My optimistically nihilistic take now is that Uncle Joe is the perfect man to defeat Trump because someone branded as a brilliant saint who only does the right thing 98% of the time is skewered as a hypocrite while someone who is branded as an idiot will have flaws shrugged off.
— Starfish Who Should Be Told To Get Back To Work (@IRHotTakes) March 8, 2020
People make fun of “orange man bad,” but as a heuristic technique, it gets pretty consistent results.
— Starfish Who Should Be Told To Get Back To Work (@IRHotTakes) March 8, 2020
Remember back when weird novelties could be entertaining?
Every time I watch this I find something new to love. Current top ranked things:
1. The woman at :16
2. Pride flag guy
3. Guy who can't figure out how to unhug himself at :12
4. Everyone having a good time being foolish not caring what people will think in 24 years. https://t.co/buLQjpcsnl— Sneer Review (@TheSneerReview) March 4, 2020
West of the Rockies
There’s an ad for ocean cruises for seniors over 60 on my BJ page…
Seems a dubious time to book such a trip, no?
West of the Rockies
@West of the Rockies:
So what should Joe’s signature song be? Twilight Time maybe?
Mary G
@West of the Rockies:
I have an ad for a $170 airfare from LAX to Barcelona.
Omnes Omnibus
@West of the Rockies: If it is the Ice Floe Cruise Line, you may want to pass.
Mnemosyne
I am really fucking livid about this smear campaign claiming that Biden’s stutter is a sign of dementia. Fuck these assholes.
https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/03/06/the-disinformation-campaign-being-launched-against-biden/#.XmQP5l34OVI.twitter
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Mnemosyne:
If Biden supposedly has dementia, what does Trump have in their minds?
Another Scott
@Mnemosyne: Pace yourself. You know the attacks are going to get worse. Don’t let them get to you.
Eyes on the prizes.
Cheers,
Scott
Steeplejack (phone)
@West of the Rockies:
When you were talking in an earlier thread about your possible coronavirus cold, did you have a fever with it?
The reason I ask is because I very rarely get sick—maybe one cold every 18-24 months, and then usually very short—but I had one in the first half of February that kicked my ass hard for two straight weeks. I had all the symptoms except I had no fever.
It has only been in the last week that I have wondered if maybe that was an early coronavirus thing. It seems highly unlikely, but the timing makes me wonder just a little. I live in the D.C. area, so I’m sure it has been here for a while already
ETA: Also, none of the (few) people I was around has gotten sick, so there’s that.
Martin
@Mary G: I bet you could get Milan to Beijing even cheaper.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Stable genius.
Suzanne
@West of the Rockies: A supposedly fun thing that I can’t never do again, because I never did it the first time.
Seriously, I don’t understand cruising. It seems like a whole lot of the worst part of traveling (being packed in around lots of tourists) with very little of the best part of traveling (seeing amazing places and artifacts and cultures that you can’t see at home).
MisterForkbeard
@Mnemosyne: Yeah. It’s infecting huge swaths of the Very Left, too. Super annoying and they haven’t learned anything from 2016.
Martin
Carnival cruise ship now in Long Beach has delayed debarking. Passenger taken to hospital with suspected nCoV. Not sure we have enough berths for these if they start stacking up. 4,000 on board. Another 4,000 feral cruisers roaming around Long Beach because the next cruise can’t embark.
This is going well.
Major Major Major Major
So roundabout Iowa I put a bunch of Facebook friends on a 30-day mute since they were spewing rigged DNC yadda yadda fantasies about Pete. They just came out of it, and they’re all spewing rigged DNC fantasies and/or dementia conspiracies about Biden. Back into time-out! Assholes.
No, I won’t unfriend them, they’re fine most years.
ETA: to be clear, I was concerned about his mental health late last year until I read the Atlantic article about his stutter. That plus regular old age explains 100% of what you see. It’s not hard! It costs nothing not to be like this.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Did you hear about Matt Schlapp (what parent would name a kid that? That’s the name of a nebbish loser in a book) interacting with a CPAC attendee who later tested positive for COVID-19? Schlapp later shook hands with Trump
He must be freaking the fuck out lol
MisterForkbeard
@Suzanne: I’ve been on a 10-day cruise to Alaska with my wife (then girlfriend) and my parents, which was an odd combination.
It was actually pretty great! We spent 6-7 days total at sea travelling and 3-4 days stopped seeing places. My wife and I brought a literal suitcase full of books, and we basically just unplugged and hung out on the exterior balcony reading. We’d frequently get wine, had nice dinners, swam, and snacked whenever we felt like it.
There was a martini bar on the ship with about 40 different kinds of martinis. My dad and I went there most days for an hour or two and got through 30 of them.
And just when you started to go restless, you’d get to a stop (Ketchikan, etc.) and spend the day shopping, seeing sights, going hiking, etc.
I’d love to go again.
@Major Major Major Major: I have friends like this too. Apparently the current thing they want to be outraged about is “You can say that Bernie’s health concerns you, but I can’t say that Biden obviously has dementia?” and then completely miss the point when people tell them it’s a terrible comparison AND Biden obviously doesn’t have dementia.
Sigh.
Martin
@Suzanne: I agree. ‘Less people’ is pretty much synonymous with vacation in my brain. ‘More people with no means of escape’ is synonymous with prison in my brain.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Major Major Major Major:
Have they also regurgitated, “iT’s jUst ThE fLu”? Or “It’S oNlY 0.5, nOtHiNg BuRgEr!”
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): no, most of the “panic is worse than disease” people on my TL are (prepare your shocked face) software engineers in the Bay Area, not leftists.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Suzanne: We’ve taken 2 cruises and it depends on the cruise line, the wife likes it cause you don’t have pack and unpack for different destinations.
Suzanne
@MisterForkbeard: That sounds un-bad.
Whenever I hear about cruises, I hear about either Disney, which sounds absolutely terrible, or tons of formal dinners, which also sounds terrible. I also hear that you get very short times at the ports. That sounds miserable to me. Like, who wants only an afternoon in Venice?! Or three hours in Cancun?!
Another Scott
Kate just gave SP Warren a big kiss on the cheek. I’m glad that there is genuine affection in her portrayal.
Cheers.
Scott.
Amir Khalid
@Martin:
Heck, the airline would probably pay you to fly Milan to Beijing.
Martin
I should note, my grandmother did a zillion cruises. She was a nurse for floating university, so she went around the world many times. She loved them, but then she was surrounded by students and not swinging geriatrics (yes, I think a cruise is just the weirdest parts of The Villages at sea) and that would be infinitely better.
West of the Rockies
@Steeplejack (phone):
I did have a fever for about three days. The highest it measured was 101.6. Had chills, lethargy, some aches, loss of appetite, the dry cough, but NO sore throat or runny nose. I imagine we all have some variation in symptoms.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
It won out over Dick Schlapp.
Major Major Major Major
Random aside: today I learned that Jared Polis is in the neoliberal meme group I follow on Facebook.
Suzanne
@Martin: I have never understood leaving home to do the same stuff you do at home, too. And I love to walk. Most vacations, I come home more tired than when I left.
West of the Rockies
@Suzanne:
I went on a cruise in ’96. Good food. Disembarking and exploring was the best part though. Onboard, the air does seem kind of steamy with CO2.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Should I buy some pretty new spring dresses on sale, or are we DOOMED? DOOMED, I TELL YOU!
One the one hand, I don’t want to waste a couple hundred bucks on stuff I can’t wear if we’re all in quarantine and they clash with my gloves and mask. On the other hand, I could look extra stylish in my coffin (100% closed in my tradition, but G-d would know I spiffed up for Her.) On the other other hand (hey, it’s the Macarena, there are more hands than we know what to do with), they’re on sale now because the economy is going down the tubes like a gaggle of pre-teens holding hands on a water slide, and I might as well take advantage because we’re DOOMED, DOOMED I TELL YOU!
So, what to do?
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin: Arrrggghhh! Fewer!
JWR
Be funny if the person at CPAC who tested positive was the stagehand who set up the flag that Trump humped. (Did he lick it, too? Eww!)
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Is the weird capitalization some kind of code you youngsters use?
West of the Rockies
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Some wit said his name sounded like two raw pork chops falling onto the floor.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: it’s how you indicate derp.
Martin
@Suzanne: My usually goal is to replace my day to day anxieties with ‘will a bear eat my Doritos’ anxieties.
MisterForkbeard
@Suzanne: It was about 8 or 9 years ago, but we had something like 7 hours in Ketchikan, 9 hours in Juneau, 4 hours in Victoria, and 5 or 6 hours in another stop whose name I can’t remember. It was nice!
Re: Formal dinners: There was one, and you’re not obligated to go. This was Princess cruise lines, and I was really happy with the trip. I won a raffle to take a tour of the crew areas (15 of us did), and after they noticed I took an interest in the kitchens they had a full cook’s uniform sent to my room as a gift.
I think we’re going to go on a Disney one in a few years. We’ve got young kids, and from what I understand the Disney cruises are actually great in that they basically have all-day daycare for multiple ages and you always know where your kids are. So you get to be an adult and ignore all the Disney styled stuff and just chill if that’s what you want to do.
Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah. Bears don’t harass my grammar, either.
Suzanne
@Martin: Yeah, no, I don’t camp. My goal is usually to find something tall and then go climb to the top of it.
Major Major Major Major
@MisterForkbeard: we’ve had some good cruises. They were an especially good fit when we took people from ages 6-80. No fuss, something for everyone. The Alaska one was great.
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin: I am sure there are grammar pedants in Provincetown.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Major Major Major Major:
Panic is a valid point, but some so-called nurses and doctors on Reddit are poo pooing this whole thing. They don’t seem to understand what exponential growth is and the basic fact that if tens of millions of people are infected then that 0.5% will mean tens of thousands (or more) of deaths and will go up if/when hospitals are overwhelmed if that 10% of cases needing hospitalization holds true here as it did in Italy. And the whole “the flu kills more people!” is so stupid too. Influenza is more widespread, we have limited immunity to many strains, we have a vaccine for it. We have none of that for COVID-19
Overreaction and panic are bad, but so is arrogant, dismissive denialis
And really, the flu isn’t “just” the flu. It can be pretty miserable
Martin
@Suzanne: Don’t need to camp. Nice cabin in the woods works really well too.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
My brother and his wife have taken their young kids on a couple of cruises with the Mouse for exactly this reason, and all of them loved it. My brother (parent of 5 including two sets of twins) just wanted to read and drink beer by the pool without someone saying “Dad!” every 30 seconds, so his expectations were low and were entirely fulfilled.
NotMax
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Doing something nice for yourself which you can afford is not wasting money
Just sayin’. Took many decades for that lesson to sink in for moi, and whatever roots it did put down remain shallow.
Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: Had different bears in mind, but you’re right, never know when you’ll run into Sully.
West of the Rockies
@JWR:
I’ve heard contrasting reports that Pence shook the guy’s hand and that he didn’t. Anyone have confirmation?
Suzanne
@MisterForkbeard: The getting-off-the-boat part sounds nice. Whatever. I don’t think it’s weird that people like them—they’re obviously popular—but it has just never appealed to me.
The Dangerman
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Melania wants his address; I’m thinking for a thank you card.
Late night thought: Does the prenup ever become public after one of the spouses checks out?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
A guy on the IOC is litterally named “Dick Pound” so I guess Schlapp got off easy
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): overreaction and panic will lead to like, binge-watching The Witcher because you don’t go outside, or having a comical amount of toilet paper, or a market correction. Under reaction will kill potentially millions of Americans. It’s a really obnoxious thing to say.
Andrew Yang and Elon Musk were saying this shit yesterday/today too.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@NotMax:
Like M^4 said, it’s to show how derpy and stupid a quote is
MisterForkbeard
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Exactly. It sounds like a great way to unwind AND you still get to hang out with your kids if you want to. :P
We’re waiting until both the kids are at least 5, and for when there isn’t a global pandemic. Both of these seem like key success factors for the trip.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Major Major Major Major:
I blame the media, tbh. People are saying now it’s being sensationalized by the MSM, but a month ago back when it was still thought to be confined to China MSM articles were constantly comparing it to influenza and how many people have died from it this season. It was a false equivalence. The media was downplaying. A charitable interperation would be they didn’t want a replay of Ebola or Bird Flu. After shit started hitting the fan in SK, Japan, and Italy, then the tune started to change
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
Coward.
NotMax
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Makes me cross-eyed. But then again I’m not the intended audience.
MisterForkbeard
@Major Major Major Major: There are some really good shows out there! I’d love to overreact and panic to do that.
But seriously, it’s sad. Overreacting will cause a small amount of economic damage – most of the damage will happen and there’s not much we can do about it.
Underreacting gets people killed, causes lots of medical bills, and leads to large problems and side-effects if cities and supply chains are caught unprepared.
Martin
Looks like the Grand Princess will dock in Alameda or Oakland tomorrow. Lots of space on Alameda to set up quarantine operations.
MisterForkbeard
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: Look, I’ll do ONE or the OTHER, but not both. I want to relax on the trip :)
Then again, I imagine the pool deck is going to be pretty deserted on the April cruises. So maaaaaaaybe….
Suzanne
@MisterForkbeard: Even when there’s not a global pandemic, there’s that nonsense when the ship breaks down and everyone has to poop in bags.
West of the Rockies
@Suzanne:
Never get off the boat. Absolutely goddamned right, never get off the boat.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): There was a plaque in the university library at UCLA memorizing one of the past university librarians, it read: “Hugh G. Dick – a friend to all students”.
NotMax
@Martin
It’s a vessel flagged in Bermuda, so I guess we’ll be invading there on Monday.
//
MisterForkbeard
@Suzanne: So it’s like backpacking, is what you’re saying
Martin
@MisterForkbeard: My dad is planning to fly to France in a few weeks on a largely empty plane. Or at least he intends to if permitted. Friend invited him there for a year. Figures he’s less likely to die from this there and the flight is worth the risk.
Can’t really disagree with that.
Ken
Let me just say that I hate going on daylight savings time. It takes me a week to adjust.
And I can’t even console myself by saying it puts me an hour closer to the election, since we go off daylight savings on November 1.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Martin:
Whenever I see Alameda, I’m always reminded of Mythbusters. They used the Alameda runaway a lot in their tests. Here’s a morbid thought: I wonder if it will have quarantine facilities set up on it; the same runway that Mythbusters blew shit up on a mere decade or so ago
Fun Fact: Jamie and Adam weren’t really friends IRL. They did have pretty good chemistry despite that on the show itself
Suzanne
@MisterForkbeard: Sure. If that’s your idea of a good time.
Martin
@MisterForkbeard: No, backpacking at least allows you to sleep farther from the bag of poop.
Omnes Omnibus
@MisterForkbeard: Big wall climbing.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
@Martin: That’s great news. Turning yet another ship into a hothouse of plague, fear, and frustration seemed like a spectacularly wrong-headed approach from both a public health and a humanitarian/moral standpoint.
The City of San Francisco has cancelled all “non-essential” group events at city-owned facilities for the next two weeks. Our convention center is in public/private ownership, so I’m not sure what that means for those events. Meanwhile, we (City employees) have quietly received direction to work at home as much as possible, avoid in-person meetings, take sick leave or vacation liberally if we need it, and gear up for our mandatory roles as disaster service workers. I wouldn’t be surprised if we shut down almost all public-facing services by Monday. Shit gettin’ real.
Yutsano
@The Dangerman: I’m not sure it matters. He’s permanently broke because of his eternal losses.
Major Major Major Major
@MisterForkbeard: I’m actually stocking up on asthma medicine while I’m in Mexico since I very much fear what’s coming down the pike when it comes to the pharmaceutical supply chain.
I decided to order a new laptop on 2/25 before the electronics supply chain collapsed, fulfillment has been delayed until 3/25 now, so I guess I didn’t quite get it in under the wire.
I think I’ll start working from home full time when I get back until we have a sense of what’s going on. Nobody will care and our office has 1500+ CO2 anyway, so I get better work done literally anywhere else.
joel hanes
@Suzanne:
[taking a cruise] has just never appealed to me
It had never appealed to me either.
But in 2017, my Mom arm-twisted all my siblings and their spouses and booked us on an American Cruise Lines small-boat cruise north out of Juneau. About a hundred twenty passengers.
Turned out that, with ten of us, we were almost a complete table for meals, and we were more fun to be with than anyone else on the cruise, so after experimenting with splitting up, we all sat together for the last dozen meals. The food was great, especially the seafood*. the service delightful, and we laughed at each other and told stories. Small boats can go into smaller ports, so we walked St. Petersburg, a working fishing town with some nice distilleries and a brewery. The captain was did some superb boat-handling and got us right up next to a calving glacier, and we spent a couple hours between two big pods of humpbacks. Did the train over the White Pass that was the gateway to the Yukon gold fields, did a day along a river full of spawning salmon to go see the grizzlies and bald eagles, which obliged.
But in retrospect, the best part was the night my brother-in-law and I sat up until the wee hours drinking wine and listening to music and talking. Two months after the cruise he was diagnosed with advanced duodenal cancer, and a month later he was dead. That last night of our friendship was a kind of gift from providence, in which I do not believe.
* If I could make scallops like that, I’d call myself a cook.
piratedan
another not-so-happy ripple from all of this… first we have the people being sick, taking themselves out of the office, which means all aspects of the entertainment industry suffer, airlines, hotels, restaurants, meetings and conferences being cancelled, people will stop going to the movies…what have you… Delivery services folks can’t work from home, but they’ll be out there delivering to people being self-quarantined… then we also have the tragic whammy, if a “cautious” estimate of the death toll is 480,00, still that’s a much larger of number of people taking time off to not only weather the illness, but to bury those that have succumbed and having to put the family affairs in order…
Gretchen
@Steeplejack (phone): they’ve found that the virus was in WA at least 6 weeks before the first confirmed case. My husband was in WI visiting his mom in the ICU in early February. He,his brother, and SIL all came home with terrible coughs. He never gets sick, and he was sick for days. They all had sore ribs from coughing. I don’t think he had a fever – just slept a lot for about 5 days. There are now confirmed cases in WI, so it seems possible it could have been circulating then. I read the the corona virus only has receptors it can attach to in the lungs, not in the nose like other viruses. He had a bad cough, but no runny nose. I didn’t catch it, but he kept away from me, and it sounds like the virus doesn’t hang in the air. If someone doesn’t cough in your face, you won’t get it directly. You have to touch something and then touch your face.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@joel hanes:
Sorry about your BIL, even if it was a while ago. Those are memories to treasure for sure
NotMax
@Ken
Love it when y’all switch to daylight saving time*. Being an extra hour removed from my family provides an additional soupçon of satisfaction.
;)
*pedantic note: the technically correct term includes only one “s.”
Martin
@Comrade Colette Collaboratrice: I think everything at Moscone was already cancelled.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: I always try to say it right but people always look at me like I’ve misspoken… lol
Major Major Major Major
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Stoolgate!
Have the moderators stand for 2+ hours.
:)
Martin
@Major Major Major Major: I started working from home almost exclusively 3 weeks ago. In one of my first planning documents was WFH, Zoom as the standard platform for online meetings. I moved all future meetings online and everyone kind of protested. I reminded them that A) we’re recommending social distancing now, B) we’re proposing that workers can still be productive at home and in Zoom meetings so we need to demonstrate that and C) lets test this so we can adapt it before everyone is scattered to the winds after we ban people from coming to work.
My favorite plans are the ones the planners refuse to adopt.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Major Major Major Major: Bernie people are all about issues, you see
Martin
@Major Major Major Major: They should have they sit at a mock up of a diner counter where they can argue over a meatloaf plate and an egg creme. Dress the moderators up as waitresses.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Martin: Chuck Todd in a dress? Ewwww.
Major Major Major Major
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: their entire strategy for the next two weeks is “Sleepy Joe Biden has dementia!” They’re not even pretending otherwise.
Who knows what will happen after Sanders gets his ass handed to him two more Tuesdays in a row.
NotMax
@BillinGlendaleCA
You prefer maybe a Hooters outfit?
:)
Omnes Omnibus
And somehow we are back to poop.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
?BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: NO.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: well, this is the Sanders campaign, not that you’d know by the way they’re retweeting Trump campaign videos deceptively edited to make Biden seem senile.
Major Major Major Major
@Martin: we have a very solid remote work culture at my company. I go to the office three days a week tops, usually two. This won’t be very disruptive, at least not to the NYC part of the team. Now, the SF kids, who are used to being in the same room… idk
prostratedragon
@Ken: Oh, f!0!! Thanks for mentioning it, though. If we have to do it at all, no idea why it’s so early in the year.
NotMax
Decisions, decisions. Cozy up for the nth time with Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple on TCM or switch over to something on a streaming service?
NotMax
@prostratedragon
Blame Kaiser Bill. He began the practice.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Major Major Major Major:
Somebody ought to make Sanders’ face red in some ads and ask if America should elect a 80 y/o cardiac patient. Turnabout is fair play
Also too, that hour sure wnet by fast lol
Jay Noble
@Martin: Alameda? Would that be near the newcleear wessels? ;-)
Major Major Major Major
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): no reason to do that. Sanders cannot win the nomination, no matter how mean his followers are on Twitter.
NotMax
Does Arizona still have the daylight saving donut?
The state did not observe the change, the Navajo nation did, and the Hopi nation (entirely surrounded by Navajo land) did.
J R in WV
We took our first cruise with good friends, a couple who invited us to join them on a Lindblad National Geographic small ship with 95 people to play with whales around the south end of the Baha California peninsula. Food was ok.
It was kinda like summer camp afloat with an open bar. We would do it again, looking at an archaeological type trip to the med or Egypt or such. Depending upon the outcome of the epidemic, of course…
206inKY
I just want to say that I hope all of you are safe through the epidemic. You are a great community.
MisterForkbeard
@Major Major Major Major: Yeah. We stocked up on anti-allergy and flu, tylenol/advil, children’s versions of the above, and got a restock on albuterol.
Most we can do, really :(
Major Major Major Major
@206inKY: aw shucks.
Major Major Major Major
As always, the east bay will be doing the heavy lifting to make up for SF NIMBYs… (joke, I know it’s a federal thing)
Mnemosyne
@Suzanne:
Research the cruise line before you sign up. There’s a reason you never hear about stuff like that happening on Disney cruises. Some lines (like Princess/Carnival) have very bad reputations.
opiejeanne
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Hey! Did you see the long list of examples of things you might need if you’re quarantined?
opiejeanne
@Suzanne: The ones that stop for 3 hours in Venice are terrible, and you couldn’t pay me to go on a Carnival cruise or any of their subsidiaries. I’ve been on two cruises, On Viking, down the coast of California, a day in Baja, and a day on Catalina, it was ok, and the Disney cruise.
The Disney cruise we went on was wonderful. We don’t have grandchildren, we went because our daughter was one of the entertainers. On the cruise, you don’t have to be around any kids if you don’t want to, and the number of children is limited per cruise. The little boy we sat with at dinner was very polite and well-behaved; he was 4 and delightful. We didn’t see kids being bratty at all, but we didn’t hang out where they did most of the time.
The ship sailed from Cape Canaveral. It stopped in Nassau for a day and we ate conch in a little restaurant, walked through the market, viewed the government buildings, and wandered into the Atlantis Hotel. We managed to see most of the aquarium before someone realized we weren’t staying at the hotel and shooed us out.
The next day the ship docked at an island that was owned by the company and that was great. There were beaches for kids, for families, and for adults with no kids anywhere nearby. The teenagers had a beach pretty much to themselves, too. There were bicycles to ride if you wanted, and a very nice barbecue for lunch. The water was lovely and warm and we plunked our beach chairs in it after we got tired of looking for shells. We did get caught in the worst thunderstorm I’ve ever seen, and since the aft end of the ship was being struck by lightning we couldn’t go back, so we watched this display under a shelter. The roof got hit by lightning while we were there. I think there was a grounding device of some sort, a lightning rod maybe. That was an unplanned adventure, but no one in our group was very scared. I understand that the boats on that route now stop at the island for two days, which would have been even better.
All of the food was covered, no matter what you ate, and it was very good. There were movies and live shows, or you could just do nothing at all, sit on a deck chair and read. And there was an adults only restaurant that you could eat at just once during the cruise. Our daughter made reservations and the food was wonderful.
Disney doesn’t run the cruises but they make sure that the company meets Disney standards, especially the entertainment on board. We were required to sanitize our hands before we entered the dining room for every meal, and there were hand sanitizing stations all over the boat.
My daughter said that if there is just a single passenger who comes down with Noro, the cruise is ended and everyone is sent home. There are refunds given if this happens.
Uncle Cosmo
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): You remind me of those distant days when I was seeing a woman with a black belt in jiu-jitsu, who after a session would want to show me the moves she learned. At the time, though outwardly healthy, I was dealing with a fairly active & widespread form of arthritis.
The first time I screamed with pain, she said,
I replied, Schlapp the Matt(ress)? I’m too busy trying to figure out where my next breath is coming from!
Uncle Cosmo
@Martin: Interesting point. I’m supposed to be in Prague in early May for a close Czech friend’s milestone birthday. Can’t imagine the (mostly palliative) care over there would be any worse than what I’d get in an overwhelmed system here. Mandatory quarantines (which given our lame response to date I expect will be in place by then) are a problem, but it’s not as if I couldn’t survive one. I’d be more concerned about last-minute flight cancellations. Still, I guess it would be wise to solidify my HC coverage overseas before booking.
No One You Know
@Martin: I sometimes think the solution is to spell a deal with cruise lines to retrofit as hospital ships.