Author Topic: JoeCha's Photo Bucket  (Read 26785 times)

Offline CS1

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #60 on: February 20, 2015, 01:09:35 PM »
It made me try out all five  :D

smart move. Also it's better than sharing them with lots of strangers
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Offline moish

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #61 on: February 21, 2015, 01:55:04 PM »

Tour guide, and I think maybe I heard the same thing from the museum staff.

Wow, that makes everyone visiting there feel like a fool after realizing.

If I may ask, how do you know that it's not true?
(I agree the burden of proof is on them, but I'd still be interested to know if you have some more information about the legitimacy of all that)
everything that tour guide said is now suspect

i usually do my own research before visiting such places.

my information was from 3 different books

The Cultural Guide to Jewish Europe
Traveler's Guide to Jewish Germany
A Travel Guide to Jewish Europe

you can also see here http://www.worms.de/de-wAssets/docs/tourismus/broschueren/englisch/flyer_Judentum_e.pdf

and here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worms_Synagogue

its possible that you are referring to the synagogue which was probably at the same location of the synagogue that was present at the time Rashi was in town (5 years). However, several iterations prior.

Offline JoeCha

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #62 on: March 01, 2015, 04:11:39 PM »
Cancun 2015

Flights:
JFK-CUN AA J
CUN-JFK AA J


Hotel:
Fairmont Mayakoba

Cost:
29k MR (with 40% BA promo)
2 Fairmont CC certs and suite upgrade
Paid base price for third night + suite upgrade

Short review:
I'll have to disagree with Dan's conclusion in his post The Most Underrated Credit Card? and say that the most underappreciated card is the Fairmont Visa card. The card gives you two free nights and elite status that rewards its members with suite upgrade certificates. Effectively receiving two nights in a suite.

The Fairmont Mayakoba is MASSIVE (how do you capitalize CAPS?).

It's located in the gated Mayakoba Resort which houses 2 other lavish resorts including the Rosewood (where you get checked in on a boat and ridden with the boat to your villa) with Hyatt now in construction of the new Andaz Mayakoba.
Guests of all the resorts have access to some of each other's facilities.

The overwhelming majority of rooms are actually separate villas with 1, 2 or 4 guests per villa.

A few unlucky guests end up in regular rooms in the main lobby building. Which might explain why Dan doesn't seem to be a huge fan of this resort.

Our vila was a two guest villa, with us occupying the full top floor and balcony over the lagoon.

The property is huge, but there are golf carts constantly coming and going taking you wherever you want (to the beach, for example, wich is a full mile from the lagoon villas).

Sailboating on the ocean and boat tours on the lagoon is free.

Staff were extremely nice and helpful. I'd rate them at the same level of Hyatt's staff, way above top Waldorf Astoria service.

Chabad of Playa delivered to our room warm food every night, they did a wonderful job. And even went out of their way accommodating us.
After a short convo, it turns out the Shliach is a DDFer. Who is not?

It seems to me that both fractions of chabad are represented in Playa.
My experience was with the group that subscribes to the school of thought that Moshiach can come from the dead.


I'll post pics in following posts.

Next up: Hong Kong/Hangzhou
"There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others" ― William Faulkner

Offline JoeCha

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #63 on: March 01, 2015, 05:04:34 PM »
Hotel property




























"There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others" ― William Faulkner

Offline JoeCha

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #64 on: March 01, 2015, 05:19:56 PM »
Hotel's beach






















"There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others" ― William Faulkner

Offline AJK

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #65 on: March 01, 2015, 06:10:27 PM »
Some beautiful shots.

Glad your AJK-esque surprise trip worked out. Now you know how hard it can be to effectively pull off!
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Offline JoeCha

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #66 on: March 01, 2015, 06:11:18 PM »
Some beautiful shots.

Glad your AJK-esque surprise trip worked out. Now you know how hard it can be to effectively pull off!
;) thanks man!
"There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others" ― William Faulkner

Offline skyguy918

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #67 on: March 01, 2015, 06:32:20 PM »
...
I'll have to disagree with Dan's conclusion in his post The Most Underrated Credit Card? and say that the most underappreciated card is the Fairmont Visa card. The card gives you two free nights and elite status that rewards its members with suite upgrade certificates. Effectively receiving two nights in a suite.
...
Hard to say exactly where it rates, but big +1 on the Fairmont being a really solid card that more people should get. I used my 4 free nights and $300 in dining/spa credits at the Kea Lani (Maui, HI), where I ended up in an oceanview suite without using any additional upgrade certs, as well as a 3rd night free and suite upgrade on a paid (but still pretty cheap) stay at the Fairmont Washington. Not bad for just 2 cards.

Offline Matovu

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #68 on: March 01, 2015, 07:17:33 PM »
+1
Stayed at the Lake Louise Property for free in a 1,400.00 a night suite 3 nights, just for opening a card.

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #69 on: March 01, 2015, 07:40:43 PM »
Beautiful pics you got there.

Offline JoeCha

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #70 on: March 01, 2015, 08:44:38 PM »
+1
Stayed at the Lake Louise Property for free in a 1,400.00 a night suite 3 nights, just for opening a card.
I squeezed a value of over $2500.

I wonder why there isn't that much talk about it in the blogosphere.
"There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others" ― William Faulkner

Offline JoeCha

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #71 on: March 01, 2015, 08:45:34 PM »
Beautiful pics you got there.
Thank you. Only issue that annoys me is that some pictures are way too big.
"There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others" ― William Faulkner

Online TimT

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #72 on: March 01, 2015, 08:49:03 PM »
Thank you. Only issue that annoys me is that some pictures are way too big.
Were these taken with the rebel T3i ?

Offline JoeCha

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #73 on: March 01, 2015, 09:46:34 PM »
Were these taken with the rebel T3i ?
No, the Cancun pictures were shot with rebel T5i.

Upcoming HKG pics were all taken with my S5, I tried to travel light.
"There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others" ― William Faulkner

Offline JoeCha

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #74 on: March 02, 2015, 08:00:47 AM »
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/61187

Interesting, I had the same experience with Alamo, I ended up with almost $100 more than my original reservation.


When I asked them about it they told me it's prepaid fuel.
I told them I'm not interested, but the agent warned me there are no gas stations around the area and I'll have to pay me if I return an empty tank.

Only problem: once I got out I noticed quite a few gas stations.

I now called them back to refund me for the unused gas or I'm disputing the charge.
"There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others" ― William Faulkner

Offline JoeCha

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #75 on: March 02, 2015, 08:11:38 AM »

A few unlucky guests end up in regular rooms in the main lobby building. Which might explain why Dan doesn't seem to be a huge fan of this resort.


Well, turns out here that Dan was actually in the same (type of) room I was in.
"There is no such thing as bad whiskey. Some whiskeys just happen to be better than others" ― William Faulkner

Offline sruly

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #76 on: March 02, 2015, 09:52:10 AM »
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/61187

Interesting, I had the same experience with Alamo, I ended up with almost $100 more than my original reservation.


When I asked them about it they told me it's prepaid fuel.
I told them I'm not interested, but the agent warned me there are no gas stations around the area and I'll have to pay me if I return an empty tank.

Only problem: once I got out I noticed quite a few gas stations.

I now called them back to refund me for the unused gas or I'm disputing the charge.
My rate at Hertz was $48 for 3 days but they added $50 for insurance but as soon as I asked him about it he took it off so my total stayed at $48.

Offline Dan

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #77 on: March 02, 2015, 10:28:06 AM »
Well, turns out here that Dan was actually in the same (type of) room I was in.
My beef wasn't with the room. Was the several other issues that we encountered that I wrote about.

I gave them feedback, hopefully that at least caused them to turn up the temperature on the pools.
Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.

Offline sruly

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #78 on: March 02, 2015, 10:47:31 AM »
I gave them feedback, hopefully that at least caused them to turn up the temperature on the pools.
My understanding was that the pools were not heated.

When JoeCha was there he said temperatures was about 85 but when I was there it barely touched 75
so maybe that's why the pools were a lot warmer for him,

Offline Dan

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Re: JoeCha's Photo Bucket
« Reply #79 on: March 02, 2015, 10:51:37 AM »
Could be. Pretty pathetic if true.

Save your time, I don't answer PM. Post it in the forum and a dedicated DDF'er will get back to you as soon as possible.