Monday, September 18, 2006

Princess Cruises ripped off my friends



My friends Dave and Amy Scott just got married, but the thousands of dollars they paid Princess Cruises for their honeymoon all went to waste. CBS news did a story about how Princess is keeping their money even though they sold their cabin to someone else. They're not even allowing them to reschedule their trip unless they pay full price again.

You can see the brief news story, "Cruise Line Caught Double Dipping On Travelers," on the TV station's web site at this direct link:
http://cbs5.com/consumer/local_story_250204516.html . Just click the play button on the video clip when you get to the page.

I guess Princess thinks that they are in such demand that they can adhere to heartless policies to extract as much money as possible out of their customer base. I'm writing to Princess to let them know I will never take a cruise with them unless Dave and Amy Scott get their money back.

The nerve of Princess to sell a cabin twice and say that the Scotts should have purchased traveler's insurance to protect them from Princess' own scam. I have to hand it to Dave & Amy, though. At the wedding,
I never saw any hint that they were letting anything spoil their special day.

If you would like to help my friends as they try to get Princess to give them their money back, please write to the company at their corporate headquarters below and tell them what you think of what they're doing to the Scotts.

Princess Cruises

24844 Avenue Rockefeller
Santa Clarita, CA 91355

And please share this with anyone you know who is thinking of booking a cruise!

-Dan

Sunday, March 12, 2006

I only wear my contact lenses when I'm sleeping

It's true. I've never found contact lenses to be comfortable with my eyes open, because they feel dry and irritated in short order. However, since I don't like glasses hanging on my face, I wear contact lenses to correct my nearsightedness during the only time they are comfortable, when my eyes are closed for a good night's sleep.

Are you shaking your head? Are you saying to yourself that this guy is seriously lacking in even the basic concepts of light refraction and vision correction?

I wouldn't blame you, because the lenses that I wear at night are not very well known and only a relatively small fraction of optometrists will dispense them, even though they've been available for many years. They're called orthokeratology lenses, and they subtly change the shape of the very front of your soft eyeball in a similar manner to the way that braces change the location of your teeth.

The change is temporary, so the lenses must be worn every night as retainers to ensure my perfect vision all day long. If I forget to wear them a night, by the second day I do notice a slight decrease in my vision clarity.

I'm very happy with ortho-K because they relieve me from the discomfort and hastle of wearing contacts or glasses all day long. I don't need to worry about losing contacts while swimming or having a speck of wind-blown dust getting under my contact lens and driving me crazy. No glasses to hunt for or sit on, either. And I don't need to worry about the risks of the surgical options for correcting my vision.

Over the eight or so years I've been using ortho-K, I have used a couple different doctors for it and like them both. Dr. Schacter in Pismo Beach, and Dr. Silverman in Lancaster are both experienced with these lenses and have the specialized corneal topography equipment required to dispense them.

I have to admit, though, that one of my favorite things about ortho-K lenses is the fun that I have telling my incredulous friends that I only wear my contact lenses when I'm sleeping.



Here are a few links to some more information: