Actress misses meeting people
Emmy Award winner Ashley Nicole Black is one of the writers and stars of HBO’s comedy series, “A Black Lady Sketch Show.” She recently was surprised to hear that Georgia politician Stacey Abrams said she’d want Black — or actress Viola Davis — to play her in a biopic.
“I was in shock,” Black said. “I’m such a big fan of (her) and her work. So the idea that she likes my work as well is very humbling. And to even be mentioned in the same breath as Viola Davis? I’m not worthy!”
A: I haven’t traveled at all during the pandemic. At first, I was spending a lot of my down time taking long walks with my dog — too long. She started refusing the walks!
My mom built a gazebo in her backyard with a couch, chairs, fans, a TV, the works. So our new vacation spot is her backyard with a glass of ice tea.
A: I miss it so much. Not the traveling, but the people you meet while you’re traveling. Whether I was performing live or interviewing people for “Full Frontal with Samantha Bee,” I always got to have great chats with people on the road. That’s the best way to know what people are thinking about and what they think is funny. I can’t wait to get back to it.
A: I enjoy my own company. People think it’s weird or scary for a woman to travel alone, but I love it. I like to sit quietly in a cafe reading a book and letting a language I don’t know wash over me. I like chatting with strangers. I like figuring out directions with the confidence that even if I get lost, I will be OK. I like trying new things. I like abandoning new things immediately if it turns out I don’t like them.
A: I love San Juan, Puerto Rico. It’s beautiful, the food is amazing and there’s always some partying going on and it’s totally cool if you join in. I would recommend you leave one night open, don’t make plans, and just walk around the city. You are bound to find someone to dance with.
ZEV SCHMITZ
A: I love going to Ojai, when I’m in L.A., and upstate when I’m in New York. Just getting outside of the city, going to a nice house with a chill vibe and cooking.
A: “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.” For whatever reason, I don’t watch Food Network at home, but if I am in a hotel it is on from the moment I check in to the moment I check out. I love Guy Fieri and, though he doesn’t know it, he is my most constant travel companion. Guy, if you’re reading this, run away with me.
A: Post-pandemic, all I want is a little house, with a pool, a hot tub and a beautiful view that I can take my dog to. That’s it.
A: Like most other cruise lines, Royal Caribbean offered a full refund or a 125% cruise credit after the pandemic. You chose the 125% cruise credit. Now, in a perfect world, Royal Caribbean would have allowed you to change your mind and get a full refund. But once you decided to take the credit, the usual terms would have applied. The most important of the terms is the expiration: You have two years to use the cruise credit. Here are the other rules: www.royalcaribbean.com/faq/topics/ onboard-cruise-credit-offer.
Royal Caribbean should have offered you the full 125% cruise credit quickly. But in the chaos of the mass cancellations, it did not. You asked your travel adviser, the cruise line and finally the cruise line’s executives to give you the full 125%. But the results were the same.
Should you be able to change your mind on a refund if Royal Caribbean can’t do what it promised? I think that’s debatable. One thing is for certain, though. The cruise line needs to either give you the full 125% cruise credit or a refund.
I like the way you handled your case. You started with your travel adviser but then escalated directly to the cruise line and then contacted the executives. I list the names, numbers and email addresses of Royal Caribbean’s
managers on my consumer advocacy site at www.elliott.org/companycontacts/royal-caribbean/. You also kept almost everything in writing, which allowed you to have a paper trail of the correspondence between you and the cruise line.
In the end, granting you a refund was up to Royal Caribbean. I contacted the cruise line on your behalf. It sent you the $2,101 cruise credit it promised via your travel agent.