Yes - in fact I’d say “direct” means there’s absolutely a stop, because otherwise they’d call it a non-stop - I learned this to my chagrin many years ago. If I was on TAR, I’d be inclined to take a non-stop that was scheduled to arrive anywhere up to an hour after a direct, just because a direct has many more opportunities for delay. The intermediate airport could have weather or traffic issues that are slowing things down, they may hold your 2nd leg because a connecting flight that has a bunch of passengers scheduled for your plane hasn’t arrived yet, they may change flight or cabin crew at the intermediate airport, and they haven’t arrived, etc.
You’re right. For some reason, I had originally selected Mar 21 as a travel date, and both travelocity & Qantas decline to show the redeye non-stop for that date - I guess it’s already fully booked?
Looking at booking sites, the direct Qantas Sydney->Tokyo flight is 9hr 45mins, while the Cathay Pacific flight via Hong Kong is 16hr 20 mins. Yikes. Seems like they edited out a lot of down time for the Qantas folks at the the airport, because obviously the Cathay folks must have left many hours ahead of the Qantas folks.
Maybe I am misremembering how competitive the cowboys were in their season, but they have been completely disappointing so far. They’re lucky their “drive until we find it” strategy didn’t have them getting completely off track this round.
Preach it, brother. Dad wasn’t much better when they were rolling around in the mud. He said something like, “I’d rather die right here with you than home in bed.” If you’re that close to death, then perhaps the Amazing Race is not for you. If you’re healthy enough to race, then sack up and race.
I’m also feeling less love for the cowboys this time around. I hope it’s just a matter of them not getting their legs under them quite yet and that they’ll improve and soon. And if not, there are other teams I’m happy to root for (Flight Time and Big Easy, I’m looking [way up] at you!)
Even that’s not a certainty…a “direct” flight may feature an equipment change at the stopover point where they move you off one plane and onto another. Not common, but it happens.
“Non-stop” is the only way you know for certain the plane you get on at the origin will be the plane you leave at the arrival city (barring mechanical/medical emergencies).
I’m guessing that it took the production team a little while to figure out what happened and assess an appropriate penalty, and they hadn’t sorted it out by the time the Globetrotters hit the mat. This could have been because of bad communications, or maybe it just took time to review the tape. (Christina could have misremembered where she left her fannypack, then jumped to the wrong conclusion when finding it back at the changing room. Contrariwise, the Globetrotters could have taken the pack on purpose. Luckily, cameras are rolling the entire time.)
I’m not a fan of Mel & Mike, but I was rooting for them over Jaime & Cara. Even if Mel & Mike had survived, they wouldn’t have lasted much longer, and I just don’t care for the redheads.[sup]*[/sup]
Wow, there’s a phrase I never thought I’d hear myself type.
I think that’s right. Remember when they found out they were going to Argentina, so they exchanged their US Dollars for Brazilian money? Or something of that sort.
You’re probably remembering that they had dropped to the back at some time during some of the first few legs (I had the same impression). However, they never finished a leg any lower than fourth until leg 7, when they finished sixth but were saved by a non-elimination. This season they’ve already notched a sixth, in addition to their eleventh-place finish in leg one.
I am glad Mike and Mel (Oh, my groin) have been eliminated. I never understood the Mel and Mike love on their other season and it continues right into this season.
I was confused by exactly what happened with the Globetrotters & the fannypack. What I *thought *happened was that one of the Globetrotters saw the fannypack laying on the ground and told the other one not to forget it. The second one then picked it up and brought it into the changing room. After changing, the first Globetrotter picks up the correct bag and the second one asks him if he has it, thinking it was the one he picked up from down by the water. I didn’t think they even realized at any point that there *was *a second bag.
But if that’s incorrect and they *did *realize while in the changing room that they had the wrong bag, then yeah they should have brought it back to where they found it.
It was confusing. I understood it as that the Globetrotters realized they had taken the wrong bag in the changing rooms and decided to leave it there knowing Ron & Christina would eventually end up back in the changing rooms too. But obviously they should have made an effort to run the bag back up the mountain to the waterfall, but instead they just drove away.
It seemed to me that Phil’s penalty was clearly added later in post-production. There was a clear change in his voice and the camera cut away from him and instead focused on Ron and Christina. They were shown nodding after the comments but that doesn’t mean they actually heard that at that moment.
Perhaps the whole production team needed time to assess the full situation, refer to the rule-books, and make a decision.
I think that Mel seems like one hell of a nice guy (the groin thing aside) and a damn fine father, but his son Mike seems to be a drama queen, at least as far as his dad’s abilities are concerned.
In fact, except for Ron and Christina, I like all the parents (Gary, Margie, Mel) MUCH more than their children (Mallory, Luke, Mike).
Mallory is OK, and I like her enthusiasm for the Race, but she seems to have a personality that is 180 degrees opposite from that of her father, who seems like a very calm, sedate kind of guy.
Has choosing the NiaH option ever been the better choice?
The collected Amazing Guidelines recommend taking the NiaH option only under one or more of the following conditions, as best as I recall:
Your team needs a massive stroke of luck to avoid elimination. (“It’s a sure hour to do that task, we’re in last place by about 30 minutes, we’re Philimated if we do that task, so it’s time to roll the dice.”)
The alternative task is one that your team will NOT be able to accomplish, no way no how.
The alternative task requires your team to maintain control of a non-domesticated animal.
I’m not giving up on the Cowboys just yet – as mentioned upthread, they started out slow in their season, although not as near the bottom as this season. But yeah, their directionally-challenged-ness is a bit alarming.
Re the Fanny Pack Kerfluffle: It would have been nice for the Globetrotters to have left it where they found it, but I’m betting it was a time factor as to why they dumped it in the men’s changing room. We don’t know how long it’d taken them to get to the waterfall – if it was a ways up, and if you’re in a race, you’re going to right the wrong as quick as possible. The changing room was the logical choice, as they knew Ron would find it there. Plus I’m willing to bet that if Christine hadn’t said anything on the Amazing Mat, there wouldn’t have been a penalty.
(not that I blame her – heck, I would’ve panicked too)
The Redheads are grating on me even more this season than they did on their season.
Mel and Mike? Kudos to Mel for wanting to finish the task. I never expected Mike to snivel, but perhaps that was the mild hypothermia talking. At any rate, I’m glad they were OK.
Mallory, honey? Your enthusiasm is beginning to tip into the mania scale :eek:
Another problem with needle-in-a-haystack challenges is that they get harder as more people have done them before you get there. There were ten teams racing, and they could have all done that Roadblock, so there must have been at least ten frogs hidden in that mud pit. The first team to do it only has to find one of the ten. Later teams have fewer frogs but still have to search the whole pit. It’s kind of an anti-bunching point.