Oh, oh. We thought those CDC inspection numbers were the final word on ship cleanliness. Not so.

The public bathrooms on 56 ships carrying 1,258 to 3.600 passengers from 9 major cruise lines were inspected over a 7 day period by a team of researchers from Boston University, Carney Hospital, Cambridge Health Alliance and Tufts and then reported in the medical journal Clinical Infectious Diseases.

Flush handles or buttons, stall inner handholds and door handles, restroom inner door handles, toilet seats and baby changing tables were the areas the researchers targeted. Guess which of these was the best cleaned? The toilet seat! On some ships these objects were not cleaned at all during a 24 hour period. That’s enough time for a lot of bacteria to accumulate. In some cases some of the objects tested were not cleaned at all during a 5 to 7 day period. Surgical gloves anyone?

What to do about this? Wash, wash, wash. Sing Happy Birthday to yourself while you wash those hands to assure you do the job well. Use a paper towel on the door handle while exiting. There should be a waste receptacle near the door as it is mandated by the CDC for ships, as I understand it.

By the way, the average CDC inspection score for the 56 ships tested?   97

What do you get when you shake your iPhone? Sometimes you can find a cheap hotel near where you are standing. How? What does shaking your phone do?

This is one of the most baffling of all technologies to me. I simply can’t comprehend how a signal is transmitted and an app is engaged by shaking a phone. Alright, I am o.k. with plumbing but don’t know how mother boards and circuits work. I admit it. Actually, the shaking establishes your location. But how, I don’t know.

The new app must be shaking everyone up because it is variously listed as the #1 or #5 iPhone app, called Hotel Negotiator. Priceline must be counting the cash. It is made really easy for you because you are given the average successful bid by other Priceline users so that you can make an educated bid (please do underbid).

Shake your iPhone, enter your hotel class (3 stars, 4 stars, whatever you choose) and receive the median successful bid for the last month in the neighborhood where you are standing. Presumably the greatest value or best use is for last minute bookings because of the location identification capability. How many rooms are booked at the last minute? Is that a biggie?

The app is so engaging that it really has a lasting quality. Apps like this are almost enough to get me to abandon Verizon for AT&T but not any time soon. Having William Shatner punch through your phone and cause it to shake sounds like fun.

Travelocity is going one better than their original guarantee of making everything right with your trip. They are now willing to refund the difference between your booked rate and any lower rate on the internet for that property/those dates. Currently they are trying to move your business to their site by offering a $50 refund until the end of the year if you do find a better rate.

Their new guarantee does put the responsibility on you, the customer, to find the lower rate on your hotel for the dates you have reserved through Travelocity. It doesn’t make any difference on which site you find the lower rate, unlike Expedia’s and Orbitz’ guarantees, which is limited to better rates on their sites and only if you find it within 24 hours of your booking. Yapta is your best friend with this guarantee. Enter your hotel and dates, sign up for an alert if the price decreases and then notify Travelocity. It removes all the work and facilitates your refund if you act on it.

Customer service does make a difference to the consumer. This new Travelocity Guarantee makes me feel all warm and fuzzy about them. Here’s hoping it is a positive gamble for them and it starts a challenge to other online hotel booking agencies. It is questionable how many consumers will work to stay on top of their hotel rates to even be able to make a claim. The numbers may be so low that the gamble is low in cost and huge in positive PR. If only more airlines would behave like jetBlue and Travelocity. We would all travel as much happier campers with such transparency on rates and reservations.