u/Covert_Spike

We booked an eclipse cruise with Ponant that departed Reykjavík on August 10th. This ship (Le Laperouse) had a top speed of 13 knots, and scheduled layover in the Vestmannaeyjar Islands about 40 miles east of Reykjavik on the night before the day of the eclipse. On the day of the eclipse they departed from Vestmannaeyjar around 8 AM heading west to get to the path of totality. Weather forecast from the previous day showed clouds heavily covering the sky with clearing 100 miles south of Reykjavik. Cruise ship left so late from so far east on the day of the eclipse that we were barely able to get in to the path of totality going straight east from Vestmannaeyjar, which was under thick cloud cover and Ponant didn’t/couldn’t get far enough south to see the eclipse. In that trail map shown- we just got in to the path of totality just as the eclipse started, but was unable to go south for more than a few miles before the total solar eclipse was over.
Ponant carried on with other stops on this 8 day cruise, but the primary purpose of booking a solar eclipse cruise was a big fail.
The boat and staff were great, but the incompetence of the captain in achieving the primary goal of getting into a place of the path of totality was very very very disappointing.
We could have stayed in Reykjavik and not seen the eclipse, and save the $27k cost of this cruise.

Not sour, weird flavor, total waste of money.

These had a good flavor, about as sour as Sour Patch Kids, but the texture was just so darn tough- hard to chew and hard to split. But flavor was good

We have tried to use VRBO to reserve a place to stay to watch the total solar eclipse. In 2025 our reservation for Aug 2026 was canceled in Sept 2025 by host due to “Problem with property” 11 months before our reservation. Now, July 2026, our reservation in Queens Valley Hotel” in Luxor Egypt in August 2027 was canceled due to “maintenance” 13 months before arrival.

I believe these owners suddenly recognized they had a property in the path of totality and they could charge much more, thus dumping us with no consideration to their reservation contract. VRBO does nothing to hold these owners accountable, letting them screw us renters at the owners whim.

Bottom line- don’t rely on VRBO to reserve a place during a major event- the give owners all the rights to screw us tenants at their will.

Here is the status of my search for chewable sour candies.
Starting with my fave, Sour Skittles at top left- I can snack on these all day. Next Final Boss - would be higher but they are kinda messy and not a general sitting in the candy dish type of thing. I show Level 3 Strawberries here, but also love the Level 4?oranges. 3rd is Sour Patch extreme, then a generic gummy that Ingot at Sprouts.
Next in position 5 are the the Rotten Sour Gummy worms- like Final Boss they have a healthy advantage, and a good sour flavor, but also like Final Boss they leave sticky sugar on your fingers.
The Warheads chewy are gummies and pretty good coming in at #6, but not as sour as the Sour Patch Kidd Extreme. The Tic-Tac Chewy Sour Adventure are nice- just not that sour. Very last is the Warheads Sour Booms- but these are just bad and I’m throwing the rest in the trash. The Outer coating is OK, but it degrades into this chewy tasteless blob.

I didn’t include any sour ribbons, as I have yet to try one that is sour and doesn’t have a plastic aftertaste.

If I just had to have 1 chewable, I’d go with the sour Skittles.

She is still bringing it. Great performance, my iphone’s speaker doesn’t do it justice.

Black Keys were great. Chaos in Bug Chief - not so much