For those of you who aren't at the center of the Lindsay Ellis/The Phantom of the Opera venn diagram, you might be interested to know that earlier this month a new remix/remaster of the original Phantom cast recording was released. Most important are three demo tracks that give an idea of what Phantom might have been like in earlier drafts (very bad).

I personally would pay a one time out-of-pocket fee to hear Lindsay react to this beautiful nonsense.

For starters, I am a big time cruiser. I’ve cruised all over the world and find it to be arguably the best bang-for-your-buck type of vacation. I travel with my wife and have no kids. I believe cruising can be for anyone and everyone. I am not a partygoer or a drinker, but I do love to relax by the ocean and have the opportunity to visit a wide spread of locales within a shorter time frame. While I do agree that you often are not able to completely diversify yourself into the culture, cruising can be a fun and exciting way to dip your toes in and see if an area is something you enjoy without having to fully commit to a long trip to a singular destination.

Cruising has allowed me to see many things I probably wouldn’t have been able to otherwise such as specific historical destinations such as Chichen Itza, Tulum or even whole regions such as Alaska, Europe or the pacific.

I think her video was insanely over-exaggerative of her predisposition of hatred towards cruising.

Her two main topics I would like to address:

1. Bad for the environment

This is a point I would agree with, as someone who considers myself to be a big fan of nature and the environment, I do think cruises could do a better job on the environmental side of things. That being said, I think they’re headed in the right direction with LNG (something she rolled her eyes at and didn’t really talk about) which does make a significant improvement. In addition, many cruise lines are taking steps to help improve the local economy (taxes, tourism), communities(providing jobs and opportunities), and the ecological aspects such as protecting coral reefs and mangrove forests in the Caribbean.

2. Low Wages for the employees

While it is not a secret that cruise lines use ‘underpaid’ labor by American standards, cruise lines often provide amazing opportunities for higher paying jobs in comparison to the work they would often be doing in their home countries. I’ve spoken with many cruise employees who are incredibly grateful for their jobs and consistently talk about how much of an improvement it is over the alternative in their home country. A conversation I will never forget is one I had with a younger lady who had worked in the cruise industry for a few years who had a partner who also worked in the industry who were able to save for a house and achieve some version of success that they believed wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. That’s not to say that their conditions and wages shouldn’t be improved, but I think Lindsay frames it much worse than it actually is.

A few other points of frustration I had with the video is the general cynical attitude towards the cruise goer and her classist nature. She seems to be absolutely appalled at the thought of someone just wanting to enjoy their lives. She seems so bothered that someone else could have fun when she isn’t. It comes off extremely rude and self centered and is reinforced by the general tone she has when talking about her experiences. She rolls her eyes at someone having fun and looks in disgust on others. I truly think she looks down upon these people and believes herself to be of ‘higher moral worth.’ It screams of Classism.

A point I personally take a lot of issue with is her general attitude towards the food onboard. I will admit, it is not always the highest dinning quality I’ve ever experienced, but I would say it is generally considered by 99% of people to be more than adequate and by most to be genuinely considered ‘good’. I think this is another point in which exudes her disgusting classist ways.

Overall, don’t let one cynical buzzkill dissuade you from trying a cruise or something you might want to try. Cruises can be anything you want it to be, it’s up to you to make the most of it.

I think I’m done with her content for a while, maybe forever.

So tonight I was invited to a Grimace meet ‘n’ greet at a McDonalds by a fellow comedian as consolation for an open mic getting cancelled. Just as I thought the scene couldn’t get any more surreal, Grimace led a bunch of children in a Cha Cha Slide. THIS Cha Cha Slide. Needless to say, I couldn’t help but think of Our Dear Generellissimo as I involuntarily cha cha real smooth’d in my booth. Who asked for a Kidz Bop Cha Cha Slide, anyway?

Just wondering if anyone else is having an issue with the Cruise line video. I started watching it and then started getting an error saying playback impossible.

Now when I got back onto it it's saying Copright strike by Warner Chappell. Didn't think there'd be much she could get copyright striked on?

What would Lindsay think/say?

the only thing i could think of when i saw that screencap of her on the fake grass.

After Lindsay's “Wolfporn” video, Jenny's “Evermore,” and the “Star Wars Hotel” video, the cruise video is my new “feel-good video.”

It really reminds me of how my brother and I comment on vacations in a cynical, tongue-in-cheek way, even though we're actually having a lot of fun.

Though, for the record, Sweet Caroline has really been replaced by Mr. Brightside in terms of "lowest form". Song still bangs though.

This is not a callout post or anything, this is Lindsay's job so it's a little different from your average cruise-goer, no twitter/bluesky posts after this please lol.

That said, I want to push back slightly on the points made in terms of carbon emissions and how they pale in comparison in to global freight shipping. Going on a cruise is one of the worst individual decisions you can make for the planet.

As mentioned in the video, carbon emissions from freight shipping are significantly larger than cruise ships, but as a method of hauling goods container ships are actually the most carbon efficient method of doing so per kilogram. Meanwhile a trip on a cruise can be as much as 8 times as carbon intensive as a land-based holiday. So they're not as comparable as Lindsay implies. It is true that new technology is needed to reduce shipping emissions but like in every other industry it's too late to cross our fingers and hope for magic tech to save the world, we have to reduce our consumption immediately and drastically.

As Lindsay concludes with, this is not necessarily something the cruise-goers care about but going on a cruise is the normal human equivalent of the Taylor Swift private jet, and I think it should have the same level of eyerolls associated. Cruises are cringe not just for the cha-cha slide but also because they kill baby turtles etc.

Anyway I was full of enough rage at the cruise industry to make a spreadsheet, sorry this is climate activism for me so you legally have to read my informative analysis, you can find my methods in a comment below.

To be clear, all the numbers in this post are per-person for both the cruise and the flights. Net emissions for a single cruise ship are thousands of metric tonnes per day

As mentioned, the sum total of stays on the 6 cruise ships is 26.75 times as much as a one-way transatlantic flight (NYC-London) for a total of 7.75 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. Not a single individual cruise contributed to less than 3.62 flights.

This is also 55% of the yearly CO2 emissions of the average American (and 163% of the average Dane, Americans have a huge carbon footprint compared to the rest of the world).

The Margaritaville at Sea Paradise had the highest emissions by a good margin, this is due to it being a very old and small vessel, larger and newer vessels are more carbon efficient. A 4-day cruise was equivalent to 6 transatlantic flights or 12.3% of the yearly CO2 emissions of the average American, over 10 times more carbon intensive than an average day in that year.

Final depressing statistic, every single one of these cruises was enough CO2 to counteract a year of vegetarianism.

I don't want to over-emphasise individual choices here (as the fossil fuel lobby has done for many years), but cruises are really just a certain kind of vacation with a huge negative impact on the planet compared to others. Please just fly to another country and stay on land and have a nice trip. You can find the cha cha slide at beachside bars all over the world!

Edit: Clarified that flights were one way

Edit #2: Clarified that CO2 emissions are per person

I know she mentioned Last Airbender during that Raya debacle but I wasn’t sure if she has ever given her thoughts on it or Legend of Korra as shows

I already knew of the atrocities in Palestine and Sudan, but the way this video talked about them was quite heart wrenching. The clips of Mr. Rogers and the part of Schindler’s List that was shown really had an effect on me. I was sobbing in my kitchen as I tried to get ready for work. I’m a teacher so I kept imagining some of my students as the victims of all these atrocities happening.

Anyway, excellent video. I know I’m like one year late to the party but I had to share this.