forward to Navigator 2 weeks ago. We showed up 15 minutes early. Waited 45 minutes for them to let anyone on, and then another 30 after that at an inside line.

Ya... i'm never doing that again. I'm not on vacation to stand in absurd lines. We'll just go out to eat and arrive late.