iancal

Don't be so quick to assume that Cuba is not capitalist-at least at the 'street' level.

There are three economies in Cuba. The official one. The black one based on Cuban currency (citizen and tourist). And a third based on hard, foreign currency. We met a dentist who no longer practised-his family ran some B&B's. He wanted hard currency from tourists and visitors since this buys the most in Cuba-for a resident or a tourist. This work provided him and his family with a higher standard of living than did dentistry.

If for instance, you want your hair styled you can find places that cater to all three market types. The latter will have all the latest hair care products that one would expect. On our tour, the guide showed us examples of all three. Same with restaurants.

We have been charged once or twice for an item that we did not take from the mini bar...prior to when we simply asked for it be emptied.

We did not need a picture. Just called down and had the charged reversed. I do not think that the front desk would believe that you are trying to rip them off for a beer or a can of soda.

Mistakes can be made. And it is very easy to have them rectified. This is really not a biggie in the whole scheme of things.

We had a day and a half in Havana. We very much enjoyed the City and we were glad that we did an overnight.

We love the beaches in Cuba. When it's -20 and snowing where we live there is nothing better than jumping on a plane at the last minute and heading to the beach! The only downside is coming home to the snow and cold.

We travel often and our schedules are wide open.

Makes a big difference not only in terms of flexibility but also in terms of attitude and willingness to 'go with the flow' so to speak. We leave next week with one way air and only 40 percent of our itinerary/hotels firmly booked. We will work the rest on the fly.

It was very different story when we were working and our schedules were tight.

A few years ago we snagged a last minute from Calgary about five days out.

$580. each plus 200 tax. Met some folks who bought the same package a day later...they paid $480. You would be hard pressed to find air for that price, let alone hotel, etc. The food, however, is usually very mediocre but the mojitos make up for that.

The beauty of these last minute offers, if your schedule if flexible, is that air is included.

You only need your passport, sunglasses, reading material, bathing suit, and sunblock! Pack in 10 minutes.

From time to time we also do what curlygirl18 does. On highly competitive runs like 7 day Caribbean there are usually lots of good offers. This year particularly. It really is not much of a risk IF you are watching several ships/itineraries and you are flexible with regard to cabin and cabin locations.

Having said that, two years ago we snagged a 7 day Carib. offer one week prior to departure. There were only three verandah cabins available. We booked gty and expected to get one of these. Not the greatest locations but we were fine with it based on the pricing. Surprise, surprise, we ended up with a primo veranda cabin in a perfect location. Some must have been upgraded. A very nice surprise for us.

We always ask the steward to empty it. More often than not the steward offers to do it before we even ask.

It always amazes us when we see folks who get so worked up about something minor or something than can easily be rectified. I think it must change one's whole perspective on life.

Relax. Don't sweat the small stuff.

You probably had a wonderful cruise. Why ruin the memories by focusing on a simple manual posting error. This really is a very, very minor issue.

Mistakes happen.

Like others, we have experienced room billing errors on cruise lines, hotels, resorts.

This is exactly the reason why we like in room monitor access to our account. It enables us to check every few days, or however often we like, without going down to the front desk to request a printout. Plus lots of other features.

Not sure why a big apology is necessary. We would be fine with having the charge reversed in a timely manner.

I would hardly refer to a manual posting to your account as 'hacking your account'. This description seems just a little over the top.

Give HAL/spa a break on this and let them reverse the charge. It is not worth getting worked up about...unless of course they refuse to rectify the error which I doubt very much. It is human error. No one is perfect.

There are many all inclusive trips to resorts in Cuba from various Canadian cities for $1800. or less per week per person. Air, hotel, food, liquer. Melia, Ibostar, Bahai type hotels. And many of the hotels leave a complementary bottle of rum in your room.

Included in the price are some of the best beaches and the most friendly people in the Caribbean!

And if you shop and/or jump on a last minute you can shave $500. off that price. These are prices from the west. Departures from Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto area are often a few hundred dollars less per person.

We expect the prices to increase. Cannot comment on the hotels in Havana since we stayed in a private B&B.

Since retirement, the percentage of time that we spend cruising, relative to our total travel time, is actually decreasing. Now we seem to be tacking cruises on to extended land vacations.

The reason is two fold. We want to spend more time in certain areas than a cruise stop would permit and we want to experience more of the local flavour that we could not get by sleeping and eating on the ship. Second reason is that we have the health and the inclination to do this independent travel. Not certain what the future will bring. And of course, cruise pricing has been extremely competitive over the past three years and this has certainly impacted the number of cruises that we have had the good fortune to enjoy.

So, while we do enjoy cruising, it is certainly not the be all and end all for us. But is still pretty dam good when compared to staying at home!

I can think of three ports on our recent eight day western med cruise where we saw locals fishing very close to the ship. Barcelona, far side of that shopping centre area at the bottom of Ramblas, on Corsica (several places), and Majorca. I can also recall seeing people fishing in Madeira.

I doubt very much whether you will need an excursion. Just don't expect to fish from a pier where ship is tied up. Any place where you have to tender may be good. Where there is water, there will be some old guys fishing...you can count on it in Europe. It may involve a short hike.

I would take your rod, get off the ship, if necessary take the shuttle into town, and then ask a local. Just hold up your rod and point. My guess is that you will be happily fishing within a half hour or so.

If you are not sure about the art auction firm(S)....simply google them and add litigation and/or complaints.

Our advice is only use LHR as a destination airport. Even then, we actually prefer Gatwick but LHR access to the tube is so handy.

As a transfer airport it is one of the absolute worst. We had the misfortune to pass through LHR again last month and had to switch terminals. A zoo. And it can be even worse if there is a heightened security alert.

Our next two cruises were last minutes through my business travel TA.

The Alaska was booked three days prior to a July departure, the Caribbean three weeks prior to a December departure.

Worked for a large multinational IT company.

Every year they sent the top ten percent of sales execs worldwide on a reward trip-no expense spared. With spouse/guest

One of those trips happened to be on Crystal. Ship was chartered. They flew in entertainers, etc. We had a private concert in Ephesus, a street party in Mykonos, etc. We had never heard of Crystal prior to that or cruised for that matter.

We combined that cruise with an independent land trip and have been doing the same ever since. And even more of it in retirement.

Book NOW.

This is one of the reasons why we deal with an on line TA. Extended hours seven days a week. Do not want to miss out on a good offer or an a re-price if outside the final payment window.

We have used all three. Our order of preference would be Munich, Amsterdam, and Frankfurt.

We have no issues with either re-pricing (downwards) or changing cabins....prior to final payment.

We monitor the prices, we call our TA, and she happily makes the changes. No service fees involved.

The only thing that may change with a re-price is a slight reduction in the TA provided OBC. Never heard of a TA who would not reprice outside of the final payment window though we have heard of a few that do charge an admin fee for doing it.

Never had the Coke but I can attest to the fact that the Mojitos (without the sugar) were FANTASTIC!

We have saved quite a bit over the years by dealing with our on line TA.

The other reason we like dealing with her is that we are not married to one cruise line. More than once, on calling to book a specific cruise, she has alerted us to a better offer from a similar cruise line and identical itinerary. If we book directly with HAL, Princess, or Celebrity that certainly would not happen.

cruz chic....

Re; Travel Insurance....forgot to tell you that the firm I mentioned will take into consideration any group travel insurance that you may have.

As an example, we have 60 days of travel insurance with another insurance company through my employer pension plan. I just called and added another 35 days on to the end of that 60 days to give us a total of 95 days. Just over $200. for both of us-both over 60, under 65. $10 million coverage w/ evac.

Also, if we decide to return later than anticipated, as we did last time, we simply call, amend the policy, and add a the required days.

Good for you for snagging a bargain. We would have done the same thing. We usually book inside the final payment window and cherry pick three of four cruise lines.

There really is not that much difference any more. Most of the differences are attributable to personal preferences and ship. Service is all about the same.

IF you read my post you would find that I was no in any way critical of anyone buying inexpensive clothing from where ever.

In fact, I could care less where someone buys their clothing or what they pay.

My comments centered on some people out there actually seem to believe that those of us who choose to remain casual do so because we cannot afford formal clothing. It is as though they cannot comprehend someone doing something different or acting in a different manner than them.

My comments about table cloths were not directed at you or anyone else. IF you read my last comment it was 'to each his own'. I could care less if someone brings a tablecloth, a table setting, or a table on board. Not my business, has no impact on me whatsoever.

Yes, we would do it and we have done it.

You just need to be flexible as regards to cruise/cruise line and have a backup plan for a land vacation. We also do one way flights. Did this last fall, and will be leaving in two weeks with only one way tickets. Last time we got great one way cruise air home, hopefully this time will be the same.