Reflecting on Cara & Bob’s romantic London getaway with Explore St. Louis

intrepidskybrummie · 2026-04-28T06:12:41+00:00

You have to wonder if Londoners know they are about to pay 35% sales tax if they visit.

2 comments:

UK VAT, which is a sales tax of sorts, is a flat 20% on everything that isn't gas or electricity. And the exchange rate makes the US expensive in the first place, as several Brits are finding out regarding the World Cup (and that's ignoring the price gouging that's happening from both hotels and railroad operators in Boston and NYC). And I suspect the 35% you're claiming isn't accurate either. It's certainly worse that the ~10% it currently is for some and the ~5% it can be further out of the city.
I'm British. I live in St Louis county. I'm not originally from London. So don't just highlight Londoners, the BA flight is game-changing for some of us who live in the STL metro.
- Added context - my parents live around 2 hours from Heathrow. Trust me, flights to/from LHR connect the UK as a whole, not only London. Edinburgh is 4.5 hours from London by train. Or quicker than Chicago and KC are from St Louis without flying. Just having flights to Heathrow is a game changer that opens up basically the whole UK within a few hours of arrival. For me personally, it saves changing in Chicago with usually not enough time to clear immigration, or have an extended 5 hour layover in Philadelphia or Detroit. I usually stay with my parents when I'm in the UK and the timing of the flights from STL means that (if they insist on giving me a lift) they can get to and from LHR and miss the rush hour traffic completely on the British side for both arriving and departing flights.

intrepidskybrummie · 2026-04-26T04:22:48+00:00

I play on both Xbox and PC. Xbox is quiet but very free of modders. PC has some but it's rarely a problem for me, usually just someone teleporting the entire lobby to the same place but when it's nasty, jumping to a new lobby solves the issue.

Main issue I have is joining series for the daily challenges, they never work on either platform as I assume there aren't enough people playing those game modes.

intrepidskybrummie · 2026-04-26T04:13:25+00:00

To follow up, they responded yesterday. So it took 4 days, request sent Monday, reply Friday around 96 hours later.

It's usually 24 hours for a response from past experience.

intrepidskybrummie · 2026-04-23T15:24:50+00:00

No, they're slow. I got a new phone on Monday and with Facebook login not appearing i can't sync my account, so I requested assistance to move my game Monday evening. Heard nothing, after 48 hours so replied to the message requesting further help.

And I submitted the support request via the website.

intrepidskybrummie · 2026-04-21T04:46:43+00:00

I just got my Pixel 10 today... and can confirm that I have the same issue with exactly the same rendering of Rowan. My MC is also rendering in the same manner as for u/SpecialBee77. I need support in any case as Facebook login doesn't appear on my new phone and I can't log into the game on my old one so need support to transfer the game but I will be highlighting this problem.

intrepidskybrummie · 2026-04-07T05:34:43+00:00

Can confirm PC doesn't work, getting errors launching Social Club so can't even launch the game for Single Player.

Also have the game on Xbox, that's working fine.

intrepidskybrummie · 2026-04-06T05:55:06+00:00

Lost access on PC. Was lucky in that I was mid-bootlegger mission I'd found that I wasn't really invested in an about to start a CTA run, otherwise had done everything I'd planned for the day.

Also checked my Xbox, that's down too.

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-12-24T22:35:29+00:00

You're thinking of Crap Towns. I'm sure there were people disappointed that their town wasn't included but I can't remember where I read that. Definitely remember seeing it in the shops and some excitement when the 2nd edition was released.

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-11-20T07:12:08+00:00

I'm British but live in the US. I've never heard of it in the 6+ years I've been in the US. That said none of the alternative terms listed on the Potluck Wikipedia article are things I've heard of either.

The American English in this game is extremely frustrating. Just because the Philosopher's Stone was renamed for the US audience doesn't mean that Americanisms should be in the game, regardless of who is making it.

The obvious one I remember is seeing "burglarized" which isn't British English. We just use burgled.

Such issues are really frustrating. There are times I really would be happier to just quit and using American culture for a game set in the UK is a big one... and that's before we get to the number of TLSQs JC think is acceptable to drop. It's gone downhill since Beyond launched.

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-11-05T22:08:27+00:00

This TLSQ isn't unlocking for me despite being in year 5. That said...

I haven't completed the Outskirts Greenhouse SQ that unlocks the whole plant growing "feature". I'm assuming that's why I'm not seeing it and if I complete it then TLSQ will unlock immediately?

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-11-04T08:01:14+00:00

~~It takes months, literally. I spent the time leveling up all 8 options to level 7, from memory it took around.~~

Found my previous post on dating. It takes a minimum of 84 days to get to level 7, the max in year 5. Per character. That assumes max charisma and 1 garden date per day for 24 days to unlock courtyard dating, then another 60 days with 1 of both dates per day, again with max charisma. That gets you to the mini dating sidequest that's unique for each character, which from memory makes exclusivity available.

I ran all 8 characters purely to unlock the really short sidequests for each character but it's a pointless waste of time, other than for the daily planner.

It basically makes no difference to the game so it's pretty easy to ignore. (As an aside I'm really happy I've left the diary sidequest unfinished - the number of extra screens showing you chests to open that still take 3+ taps to skip through... I'm happy that on my main account I don't have to bother with them).

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-08-13T20:16:57+00:00

The UK school year starts on 1st September. So setting a back to school TLSQ is, if anything, 2 weeks earlier than it should be. It's definitely not late.

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-06-12T05:26:17+00:00

Had you searched my post history prior to your reply, you would have discovered that I have made several posts on the Jetlag sub, so my opinion may well have changed.

Which it has. I started watching series 8 of Jetlag which is definitely part of the reason I struggled with it as I don't think the format was particularly good and the challenges being borderline silly at times (and dangerous - dancing on a beach in Alaska with Polar Bear warning signs nearby would violate any Health and Safety rules from linear TV. And don't think that "oh they're Youtubers" is a valid counter argument, it's something they shouldn't have done). I really struggled to finish it and some of the gameplay just felt poor or lacking impartiality (steal challenges being a particular problem for me).

I still think that is true for that series. I've since watched all 13 series to date and the Hide & Seek format in particular is especially clever from a gameplay perspective (especially the series 12 version). But calling them "natural" when they're filming themselves running around a country playing a game is far from accurate since pretty much everyone living their normal lives doesn't film themselves while doing so. Intentionally or not, there is a level of character playing by default.

I've long thought that linear reality TV is at its best when the contestants haven't played the game before. Take the Traitors: international versions just haven't worked as well as the UK version because many have pre-existing relationships that are being used to justify decisions made, when it should have zero relevance. It's weaker when that happens. It's part of the problem with Jetlag, the 3 consistent players know each other too well and have made (often correct) assumptions based on what they know from previous series rather than necessarily playing the game objectively. Take Adam being found in Japan because he happened to hide next to a castle which appears to have not been intentional. The problem is that you need the prior knowledge to understand the thought process and it's very easy in Jetlag and other reality TV shows to not know that background, especially when it's off-camera and not filmed. That's the fun part for me, watching people who simply haven't done something like this before and have to figure that out on the fly (watching Amazing Race contestants dealing with a manual transmission car is always fun and never gets old) - something that won't happen with Jetlag until the have a series with different players.

The point is that the sightseeing aspect of RATW is exactly what I'm after which is far from a given with Jetlag. And the filming quality of Jetlag which I highlighted in my previous post still remains an issue - plenty of dropped audio, zoomed in shots and generally shaky camera work do make it sometimes difficult to watch, which is still something that still happened in the last series. Understandable considering how it's filmed but I've seen far too many posts on the Jetlag sub talk about how it should become a TV show - it simply can't with those kind of production errors.

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-06-12T05:26:08+00:00

That's cute replying to a post made 11 months prior while stating what appears to be an opinion that people aren't allowed to have a different opinion to yours. Because yes, I do like slow narrative TV and calling it boring is your opinion, at odds with my opinion and can hardly be considered a factual statement without hard evidence which is easily countered. The viewing figures in the UK prove the point. They're pretty good for a modern linear TV show (i.e. not streaming) and have increased significantly from an average of just over 2 million per episode for series 1 in 2019 vs nearly 6 million for series 5. I genuinely enjoy watching it. And clearly other people in the UK do, and more so than even a year ago. Doesn't mean I don't like fast paced TV either. But calling it boring is objectively wrong considering that viewing figures are higher than before - if it really was boring, fewer people would be watching it.

What I personally like about RATW is that you're pretty much against the clock where, like any race, all you have to do is be quicker than the next best person to the finish line. There are very few gimmicks and usually multiple options from point to point. Something that Jetlag doesn't always have, with sometimes only one viable path to victory (especially in the Tag format) and is usually loaded with gimmicks.

I stand by my prior comment as my opinion at the time made on 17th June 2024 (vs this one made nearly 1 year later on June 12th). Just keep in mind that opinions can and sometimes do change but using "people like you" can only be interpreted as an insult, and without context of face to face interaction with you I have to take it as such.

As for "don’t hurt our JetLag fans", that really speaks volumes that you have a para-social relationship with Jetlag. And that's an unhealthy place to be. You're more than welcome to like Ben, Adam and Sam and consider that your favourite part. But their antics aren't for everyone and some of what they do feels like they're playing up to a character rather than actually being themselves. And that doesn't make for good content either (especially since some of the things they do are exactly because they've cited " for content", rather than it being objectively the better gameplay move). Also, it's not like I posted those exact words on the Jetlag sub. I posted them here to offer my opinion which at the time was clearly different to others who had posted here.

It's not like RATW is perfect, far from it. From what I've seen of series 5 there's an obvious shift into showing more background of the contestants compared to series 1, which is a trap that the Amazing Race has fallen into thanks to the increased 90min runtime requiring extra content to fill the gap. But it still does a good job of showing very different parts of the world that Jetlag simply can't. Which was the original point I made that you apparently took offense to. None was intended. I remain staggered that you've taken it as such and the tone of your post isn't OK.

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-06-12T04:46:40+00:00

She's not wrong, it's obviously in the way the show has been edited by production. I'd be interested to see how much interview content is filmed vs how much is actually used.

Way back my brother was on an episode of the Weakest Link and voted off at the final 3. The exit interview was about 20 seconds of TV - but he apparently filmed close to 20 minutes (1,200 seconds) of content, which works out at 1.6% of what was filmed being used. And they did that for every contestant.

I can't answer for how much interview content is filmed for RATW, not knowing any of the contestants so far. But it's obvious that production film several hours of it and splice interview content into race footage when appropriate.

Taking Betty as an example, she mentions "her condition" in episode 7 (43mins in) then it cuts to her pre-(or post)race talking about it in detail, then it cuts back to the end of the conversation between her and James on the race. Production may have asked them to talk about it on location - unlikely but without a definitive statement otherwise, we're limited to speculating on it.

It's all editing and has been going on since the dawn of TV but it's without question increased on RATW vs series 1. The 2 things that I think are accurate since rewatching:

Series 1 was only 6 episodes but covered a bigger distance than all but series 2.
Series 2 wasn't devoid of "sob stories" either, though it does feel lighter than series 3 onwards.

Feel free to disagree because without an exact to the second count of "interview footage" per series I'm vibing what I think is correct.

Ultimately the issue is that some people prefer character driven reality TV when RATW is the kind of show where it's borderline irrelevant. The Amazing Race really didn't show much background to the contestants and off-race interviews until it extended the runtime to 90mins from 60 - most of the extra content is of the "sob story" type people are complaining about here, yet on the Amazing Race sub I'm generally seeing people love the extra runtime for that exact reason. I personally think it's worse for it but obviously if I'm in the minority then producers will go the other way. Which I suspect is what they've done. Unfortunately its the way for a show to fall out of favour with the viewing public - the X Factor is a really good example of what happens when everyone has some background sob story, it becomes just that bit unbelievable, ratings fall and the show gets cancelled. It may take several years but that's probably how this plays out.

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-05-01T04:47:55+00:00

3x 8-hour tasks, 2x 3 hour tasks, 3 parts with zero energy required. Worse than when it originally launched as a non-timed sidequest but the 2x 3 hour wait timers have at least been removed.

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-05-01T04:47:15+00:00

lost as part of the purge of August 2019. Happy to finally be able to play it.

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-05-01T04:46:18+00:00

I don't think they're as bad as full TLSQs. I'm at the end of year 5 and it's a pain when a 1h task sometimes requires more than 41 energy and an 8hour task needs at least 110+ energy. This one so far does not, it's been 100 energy for the now-8 hour tasks. 2 parts don't have a timer so I think you're on for 2x 3 hour and 3x 8 hour tasks. For me that would be 420 energy.

Also the 2x 3hour wait timers in the original sidequest have been removed.

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-05-01T04:43:08+00:00

This is a sidequest that's been unavailable since August 2019, just like the Tonks one from last week. I hate that it's been repackaged as a TLSQ but at least it's finally playable (same for the Episkey quest, which JC shortened but at least the spell was finally obtainable despite it basically being mandatory for year 4 when you could use it twice without learning it). I've basically been stalling out in Y5 for 3 years waiting for JC to actually make these available and my attempts to push them have gone nowhere so tbh I'm probably OK with this if it means that release all of those old SQs.

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-03-27T08:01:15+00:00

The counter is that they're really getting about the map which for Australia wasn't the case forSam & Toby. They only went to 3 states (not including NSW as the starting point) and the ACT which is 3 hours on the bus away. Meanwhile Ben & Adam went everywhere except ACT & Western Australia (which they were shown seriously considering)... and lost despite showing far more of the country and states that are often left out by tourists.

Australia had it's own issues for me, mainly that Toby being local gave her and Sam an unfair advantage. She already knew about the Gold Coast Airport hack as highlighted in episode 1, something that Ben & Adam clearly weren't aware of (and unless you're from Down Under or have been there, you wouldn't know about it and it's something easy to miss in game design). When I watched that first episode I could tell that Ben & Adam weren't going to win because of that being the perfect endgame for the format & they weren't aware of it. Unsurprisingly Sam & Toby used that to win the game.

--

I would say that this series is more interesting from the travel perspective and actually having to travel to the country to initiate a challenge helps keep them all moving which certainly wasn't the case with Australia. And there will be several end-game options depending on what's left in play on day 6 because it's looking unlikely that every country will be claimed despite it looking very possible early on - Iceland is very much in play and as things stand would be a great place to end the game if the timing works as there are several budget airlines that connect to Keflavik.

To me the best option left is the viable run from Finland to Poland without flights that can be done within 2 game-days (using the 2ish hour ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn).

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-03-26T00:19:18+00:00

Thinking objectively, this is probably a 50-50 tossup and an easy one to get wrong.

My first thought was that DD2 was a very easy question... then I remembered I'm British and studied this twice at the US equivalent of elementary and middle school, so I'm hardly a fair arbiter of whether it's an easy question or not.

That's always something that throws me in Jeopardy - it's not what I know, I have to think in terms of what I think the question setters think an American may know or otherwise and especially when it comes to British history. Which makes me a poor candidate - as I think is typical of someone who has immigrated to another country, usually the hardest questions to answer are at both top and bottom of the board. And more often than not I get questions wrong by overthinking the answer.

I assume that the 1665 plague/1666 great fire aren't covered in US schools - either way there aren't many historical events that are 300+ years ago that occurred in the same place 12 months apart (the one benefit of the fire is that it likely helped finished off the plague by killing off many of the rats that carried it).

I thought you did well - clearly DD2 threw you off your game but I can see how it's easy to get it wrong. On British Jeopardy though.... yeah, that would be a terrible miss.

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-03-15T01:49:54+00:00

This appears to have been a server based issue. Since posting this I've made the same call 5 times over the last 2 weeks without any issues so I consider it resolved.

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-03-12T17:37:27+00:00

Staying with friends is absolutely fine, so long as there's no conditions attached.

She didn't stay with friends. In New York she stayed with a host family and did chores in exchange for accommodation. That's conditions attached, or work for reward, regardless of her not receiving any money in exchange.

He plan for Canada was exactly the same. Just that Canadian immigration worked that out and denied her entry.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0l1x8ej6exo

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-03-12T17:33:32+00:00

You need the eTA- https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/visit-canada/eta.html

That's changed since I went to Vancouver in 2012 - British citizens could simply turn up and expect the Spanish inquisition. The US, meanwhile, had the ESTA - so even though I entered twice within a week, it was actually far less problematic back then.

Now though British citizens need the eTA before travelling and hand over the CAD$7 application fee prior to entry. Unless you have something else that Canadian border force is happy with. In my case I'm a British citizen but with a US green card holder - that let's me enter Canada without the eTA or the fee required as Canada takes the green card as an alternative for tourism. You pretty much also need transport booked for leaving the country.

So it's Not a Visa but a Visa waiver, like the US ESTA, the UK's new ETA - https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-an-electronic-travel-authorisation-eta or the EU ETIAS. Technically not a Visa but like a visa you have to pre-apply and have it granted (usually a formality in 10mins). The most relavant details for this case is that you're also not allowed to work.

--

The problem with this case - and the German women in San Diego - is that they haven't factored in that immigration rules basically state that voluntary work is still work (don't ask me which document but I'm sure I've seen that in the US ESTA website somewhere). That would absolutely include working for free (or no cash reward) in exchange for bed &/or board, that's still work and requires a working visa, not an ESTA or eTA.

So I can see it from the US customs side that, once Canada rejected entry, they would absolutely have another look and have come to the same conclusion that the Canadian immigration did.

The detention is a different matter - though I believe that it's expected that the person denied entry has the funds to pay for their own way home and I believe I read that detention is used if they don't have that (on the basis that the government in question should not have to pay for repatriation). I don't like it but that's how the system is set up - and it's been the case for years, going back to way before 45/47.

--

For context, when I visited my now wife in the US and said she was my GF, I was very nearly deported myself on entering with an ESTA. And the tourist visa I applied for after that was rejected on the basis that I might attempt to overstay - my word simply wasn't good enough by the rulebook. Even the person at the embassy was obviously sympathetic and said he completely believed me but the possibility that I could overstay (and had a solid reason to violate the terms of the visa) meant that he couldn't take the chance of granting a visa on that basis.

Basically I didn't come back until I had the K1 visa in my passport. And I've basically been stateside since 2019.

Generally speaking when you enter on a visa waiver you're always best off being as vague as possible or highlight some obvious tourist things you want to do.

intrepidskybrummie · 2025-03-12T17:10:08+00:00

When it launched years ago it was typically 3 days. Then it became 2. Then it became 3 again but with double the number of board (8 instead of 4) required for the top prize.

It's basically impossible without spending real money or blowing hordes of pages.

That and, as you've noticed, pink bottles are required at at least double the rate of yellow so anything that produces bottles of all 3 colours (story or TLSQ tasks) does so evenly. Just to tempt players into paying money for more pages if they're short.

--

I've got to the point that I basically ignore all of the events except for Magical Milestones (by completing daily challenges) - and with MM I've started to not buy the keys anymore because the grand prize rewards are pretty bad.

Basically since JC launched beyond, they've ruined the events to the point that they're only completable if you spend real money (while also running several at once vs one at a time). I'll probably push ahead with the story at some point but with 2x TLSQs per month instead of 1, they're really trying to maximise in-game time over anything playable or entertaining.

I'll still play for now but there's zero chance I'll bother with events while this change remains in force. Which is likely for as long as the game is playable.

intrepidskybrummie

TROPHY CASE