bruzin_for_a_cruizin

Currently holding 180 shares @ avg price of $79.89 after I sold off 20 shares at $133. I don't really need the cash right now, but I'm thinking of selling 20 shares a day every day it stays above $135. Doing the math, if I sold 100 shares at $135, I would pocket $5500 in profit. I would have to take 55 cruises to make that back in Shareholder Benefit...

This is a great thread. Thanks for the input. My wife and I will be visiting Tortola for our first time this November on Celebrity Apex, and I was hoping for a "uniquely Tortola" activity. Looks like the Baths is it! We are scheduled to be in port from 7:00-2:30. There is a ship excursion to the Baths for $110 p/p for 4 hours, departing at 7:30. Looking at the ferry schedules (Ferry schedules (sensationferries.com) and speedysbvi bviferries I'm deducing that Celebrity is using Speedy's and placing passengers on the 7:45 ferry from Road Town, returning on the 11:30 from VG. That's really the only ferry schedule which will work with our port times. Understanding all that, it seems as if the ship excursion will be almost 2x the cost of booking the exact same trip directly. So, some questions for you more-experienced travellers: 1) Are my assumptions correct? 2) Is 3 hours at the Baths sufficient for the experience, or should I just look to go to a beach nearer to Road Town? 3) What is the ferry ride like? My wife did not have a good ride on the Cozumel-Playa del Carmen ferry, and I'd rather not subject her to 25 minutes each way of retching.

Yeaahhhhhh.... you might want to do a search here on the IV cabins. As @highway180 says, some here love them, and RCL has built them into the Icon-class ships, so there must be some amount of demand for a larger cabin with a big window. If your expectations are properly set, you should be fine. If you're expecting a balcony in the traditional sense of the word (or in the dictionary sense of the word! LOL!), you'll be disappointed.

Why set yourself up for what will likely be disappointment? If you had originally intended to get an SV, and you do "love afts," why would you spend your hard-earned vacation dollars/time on a cabin category which most self-affirmed balcony-lovers most assuredly do not enjoy? With all due respect, OP, curiosity seems a poor excuse to intentionally potentially self-sabotage a vacation! Go with your first instinct. The E-class SV cabins are spectacular. The E-class IV cabins are a disappointment to most (although some people like them, and others do all sorts of mental gymnastics to convince themselves they like them).

The satellite-broadcast sports on-board tend to more International matches: a lot of cricket & soccer. On our last cruise, I had hoped to catch some NBA basketball, but only one game was picked up, as the other TVs had cricket.

I did the GC/A/B/C itinerary a few weeks ago, diving in each port. For GC I used the ship excursion, as it is a tender port and I didn't want any issues. I also used the ship excursion for Aruba because of our late arrival in port, but Bonaire and Curacao I booked privately. In Grand Cayman, the operator was a short walk from the pier. The boat was in good repair, and the group was only 6 divers, which is what I would consider my upper limit for a "small group" excursion. The diving was satisfactory (Meridian Drop-off and Lonestar Ledge), and if the excursion could be had at a decent price, I wouldn't hesitate to book it again.

We were in SV 8332 on Beyond just a couple weeks ago. There was no lounger upon embarkation, but we asked the stateroom attendant to bring one. He hemmed and hawed, but when we returned to the cabin after dinner, there was a lounger. There certainly is space, even with two chairs and a side table. SV is now my favorite cabin category. I wouldn't sail in an IV for free (well, maybe if the drink package was included!), and the SV is quiet and peaceful. No issues with soot at all. As they say, "Wake View is the Best View!"

Beyond does have a pretty spectacular Elephant sculpture, though...

Harris' recommendations are always spot on. I'm heading out on Beyond next week for a GC/A/B/C cruise where I'll be diving at all four port stops. For Curacao, I will be diving with Caribbean Sea Sports because I didn't want to do shore dives there since we're also diving Bonaire. I've never dived Curacao on earlier visits there, so I'm hoping for a good experience with this operator.

I know that all of us CC citizens look at the various cruise line sales the same way. "Bemused" would be the polite way to put it. I just don't understand how they can continue to get away with it. I am always surprised general vacationers are so obtuse they can't figure out "40% off each guest!" is pretty much the same as "80% off second guest" or "kids sail free!" or whatever nonsense verbiage the cruise lines use to promote their non-sales. It's all the same. The best strategy remains to book far in advance using one of the larger group-booking agencies and monitor pricing for a possible price drop.

Does anyone know if there's a way to check Order History to see how purchases have been billed? I'm fairly certain I applied for the shareholder benefit, and pretty sure it was in my account and applied to the excursion/dining purchases I made. But Order History doesn't break that down, and my memory is awful these days.

They always do... 😁

Appreciate you as always, Harris! I'll reach out to Tom today.

I've got a cruise with a stop in Grand Cayman coming up in November. Typically, I'll book direct with a local operator, but being a tender port I am a little titchy about that so I've booked the cruiseline excursion through Celebrity. I'm open to suggestions otherwise if my buddy and I are not making the best choice! We've booked direct on our other stops on this itinerary (A/B/C).

I'll say what everyone is afraid to say: It isn't "tipping" at the cruise terminal, it's "extortion." It is well-known that porters will indeed misplace/forget/lose/hide/drop in ocean if they feel slighted by the tip when dropping off your bags. For the sake of $5 or $10, it isn't worth ruining a 5-digit vacation. The Porter-Extortion-Fee just gets added to the overall cost of the vacation. Have 1 less Starbucks when you're on-board.

How high can it go on the Earnings announcement? $112 seems high, but we were at $133 just before COVID...

Earnings report in 6 days. I'm hoping we might see some strong numbers come out which might drive the price up even higher. The stock is up 42% since the last earnings report, and revenue and EPS is up since last year. Maybe I'll hang on until the call and then sell off my excess then...

Back up over that $100 mark again today... I think I'm going to sell half my position at a small profit and just hold on to the last 100 shares for the shareholder benefit.

Not much going on this week, with the Independence Day holiday. Still above $100 and seemingly holding there. It'd be nice to see another run up to $120 or so, but I think this may be where we sit for a while. I spent about an hour reading the first couple dozen pages of this post, which started back at the end of February, 2020. It was interesting to see how the virus picked up steam and drove the stock wayyyy down! There were a few here who warned it could/might/will get ugly, and they proved to be correct!

You do know that the shareholder OBC bonus needs 100 shares, yes? Holding 50 shares won't get you anything. Either hold the whole tranche and collect the OBC, or sell the lot!

What's your target price? I always find it curious how stock information is often conflicting. Close today was $103.13, and yet: So which is it? Buy more at $103, or is the target price $94? Because those two data points don't seem to jibe...

The Jazz Club was always an intriguing spot for me. On every sailing I've been on, the Jazz Club has been virtually empty, with never more than 10 patrons listening to the music. The talent has always been quite good, and while I'm not a huge jazz fan, I do like that genre to wind down with a glass of wine or cognac before bed. Clearly, RCL needed to refresh the venue and make better use of the space.

$100 barrier is passed. Currently holding 200 shares at $79. I'll be hanging on to 100 shares of RCL for the OBC until the end of time, but I might sell 100 shares if it goes up another $10 or so. That'll cover the cost of a cruise for me and the wife!

I've been to Coco Cay on a Symphony of the Seas sailing last August. RCI have done a fantastic job on the island and I would welcome Celebrity itineraries which call on Coco Cay. I think they do a pretty good job of managing people flow on the island. We were there and Mariner was there at the same time. Crowds were completely manageable.

I've been maintaining a similar "PP/PN" spreadsheet since 2019. I include: cruise fare, drink/dining packages, gratuities, air fare/hotel/transfers. Pretty much all trip expenses which are consistent from cruise to cruise. The only expenses I don't include on my sheet are excursions, which vary widely from sailing to sailing. Since Dec 2019, I've been on 6 cruises, balconies or suites. I've been on Oasis-class twice, All three E-class ships, and one time (and last!) on NCL Prima. Converting to CAD$, the cheapest cruise in the past 4 years will be my upcoming 9-night sailing (booked more than a year ago) in a Sunset Veranda on Beyond. That one comes in at CAD$363 pp/pn. A real bargain! The most expensive is the Christmas cruise in 2019 in a Jr. Suite on Oasis at $556 pp/pn. The others all came in around $400-$450 for Balconies or Suites, which is probably aligned with the OP's findings in USD, and not including airfare. Looking ahead to 2024, I've only been able to get quotes in the $500+ range. Suite are up to CAD$1250 pp/pn!!! Given the increases, we have decided to forgo cruising for 2024, and will instead be checking out some of the higher-end AI resorts in the Caribbean. I'm looking at prices there which are, even with airfare, as low as half the cost of cruising.