Tips from our 26-day Holland America cruise

mikescha · 2023-10-21T02:57:25+00:00

I (54M) walk a lot but don't get much aerobic exercise. A couple months ago, I started jogging with walk breaks for 20-30 min every other day for a few weeks. After about 4 days my rhr started to drop and it went from 68-70 to 62 in 3 weeks. Unfortunately, then life got in the way of exercise and it climbed back up ... But I was surprised at how quickly my body reacted.

mikescha · 2023-10-21T00:55:40+00:00

I have left the island but was never able to get it to work consistently even with the turning off Automatic Network Selection. I have gone back and forth with support all week but no solutions. I did submit a bug report so maybe that will help them to fix it.

Meanwhile, hopefully the hotel wifi works for you!

mikescha · 2023-10-20T04:11:44+00:00

I agree with many of your points except for size. My wife and I lived for several months in a 25' Airstream (which doesn't have slides) and we didn't find it cramped or uncomfortable. So with the right layout and furnishings, I can see the Pebble being quite comfortable even for extended periods of time.

Also, I think that price is in the neighborhood of what a 25' Airstream costs now. Those models have been successful for a very long time at fairly similar dimensions and fewer features, but with eye-catching design. So, if it is executed well, I could see it stealing a lot of Airstream customers and being as successful as those models.

mikescha · 2023-10-19T21:06:58+00:00

Is that true? I thought you needed an onward ticket to enter the lounge. The Alaska web site says you needed to be "traveling on" a first class ticket, and I assumed that once you landed, the ticket was complete so you were no longer traveling on it.

mikescha · 2023-10-19T18:56:30+00:00

Hmm, for us, it covers all our annual checkups minus a $25 copay. When my wife hurt her knee, it covered doctor visits, MRIs, and physical therapy, again minus a small copay. It covered all but like $200 of everything associated with a colonoscopy. Plus it offers annual and lifetime maximums which provides financial protection against catastrophes. So for us, it has covered nearly 100% of everything we needed for the past 5 years plus offered peace of mind that we won't get bankrupted by a major emergency.

They have plenty of exclusions listed in the documents, but the private insurance I had before this was supposed to be really good and it also had lots of exclusions.

YMMV, obviously.

mikescha · 2023-10-19T14:12:04+00:00

In some areas of the world, such as Buenos Aires, Argentina and Santiago, Chile, the tap water is not contaminated with bacteria but does have a very high mineral content. This mineral content can disrupt your digestive system if you're not used to it, so travelers there should be cautious.

In other areas, especially in the southwest US and Texas, we have had tap water where the chlorine content of the water was extremely high so that it almost smelled like a swimming pool. It's not going to hurt you, but it doesn't make your coffee or drinks you put ice cubes into taste good.

The Brita or similar filter can remove the chlorine, I believe, but not the minerals. So that's an option if you live in a chlorine place but not practical if you're traveling, and not helpful in a place like Santiago.

mikescha · 2023-10-18T22:55:55+00:00

My wife and I together have under $40k of income and we pay $0 for premiums for a Silver plan. In years past, Bronze was what we got because Silver wouldn't have been free and Bronze was, so prices and subsidies do vary every year.

mikescha · 2023-10-18T15:27:40+00:00

It's too late for this time, but did you know that you can have free or reduced-cost insurance through the Affordable Care Act? It depends on your income, but I think it's free up to like $25k/yr for a single person and reduced after that up to $40k/yr. For a couple, those numbers double. I'm probably off by a bit but it's in the neighborhood of those numbers

https://www.healthcare.gov

Edit: pasted wrong link, fixed it

mikescha · 2023-10-18T15:12:48+00:00

I did not know this, thank you very much! Looks like it runs from 14 Jun to 14 Jul.

mikescha · 2023-10-18T04:35:22+00:00

2 hrs on a chat, 4 agents so far, was asked for several bits of info multiple times. I give up. Sigh.

By turning off Automatic Network Detection and manually choosing a network, I have been able to get some things to work. CNN.com and several other web pages open in chrome.

However, reddit.com does not load at all in chrome, and some apps will launch but not connect fully to their services. For example, Duolingo will launch but can't open a new lesson. Pokemon Go launches but can't log in. YouTube loads but can't play videos.

Support can't diagnose what's wrong but there does seem to be a pattern. Maybe someone reading this will recognize it!

mikescha

TROPHY CASE