What is 1 unpopular opinion on Travel you have?

[RedAngie]

And it used to be WAY worse. I had to fly SW out of Fort Lauderdale all the time back when it was just boarding groups A, B, and C--no numbers. The lines at the gate would form early and stretch all around the concourse. It was like a concert or an Apple store with a new I-Phone release!

I hated that old style of Southwest boarding. Conceivably you could be the first person to get a B boarding pass yet end up the last B to board. I remember a few airports had separate corrals for the different boarding groups and people would elbow and nudge each other to gain an advantage. A true cattle call.

The current letter and number procedure is the most efficient and painless way to board IMO. You can casually stroll up to your position while boarding is commencing. No need to stand in line for 30 minutes or more.

I personally find SW boarding to be the easiest of the airlines. Even with zones, everyone still bunches up at the gate to board.

Yep. Zone 5 passengers blocking the gate with their 6 oversize carry-ons. And there seems to be a dozen "priority boarding" groups before they even get to Zone 1.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I hated that old style of Southwest boarding. Conceivably you could be the first person to get a B boarding pass yet end up the last B to board. I remember a few airports had separate corrals for the different boarding groups and people would elbow and nudge each other to gain an advantage. A true cattle call.

The current letter and number procedure is the most efficient and painless way to board IMO. You can casually stroll up to your position while boarding is commencing. No need to stand in line for 30 minutes or more.



Yep. Zone 5 passengers blocking the gate with their 6 oversize carry-ons. And there seems to be a dozen "priority boarding" groups before they even get to Zone 1.

I preferred the old system. Show up early, get a good seat. Dilly dally & you don’t.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Yep. Zone 5 passengers blocking the gate with their 6 oversize carry-ons. And there seems to be a dozen "priority boarding" groups before they even get to Zone 1.

On one of our Delta flights to Hawaii my husband, who is just a lowly Amex Delta Skymiles holder, was Zone 1; by which half the plane had already boarded. I was in Zone 2 because I was flying on points.

The sheer number of priority boarding combined with pre-boarding is amazing. And the mob scene at the gate was interesting as well. It really didn't seem to matter much that there were assigned seating. It was still "gotta get on the plane first for overhead bin space" "gotta get on the plane first to get situated", etc.

 

[MIGrandma]

You will still have to keep your gun at home for a transatlantic cruise.

At least you know you can't take it into Canada. Many Americans are still trying to vacation in Canada with their guns.https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/ameri...rrying-guns-with-alarming-frequency-1.3536689

Yes, he is very careful to make sure of the laws wherever we go. And the last few times we have been to Sault Ste. Marie we have been there with our truck camper so nowhere he could leave his gun in order to go into Canada.

When you say you prefer to travel places where your husband can bring his gun and with the way the world it today, you feel safer traveling with your husband being armed, it does comes off as fear.

Yes, it does come off that way, I see that. . I know to travel to other countries he wouldn’t be able to take it but if it was a place (like cruising, we enjoy that too much to give up) we truly wanted to go, we would go and of course leave it home. But we just don’t desire to go to those places anymore. We have been in situations here where I was glad he was carrying, like New Orleans, and Nashville around 1:00 in the morning walking from Broadway Street back to our hotel and needing to be very aware of our surroundings.

Does your husband bring his fire arm on cruises? If so, can you tell me which lines allow this? i had thought it was prohibited, but you say he does not travel without it, so i guess t is not always.
We have 2 cruises booked which go roundtrip out of US ports now. If I learn individuals may be armed on board, I will cancel at least the one further out---th closer one is past final payment and involves several others so might be harder.

No, he does not take his gun on our cruises (Disney, Carnival and Royal - we have Oasis of the Seas booked for February) as it is not allowed. When we fly anywhere of course he doesn’t take it, can’t. But, and I’m sure those opposed to gun carry won’t understand, he feels rather naked without it. It is just a part of his wardrobe as he has had his carry permit for several years. When we drive to a cruise departure port, like New Orleans or Florida, he carries and then has a lock box to put it in and a locking cord to lock it in the under floor well in the vehicle.

I know you don’t live in the states, but do you come back to visit? If you do you would be surprised at how many people you come in contact with, or just walk by them who would have a gun on them. More and more are getting their permits, women included. In some places you can even carry without concealing it.

 

[AnnaFloridaLover]

Yes, he is very careful to make sure of the laws wherever we go. And the last few times we have been to Sault Ste. Marie we have been there with our truck camper so nowhere he could leave his gun in order to go into Canada.

How about at home?

 

[Colleen27]

There's no such thing as too young to travel.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Yes, he is very careful to make sure of the laws wherever we go. And the last few times we have been to Sault Ste. Marie we have been there with our truck camper so nowhere he could leave his gun in order to go into Canada.



Yes, it does come off that way, I see that. . I know to travel to other countries he wouldn’t be able to take it but if it was a place (like cruising, we enjoy that too much to give up) we truly wanted to go, we would go and of course leave it home. But we just don’t desire to go to those places anymore. We have been in situations here where I was glad he was carrying, like New Orleans, and Nashville around 1:00 in the morning walking from Broadway Street back to our hotel and needing to be very aware of our surroundings.



No, he does not take his gun on our cruises (Disney, Carnival and Royal - we have Oasis of the Seas booked for February) as it is not allowed. When we fly anywhere of course he doesn’t take it, can’t. But, and I’m sure those opposed to gun carry won’t understand, he feels rather naked without it. It is just a part of his wardrobe as he has had his carry permit for several years. When we drive to a cruise departure port, like New Orleans or Florida, he carries and then has a lock box to put it in and a locking cord to lock it in the under floor well in the vehicle.

I know you don’t live in the states, but do you come back to visit? If you do you would be surprised at how many people you come in contact with, or just walk by them who would have a gun on them. More and more are getting their permits, women included. In some places you can even carry without concealing it.

Mostly I visit family in Colorado---where open carry is legal and it is startling how many guns I see now, far more than when I was growing up there. I am not surprised that many are armed everywhere now--I am aware and that is what makes me nervous.

 

[mjkacmom]

Mostly I visit family in Colorado---where open carry is legal and it is startling how many guns I see now, far more than when I was growing up there. I am not surprised that many are armed everywhere now--I am aware and that is what makes me nervous.

I live in NJ, I’ve never seen a gun before (except for police officers).

 

[RedAngie]

Going to Disney isn't as much fun as it used to be before fast pass.

I'll agree it was more fun before fast pass plus.

But I loved the old paper ticket method of FP. Especially when you could "cheat" and use them well past the time printed on the ticket.

Back then about one third of the time I'd use the paper FPs within the stated time period. About 1/3 were somewhat late and used whenever we got back to the ride. And the last 1/3 were intentionally held back to use MUCH later that day or evening.

 

[Wendy31]

Ouch! Trying not to feel offended. LOL

Try being from the south...

My unpopular travel opinion:

I actually love beach vacations!! LOL! And I prefer the beach to the mountains.

I have no desire, though, to visit the Jersey Shore... those beaches just look way too crowded.

And road trips are fun! I love packing for a road trip. However, I hate driving on crazy-crowded interstates like through Atlanta.

 

[Colleen27]

Salem, MA cemetary/foot tour---no way would I have wanted a walking tour of that. We spent hours alone in the cemetary just pouring over the history there. On the other hand the trolleyhop on/hop off tour (which I'm not normally a fan of doing) in Salem gave us a lot of good history, respite for our feet, and out to places that we probably wouldn't have explored on our own.

Any particular one you'd recommend? I'm sure I'll be starting a thread about it when it gets closer but we're going to Salem on our October Boston college-visit trip and the sheer number of tour options and touristy gimmicks is pretty overwhelming.

To be honest, most of the subway stations I've been to in the US smelled of piss. Definitely New York, Boston and Philadelphia. I think it's par for the course.

Yeah, you could add D.C. and Chicago to that one too. Even the Detroit PeopleMover, which goes basically nowhere, has its 'urinal' moments.

- Camping is great, but only if camping IS your destination; that is, if you're going camping for the purpose of hiking, fishing and sitting around the campfire. Camping to make a road trip cheaper is false economy.
- It's better to stay in basic rooms and travel more frequently.
- Taking babies to Disney is nuts.
- New Orleans is filthy and the worst place I've ever been.
- Shopping for souvenirs on vacation is insane; spend your time on experiences instead.

I like cabin-camping as an alternative to hotels, but I'm with you on the "false economy". We spend a bit less and get better locations in rural areas where there aren't good hotel options, but it isn't cheap. And I can't even begin to make the math work on a camper, even when comparing to cabin prices and the guaranteed one week in a single destination that we do for county fair every summer. Just the cost of the camper and the tow package for my van would take like 10 years to "pay for themselves", without accounting for gas or insurance.

I disagree on babies and Disney. The trip when my youngest was 16mo was one of our best, because she was just so enraptured with everything and the big kids had such a great time exposing her to all of their favorites.

But I'm with you on souvenirs. We've found cheap ways to scratch that itch - what started as a Disney pin collection has expanded to other destination pins for my kids, so their souvenir usually costs <$10, and I collect patches for my travel backpack. And we take tons of pictures, which are better souvenirs than any knick-knack could ever be.

I enjoy many Tourist Traps, the tackier the better. Navy Pier, Fisherman's Wharf, Hollywood Blvd, Times Square, Picadilly Circus, South of the Border, Gatlinburg, TN, etc. They're great to visit for a few hours, at least once, if only to experience how truly awful (i.e. great) they are.

Me too! It all started with an unhealthy love of the U.P.'s "Mystery Spot" when I was a kid, and a fascination with American Gods has only made it worse. We went out of our way to "See Rock City" on our last Disney trip, and I loved every minute of it.

-I'd rather stay in an Airbnb than a hotel.

-I travel to be educated/see/experience things more often then I travel to relax.

Me too to both of these, and I think they're related. I like staying in residential places and I like having a host that can tell me what the locals know/do/love. Staying in a hotel isn't the same.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Perception is everything. The homicide rate is substantially lower today in the US than it was 20 years ago.

But, people feel what they feel, and that’s their right - no different than those of us who feel safer driving than flying, even if reality says otherwise.

You are correct that homocide rates fell in the latter part of the 90s and then basically stablized in the USA and are lower than they were in the 50s-70s.

What is different for me in the past couple of decades, and different for the pp I quoted---is not living in the US where US rates are the norm.

When I visit the US I am more than 3 times as likely to be raped than I am where I live and over 6 times likely to be murdered (just on flat out stats of rates, without looking at other factors like race or knowing the criminal).

Couple that with the frequency of reported gun murders that happen in "good/safe" areas to total strangers in public (ie, people are not engaging in any sort of risky behaviour) in the US, which may or may not be on the rise, I cannot find anything with stats on that type of thing---I would love a link if you can) and I am left with a feeling of unease when stateside as it is so much more dangerous than my current "norm" .

That doesn't mean the US is some horribly unsafe place---just that it is less so than many other places that posters here, myself included, live in and travel to---so seeing someone post about not feeling safe travelling outside the US unarmed strikes some of us, or at least me, as very strange (it is kind of a moot point anyway as that poster has come back to explain they just do not enjoy flying overseas and do not have safety concerns)

 

[MIGrandma]

How about at home?

Yes, he is aware of the gun laws at home too of course. He doesn’t carry inside schools, the post office, etc.

The main reason he started carrying over 10 years ago is because we bought 30 acres in Northern Michigan, which is where we spend a lot of time in the summer with our 5th wheel camper, with family and friends. He works on our riding trails a lot by himself, and we do have black bears, coyotes, etc. Then, with all the mass shootings getting to be more frequent he decided he should have it on him all the time, when legal of course. Many Americans are armed now, there are conceal carry classes going on quite often. It’s not the law abiding armed citizens people have to worry about.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I live in NJ, I’ve never seen a gun before (except for police officers).

We've seen at least a couple on every trip to Co since my oldest started uni there and we started going back more. Sometimes we see MANY. And we have seen someone make a show of being sure their gun was seen when complaining, loudly about someone else getting served faster than they were at Chilis---that was very unsettling.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

I like Southwest.
I think their boarding process tends to be faster/smoother than the by section process on other lines. This is aided by fewer people lugging huge carry ons since they an check their bags at no extra cost.

I like to be at the nd of group A or front to middle o B if I can time check in right---let's me get an aisle but also choose who I sit by. Keeps me from having to sit right next to someone drenched in perfume or with a giant neck pillow that spills into my seat, etc.

I enjoy the bits of Humore---some FAs and Pilots are quite funny

I fly Southwest almost exclusively and love it.

A classic:

 

[Colleen27]

A 5 year old isn’t a toddler or preschooler. Two of my kids were miserable babies (reflux and colicky), but all great travelers by 4/5 (meltdowns/tantrums were very rare).

I think not traveling with kids for fear of bad behaviour can become a self-fulfilling prophecy - thinking they're too young means waiting until they're older and more attached to their routines, friends, toys, gadgets, makes teaching a love of travel (esp. disconnected travel, like cruising or road trips through remote areas) becomes an uphill battle.

LOL. Same. I pee WAY more often than my kids ever did. I probably stop at every restroom at Disney.

I've recently sworn off road tripping with my mother (not really, I'm sure I'll forget this by the time the next adventure arises) because on our last trip, I swear we saw the inside of every second rest area from Detroit to Boston and back. LOL

We love visiting regional chains that we don’t have at home, even FF like Zaxby’s .

Zaxby's is one of my road-trip indulgences. We don't have them here, and unlike Chik-Fil-A and Skyline Chili, they totally lived up to the hype I've heard from friends who are lucky enough to have them nearby.

I love traveling alone. I like DH and the kids but I am over vacationing with them. DH gets to stressed out about everything and makes everyone else miserable. The kids are OK but I am tired of telling them "look away from your iPad/phone/game and look out the window - you are missing everything"

I'm getting there with my DH too. He's getting more anxious as he gets older, and I'm just over pacifying his irrational worries. Two of the three kids are still good travelers, and the one that isn't is a young adult and welcome to stay home if that suits him better (and right now, it does - he's a homebody, and I lack the patience for traveling with a college kid who'd rather be home with his friends/video games), but I'll happily travel alone when they leave the nest rather than managing DH's travel neuroses.

 

[Colleen27]

We've seen at least a couple on every trip to Co since my oldest started uni there and we started going back more. Sometimes we see MANY. And we have seen someone make a show of being sure their gun was seen when complaining, loudly about someone else getting served faster than they were at Chilis---that was very unsettling.

We camp for the county fair every year at a campground that is really popular with Canadian travelers (it is about 20 min from the border), and that's something I hear a lot from other moms/women I get to talking to there. I don't even notice it, but living in a small town in rural Michigan I suspect it just fades into the background for me. But for them, seeing people carrying - open or concealed - is jarring. More than one has told me about cities/places they wouldn't go back to because of the feeling they get of being surrounded by armed citizens.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Any particular one you'd recommend? I'm sure I'll be starting a thread about it when it gets closer but we're going to Salem on our October Boston college-visit trip and the sheer number of tour options and touristy gimmicks is pretty overwhelming.

I believe the trolley one is just called Salem Trolley.

We didn't do a walking tour of it but the cemetary we spent the most time at was Old Burying Point. There are several options of walking tours that take you through there though; we just didn't opt to do it.

I'm afraid I'm not much help as I believe the only actual tour we took was the Trolley Tour with the rest done as an exploration on our own because that was what our interests were that day. We're a bit weird I think lol because we find ourselves in cemetaries a lot but I still think the Salem one was the one that held our interest for the longest.

Trip Advisor may be a good place to look for tours to help weed out the ones that are probably less worth it though I know that's even hard just by how many tours get listed. FWIW we went in July but in October I would imagine it's a lot busier simply because of Halloween. The tours may have different stipulations during that time of the year.

 

[Klayfish]

Yes, Southwests' seating policy is better than it was when it was just A, B and C. However, just IMO, that's not saying much. The whole concept is wrong. Let me just pick my seat either at time of booking or time of check in. I love a window seat because I almost always fall asleep on the plane. A window seat is perfect because nobody will bother me having to use the restroom, stretch their legs, whatever. Or if I'm not sleeping, I like to just look out the window. Either way, I just want to pick my seat ahead of time and not have to ask 10 people around me "Are you B12...wait, I'm B14...hey buddy, B30 is back there..."

And I love the new FP+ system at WDW, it's light years better than the old paper one. It makes rope drop totally unnecessary, and that's a thing of beauty for us.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

You are correct that homocide rates fell in the latter part of the 90s and then basically stablized in the USA and are lower than they were in the 50s-70s.

What is different for me in the past couple of decades, and different for the pp I quoted---is not living in the US where US rates are the norm.

When I visit the US I am more than 3 times as likely to be raped than I am where I live and over 6 times likely to be murdered (just on flat out stats of rates, without looking at other factors like race or knowing the criminal).

Couple that with the frequency of reported gun murders that happen in "good/safe" areas to total strangers in public (ie, people are not engaging in any sort of risky behaviour) in the US, which may or may not be on the rise, I cannot find anything with stats on that type of thing---I would love a link if you can) and I am left with a feeling of unease when stateside as it is so much more dangerous than my current "norm" .

That doesn't mean the US is some horribly unsafe place---just that it is less so than many other places that posters here, myself included, live in and travel to---so seeing someone post about not feeling safe travelling outside the US unarmed strikes some of us, or at least me, as very strange (it is kind of a moot point anyway as that poster has come back to explain they just do not enjoy flying overseas and do not have safety concerns)

Yes, I’m sure the move has had an impact on your perspective as well. You see it all the time here just in the difference between the fears city & country people have even from the same country.