Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Did everyone just forget how to be a decent human being and all of the lessons about manners and kindness that they should've learned from Sesame Street during lockdown?

Just got back from a Kenai Fjords cruise, ordinarily one of the things I really enjoy about living in Alaska. This one was dfferent, I have never been trapped amongst such a large group of entitled mean spirited assholes before. It wasn't just one instance or one person, it was several occurances amongst several people. About half way through the cruise I lost whatever minimalist filter I may have had and what little tolerance for bullshit I had left and just let loose.

Afterwards having dinner seated at the bar in the Showcase Lounge was the highlight of the trip. A true time capsule and a great hole in the wall dive in Seward. Had a great conversation with a couple of groups at the bar when a family from Colorado that was on the cruise walked in. The mom walked over to me me, tapped me on the shoulder and said, "Thank you for speaking up, you were like a Border Collie in a flock of assholes."

I've never been called that before, I'm taking it as a badge of honor.

Examples include:

The family that boarded the boat just as the gangplanks were being pulled up to leave that went around to different tables demanding, not asking that people sit somewhere else so they could sit together as a family.

The old couple who wanted to look outside but didn't want to be out in the wind. So they just stood in the hatchway blocking access to the deck for everyone else and refused to move.

The wanna' be professional photographer who blocked hatchways and walkways bracing himself and positioning his camera. When asked repeatedly to step aside he replied with, "I've got the bigger camera."

The dufus who thought it was perfectly acceptable to reach inside my camera bag, grab my binoculars, take them out of the case and use them for himself. When confronted his response was, "You weren't using them."

The Karen who took offense to my camouflage jacket and said, "You locals need to buy some class."

The other Karen on the shuttle bus back to the parking lot who refused to move her purse and jacket from the adjacent seat to allow a single mother of 2 elementary school aged children to sit. After being confronted by other passengers and the driver, Karen responded with, "There's other busses, she can wait."

If this is what things are like post lockdown, I think I want to go back to the lockdowns of last summer.

Perhaps you need to be more selective in your cruise choices. The higher end cruises have fewer of these folks. Avoid the Walmart cruise.

Your cruise was brought to you by the letters W, T, and F.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Perhaps you need to be more selective in your cruise choices. The higher end cruises have fewer of these folks. Avoid the Walmart cruise.

Miss the point much?

Frank,
You outline why I'm glad to live in flyover country. Old school manners still abound.
That said the tourist season, which sees well over 2 million visitors here, has too many of the crass types you just encountered to suit me.

The only good explanation I have ever heard for the continuing survival of most of the human race is that the laws against killing the bastards are quite strict.

Yup, manners, courtesy, mostly gone.

Your stories are very similar to what I experienced last October/November. I’ve been holding out doing my normal trip all year and punted to 2022 because of it.

For me it stars at the airport checking in. The entitled try to pull shit to skip the line, always, and always causing me delays as airline personnel have to step in, regulate, and get them moved with all their bullshit baggage. I swear every single time it’s grown folk that have traveled before but act like they are busing their cherry. I get on the plane, seated, and I’m a minimalist for my trip. A large back pack that’s it. It has everything I need in it, wetsuit, few pair of board shorts, few tees, very very minimal. I put it in the overhead directly above me and my work laptop is in there for oncall/emergencies so I’m situationally aware. Then this ass hole who was obviously very late to the dance, starts grabbing my shit and moving it so he can put his shit in there. Like you, not putting up with it so I tell him to leave my property alone. Your shit is not more important than my shit and I was here first. If a stewardess moves your shit, they are polite and ask you, no prob, sure mam. Some narcissist? No. Then I just hope and pray I’m not seating next to them because they are needy, busy, and fidgety. Makes for an awful flight.

My friend breaks me off some of his timeshare and since I don’t dine out, I routinely use the grills at the resort/hotel. There are a number of them. I’ll use them 1-2 times a day. If they are full, I wait, patiently, and I’ll ask nicely if I can just put my plate in the area. I’ll go use the restroom, grab a drink, whatever, not in a hurry. Several times now people roll up while I’m grilling and try to hurry me up or push me off. “We have a hungry family here” and I told them, great, you should have got here earlier. Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my behalf. If they would have been courteous I would have let them throw their food on there alongside mine, but not when they are being extremely rude and narcisstic.

Then there is the elevators, I won’t even get started on those. Most of the entitled asshatery I see is from Californians that think they own the place. I’ve got friends that live there, they say the same. I’ve got another friend who works in the travel industry there and he says the same thing. I think it’s marketing that has these people thinking they are more important than they are, and social media applications. Many of them trash the place and it infuriates the locals. For some reason there are a number of people who go on holiday and have a fuck you deal with it attitude. They respond angrily when checked too. I’ll use the hot tub to repair from a long day surfing, trying to get my body back so I can go do it again. Other travelers will be in the hot tub discussing this and that, and it’s fun to insult the narcissists. They’ll ask plans and I’ll code up what I’m doing and where and they are alway anxious to get the inside scoop. I just tell them that tourists aren’t welcomed and I cannot give you a location or details. This infuriates them. “Why do you get to do it and not us” and I’ll respond that I’ve got people that live there so it’s locals only. Or I’ll be doing something like a chopper flight the next day or hopping on a boat to go snorkeling for dirt cheap. If they’d just NOT be entitled ass holes I’d hook them up. They are like robots and all do the same shit.

Then there is the beaches where we surf. My friends are real hardcore about picking up trash from dirtbag tourists so many times I’m ready to paddle out and we have to stop our plans, and spend half an hour picking up and disposing of someone’s trash. The locals hate it and I’ve been on a break before getting worn out by a local for even being out there only to have my friend paddle in, curse at the guy in pidgin then explain how I just spent 30 minutes cleaning up the beach from some dirtbags at which point the guy apologizes and has my back. People simply go on vacation and say fuck it. Like Clark Kent opening up his business suit to expose the S they do this with their narcissism. And it’s going to continue.

The best advice I have is timing. I will not go, after learning the hard way, during summer, spring break or holidays. Avoid it like the plague. My best trips are mid January through the end of February as that’s when the entitled are hot and bothered that’s it’s all over. The credit card bills roll in, they’ve burned up their vacation time and they aren’t traveling, kids are in school, etc. Talk to your cruise folks like I talk to my friends and game the timing. You’ll have a much nicer time. You’ll find that the people that are more courteous are trying to do the same thing as you, and go off-peak. It’s night and day difference, at least for me. I go in Jan/Feb, hell the grills are full, I’m looking around for an empty and some nice guy is like hey if that’s all you have throw it on the grill over here. End up having a beer and bullshitting and people are in a good mood. Best of luck. I know full well how these ass holes will ruin your trip, your money, and turn a very positive break into a nightmare.

Don't go to Yellowstone in July or August.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:
Perhaps you need to be more selective in your cruise choices. The higher end cruises have fewer of these folks. Avoid the Walmart cruise.

Dude, it's a day cruise to Kenai Fjords, it's not like the Cunard Line offers anything like that.

Hopefully those people did not distract from getting to see some pretty neat things.

We had a family trip down to Seward over the summer and enjoyed the day cruse.

You actually showed some restraint. If some asshat reached into my pack/bag and grabbed my bino's (or anything else) I would have had a very difficult time not snapping his hand off at the wrist.

Seriously...I'd have choked the living shit out of him, until he returned the binos, or he passed out, whichever came first.

If I was on that cruise Id likely be in jail now...rudeness, entitlement and bad manners really piss me off. I might have chucked some people overboard.

quote:

Originally posted by Graniteguy:
You actually showed some restraint. If some asshat reached into my pack/bag and grabbed my bino's (or anything else) I would have had a very difficult time not snapping his hand off at the wrist.

I feel your pain. People in general must feel awfully safe to try some of the things they do in public.

On the flip side, how about being to accept an apology graciously for an unintended slight?

I was in line at an amusement park restaurant (fast food type).
Tired, a bit dehydrated, and trailing equally tired small children and in-laws.
It looked to me like there were two lines for ordering. I stepped up and began to order. Lady next to me went ballistic on me.
I apologized, told her about my misconception.
She continued to rant at me.
Maybe she was just tired also.
But c’mon, we were both basically in the same boat.
She continued to give me the stink eye the whole time we were in the restaurant.
Some people, eh?

quote:

Originally posted by hudr:... She continued to give me the stink eye the whole time we were in the restaurant....

She was mad at "everyone"- you "became the ground path" because of the interaction, and she could use that to continue to "dump her energy" to ground.

People are sometimes funny when they're not.

quote:

Dude, it's a day cruise to Kenai Fjords, it's not like the Cunard Line offers anything like that.

^^^^^^^^^^^
My point exactly. Class of people.

I think the way things have gone on with the country the last 18 months or so have made people angry and on edge. When happens, manners and consideration for others disappear.

I’m curious about exactly what happened when you reached your peak, and just let loose. Where were you? Who was there? That sort of thing. To quote a great man, “Ah hait rude behavior in uh man; won’t tolerate it”

I’m a year round resident of SW Florida, can’t even begin to tell you how the beautiful people act around here especially in the winter months.

It seems that lots of people never knew basic manners.

quote:

Originally posted by arfmel:
It seems that lots of people never knew basic manners.

From seeing the various Bus stops in Tucson, many of them never saw a trash can.