SurvivingInfidelity.com^®

I don’t get it…

I do an occasional "adventure" holiday where I might go to some extremely remote location, mainly to fish. Just a couple of weeks ago I spent a weekend in a cabin with an outhouse, no running water and no electricity. Took 8 hours of rough track to get there. But that’s it… Other than the extremely low risk of bears I wasn’t really placing myself in unusual or extreme danger.
My idea of a holiday usually involves sun-benches, beach-towels and my daily intake of fruits through varying Margaritas.

I don’t get these "adventure" holidays. The people that want to get blasted into space in some experimental made-by-lowest-contractor rocket or sink 13000 feet under the surface of the ocean to see some rusty remains in total dark. Spending 24 hours locked in a metal tube – being descending or ascending – holds no appeal to me.

Bigger, I don't get it either. Maybe it's because the super-rich want to do things others can't afford to do - then talk about it? If I had that kind of cash I can think of a lot of different kinds of 'adventures' to do that I could probably come home afterwards. Perhaps it's the risk of death that excites them.

When I heard Sunday that contact had been lost 2 hours after launch, I thought 'implosion.' Only consolation, if any, is it was quicker than a blink of an eye and they didn't know it was coming, according to the experts. So no suffering ,,, hopefully. I've always been interested in the Titanic but I can see all I need to see on YouTube.

$250K per person would feed a lot of hungry kids and build a lot of tiny homes for the homeless.

Just saw a news report quoting a man who had taken that Titanic sub trip previously and he said he knew disaster was coming because when he took the trip, the heat gauge he saw was on red ... dangerous. So surprised that thing hasn't imploded before now.

Neither the ocean, nor space, sound like appealing vacations (I'm a city girl and like traveling to other major cities best), but if I had to pick between those options, I'd pick space. I have a legitimate fear of the ocean (thalassophobia).

Any trip where I'm confined to a small metal tube/box is enough to deter me from ever going!

I just heard that they found parts and suspect implosion. Yikes.

I agree $250,000 could be used in much better ways to make the world a better place. The ridiculously rich are ridiculous.

I went on a cross country drive holiday with my family one summer. Fun, no. My family is nuts amd all of us in an RV omg lol Amazing to view the west coast of Canada. HECK YA! The prairies were ok. Have family out there. Got to see where my mothers side originally immigrated to and settled.

I've done week long portage camping trips. I prefer home base camps.

Day trips seem to be best. A visit to the zoo, a day at the provincial park nearby at the beach.

Bigger we have the cabin my uncle built and the out house at the back lol. But it's only a 15-20 minute walk

Bonnie, I love to LOOK at the ocean and have no desire to go deep into it. As for space, the astronauts, including Sally Ride - losing their lives did it for me. No way would I want to go into space. I don't even like Ferris wheels or rollercoasters so I'd never get into a space ship. I'm not even that fond of flying but have had to do a lot of it when I'd much prefer a road trip. Now THAT is an adventure to me -- hitting the road!

As someone that loves to dive/scuba there is no way in hell I would have done this.
Good lord what a waste of money, time, life, and resources.

My dad was in the Navy and served on an aircraft carrier, but he told us he really wanted to be a submariner when he first enlisted and was turned down due to sheer numbers. His land-lubbing oldest son decided on the Army instead, thank you very much. Shipwrecks and deep ocean terrify me. I'm a total thalassophobe and limit myself to a blanket on the beach and a walk in the shallows with my wife.

Leaving the money out of it, I do admire their sense of adventure and willingness to take a risk few of us would take. It's a horrible tragedy all the way around and one I wouldn't wish on anyone.

I don't care for boats.

I'm terrified of being trapped underwater.

And, I'm claustrophobic.

And, I have asthma. I know how it feels to not be able to breath. So a limited amount of air? Lord, no.

They couldn't pay me enough to get on a submarine.

Holiday? It's my worst nightmare.

Edited to add: apparently, I'm a thalassophobe. I've never heard that word before. 🫣

[This message edited by HellFire at 3:18 PM, Friday, June 23rd]

They were just reporting that one young man involved did not really want to go - was concerned about safety. But he agreed to go as a "Father’s Day" experience with his dad. 😢

You can throw in summiting Everest to the list. No interest what so ever. I suspect it's a bit of being an adrenaline junky combined with wanting to do something unique. Not Keeping up with the Jones but keeping ahead, (better) of them, the smiths, and everyone else.

So sad, the whole thing. I heard James Cameron saying the thing was made from carbon fiber. That stuff is like glass and can break suddenly without warning. Especially under compression. Most pressure vessels are made from steel for a reason. No fatigue limit (from going up and down in the ocean) and designed to leak first before catastrophic failure.

Cameron also made a very telling point. This sun was classified as experimental, meaning it wasn’t fully tested to the industry safety standards. Cameron’s sub trip to the bottom of the Mariana Trench was also an experimental sub. He said himself and the engineer who designed it were the only 2 intended pilots as he would never ask any of his crew to take that kind of risk in his place.

It’s very telling that this company not only did not care about taking other, uninvolved people down that deep, but they also charged a quarter of a million dollars to do it.

Disgusting.

And, for vacation, give me a rented house on a beach or a camping trip to the Lakes or an amusement park or a city with museums and theater and shopping and restaurants.

Hard pass on space trips or submarine trips. Add jumping out of perfectly good airplanes to that list as well.

Personally, the moment I’d hear I would need to be bolted in a capsule, I’d run. Not that you could escape even if not bolted in, but still, the thought of being trapped without any control is my worst nightmare.

I wouldn’t mind a space trip, however I’m conflicted, I am a climate change believer and I am against polluting the planet (at that scale) for pleasure, I am all for space exploring though, you never know, we may find more sustainable sources of energy.

Most rich people are rich because they are not afraid to take risks, and most progress is made by exploring and assuming that risk, if it wouldn’t be for people like that we would probably still be stuck in a cave.

I think they took a gamble, in their quests for thrills and next adrenaline rush, and lost.

ETA: the fact that that young kid, 19 yo went on with it just to please his dad makes my blood boil. It breaks my heart to think that he trusted his father to keep him safe and didn’t even want to go… that’s the saddest part of this story.

[This message edited by Luna10 at 4:10 PM, Friday, June 23rd]

"There hasn’t been an injury in the commercial sub industry in over 35 years," he said. "It’s obscenely safe because they have all these regulations. But it also hasn’t innovated or grown — because they have all these regulations."

Kind of telling quote from CEO. He basically applied the fail fast methodology to something with critical life/safety implications. Can you imagine if an aircraft or car manufacturer had the same mindset? The government would shut them down in a heartbeat. Unfortunately, Titan used the huge loophole of operating in international waters to avoid complying with any government regulations.

And, for vacation, give me a rented house on a beach or a camping trip to the Lakes or an amusement park or a city with museums and theater and shopping and restaurants.

Hard pass on space trips or submarine trips. Add jumping out of perfectly good airplanes to that list as well.

Amen to all of this. I read enough Ray Bradbury as a kid to completely turn me off from being an astronaut. And I'll throw in spelunking (cave exploring) too. We did a guided tour of Seneca Caverns in West Virginia years ago. I was fine with that because of the presumed safety. But putting a helmet on, harnessing up, and going through tight squeezes a mile underground? No way!

I'm risk-averse. Space doesn't interest me, nor does climbing or bungee jumping or sky diving. I don't even like to fly commercial because it kills my ears. You might be able to talk me into going under the ocean in a US military submarine, but not in some rinky-dink rig run by a Playstation controller. Hell no.

Conspicuous consumption ** NO POLITICS ** , not even political economics.

My idea of an adventure vacation is a bike tour along, say, the Erie or C & O canals. Or biking Benelux, Germany, Denmark, and Sweden. No camping - restaurants hotels along the way.

You could not pay me to go in a tiny enclosed space that I can't get out of. I just about go insane when I have to get my annual MRI. I can't stand being stuck in that tiny space.

Add bungee jumping and free climbing.

Spending 24 hours locked in a metal tube – being descending or ascending – holds no appeal to me.

The question for me is not, "Which would I prefer to do?" The question is, "How much are you willing to pay me to do one of these????"

What's your price, Bigger? And which would you be more willing to do for that price? We all have a price, right--a price at which we imagine how much good we could do with all that money if only we would face our fears and sacrifice our own safety?

But actually pay to drop two hours down into the darkest, coldest place on earth in a too-small tin can with a few hours of air, just to fight four other people for a peek out of the one and only tiny window (and then stare at a vessel wall for my $250,000 the other 92% of the time)???? Heeccckkkkkkk no!!!

Eta: I don't mean to make light of the choice they made and the sad result. It's terrible. But I would simply never have done it unless I could imagine my sacrifice was for a greater good. Not sure my price, but it would be a big number.

[This message edited by OwningItNow at 7:42 PM, Friday, June 23rd]

Nope, no way. I am claustrophobic as the day is long. I about had to be sedated for an MRI. There’s no way I would climb into either of those types of things. Not happening. Hell no!