To Sail or not To Sail....

 With apologies to Good Ol' Bill,

To Sail or Not to Sail, that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the restrictions and frustrations of outrageous policies.

Or to arms against the troubles on the seas

and by opposing end them.

Our Ship "Liberty of the Seas"
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So...There I was ...* (and by I, I mean We but mostly Mrs. J) scrambling to figure out what the latest CDC edict would mean for the upcoming Wine Cruise she's been organizing for the last year.  The first bullet in that edict is "Avoid cruise travel, regardless of vaccination status." 

 Final payments had been made by the people signed up for the cruise and had been processed by Mrs. J.  The myriad logistics/bureaucratic issues involved in transporting wine to the ship and getting it aboard had been handled.  

Just to let you know it wasn't the logistics that were the primary issues.

In short, everything has been done that can be done prior to the cruise.

You know where this is going don't you?

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Day before yesterday, Mrs. J is doing the washer/dryer mamba and is away from her phone.  It starts ringing, I look at it and it's the winemaker.  I answer and ask them to hold on while I bring it to Mrs. J.

Due to an "abundance of caution..."** they want to cancel the wine cruise. In his defense, he does have ongoing health issues, so getting Covid could be very problematic for him.  Mrs. J asks him to hold that announcement until she can get with the cruise line and find out what options are available.  She also offered to email the cancellation notice and options to the group.  He agrees.

After an informative phone call, our guests have 4 options.

1.  They can still sail, there just won't be any of the scheduled wine tastings/talks.

2.  They can reschedule for a future voyage with no additional cost.

3. They can cancel and get a full refund, but with the recent ship cancellations the refund will take a while to be received.  It's supposed to be received within 30 days, but Royal Caribbean has cancelled sailings for 4 ships, at 2-5K passengers per ship...(Beans, I know what you're thinking, "about $2K per...that's...a lot of money the cruise line is potentially losing).  

4. They can wait to make a Go/No Go decision until NLT 48 hours prior to sailing.  If Royal Caribbean cancels the cruise at any point prior to the sailing, they will issue a credit of 125%  of the current ticket for a future booking. If Royal Caribbean hasn't cancelled, the guest can still cancel and get 100% of their cruise fare as a Future Cruise Credit good for use up to 12 months after the original sailing. 

However, if the passenger hasn't canceled by that 48 hour point, their options are: 1) sail, or 2) cancel and lose their money. 

Since Little J and DIL are here for their first R&R in a couple of years, and Covid requirements are much stricter in HK than TX, they want to go on the cruise.  Mrs. J does also.  I'm ambivalent, but will go with the flow.   

We had 56 people signed up for the cruise. Of them, we've got 12 that have confirmed they're still going.  About the same have cancelled and want refunds.  The rest haven't decided or are taking option 4 hoping the Cruise Line cancels.

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Lest you think the cruise lines and travel agents are taking this lying down, the President of the American Society of Travel Advisor recently issued a statement.  Here's the money quote:

“If the average cruise ship were a U.S. state, it would be the safest in the country – by far. According to Royal Caribbean Group, since cruising restarted in the U.S. in June 2021, its ships have carried 1.1 million guests with 1,745 people testing positive – a positivity rate of 0.02 percent. Among U.S. states as of January 4, Alaska’s positivity rate is the lowest at 9.4 percent, with Georgia’s the highest at 38.7 percent.

 

“Cruising is no more responsible for the spread of the Omicron*** variant than travelers from southern Africa were at the outset of the current crisis. But we continue to see knee-jerk reactions singling out travel for discriminatory treatment. Because the travel industry is regulated more heavily than other activities, when COVID caseloads rise or new variants emerge, travel takes the hit. It brings to mind the old saying, ‘if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.’ This pattern needs to stop...."

 Amen!  Update Been looking at that percentage above and thinking something's not right.  It, the percentage, is higher than it should be.  1745/1,100,000=0.00158 or 0.002 percent.

So, this time next Monday, I'll be heading to Belize,  Roatan and Costa Maya.  Yes, Beans, it is possible to sail in the Gulf and avoid Cozumel.

"Let's go Brandon" and by that I mean what they were really saying in the original version.

*SJC

**Damn I hate that statement!  

** An anagram of Omicron is Moronic.  Just sayin'

Added Bonus Picture and apropos of nothing whatsoever! Nope! Nothing!

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Updated for Suz!

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Say What?

Life is getting too absurd.

The man is possibly a traitor.

Go read.

Of course it's possible that it's journalistic nonsense. Woodward isn't my "go to" guy for truth. But given Milley's track record, I wouldn't put it past him.

We are led by effing clowns.

Dangerous effing clowns.

I almost didn't post that "news flash" above, I don't care for politics at any time, but this one seemed too egregious to ignore. Who does this man think he is? There's a reason why the Founders instituted civilian control of the military. Milley is the poster boy for that.

But enough of that, this story just supports my theory that the current crop of stars needs to be retired, at the O-6 paygrade. There may be one or two who are worth spit, but I doubt it.

Things are back to "normal" for the time being. I returned from Sandy Eggo at a reasonable hour on Sunday, but took Monday off to try and beat the jet lag. It's only three hours, but...

Went to work yesterday, still groggy and on West Coast time in some respects. I did pile up a lot of extra hours out there, so I made the command decision to make this week, and the next, three day work weeks. I think I can live with that.

Working on the ship is more focused and with very clear objectives. Though the days are long they go by relatively quickly. At the end of the day you can walk down the pier and feel like you've accomplished something.

I guess I did okay as word on the street has me going back out in December, a shorter trip this time, only five days. But I will get to go underway and I'm all about going to sea for a few days. I didn't join the Navy as they always seem to go out for months at a time, not days. The beauty of an Air Force base is that they don't move. Well, at least not under their own power.

Some of my colleagues think I'm nuts and should be thinking about retiring. Believe me, I am, the new corporate masters have decreed that the pension shall change at the beginning of 2023, I don't plan to stick around for those changes. Word has it that the new plan is "more reflective of the competition." That translates to "their plans all suck, so should ours."

Ah, the life of a defense contractor, it ain't all beer and skittles.

The Internet is becoming less and less fun, everybody's bitching about something and many of my friends find no end of joy in announcing the latest stupid thing in our society. Particularly the escapades of the current administration, unconstitutional assholes all in my book, but hey, we let 'em get away with it. I daresay I have no idea on how to stop them, I'm too effing old to take to the streets anyway.

Ah, enough of this.

I'm doing precisely what I'm complaining about...

Yes, Yes It Is...

The Doctor
Sir Luke Fildes

Today's post title piggybacks off of Juvat's Monday post title of It's always Something!.

Prior to our kleine Reise to the Old Line State, eldest daughter, The Nuke, had warned us that the newest member of the tribe had contracted some malady from his companions at day care. I had forgotten what a Petrie dish those places are (along with schools and other places where people gather in numbers).

The lad was tested for the Wu Flu and had received a clean bill of health for that particular malady. But he did have an upper respiratory thing of a viral nature going on. There was a name for it, no doubt designed to sound much more serious and ponderous from what we called it back in the day. That is, a "chest cold."

So we went into this situation with open eyes and firm purpose, for it was the lad's first birthday and we were determined to be in attendance. However, to paraphrase Caesar -

I came, I saw, I got sick...

Son-in-law Tuttle also came down with the malady - stuffy nose, coughing up massive amounts of phlegm, and a general feeling of malaise. He was the first to be impacted by it, I was second. Grandma had a scratchy throat for a day, no more.

I decided to go in late on Monday, letting myself catch a few more hours of sleep to attempt to recover my equanimity. Which did help, somewhat. But I still feel, how do you say, miserable. Effing miserable.

Hence you get this post of me whinging about my infirmity rather than something which might have been more entertaining.

Oh, forgot to mention...

Whilst performing my ablutions on the morning of the day in question, my right ear decided to malfunction. A wee bit of water got into that ear and, as it sometimes will do, decided to remain plugged, as if I had poured molten wax into said ear. No amount of clearing, dancing on one foot, nor bellowing at the Heavens would suit. The sinuses declared that as the nose must suffer, so must the ears, well, one of 'em at least.

The day passed in a muffled haze of semi-misery, much hacking and coughing, much running of the nose, and many commiserations from my colleagues at work. Seems that some of them have experienced a similar malady in the past cuppla weeks.

Apparently "something is going around."

Blah...

As the newest member of the tribe might say, "Booger."

Yes, he's fond of that word. As am I.

Smoke?

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I remember when the guy in this incident came up for promotion to admiral. Not a good look for the Navy as I recall.

Sure, go read the article at the link above, but I like Ward Carroll's take on it as well.

Why yes, I got nothing!

Seriously though, check out Ward's YouTube channel, lots of aviation goodness!