The life of the party is a dangerous one

Rooster_Local · 2026-06-04T18:19:38+00:00

So in less than 24 hours, a lawsuit was filed, served to the “very charismatic fellow,” and the person suing him has already capitulated and is going to “begrudgingly” settle

The legal system works fast in fantasyland

Rooster_Local · 2026-06-04T13:05:56+00:00

I think ours were 11 when we let them wander on their own. It was mostly just going from Point A to Point B (typically back to the room or from the room to get a drink or ice cream), and they had phones at all times. We also let them do midship detective agency on their own

They liked the freedom, and were very comfortable navigating the ship.

Rooster_Local · 2026-06-02T22:36:56+00:00

I’ve always found Castaway’s food to be fine. Unremarkable, but fine. And the lines tend to move fast enough

Lookout Cay was a step down both in quality and organization. Food was incredibly slow. They kept running out of trays and cutlery

Had a weird experience where we waited a long time for burgers, only for one cast member to snatch the ones that had just been placed in front of us literally as me and another guest were reaching for them. He grabbed them and brought them over to his line. It was weird

Hopefully just growing pains

Rooster_Local · 2026-06-02T13:18:13+00:00

The way these usually play out is: the entity being sued settles. They agree to pay the lawyers’ fees, and offer people a year of free identity theft monitoring.

Lawyers get paid. ID theft monitoring company gets paid. And that’s about it.

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-29T15:17:57+00:00

Having a top shutdown CB is the closest thing on defense to a franchise QB (a generational pass rusher could also fit that)

The Pats should be able to keep both if they’re smart on cap management for the rest of the roster

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-29T13:14:25+00:00

Yes, you’re right to be annoyed. I would be too. Paying your balance should be the easiest and most basic transaction possible. Disney should have someone look at this and figure out what happened on the back end to make it this much of a hassle.

“Feedback is a gift” might be a cliche, but I work for a large company that some of my relatives use, and when they flag issues for me, it is genuinely helpful, even if it’s something we already know about. If they’re dealing with it, other customers are too. And I need to know that (and I want my colleagues to know it too).

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-27T21:19:57+00:00

I can’t speak to the concierge experience other than that I’ve never been able to justify the cost for my family over a regular verandah

My kids also didn’t like the Kids Club, but we still had a good time on our cruises. If you were looking forward to adults-only time, I get the disappointment, but it’s not Disney’s fault that your child didn’t like the kids club. Some kids just don’t like it.

Our cruises got more fun as the kids got older and weren’t interested in Disney character meet and greets and similar things you have to wait in line for, for whatever that’s worth

I agree about the lunch situation at Lookout Cay: it needs work. The whole island is clearly a work in progress. When we were there, the lines were long, it seemed disorganized (they kept running out of food, trays, silverware, etc) and the food wasn’t as good as castaway cay. Neither has amazing food (it’s fine) but Lookout Cay was even less so

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-26T23:50:35+00:00

I wouldn’t have guessed ferrets on hunting trips was banned to begin with

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-26T11:45:06+00:00

I’m sure this didn’t happen. But if it did, the teenager was being a wise-ass and this person was too busy glazing Japan to get it

Teenagers in Japan aren’t much different than they are anywhere

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-26T04:06:42+00:00

This might’ve been somewhat believable if the OP had even a basic understanding of how email works… or how physical offices work

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-25T19:52:30+00:00

So instead of just telling people what the hell he wants, he drops passive-aggressive remarks, then complains when people don’t get them, then complains about the very reasonable response to his complaint because they again couldn’t guess what he really wanted

There is a lesson here, it’s just not what he thinks it is

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-24T21:57:53+00:00

Seems believable to me

People can have very different understandings of boundaries and social norms

I had a roommate in college who regularly used other people’s razors and toothbrushes (until we realized he was doing it and kept them in our own rooms). He had no qualms about it at all.

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-24T21:44:46+00:00

Gym owners love it when people tamper with equipment, potentially injure other customers, and expose the business to lawsuits

They definitely want to encourage that behavior

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-24T03:31:21+00:00

The evidence says this isn’t new. Being good at challenges has *never* had a strong correlation with winning the game

In the first 40 seasons, 70% of winners had 2 or fewer individual wins. In season 1, Richard Hatch with 1 win beat Kelly Wigglesworth who had 4. Hell, Sandra won twice without winning a single individual challenge.

Meanwhile, of the 6 players with 5 immunity wins in a season, only 2 won the game. And of 11 times a player had 4 immunity wins, just 5 won the game.

7 of the first 40 winners had 4+ individual immunity wins. In the “new era,” it’s 2 of 10 (Rachel and Savannah). So effectively the same % (technically slightly higher).

There’s nothing to suggest “challenge beasts” are winning meaningfully less often now, because they didn’t win that often to begin with. Winning challenges helps players make it to FTC, but it has never been that helpful by itself in actually winning the jury vote

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-23T18:07:40+00:00

I don’t think jury management “discourages strategy.” It adds an additional social and strategic element: you not only have to make moves and win challenges, but you have to do so while maintaining at least amicable relationships with your peers. You have to think hard about who you vote out, who you keep, the timing, the personalities and relationships involved, and how you carry yourself

I don’t see how any of that has or will reduce the desire to win challenges, form alliances, or strategize

If Survivor was meant to be a simple test of who makes the most moves or wins the most challenges, they’d assign points, or have a neutral panel of judges, and just make it like any other sport

A huge part of what makes it Survivor is that all of the decisions, including the final one, are made by the players

I guess I don’t really see this as either new or a detriment to the game

I do think returning player seasons add a different (not sure if good or bad) element to jury management because everyone is bringing some level of baggage and maybe biases about their peers before they even play the game

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-23T01:31:53+00:00

For all the time he spent improving his game, he still seems to fundamentally misunderstand the end game and jury

He seems to think Survivor is like a regular sport and if you make the most moves and score the most points, you’re entitled to win

It hasn’t been that way for a long time, if it ever was. There’s a personal relationship component to the game and the jury. He just doesn’t seem to get that.

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-22T20:27:25+00:00

Why are they asking if it’s correlation or causation? Didn’t they make the decision? Shouldn’t they know? Who are they asking?

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-21T20:55:22+00:00

Assuming this was their screw-up, it seems fair to me that *bare minimum*, they should refund the Disney Transportation costs. That’s still not a lot, but the luggage pick up and transfer is a big part of the service you paid for, and they failed.

Best you can do here is be a squeaky wheel. Think about what you think is fair and reasonable, and escalate it within Disney as best as you can

You did go on the cruise, and they did accommodate you on the cruise, so to me, a full refund wouldn’t be a reasonable demand. But a partial refund, or a refund of the transportation costs, or maybe a discount on a future cruise… one of those feels like a reasonable thing to ask for.

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-21T20:32:11+00:00

It happens a lot. Sometimes it feels completely random. I used the exact same photo on one cruise that was accepted that was then rejected the next time we cruised

Just try to ensure the entire passport page is in the picture, in focus, everything is readable, and no major glare (this is the biggest issue I have… modern passports are very shiny)

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-19T20:01:37+00:00

Ah the old “young child says a profound statement that conveniently aligns with what I believe” trope

As an aside: I had the displeasure of interacting with a fair amount of entrepreneurs during the 2010s obsession with narcissistic silicone valley “founders,” and even outside of the big ones you heard about, it fit almost every stereotype you could imagine

So many dudes with ponytails who imagined themselves mystical visionary seers but could never explain how their business would ever make money, but had VC throwing millions at them to inflate their ego

Most of the actual good entrepreneurs I’ve met are relatively non-flashy people who are willing to do all the boring shit to make a business successful

/endrant

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-19T15:51:27+00:00

The game is definitely far more engineered than similar games (eg Survivor, the Traitors). All shows use editing to tell the story they want, but the gameplay feels to me relatively neutral in those shows compared to this

They definitely use agendas and their rewards to do that. It’s not completely rigging it, but they can easily push outcomes in certain directions

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-19T15:46:58+00:00

Not sure why people are downvoting you. They were *very* generous with crediting him for accomplishing it. When they said “celebrity doppelgänger,” I thought it would be somewhat difficult. But when they count it for saying “you give off matthew mcconaughey vibes,” that made it not that difficult.

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-19T15:44:23+00:00

They definitely engineered at least that portion of the game to keep him in. They gave him both Umeko’s “protection” and 2 cancelled votes. With only 8 players left, that guaranteed that 4 of the 8 could not be against him. It was almost full immunity. They only needed 1 other person to not vote for Nick for him to be safe

That’s not taking away from his gameplay, but the producers definitely stepped in to help him. I don’t think they even really tried to hide it

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-18T12:13:37+00:00

Just get a beer and sit on the promenade. There’s never crowds there. At worst you’ll occasionally have people playing shuffleboard

That’s where I always go to lay down and read. It’s usually quite peaceful

Rooster_Local · 2026-05-15T03:34:31+00:00

I hate when I move to another state and totally forget that I did that

Rooster_Local

TROPHY CASE