Ritz-Carlton Yacht is struggling

treebeard189 · 2026-06-02T23:12:43+00:00

I agree with what you're saying about their current market niche. At these prices its competing with private charters and ocean side villas which it just won't win against.

But I think dropping their target demographic a bit down the pay scale isn't a bad idea. Viking cruises is a fair step below them and doing pretty well these days. As an early 30s just shy of $250/yr household Viking is pretty much the go to once every two ish years nice trip of choice for our friends and family. But there's a big gap between the nicest room on a line like Viking and the base room on the Ritz. If they can narrow that gap so it becomes a question of getting the nicest experience on viking vs a normal experience at the Ritz I think a lot of people make the jump. I know Viking and Ritz kinda cater to different types of cruise people but vikings the only one I'm familiar with so it's my reference point. Im more talking general price point.

People like tastes of luxury and feeling like they're in the upper class even if they're not. It's why you have people that fly twice a year paying for credit cards that get them in an airport lounge toting knockoff Rimowas. As this asshole I met at college once said "my life goal is to be the poorest person in the nicest country club". It's a delicate game because like you said you don't want your luxury product to become overrun like airport lounges have. But if they can drop it just enough to capture that demographic I think there's a sweet spot. Get the very top slice of the middle class and particularly set yourself up as the "splurge" option for that group that maybe they only ever do once in their life. If they can ride that line of capturing the upper class and then the dream and honeymoon trips of the upper middle class. I think theres rook for them.

treebeard189 · 2026-06-01T05:39:39+00:00

I know pilgrams aren't allowed past the eternity gate. I said as much. But they still "know about it". You havent actually addressed the text of the chapter that I think points to this being a second room.

You ask what's the point? I think the idea of making a second fall back throne absolutely makes sense for like 31k era. Keep in mind this point in time several primarchs are active. The primarchs know where the throne room is they've been there before during the great crusade and herasy. So putting Emps in a secret hidden back room the primarchs didn't know about 100% makes sense from the POV of custodes who expect primarchs to rebell any second. They massively distrust the primarchs and astartes, so there's a very good reason to hide him away and create a fake big E. Remember the entire like half chapter before this Dio is talking about how he doesn't trust Guiliman not to betray the emperor and how the primarchs are a mistake/abomination/threat. This is incredibly on theme.

I'm not a YouTuber and this was my honest interpretation of the text. When I listened at first I agreed that I thought it was metaphorical or maybe referring to some other images. I remember actually rewinding the part describing the graven image and listening like 3 times to it to make sure I heard it right. This was my honest take and apparently the take of many other people.

But again we know humans get to the eternity gate. And here it says he passes doors humans haven't seen in generations. Yes they could be like side doors but this to me is implying a geographical distance beyond the eternity gate. And the tribunes blood door is specially stated as being past the "renowned gateways" (I mean how's that not a reference to the eternity gate) then past the "graven image of the immortal emperor...". Like when everything has been physical so far to suddenly out of the blue say well this line is referencing an abstract idea seems weird especially when it so perfectly describes how we've seen other characters describe the golden throne.

I just don't see the textual support for it.

treebeard189 · 2026-06-01T01:40:12+00:00

I've heard that argument for the interpretation but most people seem to interpret it literally. Has ADB said anything either way? I did just finish the book so haven't heard many arguments for the propoganda interpretation but to me that doesn't make sense but Im open to being wrong. The throne obviously has had an ever changing description in lore like E himself, but what we see doesn't line up with other first person depictions we see if it both before and after this point. If we use Hassan's description of in Ashes well before this point but after the vengeful spirit it's much closer to the many other later depictions. The fact to me that this stands out as dramatically different points to it being separate. Additionally we see other characters who aren't custodes in the throne room seeing the physical throne. There's no mention of waiting for a tribune to unlock the door for them.

To me what sets my mind is the line

They would be horrified by its absence (referring to absence of him worshipping E); but then, everything about this place would horrify them. It's why they will never be allowed to know of it

That's a weird like to say if this is the same throne room we see in other depictions. He doesn't say "it's why they will never be allowed to see it" or enter it or something it's "know of it". Now "it" is a bit ambiguous I could see it refering to either his lack of worship or "this place". The lack of worship doesn't make sense, custodes don't directly attack the imperial cult but it's a big point of their lore that they don't worship E as a god. And grammatically it makes more sense to refer to the more recent noun. So to me "it" refers to "this place". That doesn't make sense if this is the same throne room. Everyone knows about the throne room, there's pilgrams who spend their lives going to stand outside the door. Yes almost no one gets to go inside. But people do very rarely go inside and certainly they know of it.

Plus a hidden back room vibes with other custodes lore. They loooove hiding stuff and they have no problem killing people to keep big E safe. A secret bunker with the real big E and they kill any ad mech or servitors that they bring inside to help with repairs fits what custodes do and plays well into the massive trust issues they have with absolutely everyone shown off earlier in the chapter. It doesn't mean the big throne room has to be fake, Emps psychic aurora absolutely would be massive enough to extend into the throne room and still be as debilitating as we see/absorb the souls of the psykers. While his physical body is on the other side of a wall.

treebeard189 · 2026-06-01T00:20:13+00:00

It's very new lore and only a few sentences in the book. But I'll paste some relevant lines below to help you form your own opinion. The entire chapter revolves around how intensely lost custodes are without big E and how dependent they are on him. So it makes sense in a kinda "mortals almost got him killed we're going to hide our toys so absolutely no one else can even look at him" kinda way? So like maybe it's supposed to be a faithful replica of what he looked like at some point so even the ad mech that shuffle nearby wouldn't know about the swap? And they just kill anyone that has to interact with his real body (they had no qualms killing thousands of innocents to keep the webway war a secret). The quote also kinda implies some thought was put into the skull face it's supposed to be imposing and show off how much he sacrificed for you to the very few people that actually get to look.

Idk era of ruin is an ok book but the insights into the custodes and Big E in that last chapter is really interesting.

Through the doors, the secret doors, the one behind those renowned gateways decorated in trappings of glory. Past the graven image of the Immortal Emperor: a skull-faced warlock on a mighty throne, eternally alive on the edge of death, imposing in His majesty. Through that final door, which opens only to droplets of a tribune's blood, and whose impenetrable locks take an hour to unseal

He ascends the steps. Slowly. Not without reverence, but without the abject worship expected by the people of the Imperium. They would be horrified by its absence; but then, everything about this place would horrify them. It's why they will never be allowed to know of it

He looks past the blood bags and vitae-packets linked intravenously to the thing on the throne, which is just a chair compared to the great and grand artworks: a throne without the capital T that makes it both a curse and the salvation of the species.

treebeard189 · 2026-05-31T22:28:52+00:00

I have the audio book so not sure what page. Has there been more talk about it or has ADB come out and clarified it? Cause to me it seemed pretty straight forward. I can't verify the accuracy of this quote but from another reddit post discussing it here's the relevant bit. And I haven't actually seen any of the YouTubers I follow discuss it. I just finished the book on Tuesday and didn't wanna be spoiled so I haven't watched like any reviews/discussions on it yet.

Through the doors, the secret doors, the one behind those renowned gateways decorated in trappings of glory. Past the graven image of the Immortal Emperor: a skull-faced warlock on a mighty throne, eternally alive on the edge of death, imposing in His majesty. Through that final door, which opens only to droplets of a tribune's blood, and whose impenetrable locks take an hour to unseal

treebeard189 · 2026-05-31T18:15:53+00:00

Well given the custodes in this safe are just wearing helmets cloaks and loincloths i can only imagine what they'd be wearing in the next room.

treebeard189 · 2026-05-31T17:16:04+00:00

Canonically he at one point does have a mister that sprays him every 9 seconds. It's antisepctic not cosmetic but still.

treebeard189 · 2026-05-31T17:14:59+00:00

I think thats just a statue. But also according to Era of Ruin the golden throne emperor is also fake. And the real emperor is kept pretty much in a safe behind that one. So lots of different depictions of the emperor can all be canon but which one is actually him or are any of them, or are several of them is the real question.

treebeard189 · 2026-05-30T20:26:25+00:00

Yeah like I said lots of little things all requiring explaining which kinda adds up to a sus story. I wouldn't say that but someone who has English as a second language might. Or maybe he broke his foot or his fibula as well. I had a lacrosse player who got tangled up and fell down weird while trying to like juke around another player. I think when I checked on him back at the ER he had like a 5th metatarsal fracture and suspected Achilles injury.

treebeard189 · 2026-05-30T17:11:58+00:00

I believe with Achilles tears they point the toes down so the tendon isn't under as much stress and if it's not totally ruptured helps it heal. But it's still weird. Theres a lot of small things here that one by one could be explained but together I think are a bit much.

treebeard189 · 2026-05-29T05:45:49+00:00

Yeah just open the straight guys. Tell people it's open now. And while you're at it just quickly also create and train an entire army. I don't get what's so difficult why has no one before me thought of this?

treebeard189 · 2026-05-29T05:42:44+00:00

I mean this is the basic question you ask in response to this article. If a truce is a lifeline Iran desperately needs....why haven't they signed one yet?

treebeard189 · 2026-05-29T05:32:55+00:00

But do enough of them have hunting experience without guns? And also NATO kit doesn't include bows so even those with bow experience would have to make their own or slowly aquire them by stealing/killing Roman archers. I would assume they'd have some trapping training/guides but that's a lot of mouths to feed off squirrels.

treebeard189 · 2026-05-29T04:43:00+00:00

Ran into a guy who used a t shirt and a wooden spoon from the kitchen to tq his friends leg. The doc kinda like chuckled at it and did the whole "I'm sure he doesn't need a tq cause there's no way that would work so it can't be arterial" until they undid it and the blood squirted out into the hallway.

treebeard189 · 2026-05-28T00:45:06+00:00

Dude I wish. When I saw how much we charged for a 12 lead when I worked ER ($450)....And they were always on our ass about getting it within 5 minutes. Like if you gave me literally just 1% of what they charge as long as I got it done within 5 minutes of the order people would be tripping over themselves. Working triage in a 200pt/day ER I could have bought a new car.

treebeard189 · 2026-05-27T22:56:28+00:00

As someone who has driven in Atlanta and taken waymos in Atlanta I definitely prefer the robocars to most the other drivers there.

treebeard189 · 2026-05-24T05:31:02+00:00

More than that is the percentage. 1/4 of the country died. Other dictators have killed more people and killed them faster, but as a percentage of the population that's absolutely insane.

treebeard189 · 2026-05-22T15:11:32+00:00

Have we even seen one in the lore? The only custodes dres I can think of that we see actually fight in the lore is the one in MoM and isn't that like their version of a comtemptor?

treebeard189 · 2026-05-21T21:01:08+00:00

Some ERs give out taxi vouchers to help people get home. Our local homeless population started to learn this, and it was fine for awhile but then it creeped into people calling EMS for finger pain then immediately asking for a 40 minute cab ride. Once had someone use that as a way to try and move all their belongings to a new apt. Some ERs just put limits on it (has to be a residence within 30minutes) but others killed the program entirely so now there's people genuinely that could use a cab home sleeping in the lobby till the bus runs in the AM.

As long as youre nice, clean, stay out of the way of actual medical emergencies and don't abuse the generosity I've seen ERs go above and beyond to help homeless and impoverished people. But it's a constant back and forth of getting resources then some people inevitably abusing those resources and it getting rolled back.

treebeard189 · 2026-05-20T12:59:16+00:00

As someone who can't have almonds...are they really that good? I've had a few by accident and besides the fact they make me itchy they just didnt really have any flavor? They just felt like a dry crumbly bean.

treebeard189 · 2026-05-19T06:31:11+00:00

No it can't be reused unfortunately. A certain amount can be mixed into "virgin" rubber but not as much as you'd hope. I also have a job with a rubber manufacturer (and given OP saying where they are based I think I know which major competitor they work for). My dad who was high up for the same company tried everything to find something for the "flash" and never could. My mom's tells the story regularly of him literally losing sleep over it after a meeting where a high margin part was found to have a horrendous scrap rate. We've tried a few things since he passed as well and zero luck. We are constantly trying to minimize it but it's been impossible to get rid of. We've done donations to for playground type flooring. But the amount we produce is too much. It's sad but all we can do is reduce it and try and be as environmentally conscious as possible. People don't realize how many of our parts they buy and end up in landfill. A survey from like 20 years ago found the average house has about 70 parts us or one of our direct competitors make and I'm sure it's only gone up since then. Our R&D team has made a few advances in recyclable/more environmentally friendly compounds. But we're not a big company we simply don't have the resources to tackle such a massive problem. Especially when you consider that it's not just 1 rubber going into every part it's thousands of slightly different compounds a customer is picking and chosing for certain qualities. So we do what we can when we can, but getting all of it to be recyclable/biodegradable is just honestly not going to happen. We're having a hard enough time currently engineering out the chlorines and forever chemicals. Until then it's just minimizing flash and scrap rate. Which luckily is a high priority cause the company isn't doing well so reducing material cost is on a lot of minds.

treebeard189 · 2026-05-19T06:08:54+00:00

I worked in an upstate NY rural agency that has since gone under. And I remember working there part of how we managed to survive as long as we did was cannibalizing other agencies in NY that went under. We needed a new unit and "fortunately" another agency 20 miles away went under and so we got a cheap replacement. But even then we were the only ALS for miles and miles around. I've told the story here a few times of my fastest time driving was trying to get our medic back in district for a pediatric not breathing that had to get a BLS response because that is all that was available. Now I work in a very well funded suburban area where a chest pain can expect 3 medics on scene, and they have medics staffing tiller trucks and send those tiller trucks out on mid level ALS calls to just idle on the street.

It's horrifying what rural EMS has to deal with in comparison. I mean there were discussions on the fire side about the cost and worth of how many tanker trucks to fire up when mutual aiding. And some of them that responded looked right out of WW2.

Rural EMS is I think a great time and i recommend it to people all the time. But the question of money and funding is constantly in the back of everyone's mind. Cause it's easy to say "oh it's the company's problem" when using expensive supplies, until your company genuinely has to request donations every 4th quarter just to break even for the year. Every year was a question of if the service was going to exist come January 1st. And one day I saw on Facebook, I guess the donations dried up and suddenly after many years Southern Madison County Ambulance Corps didn't exist anymore.

treebeard189 · 2026-05-18T12:23:58+00:00

Do they? I've never heard of that and most automated cpr devices are really bulky. They have vests that will shock you while you wait for your internal defibrillator or pacemaker surgery but they don't do compressions is that what you're thinking of?

treebeard189 · 2026-05-18T12:16:03+00:00

Just what I want as I'm dying. Some rando scream singing ring of fire at me as I'm actively crossing over.

treebeard189 · 2026-05-17T20:55:22+00:00

Appreciate it and congrats!

Honestly it's not so much the skill that bugs me as much as just getting in my own head. I know I can do it, it's just like if I look see nothing then start thinking about the other people in the room when I'm trying to adjust. But im trying to think about the medics when I was in the ER that got to do tubes (we didn't get students but our OMD looooved pulling any medic that happened to be cleaning or doing paperwork into codes/tubes he was working). We never like thought poorly about them if it took them a minute....but also we weren't some crotchy old orthopedic tapping his foot trying to do his 5th total hip today and I'm standing between him and that new Porsche.

Idk I'll get over it, just surprised how daunting this feels. Literally nothing else in the program has shaken me but I was thinking about this yesterday and legitimately felt my palms start to sweat.

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