Cruise prices don't always make sense.

 

Just for fun, I decided to price out a repositioning cruise on NCL to start in a month from the time this entry is made public. Although I have no interest in taking this particular cruise, it illustrates the irrationality of some prices available to the potential cruiser.

You'll note that all prices are for solo cruisers.  I have sailed (or will have sailed) in every category save for the Studio, the Spa, and the Haven.  If pricing for this cruise was completely rational, the Studio cabin wouldn't be priced as high as it is.  From what I can tell, it is a smaller version of an inside cabin with access to a "Studio Only" travel area.  (Singles can mix here.)  So, why is it priced more than the Inside cabin, the Oceanview cabin, and a Balcony cabin.  It costs almost as much as the Club Balcony Suite.  If I were taking this particular cruise, I'd spend the extra $124 and get almost 3 times the room to spread out AND have a balcony of my own.

Once one decides to go above the Club Balcony Suite level, prices start going into the stratosphere.  I can only imagine how much money I'd want in my bank account before I'd even consider a room in the Haven.  (When a suite there has more room than my apartment, the Haven is geared to people who have lots of money to burn.)  I've met people who have cruised in both the Spa and the Haven suites, and they loved them. For me, I'll wait for the excuse to take a very special trip and then drop the coin to make it special for me and a potential partner.

With certain exceptions, you usually get what you pay for.  Sometimes you get more.  And sometimes, you get less.   Before the pandemic struck, I found a Repositioning / Panama Canal cruise that I could have taken for $1000 - 21 days, New York to Seattle. Unfortunately, that cruise had to be cancelled on account of the pandemic. Later in the year, there was a 11 day Hawaii Cruise Tour (effectively 10 days of activities) that I could have taken for half the price the same package sells for today.  This, too, was cancelled because of the pandemic.  An ex girlfriend of many years ago was very sad about this, as she was looking to take this cruise with 3 of her girlfriends.  (I could only imagine what would have happened if we bumped into each other on the cruise.)

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I have been tracking the price of another cruise I've been interested in as it gets closer to sail date.  If I'm right, the price will drop another $50/stateroom class one or two more times before the ship sails.  However, I wouldn't want to risk losing this deal at this point - so I'll be buying my tickets soon....

 

 

I may have found a unicorn.

 

The above is the itinerary for a cruise out of New York scheduled for the Sunday after Thanksgiving.  If I felt comfortable taking this cruise, I'd jump on it.  It is one of two cruises I've found lately that offer an excellent price/value combination - unicorns, as they are known by many.  However, I did not feel comfortable taking this cruise at this time, as several of these ports are on the CDC's list of Covid-19 high risk destinations.

With the exception of the Dominican Republic, almost all the islands are at a level 4 warning.  This means that the CDC is advising people NOT to travel to these places.  Of course, the CDC is reasonably honest here, as they place the USA in a level 4 category.  It is safer to travel to Canada (a level 3 country) than to travel to Puerto Rico.  So does taking this trip make sense?

 

Although this is the first cruise that I've found that has no single supplement, is it a unicorn? Right now, I'd feel comfortable getting off the ship in only three of the ports as Marian. But I don't think I'd feel safe from Covid-19 until I get my booster shot.  So I don't think this is the best unicorn to chase.

 

 

Friendship.

 

Friend, n: A person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection

Levels of friendship:

1. A friend will help you. 
2. A good friend will help you move.
3. A very good friend will help you move and dispose of a body.

Hopefully, none of my readers will have friends at the third level, unless they work in a hospital or mortuary.

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Over the years, I can easily say that I've had a handful of friends in the second category.  And I'm pretty sure that at least one of them might have upgraded themselves to the third category if the need arose. (This potentially gives a whole new meaning to having a "Skeleton in the closet." 😁 )  But as we get older, it gets harder to find a level 1 friend, much less a level 2 friend.  I think this truth is behind the growth of meetup.com - most of us crave human connections, and we will do almost anything to get them.

Sometimes, people will battle over friendships.  Other times, people collect friendships the way others collect stamps.  I've seen people do unethical things when friendships go sour.  But I won't dwell on that now.  Instead, I'll focus on the power of friendships.

One thing I learned by being widowed, was that the one person I could lean on to cope with a situation was no longer there to help me in my time of need.  Good friendships can end with that same problem. Some people are lucky enough to have more than one good friend to lean on in times like these.  And yet, when I look at MWL, she still is affected by the loss of some of her friends in her age group.  (No, I'm not going into any details about her here.  I'm just making a quick comment on how the loss of friends can affect a person.) 

For many of us, we lean on our friends as much as we lean on our families.  They help us out in times of need.  They listen to us when we need to process our feelings.  And they provide targets for us to show our compassion for others.  In the case of many of us transgender folk, we often bond with other transgender folk, as we are the only people who understand what we are going through.  I consider myself lucky to have been able to keep most of my friendships so far, as well as keeping on good terms with my relatives.  This may have been the biggest miracle of all....

Need for new word in language

 

 

The other day, I was in contact with someone who said that I always seemed to have all the answers.  Yet, due to disputes I've had with people (and others with me), I realize that we need a new word in the English language.,

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Years ago, I used to be a frequent viewer of the "Jerry Springer" show, and others like it.  All of the shows started to seem the same over time. People would get into arguments.  Some people had cause to be upset, and others had cause to be on the defense.  When people were called on to justify their positions, they could not communicate a good reason for their position.  They were giving up the fight, but not ceding the point that the other person had some justification for his/her actions.  Often, it was a woman who said "Whatever!" in a voice indicative of an animal skulking away with its tail between its legs. 

As an adult, I find that so many people are not able to articulate their positions well.  And they tend to get run over by people with better communication skills.  Yet, most people would never use the phrase "whatever" to express the same feeling expressed by Springer show guests.  Do you have any words that would sound respectable in "middle class" speech that express this type of defeat?  Please let me know if you know of any....

 

Abuses of a law.

 

A while back, my co-op fought a losing battle with HUD regarding Emotional Support Animals (ESAs).  The way the law was being enforced, small "No-Pet" apartment complexes were victimized by people claiming their pets were support animals.  HUD even suggested that people allergic to dogs owning their apartments in co-op and condo complexes be moved to accommodate the needs of the person "needing" the support animal.  This is ludicrous, but it's the way the law functioned.  Since then, major airlines have banned many of these ESAs, as no one wanted to be near geese, miniature horses, etc. while on a plane.  But nothing has been done for co-ops and condos which do not allow pets for the health of ALL of their residents.

The following site mentions how to certify an emotional support dog: How to certify an Emotional Support Dog.  Although the site implies respectability for ESA certification, even they recognize that a mental health professional should be one providing an ESA letter. And here's where the fun starts.  How many people are going to do the research to prove that a mental health professional has had the person in therapy for a reasonable amount of time to justify writing the ESA letter.  When I dealt with HUD, the bureaucrat effectively admitted that there were few rules governing these letters.  Years later, I found that these letters were easily available online for a few minutes of on-line "consultation: and a fee of less that $100.

As much as I'd like to talk about current co-op affairs, I can not do so.  Yet, I can mention that HUD told us that we can't even require that the dog's owner identify the dog as a service animal because the "handicapped" person (my words, not that of law) could be discriminated against.  But what about the other people in an apartment complex?  Does this person's needs override others' property rights?  What about others' health needs?  Once people start seeing animals in the hallways, they will act as if pets are allowed.  And then, a No-Pet residential complex is opened up to pets via the back door.

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Years ago, I mentioned this situation to someone I know.  And she started making lots of noises in support of the animal owner.  (She fed raccoons on her porch.  Go figure.)  But shouldn't the rights of people who choose NOT to live with animals be respected?   Even in this group, most will support legitimate service animals for other residents.  One woman I dated is an epileptic who could die if she were to have an episode in her sleep.  Her service animal is able to sense an oncoming event early enough for her to wake up and take her medicines.  This is the type of animal I'm comfortable with in my complex, not the pet with another name....

 

I may have a new cruise partner

 

This will be a short entry.  Last night, as I was booking my next cruise, a friend of mine was impressed that I was going on a cruise this winter.  She expressed an interest in coming with me on a future cruise if it is on her bucket list of places to visit.

When I used to sail with my former cruise partner (FCP), I'd often read my books (or watch TV) in the evening while she did other things.  Often, we'd see each other for dinner, then go our separate ways  And that was fine with me, as I needed to unwind more than I needed companionship.  Now that we are no longer on speaking terms with each other, I realized that sooner or later I might want to find a new cruise partner. And this one sorta fell into my lap.

Although this new woman is a former love interest, we'd travel only as friends and nothing more.  There is no drama in her life, nor is there a need for her to be the center of attention when with people.  Instead, she's very low key and doesn't have that many issues to deal with.  This is perfect for someone that one travels with, as there will be many unexpected hitches during a trip that could cause rifts between two friends.

I am lucky to have this woman as a friend.  It's too bad that things didn't work out romantically for us.

PS: I wonder why the former cruise partner still reads this blog, if I'm no longer a friend....

Sometimes, I have nothing to say.

 

Recently, someone commented that all I wanted to do was write about the lives of others in this blog?  Do you believe this to be true?

Lately, when I'm stumped for things to write about, I look at the television and can always find something I care about.  And today is no exception.  But this doesn't always give me a topic to write about.  So I dig into the dumpster of life and talk about people from my past.   Again, today is no exception....

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Years ago, I was turned on to shooting sports by a friend who helped me get my first firearm.  Although I haven't used it in years, I still have respect for a right wing argument that leaves guns in private hands.  I see that private ownership of firearms can force a government to respect a ballot box.  But what happens when one side unilaterally disarms?  Can they protect their rights in a pinch?  To me, the answer is no.  If our cultural war becomes a hot war, what will happen if people on the right go nuts?  Will anyone from areas populated by "the left" be able to protect the community?  I doubt it.

So I'm making an argument that the American left should give up its anti gun rhetoric, and change it to gun regulation based on population density.  People in high population density areas (such as the NYC Tristate region) may have to live with more onerous gun regulations than people in South Dakota.  Risk of gun crime may need to be accepted as a price that must be paid to preserve the freedoms that the left has brought us over the years.  One way of mitigating this risk may be the development of "regulated" (practiced/trained) militias under the guidance of the state.  Many people demanding gun rights are only saying "Look at me.  I'm important!"  in a childish way.  With training, I expect that more people will respect what a firearm can and can't do.

What do you think on this topic?  Can we maintain peace by arming the public on both sides of a cultural war?  (I like "Mexican Standoffs."  But many people fear them.)