This article last updated: December 10, 2012

 
First Time Cruise Experience

There are so many variables and decisions that the whole process felt daunting. Yet a cruise also has the appeal of a vacation in a package, with someone else to worry about making you happy. So…is there a low friction cruise experience to be enjoyed? We unselfishly set out to find out…just for you, of course. And now hindsight allows me to claim that, with some forethought covered in this article, there is a low friction wonderful experience waiting for you, subject only to acts of God and politicians.

Hindsight is what we take advantage of in this report to you, but the actual process for this cruise newb had its share of anxiety and a healthy dose of work and research. I attribute our good experience to planning. Hopefully the information here will help to alleviate some of the work and worry for you. As we embarked on our cruise, our anxieties melted into the realization that we had hit a home run.

Oasis of the Seas, photo from RoyalCaribbean.com

Related articles here in FrictionFactor.com:

• Best Western Plus Airport/Cruise Port Hotel, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
• Creature Feature Scuba Diving with Captain Slate, Key Largo, Florida
• Ocean Pointe Suites, Tavernier (Key), Florida

 
Setting Our Cruise Criteria

What were the key considerations that affected our decisions?

1. We love the Caribbean and it is convenient to where we live, so we didn’t really consider other destinations for this cruise.
2. I was concerned about being prone to sea sickness.

Our Big Questions:

1. Where to cruise?
2. Which cruise line?
3. Which ship?
4. When to cruise?
5. Which route?
6. How many days?
7. Which excursions?
8. Cruise line sponsored excursions or roll our own?

So…

1. Where to cruise? The Caribbean was our simple and convenient choice and preference for this cruise, but our experience may be helpful to you regardless of destination.
2. Which cruise line? Asked a bit differently for our first cruise: Who has the biggest, most stable ship? Royal Caribbean. However, we still investigated other companies by reading reviews and watching many YouTube videos, especially ship tours and excursions.
   

   Our favorite pastime

   Your choice of cruise may be influenced by other factors: its appeal to children and youth (or lack thereof), or some particular theme. For families with children, Disney cruises are highly ranked. But, as we discovered, Oasis of the Seas offers a good balance. The ship is large enough to have big areas that strongly appeal to children and youth while having other areas with greater privacy and quiet for relaxing adults. Pool areas could be very crowded but we had no problem finding very comfortable relaxation spots with terrific views, indoor and outdoor. In fact, during the day the indoor lounge areas were effectively abandoned; so if you want to relax indoors in an upscale setting, choices were numerous even at the most popular times. We took advantage of this for short times, but we prefer being outside in the shade with a breeze.
   

   many comfortable places for relaxation and contemplation

   At the end of our cruise our expectations were exceeded to the point that we found ourselves saying, “Now that we’ve experienced perfection, why make any other choice.” OTOH, our dinner companions also had very good things to say about other cruises, so we may have to suffer through comparison experiences.

3. Which ship? Which is the biggest highly stable ship? Oasis and Allure of the Seas. We chose Oasis.
4. When to cruise? Which month has a good balance of low average rainfall, reasonably calm seas, and does not put us in the middle of hordes of hormone driven young adults on spring break? February and April in the Caribbean seem to be the best choices. April worked out for us.
5. Which route? Choosing a western or eastern route didn’t matter very much to us. Being a scuba diver, Cozumel seemed a good place to visit for our virgin cruise. As it turned out, I preferred being with my wife over going diving alone. It turned out to be a great decision for the amazing experience we did together.
6. How many days? Seven days pass like three on vacation. So at least seven days.
7. Which excursions? Much, much homework. More below.
8. Cruise line sponsored excursions or roll our own? Being cruise newbs…no taking chances for us on this trip.

 
Doing Our Homework

Those of you who are cruise sophisticates may laugh over the list of questions we had. Well, it’s the little things that can make the difference between a great experience and one that is…not. So I imagined being there and thinking of things I wish I’d thought of ahead of time…ahead of time.

It is amazing how hard it is to get some information that everyone involved seems to take for granted.

For example, with my wife healing from an injured foot, I was concerned about walking distances. We scheduled two excursions in Labadee, Haiti: “Labadee Snorkel Safari – QLB2″ and “Labadee Wave Jet Tour – Driver – ZL03″. Nobody could answer questions like:

1. How far is the walk from the ship to each excursion area?
2. Is it a good idea to bring our own snorkeling equipment?
3. What do we do with our personal belongings during the excursion? We were told there are lockers but nobody knew their type, size, cost, or payment method.

See answers to the above questions in the Ports of Call section herein.

 
A glaringly obvious homework assignment, but mentioned anyway…

Find and review videos posted on the web. Tours of ships (press tours as well as what it looks like fully crowded), excursion videos, sight seeing videos for points of debarkation, etc. Become aware of safety issues…not to become paranoid, but for awareness to help in your selection of excursions.

You will also easily find critical reviews of stateroom locations on every ship that will inform you of the expected noise level, convenience of the location, obstructions to your view if any, etc. As a general rule: get a room that has staterooms above, below, and adjacent to you unless you want to risk sleeping near the excitement of a loud party or casino noise.

 
My personal list of questions and todo items as we planned our first cruise:
…with our decisions and the answers that we dug up.

1. What type of stateroom and its location on the ship?

Staterooms are priced, as you would expect, on time of year, size (normal, suite, luxury suite), location within a deck (inside, ocean view, balcony view), and other considerations such as partial view obstructions and proximity to noisy areas. Another general rule: the higher the deck, the higher the cost. Some like a stateroom at the ship’s stern to get a view of both sides of the ship when leaving a port. I didn’t mind simply walking to the stern to get my “TV commercial” view of the ship’s wake. That also let us enjoy watching the kids take on the FlowRider. And we enjoyed the “I am the king of the world” view at the bow from the adult section of the ship.

Don’t get too excited over the price quoted as you search for a cruise. The price quoted is always for the inside staterooms with no view. The balcony ocean view is, in my opinion, the only way to go (upgrading to a suite if you can afford it). These rooms don’t seem to go on sale the way you’ll see advertised for inside staterooms. There is price variation as noted above, but an ocean view balcony stateroom is going to be hundreds of dollars more than an inside stateroom…and worth it in my opinion. So wait until you see the cost of a room you’re actually interested in before letting the heart start fluttering in anticipation of an affordable cruise.

Unique to Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas is the choice of an ocean view balcony or an interior balcony. You’re on a cruise in the Caribbean. Why would you want a static view of Central Park or the Boardwalk? Sure, they’re pretty, but I am so glad we chose an ocean view balcony.

We lucked out. We had reserved a guaranteed ocean view balcony and, thankfully, ended up with a stateroom assignment that was good: Cabin 11150, Category D3 – Superior Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony.



Oasis of the Seas, Category D3 - Superior Ocean View Stateroom with Balcony (click the photo to go to the RC website for more information about this type of stateroom)

Below are drawings and photos to give you an idea of our stateroom location. As you can see we were relatively high and forward on the port side of the ship. The advice given us to minimize motion that causes seasickness was to be low near the center of the ship. We did not follow that rule and we loved the location of our stateroom. Not only were there no seasickness issues, but we had a magnificent view. There seemed to have been opportunity for motion sickness as the winds were very high the first couple of days. And, indeed, during some performances the rolls and surges of the ship were apparent, enough to cancel one of the high dive performances and enough to be entertaining during a performance of Hair. But no stomach twinges for my wife or me, nor did I observe any guests hurrying from the show. All in all, a very satisfactory result that has boosted my confidence for the future…albeit, still wondering how much different it will be aboard a smaller cruise ship. I am assured that modern vessels have good stability systems, but I will reserve judgment for personal experience.


We were on deck 11 (this drawing and the one below from RoyalCaribbean.com)





Oasis of the Seas port side, our approximate cabin location



2012-04-14 Oasis of the Seas - our view

2. Where to stay the night before the cruise?

See my related article on Best Western Plus Airport/Cruise Port Hotel, Fort Lauderdale, Florida. We were very pleased for its comfort, convenience, affordability, and the help we received for our transportation needs.

3. Do you need your passports?

Yes, with some exceptions or alternatives. See the travel documentation information page.

4. What should I budget for expenses over and above the cost of the cruise?
• Gratuities. The cruise line conveniently suggests an amount that is reasonable for the experience and service received, about $20 per day for a couple (budget $160 for a 7 night cruise…counted as 8 days). It can be conveniently paid to your ship account at the start or end of the cruise which they divide in predefined proportions to wait staff and room steward. I quickly realized that there is no reason to be concerned about whether the service provided will be deserving of a generous tip. Everyone on the staff, without exception, does a great job. Attentive without being overly so, cheerful, and simply excellent service.

  If you take excursions, then there are tips to be given to the various guides and some other handlers. It can add up, so prepare your budget for this.

• Transportation to/from the airport. If you count transportation to/from the hotel, airport, and cruise port as an “extra” expense, then list those. They certainly need to be budgeted. Airfare and hotel accommodations are whatever they are. Transportation from airport to the hotel was complimentary for us. Transportation from hotel to cruise port was $8 each and from the cruise port to the airport, $10 each plus tip via All Stars Transportation. The drivers were helpful and interesting to talk to. The service used by Royal Caribbean is probably equally good but costs a few dollars more. I did not expect to see the industrial “underbelly” of Fort Lauderdale as we dropped off passengers at their cruise ships. An interesting scenic tour.
• Otherwise, there are no other required expenses. None. You can exit and return to the ship as often as you like at any port of call and sightsee to your heart’s content. Or you can stay on the ship and enjoy all its amenities in peace and uncrowded quiet. The spa offers discounts during ports of call.



5. Meals, snacks, drinks at no additional cost:

Walk up to the counter of any of the several complimentary cafés and dessert shops at any time and get whatever you want, as much as you want. I am still amazed that my wife and I did not gain weight on our cruise. I attribute that to a lot of walking. Much of the food is very good. Everything prepared in the Opus Dining Room was delicious and beautifully presented. Donuts on the Boardwalk…not so good…which was good for my health. The pizza at Sorrento’s Pizzeria on the Royal Promenade was a favorite for snacks.

We enjoyed variety by having lunch at different places like the Solarium Bistro in the adult pool zone and Park Café in Central Park, relaxing in the comfortable surroundings of Central Park to eat, keeping a lookout for the TV cameras that just had to be filming a “this is the great life” TV commercial.

6. Meals and drinks that cost extra:

There are specialty restaurants that charge an additional fee, though much less than what would have been the normal cost off-ship. We had intended to try Chops Grille, but we enjoyed the food and company so much at the Opus Dining Room that we never got around to it.

Alcoholic drinks cost extra as do soft drinks and bottled water. The ship offers beverage packages, or you can pay as you go, or you can enjoy the ice water, lemonade, or small milk and juice cartons at some locations. Large bottles of water are conveniently provided in your room; just be aware that they are actually part of the in-room bar tab–not complimentary.

 
Dining / Meals

Radostin from Bulgaria

Radney from the Philippines

We were impressed by the actions taken on Oasis to protect passenger health. When entering and exiting any restaurant and at strategic points throughout the ship, we were provided with Purell antibacterial hand gel and polite insistence on its use.

Breakfast: The Windjammer Marketplace turned out to be a favorite place for breakfast. As in many places on the ship, this restaurant features a very tall wall of glass facing the sea. An incredible view. This restaurant has several buffet islands with a variety of food types spanning cultures.

The Windjammer Marketplace

What should I know about the dress code?
Most of the time attire is casual. There are two formal nights and one “smart casual” night.

Royal Caribbean dress code definitions on their website:

• Casual: Sport shirts and slacks for men, sundresses or pants for women
• Smart Casual: Jackets and ties for men, dresses or pantsuits for women
• Formal: Suits and ties or tuxedos for men, cocktail dresses for women

We wanted to follow the rules and do things right, so we made inquiries to be sure we were clear on what was expected. The reality was different and will be noted in our future plans (allowing us to pack significantly lighter). There are a goodly number of people who dress according to the descriptions above for the formal and smart casual nights. However, I felt a little out of place in a suit and tie on formal nights. On the smart casual night, even the jacket and tie was too dressy around our dinner companions. The women wore nice dresses but formal gowns were a minority. You also have the option of eating in one of the casual restaurants.

 
Shows and Entertainment

We made reservations in advance of the trip for the evening shows and that worked out well since many shows were fully booked by the time of the cruise. Our preference was to eat early (6:00pm) and go to the shows afterward, though we could have reversed that (dine at 8:00pm and go to earlier or late shows). We enjoyed the various performances that we attended. We were impressed with the size and grandeur of the Opal Theater, the very existence of an ice skating rink and ice shows (the rink being available to passengers during off-times), and the amazing Aqua Theater at the ship’s stern with its cliff-diving height high dive and its deepest-on-the-seas diving pool. The Aqua Theater has an adjustable floor that becomes a dry stage, an ankle-depth water dancing area for some performances, or a deep pool. At times we just enjoyed sitting in the stands to watch practice diving.

Toward the end of the trip we started paying more attention to the large touchscreen kiosks around the ship from which you can get directions and find out “what to do right now”. We realized that we had been missing out on a number of smaller venue events, activities, and parties. We intend to take better advantage of some of those things on our next cruise. Still, just wandering the ship at night we found dancing, karaoke shows, art displays, and other events that were fun to step into for a time.

We’re not gamblers so I cannot report on the experience at Casino Royale.

I did enjoy taking the zip line that spans the ship’s atrium nine stories up. We also enjoyed watching people…mainly young people taking turns on the FlowRider for an onboard surfing experience. It looks like a lot of fun.

Zip Line

FlowRider

 
Enjoying the Ship

Oasis boasts seven themed neighborhoods:

1. Royal Promenade: Oasis “main street”
2. Central Park: shops and restaurants with a wandering path through gardens and night lights
3. Boardwalk: carousel, shops, rock climbing walls, and Aqua Theater
4. Youth Zone: an entertainment and games area for kids
5. Pool & Sports Zone: sloped entry pool, FlowRider surf areas, and zip line
6. Entertainment Place: a contemporary night club district
7. Vitality Spa

Some liken Oasis and Allure of the Seas to cities on the water because of their size and population. Nobody seems to really know the number of passengers that can be accommodated. Published numbers are in the range of 6300 passengers and 2300 crew (Royal Caribbean quotes 2394 crew). So there is about a 3 to 1 ratio of passengers and crew. Royal Caribbean’s sister line, Celebrity says their ratio is about 2 to 1 and some luxury lines offer a 1 to 1 ratio. But we never found ourselves wanting for a lack of needed crew attention on Oasis.

With that many people you may expect crowded conditions, and at certain times and locations you would be right. During the sun-worship hours chairs around the pools were completely taken. So if you are there to tan in the sun, you will find it challenging to find a perch during prime time. Long rows of lounge chairs are so close that they touch which can be very claustrophobic. Happily, we were always able to find comfortable places to lounge in the shade with wonderful views of the ocean. On some nights there are parties and entertainment on the Royal Promenade and it is shoulder to shoulder for the length of the main drag. We loved the excitement (in reasonably short doses).

cool elevators

I was fascinated by the elevators. They have full glass sides looking out over the promenade which provide a wonderful view as the elevator ascends or descends. Even at the busiest times there was never an overly long wait for an elevator. If you’re in the mood for a long relaxing elevator ride you can take the Rising Tide Bar. With seating for about 35 people, it moves very slowly between the Royal Promenade on deck five and Central Park on deck eight. I loved watching it “land”. As it comes down, a dancing-waters fountain entertains observers, but at about twenty feet a circular column of water shoots up to meet the bottom of the Rising Tide, giving the impression of an alien landing craft.

Information kiosks: If you’re not sure about what you want to do and would like to know what is available, there are large touch-screen information kiosks in the elevator areas on every deck. They are easy to navigate to get information about the ship including scheduled events and “what to do right now.”

We attended shows in the Opal Theater. It amazed me that a theater of that size and quality could be found on a ship at sea. The logistics for attending shows and other events was made pain-free with the use of our SeaPass cards. Crew at the entrances simply scanned our badges as we entered to confirm our reservation. We hardly paused as we entered the theater.

The ship’s private, well maintained miniature golf course was another of our favorite places on Oasis. For whatever reasons there were very few players in the evenings after dark. My wife and I effectively had our own private playground in a luxurious tropical setting. It wasn’t so much the miniature golf that we enjoyed so much as it was being together, doing something fun in such nice and peaceful surroundings. As hard as it is to find a well maintained miniature golf course on land, it seems it would be even more difficult with the conditions at sea. Yet Oasis staff keeps it in pristine condition just as they do the rest of the ship.

tremendously relaxing "Infinity whirlpool"

"Infinity whirlpool" turned on

We never found the time to use the services at the Vitality Spa. That is something I would like to correct at next opportunity.

Reconnecting when separated: Before the cruise we wondered what we would do when we were separated to find each other again. We could use our cell phones, but cell phone service on a cruise ship is very expensive. I did confirm that you are only charged if you answer a call, so some solutions could have been derived from that. But it turned out to simply not be a problem for us. We were generally together and when not, the old fashioned approach of “meet you in an hour” worked fine.

We read stories about people who take walkie-talkies with as many stories complaining about people who use them on a cruise. I don’t think we ever saw anybody doing this on our cruise.

Cell phone service is available on the ship for all major carriers. A worldphone is not needed because the ship uses CDMA. The cost is high: $2.49/min, $.50 send a text message, $.05 to receive a text message, data $20/MB. For data, you can alternatively use the ship’s wi-fi access (see Internet rates below).

To avoid high cell phone charges, turn off data access and put the phone in airplane mode. I also explicitly turned off wi-fi just to make sure.

Internet access: I tried to find out how reliable and fast the Internet service would be, but nobody seemed to know. I never needed to use a GoToMeeting connection, so I didn’t find out if that would have worked. Some of the documentation led me to believe it would not have worked. Considering it had to be satellite service I would be surprised if GoToMeeting or other VOIP services could be used. Essentially all I needed was to check my email. For that I could connect, download pending mail, disconnect, review and reply off-line, reconnect and send. That required such a little amount of connection time that I had prepaid for more minutes than I needed. And, for the most part, the wireless Internet connectivity in our stateroom was indeed reliable and convenient. Cost ranges from $0.65 per minute down to $0.30 per minute with pre-paid package plans.

Electronic books: When I upgraded my cell phone to a Samsung Galaxy Nexus Android device, one of the first things I did was install the Kindle reader, effectively turning my phone into a Kindle. It has all the conveniences of a Kindle tablet—resizable font, back lighting, black text on white background or white on black, convenient paging and search—but can be used in one hand and stored in a pocket. I don’t understand people who use a big tablet for reading their electronic books. And I read a lot in bed which is a lot more convenient with a handheld device. So I kept the phone in airplane mode and used it as my “read anywhere I want” book. Another Android used as a Kindle for my wife and we were set any time we wanted to pull out a good book.

Our Stateroom: Even though it was our first cruise, my expectations from photos and other info were properly set for the size of our stateroom. And it was very adequate for the time we spent in it—especially since we had that terrific balcony. The balcony was large enough for both of us to sit comfortably, privacy panels on either side, a small drink table between us, enjoying a fabulous view. We just loved standing at our balcony as we left Florida, people waving, escort boats honking, and beautiful ocean front homes passing by. We were similarly rewarded for early morning arrivals at a new island. At night the stars were often clear and numerous, ocean air blowing through our hair…ok, I don’t have much, but if I had… and the ship’s wake passing below (albeit no phosphorescent glow I had hoped to see; I guess we don’t have the right plankton in the Caribbean). If we didn’t have the ocean-view balcony it would not have been the same trip.

The bed was one of the most comfortable beds I had ever slept on. It impressed us to the point that we had to investigate its source and availability. The pillows, too. Such comfortable nights of sleep. We were impressed by the quality of workmanship and materials used in our stateroom (indeed, over the whole ship). Though small, the space was very efficiently designed and served our purposes well. Our extra large suitcase and other luggage fit well under the bed to be out of the way.

The bathroom is a model of efficient design and quality. An oval sink was cleverly used to provide adequate bowl volume and space without intruding very far into the room. The toilet has a vacuum-driven plunger that was entertaining to use even when there was no need. Even the shelves for toiletries had side bars that doubled nicely as handholds. The shower provided excellent water pressure and nicely built in amenities.

The flat screen TV included remote access to our account information and a library of other helpful information in addition to be a seldom-used (actually never used) TV.

The cabin doors opened to alcoves in the hallway rather than opening out into the hallway itself. A very nice safety feature on the day I watched a young child running full steam down the hall.

Our cabin attendant, Kemuel “Abraham” Omier from Nicaragua, was very thoughtful and courteous, providing outstanding service. We enjoyed coming home in the evening to a turned down bed with towels on our bed sculpted into different animal shapes each night. He always had a smile and a greeting for us when we saw him in the halls.

We were very pleased with out stateroom, its location, its amenities, and the service provided.

 
Remember to Bring

Backpacks: These are must-have if you plan to leave the ship. A medium size backpack was best for us. Include some strong plastic bags to store wet swimsuits and ziplock bags for sundry items (chap stick, medicine, maps…). Our camera had its own padded case but was most comfortable to carry in the backpack.

Waterproof waist pack: This proved to be exceedingly helpful to have along. I ordered a Splash Caddy Jr. for $18 from Magellans.com, my wife’s new favorite travel catalog. But they don’t seem to sell it any more. It looks like the same item is being sold now as a LOKSAK Splashsak Dipper FP but is no longer specifying a waterproof depth. Anyway, an item similar to this is handy for keeping dry things dry and hidden (like money, papers, and medicine). It is flat and comfortable, easily worn under a t-shirt. It was convenient during excursions, even when it rained hard or when I took it underwater. It also provided extra security for cash and ID (e.g., I needed my driver’s license for a couple of excursions). I also took a Sharon’s Luggage version that was not waterproof, but I never used it. The Splash Caddy was comfortable and waterproof…and waterproof was a good thing in the Caribbean.

Water shoes (closed toes!): If you go on excursions these are must-have. Sports shoes and flip-flops don’t cut it. Get a good quality set that fit well, wet or dry, and will take punishment. Get them well in advance and find excuses to wear them wet and dry for extended periods. Go on hikes with them and tromp through streams. Walk over wet and slippery rocks. Getting this right can make or break your trip. You’ll wear them more than you think. The pair I got from Kohl’s wore worn out by the end of the week. I ended up wearing waterproof band-aids on my heals to avoid blisters.

Hats: Baseball hat, jungle hat…whatever suits you. More than one of different variety because you’ll change your mind. My wife brought floppy sun hats that she sometimes couldn’t wear because of the wind.

Underwater camera: I wanted a small, lightweight underwater camera that was good for scuba depths and could do still photos as well as videos. I ended up using mine not just for snorkeling and scuba, but also on excursions where we waded in rivers and at the bottom of waterfalls. I found a low cost camera from Newegg.com, the INTOVA 9MP Digital Sports Camera with 130′ Waterproof Housing, for $65 ($73 with shipping). It ended up working well for me but I made sure I memorized the menu buttons for use when underwater and unable to read the small writing on the camera inside the housing. I got lithium batteries because this camera is a power sucker. In fact, it was kind of wonky with the batteries. There were times it would stop working as if it had run out of battery power when it hadn’t. I discovered that before I left and played with the camera enough to feel confident I could get it to work when I needed it. I came back with some very nice shots and videos.

Rain jacket: It’s the Caribbean. It’s going to rain. We shopped for light rain jackets that fold in on themselves into a small packet.

Sunglasses and prescription glasses holders: The rubber or cloth lanyards that slide onto the ends of the ear pieces, worn around the head…I didn’t bring one and my wife did. In fact, she brought two and I was on the receiving end of a smug look when I discovered I wished I had brought one and she pulled one out of her magic bag.

Tissue or small TP roll equivalent on excursions: My wife suggests that I mention especially for women that foreign rest rooms can leave a lot to be desired. You may also want to carry a small bottle of hand sanitizer on excursions.

Over the counter remedies are limited (not a big selection in ship stores). Sudafed, Imodium (thankfully not needed), Tylenol, sunscreen, etc… more convenient to just have your own stock in your luggage.

Motion sickness remedies: I love scuba diving but I am unfortunately very prone to seasickness. For this cruise, the most effective remedy for both of us was ginger gum (convenient for right when it’s needed) and ginger powder capsules (not ginger ale). I kept a package in my waterproof waist pack and we were glad to have them on our long ferry ride over rough water.

Small plastic tumblers: My wife said that next time she will include these on her to-take list, saying they would have been handly for organizing small items in our cabin.

Empty water bottles: Fill them with water from fountains or shops to have in your room. Or purchase one of the ship’s drinks packages.

 
Things you may not consider but wish you had

Towels on board: we read about passengers getting charged for towels that they had lost (or that had been moved when they tried to reserve a deck chair). There were towel stations in the pool areas and we signed them out using our SeaPass cards (cabin towels should be left in the cabin). I suppose we could have been charged for losing a towel, but we never had a problem with it. Normal care taken.

Towels on excursions: We found it handy to have our own beach towels, so I’m glad we brought them along.

Security checks when returning to the ship: Every time you re-board the ship there will be an airport type security check (metal detector/x-ray) and a physical inspection of your bags. Not a good time to be humorous. Definitely a good time to be patient, but the lines move quickly.

People watching: You will run across some of the most interesting and strangest people you have ever seen. In fact, you may be one to fulfill this for other passengers or locals. I am happy to say that I never came across anyone, including fellow passengers, who was “difficult.”

Is there a retractable clothesline in the bathroom for drying swimsuits, etc.? No, but there are places to hang them to dry in the shower.

Travel insurance: I could just see myself re-injuring a knee while on an excursion in a foreign country and all that would do to our dream trip. The Cruise Care insurance at $180 seemed a good price in light of the possible risks. Happily it was not needed.

Avoiding smoking areas: We were concerned when we heard that designated smoking areas were on the side of the ship to which our room was assigned. We were relieved to learn that all cabins are non-smoking and the designated smoking areas on the decks are limited and easily avoided. However, smoking is also allowed on balconies that face the ocean. We would have been very unhappy to have had smoke blowing into our balcony area; I am grateful that did not happen.

Laundry? No, but there is a hotel-style cleaning service.

When can you board the ship? For our cruise we were told we could board at 2:00pm. We scheduled hotel transportation at 11:00am, got through the boarding procedure soon after noon and were allowed to board the ship at 1:00, enjoy lunch and walking around the ship until our room was ready.

When should your departure flight be scheduled? For our cruise we were scheduled to arrive back at the Ft. Lauderdale cruise port at 7:00am and were advised not to schedule a departure flight before 11:00am. We were fine because our return flight was not until mid afternoon. So we scheduled the latest available departure from the ship to maximize our stay. As it turned out, that was not a perfect strategy because they still wanted the rooms cleared out and us waiting in a departure lounge. Still, we got through customs much faster than we expected.

Remember it’s ship time. At least for Royal Caribbean (or at least for Oasis of the Seas), ship time stayed constant at Ft. Lauderdale time. Ship time does not change at the ports that are in a different time zone. That can be a source of confusion or worse. Shore excursions booked through the cruise line are based on ship time, so they take care of you in this regard.

Consider airline miles for your cruise. Compare the differences for your selected cruise if it’s booked through the ship line or using an airline cruise service such as Delta’s Skymiles cruises. You may find that the special deals offered by one or the other are a better deal for you.

 
Our Cruise Experience

Cruise: 7 Night Western Caribbean Cruise
Ship Name: Oasis Of The Seas
Date of Departure: 14-Apr-2012
Departing From: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

The cost for an ocean view balcony on this cruise seems to have been the lowest offered at any time, yet it was, for us, a perfect time of year to go.

 
Checking In at the Cruise Port

Royal Caribbean provides online check-in which should be done at least three days in advance or else additional time is required for the boarding process. Check-in documentation and luggage tags can be printed from your online account and a copy is mailed to you several days before the cruise.

You must check in at least 90 minutes before sailing time or you are not permitted to board. If you forget or lose your required travel documentation you will not be permitted to board. There are no exceptions to the exceedingly unhappy experience of some.

Passengers go through the usual metal detector/x-ray machine. There are lines to a large number of check-in counters that can process many passengers quickly. So after a short wait you present your travel and cruise documents and you are each issued your SeaPass card.

From there you follow a well marked and guided path that passes “tourist photo opportunity” points where eager photographers are ready to accept your money for a photo in front of a cheesy poster of the ship or other backgrounds. We were more interested in seeing the real thing. Up an escalator, anticipation growing, we came to a station where our photograph was taken and matched to our SeaPasses. For the remainder of the cruise, any time we left and reentered the ship, our SeaPass card was scanned and our photograph presented to the security staff who then greeted us by name and confirmed who was on or off the ship and that it really was us.

Following our fellow passengers along a long corridor, a glass wall finally opened our view to our first sight of the ship. Oasis of the Seas is BIG. Really, really big. We were amazed at all the work in progress along the dock below, giving us a glimpse of the logistics involved in planning for the care of 8,000 passengers and crew for a week—the sheer volume of all that had to be placed onboard ship and organized. We had a better appreciation for this since we had watched a YouTube video about what is involved.

We began a trek up several flights of switchback gangway to enter the ship on deck five at the Royal Promenade. Royal Caribbean knows how to build anticipation and then make for a grand entrance.
 

SeaPass Cards
At the start of the cruise, Royal Caribbean issues SeaPass cards to each passenger. The cards serve as stateroom key, security ID, and credit card. Any time you are in Royal Caribbean country (on ship, Labadee), your SeaPass card is a great convenience and eliminates the need to carry much cash or a credit card.

Most people, including us, wore our cards via lanyard over our necks and usually kept under our shirt. As often as they are needed and not wanting to lose it from a pocket, this turned out to be a very good way to carry it. A couple of days into the cruise I thought I had lost my card. It was an easy process at the ship’s help counter to get it replaced with assurance that it had not been used by someone else.

 
Boarding Ship

With gawking tourist gazes and dropped jaws (well, for me at least) we wandered through the ship making our way to the open air decks, marveling at all there was to see and do. It sort of reminded me of the feeling of grandeur overload I experienced at the Hermitage and Summer Palace in Saint Petersburg, Russia. We found the adult area with all of its pools and hot tubs and relaxation areas at the ship’s bow. Walking into the Solarium Bistro we enjoyed our first experience of exploring the buffet islands and counters that presented a wide variety of inviting foods and desserts, being able to get whatever we wanted. I know how neophyte that sounds, but hey! everyone who cruises has to have a first time experience and we were of a mind to enjoy ours. So we created a light lunch of chicken and brown rice with a variety of fresh fruit and vegetables and yogurt trifles. The theme of Solarium Bistro is healthy eating. Except for the yogurt trifles, which for me looked much better than they tasted (not the usual yogurt taste), I very much enjoyed the food there. Wait staff was always there with a smile to help, provide drinks, and make us feel pampered. What a great start to our cruise!

Then we continued to explore the ship. At the right time we found our way to deck 11 and down the corridor to our stateroom. Exploring our stateroom and enjoying the high balcony view, our luggage was soon delivered. We unpacked and got organized.

Departing Florida on Royal Caribbean's Oasis of the Seas

 
Ports of call and our choice of excursions

Before our cruise, we spent a lot of fun time exploring the many, many available excursions sponsored by Royal Caribbean. We watched videos on the Internet to get a better idea of what to expect on the excursions that sounded interesting to us. As we did, we zeroed in on our choices and scheduled them in advance. Some passengers prefer to simply stay on the ship and enjoy uncrowded pools and other venues. You may also enjoy simply going into port and taking a self-guided tour.

Remember when you schedule your excursions that the times quoted are ship times, not local times.

We elected to try some excursions and these were our choices:

DAY 3, 16-Apr-2012, Labadee, Haiti

• Labadee Snorkel Safari, 08:30 AM
• Labadee Wave Jet Tour – Driver, 01:00 PM

DAY 4, 17-Apr-2012, Falmouth, Jamaica

• Green Grotto Caves & Dunns River Falls, 10:30 AM

DAY 6, 19-Apr-2012, Cozumel, Mexico

• Caverns & Beach Exploration By 4×4, 07:00 AM

You may want to be aware that you can contact Shore & Land Excursions to get answers not available in the excursion descriptions. You can email shorex@rccl.com. They were responsive and helpful to us.

For questions regarding all other reservations, you can contact Pre-Cruise Planner at precruiseplanner@rccl.com.

 
Labadee, Haiti

Labadee, located on the northern coast of Haiti, is a private resort leased by Royal Caribbean. To me it has more of a Disneyworld hotel grounds feel than real local cultural experience. On the other hand, it is clean, safe, and offers a very pretty tropical island experience.

Labadee Haiti

As it turned out, there were very high winds that day in Labadee and both of our excursions were canceled. So we ended up taking a tour mobile to the nearby tourist market, looking around a bit before going out to relax near the beach and take photos.

debarking at Labadee, Haiti

Walking over to the Snorkel Safari check-in point we were told it had been canceled because of the high winds. I was especially disappointed over this because I had heard many very nice things about the catamaran ride and beautiful coral snorkeling area for this excursion. I did learn that the snorkeling equipment provided would have been adequate (and sanitary), so we need not have worried about bringing our own.

Labadee has a long beach including palm-shaded areas with plenty of lounge chairs. We found a nice shaded area where we rested to the sounds of surf and island wind, reading our Kindle books until falling into a restful nap.

coming ashore takes on new meaning with Oasis of the Seas

The wave jet tour had not yet been canceled, so we took the short walk to the wave jet area. We put our bags in one of the lockers—typical modern half-height school type metal lockers available for $10 with sufficient space for the packs we brought for our personal belongings. As we waited our turn for instructions a staff member came out to inform us that it, too, had been canceled.

We were very tempted to take a ride on the Dragon’s Breath Zip Line (claimed as the world’s longest zip line over water at 2,600 feet). There are actually six zip lines in parallel and riders come down from a tall point overlooking a bay to the beach below. You realize that some riders are moving pretty fast when they hit the brake stops at the end of the line. However some riders who are light weight or who do not lean back on the way down end up barely making it to the end. We saw one passenger who stopped a hundred yards from the end and had to be retrieved by one of the staff.

The cost of the canceled excursions was automatically credited to our account on the same day and could be seen easily from the TV in our stateroom.

 
Falmouth, Jamaica

coming in to Jamaica

Dunns River Falls, Jamaica

Green Grotto Caves, Jamaica

Dunns River Falls, Jamaica

Dunns River Falls, Jamaica

Dunns River Falls, Jamaica

Dunns River Falls, Jamaica

Green Grotto Caves, Jamaica

 
Cozumel, Mexico

Leaving the ship, we were guided to a large ferry boat that took us on a 45 minute ride to Playa del Carmen, Mexico on the Yucatan Peninsula. We walked through the crowds on shore until we found our guide holding up a sign that identified our excursion, “Caverns & Beach Exploration By 4×4.” After waiting for everyone to show up and for some to take their chances in the local rest room, our guide took us on a swift walk through town to a parking lot with our Jeeps. There we divided into groups of four among five Jeeps. Those of us who had a driver’s license (U.S. ok) with us and who could drive a stick were assigned as a driver. I drove ours. Our guide wanted to make sure we had fun four-wheeling, so he led us through every water hole and bouncy area he came across. We very much enjoyed the companionship of the couple from Columbia who joined us in our Jeep.

mainland off Cozumel, Chaak Tun cenote near Playa del Carmen

Don’t put on sunscreen before going into Chaak Tun. Or, if you do, bring a towel to carefully wipe it all off. They rightfully do not want the pristine waters of the cenote to be polluted with lotions.

Then we hiked down a jungle trail to the opening of Chaak Tun, named after the Maya god of rain. Now that was cool to see. Along the path was a station where we could rent snorkeling equipment which I quickly took advantage of. Inside the cavern was an opening to the jungle above, sunlight streaming into the cavern along the long roots of trees seeking water below. We came up to the bank of a portion of the cenote where there were benches to remove our outer clothing and shoes to be in our swim suits. Having snorkeling equipment I was not required to wear the life jacket.

Our guide invited us to choose between a wimp entry into the water, walking down stairs, or to simply jump into the cold water. Jumping in and swimming under water, there was subdued lighting that made for an eerie view. The water was about 15 feet deep and crystal clear. We quickly became accustomed to its cool temperature and enjoyed the surrounding rock formations. The rock formations were even more impressive underwater. The sole life I found was a small catfish swimming along the bottom. I was thoroughly enjoying swimming along the bottom taking photographs and videos while waiting for everyone to join us. Looking up at the swimmers on the surface was like watching them through air.

Our guide led us though different branches of the dark caverns. At one point he tapped on a stalactite and made it ring like a bell. I didn’t know they would do that. Along some branches the water got pretty deep.

This was a great experience!

lunch at beach club near Playa del Carmen, Mexico

Having been told we would have an hour or two to go swimming, I rented snorkeling equipment and headed off shore. I was taking photos underwater, the water not particularly clear that day, wondering when I would come across the coral reef. I stopped to look back and catch my bearings then dove back under to keep going and immediately ran right up to a very large underwater frond reaching out from the coral reef. Scared the bejeebers out of me. So I started navigating along the reef enjoying the view when I heard someone calling. I was being called in already; time to leave. Ugh. That was the world’s shortest snorkeling adventure. As it turns out the guide was worried that we were running late and might not get to the return ferry in time. A very quick outdoor shower to wash off the salt water, pulling on clothes over swim suit, and back to the Jeeps. We came up to some check point that looked like a customs crossing with machine gun toting soldiers. They recognized our guide and we were waved past the long lines and on into town. Parking, our guide took us on at a race-walk pace back to the ferry pier where we boarded, happily with time to spare.

The wind came up and the waves became high. I got really worried about getting seasick on the 45 minute return. Thankfully we had ginger gum which proved effective for us in holding off motion sickness. We got off the ferry (the return was outside of town rather than near the cruise ship) and it started raining. Rather than taking the long walk through town we grabbed a cab and were glad we did because the rain hit hard. We got soaked just on the walk from the cab to the shopping pavilion that led to our ship. We were happy that the rain waited until the end of our day.

We had time to spare so we took on the challenge of narrow aisles and shoulder to shoulder crowds to find Cozumel t-shirts. Then back to the ship after a successful, fun adventure in Mexico.

mainland off Cozumel, hiking through jungle to Chaak Tun cenote near Playa del Carmen

mainland off Cozumel, hiking into Chaak Tun cenote near Playa del Carmen

snorkeling in Chaak Tun cenote

snorkeling in Chaak Tun cenote

snorkeling in Chaak Tun cenote

snorkeling in Chaak Tun cenote

 
Return to Fort Lauderdale

We enjoyed the final night party extravaganza on the Royal Promenade. Performers from the various shows entertained us from above floor stages as we wandered around taking it all in.

We packed and left our suitcases in the hall outside our cabin where they were picked up during the night. After leaving the ship and heading to customs, our luggage was easily found on a very large floor space at the bottom of the escalator. We grabbed our luggage and moved into a long line to customs. The line moved swiftly, the customs employees were entertaining as they encouraged us along, and the passage through customs was uneventful and smooth. Nice. Outside, with a little looking and wandering we found our airport transportation bus and headed for home…highly satisfied from a golden cruise adventure.

returning home

 
Next Time

Transatlantic? Alaska? Pacific, South Seas islands? New Zealand?

I have learned since our cruise that Celebrity is the 5-Star sister company of Royal Caribbean. If it really is nicer/better than what we just experienced then it must be truly amazing, for our cruise on Oasis of the Seas exceeded even our very high expectations.

Looking down on Central Park

our TV commercial shot

greeting the captain

Central Park at night

Central Park at night

and the high dive is above the top of the photo

start music from ""Jaws"

John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park
Key Largo, Florida

 
Diving with Captain Slate

My first dive with Captain Slate was over 30 years ago on February 4, 1982 when Atlantis Dive Center was still using the well-known A-frame building as its main shop at the entrance to Key Largo.

The main shop is now a short drive south of the A-frame. Starting in 1978, Atlantis Dive Center is the oldest dive shop in Key Largo.

That first dive with Captain Slate was one of his early “Creature Feature” dives at the City of Washington wreck. He escorted us to a spot on the nearby coral reef, where he tapped on the reef a few times. Then he pulled a fish out of a bag and put it in his mouth. A huge moray eel came out of the reef and bit the fish right out of his mouth.

Creature Feature dive, my son petting a nurse shark

I am certainly glad that our next experience this year was a gentle, perfect set of dives. This dive was on April 13, 2012, accompanied by my oldest son and second daughter. To my delight, Captain Slate was with us again. The seas were calm, the day was perfect.

Our first dive of the day was the Creature Feature, again at the City of Washington wreck. The mate chummed the waters with blood and guts to attract big nurse sharks in the area along with a number of other sea creatures. This time the “feature” took place in an open area of the ocean floor.

Captain Slate had a bag of baby swordfish that he used as feeding rewards for the “creatures” part of the feature. We were surrounded by huge grouper, nurse sharks and a host of other smaller fish. Everyone got a photo opportunity hugging a shark and petting the passing marine life.

Then my daughter and son and I went off to explore the wreck and to swim around the coral reef taking pictures and videos. I love those magical moments when it feels like I am flying as I navigate between the coral “canyons”. Such great fun.

Our second dive was at Mike’s Wreck. Then a peaceful ride back to the center. What a great day, multiplied by getting to spend it with family, reliving memories of decades gone by.

 
Sunset on the Keys

amazingly good pizza and wings discovered on the Keys

we found a place where the sun set over the water with no island in the way

Creature Feature dive; my daughter petting a big grouper

Related articles here in FrictionFactor.com:

• Cruising the Caribbean on Oasis of the Seas
• Best Western Plus Airport/Cruise Port Hotel, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
• Ocean Pointe Suites, Tavernier (Key), Florida

Friction factor =  low (good)      moderate      high (bad)
Store brands of NyQuil® Night Time Cold/Flu Relief	Target vs. Walmart

Friction Factor   =   Target, Walmart Friction factor =  low (good)      moderate      high (bad) I tried Target’s equivalent to Vicks NyQuil, “cold/flue relief, multi-symptom/night” and did not get the relief expected from previous experience. So I compared Target’s Up & Up version with the equivalent from Walmart’s Equate brand. Both store brands invite you to compare their active ingredients to that of Vicks NyQuil, and you should. Not just to see if one uses the same ingredients but also in the same quantity. With the Target brand you get just HALF of the active ingredients as in the Walmart brand and the name brand. Vicks NyQuil Vicks NyQuil - Target Up & Up brand Vicks NyQuil - Walmart Equate brand   Copyright 2012 FrictionFactor.com

Friction factor =  low (good)      moderate      high (bad)
Florida, Fort Lauderdale	BW+ Airport/Cruise Port
Florida, Orlando	Disney World’s Coronado Springs Resort
Florida (Keys), Tavernier	Ocean Pointe Suites
Hawaii, Oahu, North Shore	Turtle Bay Resort
Nevada, Las Vegas	MGM Grand Hotel and The Signature
South Carolina, Myrtle Beach	BW+ The Carolinian Beach Resort
South Carolina, Myrtle Beach	BW Grand Strand Inn & Suites (motel)
South Carolina, North Myrtle Beach	BW Ocean Sands Beach Resort
South Carolina, North Myrtle Beach	SeaSide Resort
Utah, Provo	BW CottonTree Inn
Utah, Salt Lake City (Airport)	BW+ Airport Inn & Suites
Utah, Sandy	BW+ CottonTree Inn
Virginia, Richmond	BW+ Inn at Valley View
Virginia, Roanoke	BW+ Inn at Valley View
Best Western Hotels	What You Need to Know

 
website
(305) 853.3000
500 Burton Drive, Tavernier MM 92.5, Florida 33070
visited April 2012
 
Loved the area, disappointed in the hotel

Before heading out on our Royal Caribbean cruise on the Oasis of the Seas, we were joined by two of our adult children to enjoy a couple of days in the Keys to go scuba diving. We wanted a hotel near Key Largo because we went diving with Captain Slate. So after investigating hotels in the area with available rooms, we selected Ocean Pointe Suites in Tavernier key. After reviewing their website we were excited to stay here. The reality turned out to be less than the expectation.

The small ocean bay on hotel property turned out to be knee deep until you get out near the ocean where it may get over your head in places. Stagnant and easily silted, it was not much of a snorkeling adventure.

The room, a three bedroom suite with kitchen, was the next surprise. The floors were so dirty and sticky that our socks turned black on the bottom and had to be thrown away. Accessories like the shower rod and toilet paper holder were so flimsy that normal use caused them to fall to the floor. The tub stopper was non-functional, not that we would have dared to take a bath.

When we return, it will not be to stay at this hotel.

We did make one surprisingly good discovery. We drove an hour or so down the Keys looking for a place where we could watch the sun set on the ocean. There are so many small isles just off shore that this turned out to be a challenge. We finally located a nice spot at the foot of a long bridge with good parking. With some time available, we headed off to find something to eat. Would the Florida Keys be a place where you would expect to find great pizza? We discovered a small family-owned hole-in-the-wall place, Tower of Pizza, MM 81.5 in Islamorada. We ordered pizza, buffalo wings, and key lime pie, then returned to our sunset observation point for a picnic. The food was terrific. An unexpected gem of a find.

This article last updated: May 5, 2012

 
Are you concerned about theft of confidential information that you store electronically?

How important is privacy to you? If you’re an “older” individual, your answer may be significantly different from that of your grandchildren who are growing up in an age of social media “let the world share my angst” attitudes. Yet hiding in the tangles of ethereal vines wrapping around our own that we call the Internet and amidst our new intimate conversational nooks of, oh, ten million of our favorite strangers, hide pranksters and predators who are trolling for victims for nefarious purposes with reasons ranging from curiosity to identify theft or worse.

Privacy and security are broad topics. For this article I am going to focus on a low friction solution to protect confidential information that you store on your computer, laptop, and/or smartphone…typically all three and with a desire that they stay in sync.

The information you need to protect includes passwords, personal identification numbers (PINs), license keys, credit card info, bank accounts, and any other tidbits that you want to keep away from prying eyes.

This article is NOT about encrypting your files and folders or entire drives. That is a different topic but also one with a practical solution. More on that later…

What do we know?

1. Hiding our password on a piece of paper taped to the “hidden” drawer is not going to cut it if I really care about protecting what’s behind that password.
2. A password is just a lock. It is only as secure as it is difficult to break. Part of making it difficult to break is being a password than cannot be guessed or discovered by (practical) brute force. Easy passwords are easier to break. Hard or strong passwords can be hard to remember (thus our propensity for hiding them in the first place someone will look).
3. In today’s digital world we may have dozens or even hundreds of passwords. And even if we manage to use the same one universally (a weakness in itself), we still have to remember the associated username, site address, product or service name, license key, and on and on.
4. Granted there are access controls that do not rely upon a password: physical keys of many types, pattern recognition, biometric controls (retina scanners, fingerprint readers, voice print analysis…even mind control). But they each have their own issues, so let’s focus on a password-based solution that we can easily implement in our lives today.
5. Don’t trust computer or smartphone operating system passwords. Those are ludicrously simple to work around. Don’t trust the current state of the art in consumer pattern recognition (face recognition and drawing patterns). They are not secure.
6. If we must deal with passwords, then we need a way to remember them or to at least have protected access to them. Failing to remember one could result in a loss of access to critical information.
7. For a password to be strong it needs to be long and include elements that are not contained in any dictionary. Long passwords are difficult to remember unless they are mnemonic. That becomes more likely if the long password can actually be a long phrase or sentence. This is possible if the password rules allow spaces. The password sentence can be long in odd ways that aids its mnemonic nature without being connected to something about you that could be guessed. But a sentence is, by definition, dictionary based. Modern computing power can quickly shred a dictionary based password.
8. Inserting or replacing characters with special characters greatly strengthens the password against dictionary attacks. And if we think of the special characters with alternate names like “bang” for an exclamation point or hash / hashtag for a # symbol, then we can still have a memorable yet long and strong password. Characters can be swapped with similar characters such as a 3 for an E. Mixing case, especially oddly, is good. It is best to use a combination of trickeries.
9. Of course, we must also be able to successfully type the password sentence blindly.
10. If we were only required to remember (and adequately protect) just one strong password, that may be practical. That one strong password could be our lock to open access to a vault that contains the other passwords and other confidential information.
11. We need a common solution for each of our electronic storage systems; i.e., desktop computer, laptop computer, pad, and smartphone. The latter is particularly scary since a smartphone is so easy to lose or to be stolen…life information suddenly at the fingertips of a predator.
12. Ideally our solution should automatically sync securely to each of our devices so that updating it in one place updates it in all. Even better if the syncing takes place automatically.

What is the low friction solution we seek?

The best solution I’ve discovered is mSecure by mSevenSoftware. mSecure is available for iOS, MacOS, Android (including ICS), and Windows (including 64-bit).

Its concept is simple. mSecure is a vault protected by a password that you can make as strong as you wish (including the use of a long oddly-structured but easily remembered sentence as described above).

When the vault is opened its organized records are accessible to you. mSecure has predefined common types of records with appropriate fields for each (bank accounts, credit cards, email accounts, etc.). You can edit the list of types and create your own with fields of your choosing.

Saved records are easy to find and easy to open. So your confidential information is literally at your finger tips. You can even group records and filter your view by a selected group, e.g., “favorites”.

 
Strengths

1. It works on all of my computing devices.
2. It is very easy to use. Click the icon, type the password, view your data.
3. Syncing with all of my devices is easy (with the caveats noted below).
4. mSecure uses a very strong encryption technique.
5. mSecure supports sentence passwords.
6. It works and is very low friction (with the caveats noted below).
7. It stores a lot of data. I was able to store 31,083 characters in the “Notes” field of one of its records. Not as much as Outlook, especially since Outlook can include rich text formatting, but still much more than many smartphone personal information managers.

Weaknesses

mSecure is the best solution I am aware of, and its common usage is very low friction. I am very happy to have it and the peace of mind it brings. But it is not without significant and minor weaknesses.

• Wireless syncing is unreliable for some reason. All of my wireless devices connect successfully to my home network; however, mSecure does not. Even though nothing has changed in the settings, and it is still looking for the right SSID, it simply does not connect. Weird. I reboot the phone and suddenly it connects again…once.
• Fortunately there is a backup solution–syncing via Dropbox. It makes a secure connection to Dropbox and stores the data in an encrypted file. Unfortunately, there is no alert on the PC side if Dropbox is closed. mSecure happily syncs to the Dropbox folder on the PC but cannot tell you if the result is NOT getting synced to the cloud for access to your other devices. So I’ve found myself syncing my mSecure data only to discover that it didn’t really happen.
• mSecure does not sync automatically. It must be done manually from each device when using Dropbox (which makes sense unless you want your phone polling Dropbox constantly and using battery power and bandwidth in the process).
• mSecure data can only be stored in plain text. Without rich text formatting there is no way to turn content into a link or to format content in the “Notes” field where I would like to keep a lot of unstructured information in a visually organized fashion. In fact, I would like to be able to store it the same way I can in Outlook contacts notes fields. While testing this I discovered that Ctrl-A does not work in the Notes field to select all the data (to copy/paste).

Summary

Being aware of (and remembering) the problems that I noted above, I recommend mSecure. It accomplishes the intended purpose in a low friction manner and offers real peace of mind. Just make sure that peace of mind is justified by using a strong, well protected front door password into mSecure.

This article last updated: May 12, 2012 (added AT&T experience)

Jump to:

Time Warner (mixed)

Hewlett Packard

Logitech

SiliconDust

Bank of America

Verizon Wireless

AT&T

Several companies with superlative customer service

 
Frustration goes nuclear with some companies

What do these companies (and many others) have in common about customer service?

• Bank of America (any issue)
• Time Warner Cable (billing issues)
• Verizon Wireless (billing issues)

Speaking only from my personal experience, their common thread is this:

1. If you have a 3 minute issue to resolve, you must actually schedule an entire morning.
2. The promised resolution will not actually happen.
3. Multiple phone calls are required just to get one promise fulfilled. Each one requiring a minimum of an hour on the phone, often much more.
4. The company accepts no responsibility for all your time that they wasted, even when the loss is extraordinary.

Does the above sound familiar?

It drives me nuts that this type of experience is so consistent. Worse, most people have great difficulty with conflict, so the usual result is the company taking advantage of you. Worst of all, item 4 means that even if a person tackles the issue on principle, there is still a very large loss to you.

Can a social media uprising, shining a stronger public light on offenders, result in positive change?

 
Is it all the company’s fault?

One of my sons works at a call center. I hear, in general, about some of the challenges he and his colleagues face. Fortunately, he works for a quality company in an environment that attracts high caliber customers. Still, I am sensitive to all the grief that customer service people have to put up with from the public. It is intense, often ridiculous. I imagine that customer service people can quickly become jaded as they take difficult calls every day. So this is very much a two-way issue. I am also more aware now of the performance analytics against which customer service people are graded. So at times I find myself apologizing for the long length of a call even though the time it is taking is not my fault, is excessive, and between the two of us, only one is getting paid for that time.

Unfortunately, some companies deserve unhappy customers. And that’s not even counting the abuse inflicted upon us from the hold music.

 
Responsibility and Trust—is it still alive anywhere?

Definitely. Let’s recognize a few of them.

 
Time Warner (technical support)

While Time Warner customer service can be excruciatingly exasperating, I have high regard for their technical support department and, in particular,their National CableCARD Support Desk.

Now for the rest of the story. See Time Warner (billing)

 
Hewlett Packard (HP)

My interactions with HP for the last couple of years have been centered around their EX490 MediaSmart Server with Microsoft Windows Home Server.

I also use an HP laser printer and have for decades. As long as you keep a long pole between you and HP’s horrendously poorly coded printer software…an issue that seems to be universal among all brands of printers…the hardware never breaks, never stops working. So I never have reason to call HP on that product.

I purchased several HP MediaSmart servers and have been amazed at their reliability and quality. I’ve run them for two years now and they just work. Talk about low friction factor! When I do run into some issue, normally a software question related to the Microsoft Windows Home Server that is this server’s software engine, I know I can count on HP’s help. After getting past the usual press this press that jungle, an HP support tech who is expert with MediaSmart servers almost always comes on the line within seconds (not minutes). This is even more amazing when you consider that HP dropped the MediaSmart Server line over a year ago (to my huge disappointment). The HP support folks know their stuff. They have guided me right to the needed solutions.

Long ago and far away in electrical engineering school, long before laptops, right after scientific calculators replaced the slide rule, we had two camps in the engineering calculator world. HP users and TI (Texas Instrument) users. Squarely in the HP camp, I was one who ragged on TI users for all the extra keystrokes they required as compared to HP’s Reverse Polish Notation. The TI users would razz us about having to understand RPN (what’s the problem with that?) and that our calculators cost twice what they paid for theirs. During one of these friendly “mine’s better than yours” sessions, a friend of mine threw his HP into a brick wall, picked it up and kept going with his work. Looking up with a smile, he invited the TI antagonist to do the same.

UPDATE May 5, 2012: GREAT DISAPPOINTMENT IN HEWLETT-PACKARD REVERSES THE GOOD EXPERIENCES REPORTED ABOVE

The problems began on 2/28/2012 when I discovered that backups to my HP EX490 MediaSmart Windows Home Server were failing and I was unable to connect to the server. I called support and reached Paul, the support supervisor. I was able to make an Explorer connection to the server and, with Paul’s guidance, connected via Windows Explorer to the server as “administrator” where Paul had me browse to C:\Windows\System32\LogFiles\W3SVC1 and W3SVC2. There we discovered 488 log files which, for WHS is way too many. We deleted those two folders with all their log files. He said that this problem can be caused by a mismatch of the connector software on the server with that on the client computers; however, that was not the case on my network. We checked Event Viewer and found iaStor and VolSnap errors. Paul said these may indicate that the system drive is failing (which would not have surprised me since I’ve not seen a Seagate drive last very long). We did a chkdsk to detect and repair any bad sectors and the backups started working again normally.

A couple of weeks later I found that I needed my HP Windows Home Server for its intended purpose, to restore an image to one of my PCs. Just as I tried to do so, Murphy stepped in and my client computer connections to the server started failing again. On 3/15/2012 I called HP support again and connected with Shawn. He advised me to uninstall and reinstall the WHS Connector software on my computers. But that was not possible because I could not connect to the server. Worse, the server would not do a soft shutdown, so we had to do a cold shutdown. Shawn suspected a bad drive and advised me to run the Seatools test on it with a “long DST test.” I pulled the system drive and put it in an external drive slot, ran the full Seatest, and the drive passed. But it still would not boot consistently and when it did it would fail again after a short time. He had me pull the data drives to see if it would boot. No joy.

Life got in the way and it was 3/20/2012 when I got back with HP Support. This time I got Hamdeh. This was a very frustrating call. Hamdeh seemed unable to listen and was very unclear in his instructions, making many assumptions. Nevertheless, I struggled through what turned out to be many hours of test this, try that, poke this, repeat this step eight times, each time taking over twenty minutes… hours and hours of pain, accomplishing exactly nothing. I kept a record of the steps we performed.

• Disable antivirus on my client computer (turn off real-time protection)
• Uninstall Window Home Server Connector HP Windows Home Update 3.0 on PC and other WHS related software
• Connect PC directly to server
• Ipconfig to verify 169.254.*
• Insert recovery disk into PC and follow the wizard
• Failed on step 3 of 4; common issue per Hamdeh, just cancel and restart wizard
• Failed again on step 2 of 4. He had me switch to a laptop to retry all of these steps from a different computer.
• Failed on my laptop, too. Retried with all disks removed (test if there is a bad drive; this does not, of course, actually recover the server).
• Now must wait a couple of hours before Hamdeh can arrange for someone to send me a patch for the server. Apparently there are a lot of steps involved in installing it. Then what?
• Later… Now Hamdeh says he cannot send me the patch today. I’ll have to wait until tomorrow. A compete afternoon totally blown and still out of the water.
• An hour later… Hamdeh called to try something else. Set network adapter to a fixed IP and slower speed.
• Delete the folder ..\AppData\Local\Temp\PXE
• Run recovery wizard, on third step use paper clip to put the server into recovery mode
• Failed twice
• Boot to Safe Mode with network drivers, failed twice more. An entire afternoon of my own critical work lost on a series of repetitive failed experiments.

Hamdeh promised he would call the next day to arrange for the “patch” to be sent to me.

Two days later… still no patch or call from Hamdeh.

3/23/12: escalated to Paul who apologized and assured me that the “patch” would absolutely positively be sent to me at 7pm tonight. It did not happen. Not even a courtesy call.

3/24/12, 7:30pm: The patch arrived and Hamdeh called. Installed the patch and tried another recovery. Failed again. And again.

The only thing to do now is to send the server in for repair with the possibility, according to Hamdeh, of it costing more than I paid for the server to repair it. Early the next week I tried to call Paul. It took days to reach him. When I did I pointed out the extraordinary cost this experience had already been for me. Would HP take any responsibility for it? No. No escalation options. Flat no. He said the repair cost would not likely go as much as I’d paid for the server but he couldn’t guarantee it. He did say that the cost for what they would likely do would be around $150. I asked if I should return the system drive with the server and he said it was up to me (ditto for the data drives), but that whatever I sent would be tested to ensure it works.

So I reconnect with Hamdeh and order the repair service with an initial charge of $65. I wait over a week for a box to arrive to ship it (with system drive) to their repair depot. Another week goes by and I get a call from the repair depot that they will need to replace the motherboard for another $145. A couple of weeks later I get the server, plug it in, turn it on, and…sigh…it fails to boot. I absolutely could not believe it.

I called HP and reached Carl. He assured me that HP would not send me a unit that they had not repaired. Uh…ok. He was getting ready to start anew all the try this/try that tests to diagnose the problem. I was a very unhappy camper. Why, I wanted to know, after all of this, did HP return a non-working server to me? No answer. I asked him to have Paul call me the next business day. He said he could not promise that Paul would call (no surprise there since the track record for return calls had been 100% broken promises to date), but Carl said that he absolutely positively would call with an update if Paul refused to return the call. It has now been a week and…yep…no call. I am a wee bit ticked off at HP.

My hardware investment turned into a doorstop. My computers haven’t been image backed up in many weeks. The experience has cost me a huge number of hours of totally (unnecessarily) wasted time, I am out the repair expense that has apparently gone into the toilet, and after all of this there has been zero progress.

The HP EX490 has turned out to be extremely fragile. And the wonderful HP technical support has, when it was really needed, turned out to be an unbelievably frustrating experience in wasted time. During all of those wasted hours only one of the people on each call was getting paid.

Exacerbating the whole thing, almost every time I called customer support the call would not go through the first time. HP’s speech recognition system for their automated attendant could not get me to the right extension. There is a step at which tech support had instructed me to say “a MediaSmart” but the system never understood it. (It turns out, after all this, that what I should have been told to say was “a mediavault”.) So the frustration which was already at a nuclear level became hotter every time I was transferred and left on terminal hold only to be answered by the wrong person who would transfer me to another wrong person and I would have to start over. This process, repeated three times for every attempt to call customer support ate up its own extraordinary amount of wasted time and certainly an increasingly higher loss of goodwill.

At the end of the day, what responsibility has HP taken? Zip. Customer left holding the bag after being directed to first throw more money into the toilet.

Does ANYBODY at Hewlett-Packard even care?

5/7/12 Lou called in response to my letter to the CEO. He guided me to do a recovery on the server with no drives, it failed (again) on step 3 of 4. I asked why HP repair didn’t test the drive before they returned it as Paul promised they would. He answered that they only do a hardware test. I’d already tested the hardware. What good was that? They were supposed to make sure I had a system drive at factory settings that would boot. Sigh. So now I get to spend more hours of my life on this fragile piece of HP junk. Continuing on that path, I rebooted to Safe mode with network, then repeated the recovery with all four drives installed per Lou. It failed on step 4 of 4. So Lou then had me pull the Seagate system drive, put it in an external USB drive chassis, and run Seatools to do a full erase the drive which will take a couple of hours. Now that that has started, an hour later I am contemplating his instruction to do the whole recovery steps again after the system drive erase is completed. And when that fails and I’ve lost several more hours, then what? Aargh!

Later… it’s worse. The full erase failed. How is it not possible for Seatools to erase a drive that it determined previously to pass its test?

 
Logitech

I fell in love with Logitech universal remotes when I purchased a Harmony 880. For years prior I’d messed with the kind of universal remotes like the one provided by Time Warner that have you entering equipment codes until you find one for each device that works…sort of…some of the time. With my Harmony I was able to go online, enter the equipment in my home theater system, plug the Harmony into a USB port on my PC, and program it to work with all of my equipment, even many of the special functions, turning on and off the equipment according to what is needed. As wonderful as that experience was, it still wasn’t perfect. Some tweaking was required to get it to do exactly what I wanted in all cases. And the online app to accomplish this required insider knowledge for some of the desired tweaks. No problem. I called Logitech and quickly got to a support person who listened to what I wanted to accomplish, adjusted the settings in my online configuration for me, and pushed the changes to my Harmony when I plugged it back into a USB port. Now that’s customer service.

 
SiliconDust

You can read about my very positive experience with SiliconDust’s HDHomeRun Prime TV tuner box for my home theater PC system. Click here to go to that article. Their tech support people are terrific. They provided expert help on a problem that wasn’t even caused by their product. And thanks to diagnostic tools that they provide with their product, I was able to solve a problem that had been lingering for many months and an army of Time Warner techs through my home.

SiliconDust provided this help fast and efficiently, not wasting any of my time, and followed up with me via email to make sure all was well.

 
More companies that deserve superlatives in front of “customer service”

Many companies provide a product or service with a price point that cannot support a telephone based support staff. So they depend upon email and forums for customer service. In a lot of cases that is equivalent to “you’re on your own bud; sorry about the bugs that are wiping out hours of your life.” But there are great exceptions.

“Profile Scheduler” from Wetpalm: I recently purchased my first Android smartphone. Immediately I started looking for apps that I’ve come to depend on. One I really needed was a profile scheduler that would allow me to set my phone’s volume down low at night and off at church, along with other automatically scheduled settings changes. I evaluated several in the Android Market, had a bad experience with one, and decided to go with “Profile Scheduler” (a very clever name) from a company oddly named Wetpalm. This free app (now a plus version that costs a whole buck) is developed by Kay Win. I ran into a few issues related to the new ICS version of Android’s operating system. I emailed my questions and received incredibly prompt responses from Kay. Not only that, but he listened to my problems and suggestions and made fixes right away. At times he responds so quickly that it seems he’s just waiting for me to write to him.

“mSecure” from mSeven: mSecure is my happily chosen solution for encrypting sensitive data on my phone and PC. It works great and mSecure customer service is prompt to reply to any question. Their help is even…helpful.

“CompanionLink” and “DejaOffice” from CompanionLink Software: I use these products to painlessly keep my Outlook contacts and calendar synced with their DejaOffice counterparts on my Android. Not only are they prompt in responding to customer support questions, they even call me to help when that is better than an email response.

“Deep Freeze” from Faronics: I volunteer as a director for a small family history library. Patrons using the computers can often be “helpful,” installing their preferred browsers, reconfiguring software, moving desktop icons around, etc. I installed Deep Freeze on the library’s computers so that no matter what changes anybody makes, it reboots to exactly the way it was before. I first tried Returnil as a solution but the friction factor was far too high. With Deep Freeze it has been not only very low friction to set up and run, working just as hoped, but the customer service folks at Faronics have been quickly responsive and helpful.

Many deserve wall of honor recognition: As a prime purpose of this website, I strive to identify companies, products, and services that excel in making our lives better and reduce friction for us. We already have no lack of sources of friction, so it is nice to have some aspects of our lives slide smoothly.

Many, unfortunately, deserve wall of shame recognition. So it is also a service to shine lighthouse warnings where there are life-friction shoals. Not all is well in the world of customer service.

 
Now a Word (or two) on Some Problem Children

Please note that even during the difficult experiences I’ve had with problem companies, the customer service people involved are almost always patient and generally nice during the calls. Given what they have to put up with during the course of their work day, that is an achievement for them and for company policies that demand civility of their customer service people. Now if only the service provided didn’t hurt those who are deserving of quality help.

You have got to keep your eye on these companies. They will constantly strive to add charges for services not requested or not valid. They will promise a correction and then not actually do it, hoping presumably that the customer will forget about it and let it slide.

 
A Typical Customer Service Experience with Bank of America

I wish this were exaggerated for humor. Well, it is not quite accurate with regards to the “eights.” Sometimes the number is much higher.

It takes a long time and many press this, press that actions to get through their automated attendant, and after all of that, there is no option to get to customer service. I learned that you can say “associate” at any point to get connected to a person. So what does BofA do instead of connecting you to an associate? “First we’ll need information about your debit card.” What does my debit card number have to do with anything? I’ve already given my account number. So while getting nagged by the auto-attendant I look up the debit card number and enter it. After a terminal hold period someone comes on and…what does (s)he do? Asks for my account number. Sigh.

After the person who answers repeats themselves eight times (there must be a call center standard at some companies for the customer service person to repeat everything they say eight times and to say good bye in nine different ways)—suddenly they say they need to pull in someone else who can help with this particular issue. You may think this means that they are staying on the line and will conference in someone else after explaining the issue, right? Really, though, it is code for “I don’t care any more, so I’m passing this on to some random extension.” A new person eventually answers with “may I help you?” not having a clue what the call is about, and the previous “helper” is gone. So now you repeat the entire story upon which time the new person says, “Why did they transfer you to the roadside construction department? Don’t worry. I’ll transfer you to the right person and I’ll stay on the line to make sure.” You hear horrendous background music for several minutes and then “click.” They’re gone.

When the auto-attendant reports that calls are recorded in order to improve our service…is it the evil dog on Dilbert who’s reviewing the recordings? Over the years I’ve certainly not detected any improvement of the service.

 
A Specific Customer Service Experience with Bank of America

There are so many interesting experiences to choose from… Ok, let’s just go with the most recent.

Making a full production out of a one-act play

I open a new business account and order a debit card. Wait three weeks. It has not arrived, so I call to check. One is ordered. It arrives. It has a security code of 000. That seems too odd. I call to inquire about it and am told that it is not valid. They’ll send a replacement. Wait three weeks. It has not arrived, so I call to check. Another one is ordered with a promise to send it to me overnight. A week later it arrives. On the next bank statement I discover that I was charged $20 for the rush delivery of a debit card. Uh huh. I call and explain that not only was it not “rushed” but the replacement was ordered because of a BofA error. The fee is refunded…hopefully that is true. Meanwhile, as all this was going on I also ordered a debit card for my wife. It is a business account so a special form must be completed. I get a copy of the form and take it to the bank. Wait three weeks. No debit card. I call about it. I am told that there is no record of my request. They’ll check on it and call me back. Three days. No call. I call the branch manager where I turned in the form. She’ll mail a new form to me and after they get it back, she will have the debit card sent to me overnight. A week later I get the form. I complete it again and mail it back the same day. Ten days later, no card. I go to the branch to inquire, speaking with the assistant manager because the branch manager is out that day. Besides, she is the one to whom I gave the original form that was never posted. She is very sorry, evidently sincerely. And, looking in her drawer she sees that, alors!, the form arrived on that very day! I had mailed it ten days earlier from a neighboring community. A statement on our postal service? She’ll see to it that the debit card is sent to me overnight. I relate all the above that has happened, all the hours of my time on the phone, fuel cost for unnecessary trips…what will the bank do to, at least in a token manner, make up for all of this? She assured me that she would call me back that afternoon with an answer. No call. The next day, no call. I call her. Says she “The branch manager said she would call you.” Says I “But you were the one who made the promise to me. And the manager did not call.” A few days later the debit card finally arrives. Later I call the branch manager and ask her what will be done to compensate for all the excessively unnecessary grief. Says she “Nothing” in eight different ways. After all, I got both cards, so all was resolved. What more should they be expected to do?

The above experience is small potatoes to the grief that came from an interest-reducing home mortgage refinancing. After that enormously costly experience I abandoned the attempt to go through BofA. Instead I went through LendingTree for a painless experience with Dennis Giakos, dennis.giakos@lendingtree.com, Executive Mortgage Banker, 1.888.866.1212 x4186.

February 22, 2012 UPDATE: I let BofA know about this article yesterday and today was pleased to get a call from an executive officer whom we’ll call Michael, a VP who reports to the CEO. We discussed some of the issues and he seemed sincere in his interest to tackle the problems. We both recognize the number of customers Bank of America has (at least for now) and the impossibility of his office dealing with every significant issue that comes along. It would ultimately be self-defeating to publish his phone number here. Obviously, solutions should come locally or, when calling a remote department like re-financing, issues should be resolved by that department. So my question to him was, what do I say to folks here whose legitimate problems are not resolved locally? What does a customer do who requests an escalation and is refused?

Michael said first that they have a policy that escalation is always an option. He repeated my suggestion below to get the name and location of the person you’re working with so that, if it comes to it, they can review recorded calls and take corrective training action where that is called for. If all else fails, customers can write to the corporate office and they will get a response. The address is:

Brian Moynihan,CEO
100 North Tryon Street
Charlotte, NC 28255

He suggested that customers first ask to speak with the local consumer market manager. Every area has one and that person is tasked with solving problems so they do not have to go all the way to corporate.

For my own recent grief, Michael is sending me a $100 Exxon gift card. He also gave me his direct number with an invitation to inform him of any future issues that are not fairly resolved locally.

 
Verizon Wireless (billing)

I have a love ‘em hate ‘em relationship with this 500 lb gorilla. It feels ridiculous the amount I spend on them every month. I have had a great many good experiences with Verizon Wireless. And then there are experiences with their billing folks. It’s painful to contemplate. And the grief frequency is so high that the exposed quick never has a chance to heal.

Verizon Wireless is one of those companies that has to be watched with an eagle eye. Anything they can get away with on the billing side, they apparently go to great efforts to do so. For example:

Because of my “valued account status” (translation: Verizon Wireless gets a lot of money), I am offered an extra discount on my next phone upgrade. I call to take advantage of it, but the phone’s release date has been delayed. A couple of months later, the phone is ready to be ordered but, surprise, there is no record of the promise that had been made to me. Fortunately, I was armed with the person’s name, ID, date, and quote of the promise made. After a few levels of escalation a supervisor agrees to honor the promise. The phone is ordered, the next bill comes and the discount is MIA. I call back, escalate to a supervisor (an hour process) and am promised I’ll get a call back within two days. No call. I call back, escalate to a supervisor…there is no record of the first or second promise. I have the previous two supervisor’s names, IDs, call center location, dates, and promise quotes. I am told that the promised credit has now been applied and he is very sorry for all that I’d gone through to that point. A couple of weeks later, seeing that the credit has not been applied and confirming that by calling back and escalating to a supervisor. This time there was a note on my record that the credit should have been applied. I am assured that it will be done this time. Finally it is…partially. Sigh. I call back, escalate to a supervisor, get a promise for the missing amount to be credited. It is done and confirmed to have been done.

Now the law of diminishing returns indicated that I should have stopped trying after the first call. But I am keeping records of all these experiences, recording names, and am wondering at the most effective way to trigger an increase of integrity through a needle poke into Verizon Wireless’ foot…the one I’d love to get off of me, but am trapped by the (effective) monopoly factor.

 
TruGreen

Last year I ordered a single spring weed/feed treatment (Greensboro, NC) to compare it with the results of my own weed/feed spring treatments of previous years. I’m not ready to take on the whole annual plan offered by TruGreen. As it turned out, the results were very good. I was pleased. Then they kept coming back to do the subsequent treatments even though I’d left it with “I’ll call you when I’m ready.” The following year, this spring, the calls and surprise visits began again. I asked for a cost for a specific set of services and was promised follow up. Instead I got another visit from someone ready to lay down lime that day. No, please first provide the information I requested. Another surprise visit, another reminder. The next thing I know, TruGreen is in my yard applying a treatment without authorization. A few days later I got a bill. I call the local office and ask for the GM. He’s on a call. I leave my number but no call back. I call again a few days later. He’s not available; he’s on a call. And again no call back.

That is certainly an interesting way to get business. At this point I have no interest in TruGreen services and am wondering what will happen with the surprise bill.

February 21, 2012 after this article was published, UPDATE: I finally got a return call from the local general manager (who was told about the article from TruGreen HQ) who let me know the bill I received had been cancelled. No explanation on why it happened in the first place.

 
Time Warner (billing)

The experiences are very familiar to those described above. In addition, there is the false advertising and trickery that goes on. When they advertise TV, Internet, and digital phone, you think the advertised fee is what you’ll pay (plus first born child taxes), right? Somehow they fail to mention that there is a separate charge for the set top box or DVR and even that doesn’t give you the expected service because there is yet another charge for “HD DVR service” that is separate from the HD DVR itself. Does anybody else think this is deceptive?

 
AT&T
May 28, 2012: My in-laws have AT&T home phone service. They lost dial tone. I went to AT&T’s website, clicked on “Support”, searching for some link or steps to report a problem. After what seemed like 47 screens later I am prompted for the phone number that is having trouble. Then, before letting me submit the trouble report, they are requiring me to open an online account. Are you kidding me? So I complete their form. They do not say what the fields requirements are until you submit the application. Then they report that I didn’t meet this field’s requirements. Then I’m told another unmarked field is required. Do you believe they require an email address? My in-laws don’t have an email address. I used mine. But it continued to find validation errors and would not let me past to report the phone problem. Aargh. I give up on the automated report process. I Googled the repair phone number, called it, and followed the automated attendant to report the phone number with the problem. I get a recording that they’re closed. That cannot be true. I call again, follow the exact same process and am interrupted when entering the phone number with the problem. This time it connects me to a person…an actual person!…who needs the phone number since the automated attendant didn’t want to get it all. She reports that the line was cut and will be repaired in the next year or so (ok, by 7pm tomorrow). I feel like I’ve had my cardio workout for the day.

 
What Can You Do?

1. Keep complete records. Have a notepad or computer editor ready when you make the call. I keep a reverse chronological history (most recent at the top) of customer service encounters in my Outlook contact notes field for each company, dated, with a running list of details during the call. Especially capture the name of the representative, their title, their employee ID or equivalent, and the location of his/her call center. Note the specific issue you’re calling about and take note of all promised actions (or refusals of action).
2. Be unfailingly polite and patient yourself. As difficult as it can be at times to keep your cool, far more will be accomplished. However, this does not mean that you cannot be firm. When someone says “no,” there is no need to get upset with that person. It will just hurt you way more than it does the other person. There is also no reason to take that “no” as the answer.
3. If you’re not getting a fair outcome, then say “please escalate this call.” When the rep continues to talk (remember, they are required to say good bye in at least eight different ways before actually doing so), simply say again “please escalate this call.” Often the call will then be handed off laterally…not escalated to a supervisor or other person with higher authority. If this happens, simply make note of it and decide whether you want to try again with a different person (generally a further waste of time) or ask again without further discussion to “please escalate this call.” Your tactic: escalate and be politely firm.
4. Frequently when you ask for a call to be escalated you’ll be told that someone will have to call you back. If someone actually does call you back it will be a miracle. Wait a few days and when the call does not come, add it to your notes history.
5. Having an honest and accurate notes history is important. You may expect customer service to be keeping notes in your record that others can refer to later. If they do, their notes will, at some companies, be incomplete, inaccurate, and slanted. More often than not, the next person you speak with will not be able to find any history of your calls. So it puts power in your hands to have good (honest) notes.
6. Generally, after two or three escalations you’ll get to someone who has authority to actually do something. If you cannot be escalated to anyone who can or is willing to substantively help, you can find the corporate office phone number (which is often more difficult than you’d imagine to find) and ask for the office of the president. If you are persistent you may be connected with someone in “executive offices problem resolution” and will often be able to finally get a resolution to your issue.
7. Make sure that promises made are kept. If it’s payment related, keep an eye on your billing details to confirm that a promise was actually kept. With a company like Verizon Wireless you can almost count on them to not do as they promise the first or second or even the third time. Hold them accountable.
8. Realistic expectations: if the issue is one of honest principle to get a fair outcome, “escalate and be politely firm” will often get the problem resolved. But it will not fully compensate you for your time. There is generally no good solution for this other than to take your business elsewhere. You can warn others via social media and if enough people respond to the detriment of the company, the company will either correct their customer service problem (and the problems causing the customer service issues) or they won’t. If they won’t, then efforts like this site will hopefully lead people to better companies and the poorly performing company can fail.

Can these companies be held accountable for their actions in a way that makes a positive difference? What about the nation crippling problems? Must we wait for an election to deal with someone who did not hold bank robbers (that is, banks who are robbers and the many corrupt others) accountable for their actions?

What are your thoughts?

This article last updated: February 11, 2012

 
This article is part of a series on Are Home Theater PCs Ready for Prime Time?

 
Which TV Tuner Product for your HTPC

TV tuner cards and external USB tuner devices give your Windows Media Center the same capability your TV has to tune to specific channels. If you have one tuner then you can watch or record one program at a time. If you have multiple tuners then you can watch a program at the same time that you record others up to the number of tuners you have.

There are several types of tuners for PCs. Some process old style analog signals, some process digital signals, and some encrypted digital cable signals. The latter requires a CableCARD, a small device that replaces the set top box. Where I live, Time Warner is changing many if not most channels to encrypted digital cable. That includes most of the high definition channels. So, for me, using a CableCARD tuner is the only acceptable choice.

All of the products listed below use a single CableCARD regardless of the number of built-in tuners. All CableCARD tuners have been certified by CableLabs.

As of the publication of this article, these are the available choices that I know about:

• SilconDust HDHomeRun Prime (if you have a home Ethernet network)
• Hauppauge WinTV-DCR-2650 dual tuner CableCARD receiver (external USB box)
• Ceton InfiniTV 4 Digital Cable Quad-tuner Card (internal card)
• Ceton InfiniTV 4 USB (external USB box)

From personal experience I do not recommend the ATI TV Wonder card.

 

SilconDust HDHomeRun Prime

LOW FRICTION
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

The SilconDust HDHomeRun Prime requires that you have a home Ethernet network.

This product includes three tuners. SiliconDust takes the unique approach of placing its HDHomeRun Prime at the router in your home network instead of in or connected to your HTPC. I like the way this reduces the amount of hardware that must find a place in the home entertainment center plus two fewer things to have to plug in there. Of course, on the rare occasions when you need to access the tuner box or tuning adapter, you’ll have to go to a different location—not a big deal for me. You’ll need a cable TV outlet near your router (or run a coax cable from an available outlet).

With the HDHomeRun Prime, your family can watch and record TV from any Windows 7 computer with WMC on your home network without a Media Center Extender. I set up WMC on my laptop to try this out and was quickly watching TV on it, too. Simple. Sharing the available tuners is automatic (Ceton can also do this, but the tuners must be assigned to the PCs).

SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime (3 tuners, supports CableCARD)

The “Quick Start Guide” is professionally designed and is easy to follow. I disconnected the tuning adapter from my HTPC and moved it to my router. It was a simple matter to set up the HDHomeRun Prime and tuning adapter: Plug both into power. Connect coax from the cable TV outlet to the tuning adapter and connect the short coax provided by SiliconDust from the tuning adapter to the HDHomeRun Prime. Connect the provided USB cable between the tuning adapter and the HDHomeRun Prime. Connect the HDHomeRun to the router via the provided Ethernet cable. Plug the CableCARD into the HDHomeRun. And then install the software on the HTPC with the included CD. The software installation went like clockwork. It even looked online for a later version of the software and installed it instead of what was on the CD. I had already run the Digital Cable Advisor Tool on the HTPC so I didn’t have to repeat that. Continuing to follow the clear instructions, I opened Windows Media Center and ran Tasks => Settings => TV => TV Signal => Set Up TV Signal. This allowed Windows Media Center to recognize the three new tuners. During this process, also per the instructions provided, I called Time Warner to activate the CableCARD that is now in the HDHomeRun.

And just like that everything was working beautifully…except for one problem (which, as you will see, was not SiliconDust’s fault). The switched digital channels would work for a few seconds and then stop with an error “Message from the TV service provider. Requested channel is temporarily unavailable.” After a few seconds that message would be replaced with “No TV Signal. There is currently no TV signal detected for this channel. The channel may be temporarily off the air, or you may need to adjust or reconnect your TV antenna.”

This is where Barbara Jordan from Time Warner CableCARD Support came to the rescue again (she had already helped with a problem with the Hauppauge 2650). This time she found the cause of a problem that had eluded many TW cable techs for almost two years. She is very familiar with the SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime and its diagnostic tools. She went through several diagnostic screens in HDHomeRun Setup andHDHomeRun Config. In the latter, on the OOB tab (Out of Band tuner), she noted that signal strength must be at least 85% and preferably above 90%. You can see from this screenshot that mine was getting only 80%.

SiliconDust diagnostics led to discovery of a persistent problem with my tuning adapter

It took awhile for the TW service techs to be convinced that this diagnostic information was meaningful because their own tools reported this was not a problem. Finally an amplifier was added at my home, OOB signal strength rose to 94%, and now all seems to be working perfectly. Just to make sure my Internet is still ok I did speed and ping tests and all is well. After all this time and grief… Hurray!

So now I have the three CableCARD tuners from SiliconDust plus two digital tuners from Hauppauge (WinTV-HVR-2250 for channels that are not switched digital or high def). I am now able to record five programs at once or watch one while recording four others, and three of those can now be encrypted high def.

I am spoiled to high definition TV. It is really hard to watch programs in standard def now.

Here is an extract from the SiliconDust website with some key marketing points for this product:

Three Tuners: Anywhere on Your Network:

• Watch Cable TV from any computer on your network
• Record full 1080i broadcast resolution
• Watch, Pause, Record, & Rewind Live TV
• Schedule and record all your favorite TV shows
• Expand with multiple HDHomeRun devices

Compatible with Windows Media Center on Windows 7

Specifications:

• US digital cable TV – 3 tuners, 1 RF input
• Multistream CableCARD (M-Card) compatible
• 1000baseT (gigabit Ethernet) network interface(backwards compatible with 100baseTX networks)
• 1 year warranty

Requirements:

• Dual Core PC
• 2GB RAM Recommended
• 4-8GB disk space per hour of HD recording,1-2GB per hour of SD recording
• 100Mbit or 1000Mbit Ethernet network
• Windows 7
• Subscription to digital cable service
• CableCARD (M-Card) from your cable provider

I am very impressed with the SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime product. It was very easy to set up and it just works. Low friction, just the way I like it. I highly recommend this product.

Later…
January 28, 2012: I’ve been using the HDHomeRun now for a couple of months and it has been very reliable.

Hauppauge WinTV-DCR-2650

RECOMMENDATION: PENDING THE RESOLUTION OF A PROBLEM

I tested the Hauppauge WinTV-DCR-2650 dual tuner CableCARD receiver. The “Quick Installation Guide” leaves a lot to be desired in content and appearance. Setting up the 2650 is fairly easy if, unlike me, you follow the directions which are summarized here (corrected from the printed instructions that come with the product):

1. Run the Windows Digital Cable Advisor to make sure your PC is compatible with the WinTV-DCR-2650.
2. Plug the WinTV-DCR-2650 into your PC via the USB cable. Plug in the power to WinTV-DCR-2650. Install the Windows driver and software from the WinTV-DCR-2650 CD-ROM. Connect cable TV. Insert the cable card you received from your cable operator into the back of WinTV-DCR-2650.
3. Setup Windows Media Center for Cable TV.
4. Call your cable TV company to activate your cable card.

Hauppauge WinTV-DCR-2650 (2 tuners, supports CableCARD)

In the instructions on page 6 of the installation guide it says Note: the label on the cable card should face up. If you plug the cable card in upside down, the green Cable light on the front of WinTV-DCR-2650 will not light. I now know that at least some CableCARDS have labels on both sides. Crouched behind the TV in a poorly lit area and seeing a label on the side of the CableCARD facing me, I assumed it was the side to face up. After going through the Windows Media Center TV tuner setup twice, I pulled the card and realized that the main label was on the other side. After I inserted the card correctly (and both lights then came on which I should have checked earlier), WMC’s “Setup TV Signal” wizard successfully prompted for the host ID and the tuner setup proceeded successfully. Fortunately, a very patient Barbara Jordan from Time Warner CableCARD Support helped me through this process and even showed me how to get to the diagnostic tools as she verified that all of my equipment was working correctly with their service and equipment.

I ran into a tuning adapter compatibility hitch which prevents access to switched digital channels. Ken at Hauppauge support directed me to their website to get a more recent driver and firmware. No joy. The Hauppauge Tuning Adapter service was not successfully installed. The next day Jerry Fox gave me access to another firmware update which did successfully install their tuning adapter service and the Hauppauge WinTV-DCR-2650 started working fully.

Unfortunately, it did not last. When we returned later to watch TV, any SDV channel gave the error “Viewing or Listening Conflict, No tuner available to satisfy the current request.” So I power cycled the 2650, the tuning adapter, and the PC and it started working again…for a while. Then the same error. Later I got a report from Ken that they had zeroed in on a timing problem in the driver.

Several days later this problem was reported to be fixed. I downloaded and installed the new driver but was still experiencing the problem. It turned out to be an issue on my end, but I was not able to figure that out until I started testing SiliconDust’s HDHomeRun Prime and had access to their diagnostic tools. See my comments above for the HDHomeRun Prime. Now that that issue has been fixed by Time Warner, I think the 2650 will work fine. I will verify it as soon as I can and will then update this article accordingly.

Ceton InfiniTV 4

Ceton offers two products—an internal card and an external USB box. Information applicable to both products:

• Both have four tuners and are functionally the same.
• Ceton provides a free Network Tuners application that enables “individual tuners on a Ceton InfiniTV to be assigned to additional PCs, bringing live, premium, high-definition cable TV to multiple Windows 7 PCs in the home.” I will be interested in comparing this with the similar capability of the SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime product, especially to learn from a user’s perspective what it means to “assign” other PCs to a tuner vs. the HDHomeRun approach that does not require an assignment.

 

Ceton InfiniTV 4 Digital Cable Quad-tuner Card

RECOMMENDATION: PENDING THE RESOLUTION OF A PROBLEM

The Ceton InfiniTV 4 Digital Cable Quad-tuner Card (internal card) is a low-profile PCIe card that also includes a full height backplate.

Ceton InfiniTV (4 tuners, supports CableCARD)

I received the InfiniTV 4 Digital Cable Quad-tuner Card and installed it after removing the other tuners. I am very impressed with the quality of their card’s construction and the easy-to-follow installation and setup instructions. Everything went very smoothly. The first thing my son did, though, was to add protection to the relatively fragile pigtail that adapts the coax cable to a smaller plug. Ceton included special instructions about avoiding excess bending stress when installing the pigtail. So before we installed it, my son cut a plastic straw in two small sections and taped them to each end point.

Ceton coax pigtail with homemade stress relief

After installation and configuration I turned on the HTPC and started tuning into channels. Everything worked perfectly. I started recording four high def digital channels that use SDV and it worked perfectly. Then I tried to open a fifth station to make sure WMC would still display its friendly failure message. And…aaargh…the computer froze. Completely locked. I had to do a cold boot—which I really hate doing since this frequently fouls up the system files and requires a complete reformat and reinstall (or restoring a backup image). As it turns out, my computer was about to experience a host of cold boots.

For the next few days I was able to use the computer and watch Internet TV. I could even successfully record the occasional show in WMC. But using WMC, recording a show or now, it would eventually lock up. Things deteriorated to the point that tuning in with WMC even for a few minutes would cause it to freeze.

Throughout this process I was in communication with Ceton tech support. We tried many things, but none worked. We concluded that either the card was bad or something in my computer was causing a conflict.

Finally, I bit the bullet and took a couple of days to reformat and reinstall and reconfigure everything. I really wish WMC would allow all of its settings to be exported and restored. Most of this time was spent getting image backups at different stages so I’d be able to do a faster restore the next time. It also took a long time to get through the gazillion Windows 7 updates.

Then I reinstalled the Ceton software and tried again. I did this before installing any of my other utilities, not even installing Microsoft Securities Essentials (anti-virus) so that I could ensure the the degree possible that there was nothing on this Windows installation that would conflict with the Ceton card.

And, indeed, once again the Ceton started working again. Hopes were high. Then the screen froze. Double aaargh!

 

Ceton InfiniTV 4 USB (external USB box)

LOW FRICTION
PROVISIONALLY RECOMMENDED (see possible issue below)

January 28, 2012: I installed the Ceton InfiniTV 4 USB. First I opened MSCONFIG to turn off the HDHomeRun service to ensure it would not conflict with the Ceton. After rebooting, I followed the one page InfiniTV 4 USB Quick Install Guide. The process was straightforward and everything worked—a welcome experience after what happened with the internal card version. There were two minor issues with the quick install guide:

• It gives the wrong address to the installer software. You can get to it (as of the date of this publication) by going to Ceton.com, open the drop-down support menu, and select “Installation and Downloads) to install “Ceton InfiniTV Installer for Windows 7″.
• There was no mention of a tuning adapter. If your digital cable TV service requires a tuning adapter to receive switched digital channels, you’ll have to make sure it is included correctly in your tuner setup. I ran the cable TV coax into the input port of the tuning adapter, the output coax into the Ceton, and the USB cable for both the tuning adapter and the Ceton to available USB ports on the home theater PC.

I had to find space in my entertainment center for the tuning adapter and the Ceton when I switched from the SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime (which is placed at the home network router), making sure there won’t be any equipment overheating from blocking vents.

Still, I am very pleased with how smoothly the process went for the USB model and I am delighted that it is working smoothly. I’ll let you know if I run into any problems over time and I’ll also test Ceton’s solution for sharing tuners by assignment.

February 11, 2012: Problem. Occasionally I hear the audio feedback indicating that a USB device has deactivated, and then shortly after that it has reactivated. It is the Ceton box. Over the few weeks since I installed this device, I have had several failed program recordings and partial recordings. I’ve been advised by Ceton support to do a diagnostic capture for them. It could turn out to be some problem on my end.

Which Product Should You Choose?

As of January 28, 2012 I know that I am very pleased with the SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime. And it looks like the Ceton InfiniTV 4 USB offers a comparably good experience (except for the periodic failures now reported above). So your decision will come down to these factors:

• Are three tuners sufficient (lower cost)?
• Do you need four tuners (higher cost)?
• Do you want the tuner box (and tuning adapter if required by your cable company) to be placed at the same location as your HTPC or at your router?

If you want to watch TV on multiple PCs in your home, then another consideration will be whether automatic tuner allocation vs. assigned tuner allocation is best.

I will update this report when I determine what is causing the problem with my Ceton device.

 
Related article: Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Android ICS.

 
Switching to Android—must be able to sync with Outlook

May 5, 2012 update: For some reason syncing contacts with Companionlink is unreliable. I am still seeking the solution and it may be something I am doing wrong. But even if that is true, it shouldn’t be so hard to figure out. Last week I needed a contact on my smartphone. It simply wasn’t there. I got home and discovered it was still on my “master” database in Outlook. I did a manual sync with Companionlink and the record was still missing on my smartphone. It happened again a couple of days later when I needed a different record. I don’t know why an apparently small number of contacts would disappear like this, but if I cannot rely on Companionlink to have the data for me when I need it, then its value drops considerably. I then initiated a full records sync from Companionlink, setting it to remove and replace all the contacts on my phone. Then the record was there. I’ll keep trying to figure it out.

A few months ago when I contemplated replacing my Blackberry Storm 2 smartphone with a more capable new generation variety, one of my biggest concerns was ensuring that I would still be able to keep contacts and calendar in sync with Outlook 2010 64-bit on my PC.

There was still uncertainty about this when I made the switch to the new Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

During the transition to Android ICS (my first experience with any Android), I had a lot to learn including not a few paradigm shifts. I quickly found that I (mostly) like Android Market. Still, as I searched for Outlook sync solutions I discovered that the prospective apps could be very confusing in their limited descriptions.

Then I discovered DejaOffice by Companionlink Software (for details see the DejaOffice website). When used together with CompanionLink on the PC I ended up with a solution that is superior to what I had on the Blackberry.

Now if they would fix their branding to avoid confusion. DejaOffice on the Android needs CompanionLink on the PC for a complete sync solution. Actually, they are completely different products. DejaOffice is a suite that includes common PIM (personal information management) modules: contacts, calendar, tasks, notes. CompanionLink handles the syncing between PC Outlook and the equivalent modules in DejaOffice.

 
Smooth Sailing

Today my contacts and calendar are synced between Outlook 2010 (64-bit for me) on my PC and DejaOffice on my Android ICS phone (Galaxy Nexus) and it works just as smoothly and transparently as Syncing.net which keeps Outlook in sync between my desktop and laptop.

Even better than my old BlackBerry, the Companionlink syncing is done wirelessly (WiFi) and automatically, so I don’t even have to bother with USB cables and being out of sync between tethered sync sessions.

Furthermore, DejaOffice Contacts has a notes field that accepts the full length of the notes field in Outlook. So unlike BlackBerry contacts (or native Android contacts), the notes information on my Android is not truncated.

Note: when using Companionlink to sync to Android ICS, you must use WiFi instead of USB cable…which is fine by me for the unattended convenience of WiFi sync.

 
Installation and Configuration

Installing DejaOffice is as easy as it gets with the convenience of Android Market. Similarly, installing Companionlink to the PC is straightforward and simple. Even the configuration of Companionlink is easy if you follow the setup guide. When I tried to do it without reading the manual, I ended up using the wrong device name, so sync failed until I corrected it.

I replaced the native People icon in my bottom row with DejaContacts, but I still use the People app to mark favorite contacts. Then I have a speed dial function of sorts in the native dialer. This is possible because DejaOffice syncs the DejaOffice database to a specific account in the native Android database (Understanding Android Contacts). You can also force DejaOffice to sync with the native account using the “Read Android Data” button in DejaOffice.”

 
Important Things to Know

If I set syncing to be bi-directional, what will happen to content in the notes field that is formatted in Outlook?
Answer: If content is changed on the device, then it will sync to Outlook as plain text (for the changed record). That would make me a very unhappy camper, so if you format content in your notes field, don’t sync both ways. Instead set it to sync “Outlook to Android”.

How to change how DejaOffice sorts records?
Answer: DejaOffice allows you to sort by a variety of fields, including first name, last name, company name, or file as. When viewing the contact list, press and hold (long press) “DejaContacts” at the top of the screen to bring up the context menu and sorting options.

When I temporarily changed a setting (contacts) to sync bi-directionally, and then did a sync, instead of the normal fast sync, it started reading every contact very slowly. Similarly when I changed by to “Outlook to Android”.
Answer: Changing the sync direction will force a reread on the PC and device, but this should only occur once after changing the setting. You can check and make sure the reread option is unchecked from the CompanionLink Options menu (at the top, next to File and Help).

I added my gmail account to the Android. Then I signed in and saw that DejaCalendar (or the native Android calendar) synced to my Google Calendar. Nice. However, contacts did not sync to Google contacts.
Answer: Android contacts and calendar data can be stored under one or more “accounts” (Google adds a separate account for Google contacts and calendar). DejaOffice allows you to set which native Android account you wish to sync with – check the DejaOffice settings.

 
Screen Shots

This article last updated: February 11, 2012

 
Expect periodic updates to this article
Since I started using my Galaxy Nexus, that also being my first experience on an Android phone, I compiled a long list of questions and issues. As I learn and discover solutions, reducing my friction factor along the way, I’ll be updating this article and adding more on specific apps. I haven’t discovered a way to automatically notify subscribers to this publication when an article is updated (vs. being newly published).
So if you’re interested, please check back here. I’ll label this article with the date of its last update.

 
Mainly About Solutions
There are a ton of online sources that dig into the technical specs for the Galaxy Nexus. This article is mainly about solutions and reducing friction factors to get the most benefit from this phone. I am not very familiar with older versions of Android, so where a function is version specific, this is about Android ICS.

 
Time to Change
I had been using the Blackberry Storm and Storm 2 since they came out. They were a light year improvement over the Motorola Q I had before that. I finally had a phone that I could actually use for more than a glorified phone directory. Still, the Blackberry browser is so bad that I rarely even tried to use it. And then I got my son’s old Motorola Droid X to use just as a wireless device (no Verizon account). I immediately discovered that Kindle for Android is far superior to Kindle for Blackberry. Then I started discovering a ton of very cool and very useful Android apps, comparing them against what is available for the Blackberry…and found myself longing for an Android phone.

At the same time, the iPhone 4S was also looking very attractive. The more I looked, the more tempting it became…tempered enormously by my son’s experience with Apple’s active policy of unilaterally removing any apps on your device that they don’t want on it.

But then…Samsung announced its Galaxy Nexus with Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich or ICS). After research and comparisons, the Galaxy Nexus became my choice for my next smartphone. The only problem last October 2011 was that the Galaxy was not yet available in the U.S. After a number of false rumors about its release date, it finally became official on December 15th. I called in the wee hours and became one of the first to order it (well, not counting the few “Sooners” who managed to get one at stores who goofed on the release date). A couple of days later my new toy arrived. And I love it. Now to get past its imperfections…

 
Samsung Galaxy Nexus
To the mocking chagrin of my oldest son, I’ve always been a belt holster phone guy. The larger size of the Galaxy dissuaded me from continuing the practice. Interestingly, the Galaxy Nexus is so thin that it fits comfortably in the pocket of my slacks and it’s hardly even visible. It is a royal pain to get to it when I’m in the car wearing a seatbelt, but I shouldn’t be getting to it then anyway, right?

Battery cover: One of the things that constantly irritated me about the BB was its metal plate battery cover. Secured only at each end of the cover (a typical design), it didn’t align flush with the back surface of the phone, so I kept rubbing across the edge and it would pop off any time I dropped it, spilling out the battery. The battery cover for the Galaxy is elegance in engineering. Its textured plastic “hyper skin” is flexible and snaps into place along the full length of every side. When in place it feels like an integral part of the phone and provides a welcome texture for holding the phone. I’ve not yet dropped it, so I don’t have a report on how it handles that, though it’s only a matter of time.

Display: The Galaxy’s large (for a phone) 4.65-inch high resolution Super AMOLED display is amazingly readable. Its slightly curved screen gives it a futuristic effect. I like the lack of hardware buttons, the entire screen being configurable as needed. Add Android’s two-finger swipe to zoom in and out, together with a browser that actually works (clicking a link goes to the link), and I finally have a phone that can be used in more ways in place of my laptop.

Fast boot: Every few days I needed to reboot my Storm 2 to restore performance (in spite of having a daily scheduled battery-pull app). It takes so long to reboot a Blackberry that it was best if it happened at nap time. In great contrast I am very pleased with the performance of the Galaxy Nexus—and it reboots in about 30 seconds.

Battery life: For its speed and all that it does, I worried that battery life would be a problem. And indeed it drains significantly faster than my Storm 2. OTOH, I wasn’t able to use the Blackberry Storm 2 in all the ways I can actively use the Samsung Galaxy. It normally lasts a full day anyway, but I have USB chargers everywhere I park myself (office, bed, car). So battery life hasn’t been a problem yet. Thank you world for dumping proprietary chargers.

Android Market: I love Android Market. It is reasonbly easy to find applications of interest and get user ratings. It is very handy to install an app to the phone from the website with my laptop.

 
My List of Desired Solutions, Questions, and Issues
This is where I’ll mainly be updating this article—to let you know what I’ve learned and discovered (and found fixes for) to reduce friction in my life’s intersection with my smartphone.

Discoveries
A great source of help: http://www.droidforums.net/forum/galaxy-nexus-help. The people here are very helpful and responsive.

Issues and Questions
I have found answers to many of these questions and will add more as I update this article in addition to separate product review articles.

1. Phone Design: Does the wi-fi antenna in the Galaxy Nexus have poor gain for anybody besides me?
   Answer: Apparently so from reported complaints. And Samsung’s reported solution is to “fix” the software to display stronger signal strength. I ignore the visual indicators. Instead I am just making an observation that reception in some parts of my home is far weaker than on my Blackberry or laptop in the same location. Using the excellent Wi-Fi Analyzer app by farproc on either my laptop or on the Galaxy Nexus, I can see the actual wi-fi signal strength. For a given location and signal strength at that location, my BB or laptop is able to receive just fine. The Galaxy Nexus just spins, not ever able to load a Web page. If I still had access to the right equipment I could quickly create an antenna gain pattern for the GN and I suspect it would be very poor. But there are folks out there who have this equipment and could provide objective data independent of Samsung. I am confident that the result won’t be a software issue of not displaying signal strength accurately.
2. Email: How to force a check for new email?
   Answer: You can’t on an Android if your email account(s) is set to automatically check for mail on a timed basis.
3. Email: How to set email to default to “combined” accounts view?
   Answer: I was delighted to see that I didn’t lose the ability when I switched to Android to view my email from all of my accounts at once. Unfortunately, the “combined view” setting on the Android is not sticky.
4. Apps: Android market: cannot update apps now; error (-101)
   Answer: The solutions reported by others did not work for me. My Google account is associated with two email addresses. When I changed Android Market settings / Accounts to have the account’s primary email address selected, it started working again. I still don’t know why it stopped working.
5. Feature: How to immediately silence an incoming call and send the caller to voicemail?
   Answer: The easy solution doesn’t work on an Android. I kept trying to press the answer button to answer a call and the end call button to silence it and send the call to vmail. Nope, Android requires a swipe. Swipe the ring icon to the answer icon on the right to answer a call, to the left icon to silence the call, or up to select a quick response to text to the caller and silence the call.
6. Apps (Kindle): Why does Kindle sometimes fail to open the book I’m reading? I have to go into “Recent Apps” and force stop Kindle. When I then go into Kindle again it loads the book ok.
   Answer: I have uninstalled Kindle and reinstalled. I also deregistered my device and registered it again. Also, with the help of a very knowlegeable and patient Kindle support specialist, Katie L., I downloaded updated versions of my books for which an update was available. So now to find out if this freeze behavior still continues…
7. Apps (Kindle): Why does Kindle keep trying to sync (and fail) even though I have Whispersync disabled in my Amazon account?
   Answer: This can happen if the wireless signal to the device is weak. In my case, it appears that the reason is that I goofed. In my Amazon.com account I deregistered the devices I wasn’t using and kept the one I was…or so I thought. It turned out I had renamed the wrong device and was still trying to sync to one that had been turned off. So now to find out if correcting this issue fixes this problem…
8. Apps (Kindle): While reading a book in bed, in a dark room, with device brightness set to minimum, something happens and the device goes to full bright.
   Answer: Katie at Kindle support advised me to turn off automatic brightness control as a test to see if this behavior stops. If so, it would still be a bug in either Kindle or the device, but I will then have brightness controls in the Kindle’s display settings (so at least I can turn down the brightness before getting a tan in my bed). Now to find out if this changes anything. The bug could be in Profile Scheduler which is what I use to turn down the display brightness at night on an automatic schedule.
9. Support: Where to find a complete user manual for this Verizon phone?
   Answer: Go to the support page for your device, right? True, but only if you’re not signed in(as of Jan 2012). No, that doesn’t make sense to me either.
10. Apps: What is the best solution for scheduling profile changes?
    Answer: “Profile Scheduler” by Wetpalm. My review will be published here soon.
11. Apps: How to fix an address that is wrong in the GPS maps?
12. Feature: How long are email messages stored?
    Answer: Verizon support said there must be a bug in the mail app because it’s only keeping the last day’s mail for them, too.
13. Feature: Why does “speech to text” sometimes stop working, failing to process?
14. Feature: The Galaxy Nexus has a front facing camera. So what app is needed to use it for video chats? I normally use Live Messenger for video chats, so I was hoping this would be an option for this phone. Nope.
15. Feature: How to copy my music to the phone—just use the normal file transfer process? To which folder? Which app is best to listen to my music?
16. Feature: One must the press power button to wake the display. Awkward.
    Answer: None yet. I tried the only solution I could find, “Tap Tap App” does not work reliably except when I don’t want it to…when the phone is in my pocket.
17. Feature: How to check voicemail via a button vs. manually dialing *86?
    Answer: Press and hold “1″ on the dialer.
18. Feature: How to include your voicemail pin in the voicemail dialing sequence?
    Answer: Open the dialer and click the settings button (three dots). Go into Voicemail Settings and select Voicemail number. Edit the number to dial (*86) to be “*86,XXXX#” where the X’s are your pin. Add additional commas if more delay is needed before dialing the pin. To enter the special characters press the *# key and it will display special symbol choices.
19. Feature: How to know when there is new email, voicemail, alerts, etc.?
    Answer: In addition to the audible alert if that is activated, a white light will flash at the bottom of the phone. Touch the top of the screen in the header area and swipe down. This will display your notifications.
20. Sync to Outlook: How to sync contacts and calendar (without requiring Outlook on the PC to be closed)?
    Answer: “CompanionLink Professional” and “DejaOffice” from CompanionLink Software. My review will be published here soon.
21. Security: How to locate the phone when it’s missing? Remotely wipe its contents?
    Answer: “Lookout” from Lookout, Inc. Virus protection is also available. My review will be published here soon.
22. Feature: How to remove all contacts in preparation for a fresh sync?
    Answer: Settings => Apps => All => Contacts. In the Storage section select “Clear Data”.
23. Backup: How to regularly backup the phone to the cloud with all of its settings and apps?
    Answer: I’m still looking for an ideal solution. Verizon’s “VZ Backup Assistant” and your Google mail account can backup contacts and apps, but they are not a complete solution.
24. Feature: How to get speed dial?
    Answer: Android Contacts lets you mark favorites (highlight the star at the top of a contact) which then show up in the favorites section of the dialer (press the person icon in the three icons at the top of the dialer). It’s not the old press and hold a number from the dial pad, but you don’t have to remember who goes with which number either. I just wish Favorites could be displayed as smaller buttons or a list to avoid swiping to find a “speed” dial.
25. Security: How best to protect confidential information on my phone?
    Answer: “mSecure” from mSeven Software. My review will be published here soon.
26. Apps: My Favorite Android Apps
    Coming.

February 11, 2012: I have been using my Galaxy Nexus now for two months and I love it. It is certainly the best smartphone I’ve ever had but, more than that, it is a device that is truly useful in many aspects of my life. I finally have a browser that is actually worth using. And apps that make a difference. To that end I am writing a follow-up article that will highlight great apps that I have discovered.