Toofarfromthesea

14 hours ago, luisc25 said:

I just paid the deposit with the premium CC to get the travel insurance and send the payment right away. (Ramsey approved if you send the payment right away) and don’t get in debt, remember the key is not to have debt. In other words don’t overspend more than budget and if you can’t covered don’t buy it. Simple as that. 

Ramsey went broke using credit.  Why would anyone rely on advice from him on credit?  

15 hours ago, ldubs said:

 

I read "equivalent retail" to not literally mean they earned $30K in rebates.  Probably earned miles or 3x type rewards that allowed booking of airfares with a retail equivalent of $XX..  

 

Or, I could be all wet!  Haha

People who think you have to spend 300,000 on their credit card in order to get tickets with a retail value of 30,000 do not have a clue about how any of this works.  And they are actually proud of their ignorance.

6 hours ago, DarrenM said:

Is anyone on here ignorant of how they work?

I would never presume to guess at what you do or do not know, as you like to portray yourself as incurably ignorant about anything financial but I think it is all just an act.

Tracking down a crew member's personal contact info sounds a little creepy, to me.

It is kind of funny how credit cards and their usage seem to make so many people so proud of their ignorance about how they work.

Two words would stop the nonsense:  strict liability

4 hours ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

Dave Ramsey is a radio talk show host, who offers a financial planning program, with the goal of escaping debt, and building a nest egg for retirement.  I am actually following his Roth IRA advice to a T, and am a subscriber.

 

I understand that some people overspend, which can be done with a debit card by the same principles, or are more responsible with cash.  Dave regularly claims to have never met a millionair who built their wealth with airline miles, yet I've never met anyone with Southwest card, claiming that it was their lucky lotto ticket.  Half of his talking points against credit cards are strawman arguments.

What a profoundly ridiculous remark.  No one is expecting to become a millionaire or build wealth on airline miles.  

But I bet virtually every millionaire got there with the judicious use of credit.

Credit cards are a great tool for people who are financially responsible.  They are also really the only prudent way to pay for something substantial in the future, as you are protected against bankruptcy of the carrier.  People found that out the hard way back when airlines were going belly up. 

And done properly you get a lot more than the mocking "0.02465%" nonsense.  There are other good ones, but I happen to use CSR, which on top of the 5% repeat customer discount I get on my favorite cruiseline, and the 8-10% discount/OBC I get from whichever TA I use, gives me an additional 4.5% in points and booking portal - as well as a whole host of other valuable benefits.  That translates into free domestic first class flights to get to the cruiseport, for me.  Or free Business Class to Europe.  Just for doing all my normal spending activities on the card.

Now if someone is not financially responsible then by all means they should follow the Dave Ramsay advice and eschew credit cards.  But for those who are financially responsible, using a credit card is a complete no-brainer, IMO.  To do otherwise is just throwing away money - a lot of money.  Then it just comes down to which one fits you best.

11 hours ago, Reggietours said:

Hi Everybody,

 

Just booked our first Baltic Cruise on the Arcadia 31st May this year. The main port of call for us is St Petersburgh I was hoping that with all the vast knowledge out there I could have some recommendations for a two day tour. I am aware that P&O do their own tours and Cruise.co.uk have similar tours slightly cheaper. I also read somewhere that you can book with local companies but I am a bit wary of this. Any recommendations would be helpful thank you.

Those local companies that you are wary of are some of the most high-quality reliable excursion companies you will find at any port anywhere.  Their ability to do 'vise-free' tours depends on it.  Don't listen to any propaganda to the contrary from any cruise line.

16 hours ago, squick64 said:

The travel and dining can be anything that qualifies as either, which is broad. Steak or McDonald's, a Lyft ride or a cruise.

 

Be aware that occasionally, they'll misclassify things or just straight not count things. Like my work cafeteria doesn't count as dining because it's a food service facility inside another business. And once, I had them classify a hotel as a hair salon (!), which was fixed (with extra points for my trouble) after I called them out on Twitter. But normally, they're pretty good about it.

Tolls get triple points and are eligible for the 300 travel credit.  A credit for about $30 bucks showed up on our statement which momentarily confused us until we matched to to a toll road charge.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2018/06/90-of-plastic-polluting-our-oceans-comes-from-just-10-rivers/

Just saying.  But by all means attack a tiny part of the problem, e.g., plastic straws, to make yourself feel better.

If 'global warming' is really the moral equivalent of war we would be bombing the (dirty) coal burning plants in India and China.  In just this year alone Chine is slated to bring more coal burning generating plants on-line than all the coal burning plants in Europe.

How Dare They!!!

4 hours ago, Joebucks said:

 

A good rule of thumb (but not the be all end all) is that the premium travel cards with annual fees of $400-$600 generally include some pretty solid coverage. A quick google search will help you find and compare them.

 

For the most part, there's lots of the same coverages. A few differences in benefits, small print, etc. You'll generally see baggage delay, trip delay, trip cancellation, medical, medical evac, rental car, etc. Many cheaper cards include some of these coverages too, but they will be quite scaled back, even sometimes not useful.

 

Take some time and read up on them. I would use the insurance as a secondary reason unless something REALLY sticks out. I'd start with what up front benefits you would use the most. Like cash back that mirrors your common purchasing habits, other travel perks you would make use of, etc.

 

I chose Chase because of its generous cashback categories, insurance, easy to claim travel credit. Even with the increase in the annual fee that just happened, it brings the "effective" annual fee to $250 a year (after you claim the very easy $300 travel credit). I absolutely exceed that amount in just "travel insurance" that would have been out of pocket. Let alone priority pass, global entry, no foreign transaction fees, and tons of rewards.

Paying for a cruise with the Sapphire preferred is like getting an additional 3-4.5% discount (depending on whether you spend your points in the Chase portal) on top of whatever deal you might have gotten from your TA.

10 hours ago, Faxsimiles said:

We are booked to go to the Baltic (including St Petersburg) with Celebrity this summer, but would rather book our own shore excursions than buy the 'off the peg' ones offered by the company. We have found several tour operators that claim to be 'visa free' in that we won't need to obtain a visa from the Russian Embassy (very slow, very expensive, and trips to the London based consulate required), but their claim doesn't chime with the rhetoric produced by Celebrity, whose rules and regulations pass all the responsibility for visas squarely onto the passengers (apart from on trips supplied by them, of course!).

 

I've used the tour company Viator before, in other parts of the world, so I am inclined to believe their reassurance that it's all under control, but wanted to find out if other visitors to St Petersburg have used them, and whether visas were an issue?

 

Many thanks

 

Joanthan S

Use one of the large Russian tour companies.  They are uber-reliable, generally get rave reviews, and the visa is included.  

3 hours ago, brandy3415 said:

Are Yacht Club drinks contingent on having a drink package?

No.  Not only are drinks in the Yacht Club included, but drinks throughout the whole ship.  Everything except the tippy top shelf, but you get even those by upgrading to the Premium Plus package (about 17 pp pd) and drink expensive champaign, high end single malt and blended scotches, etc. to your heart's content.

I drink wine and have a fairly dull palate so personally I am content with the included package.

13 minutes ago, Tee & Chilli said:

Has anyone used a prepaid card when traveling international? I'm trying to load money on a card without using my personal credit card which has foreign transaction fees.

We got a debit card for travel from our bank, Wells Fargo.  No FTFs and the connection to our accounts is protected, since the card can only access the amount we put on it. 

IOW, someone stealing the card and fraudulently using it could not clean out our account because that card cannot access our account.  The most they could get is the amount we had already placed on it. 

We basically only use this card to get foreign currency at ATMs.  For other purchases we use our regular credit card and, given the choice, have the charge made in the local currency and let the card, which also has no FTF, do the exchange rate to dollars.

Perhaps the bartender was just playing the OP for an additional cash tip.

15 hours ago, 2wheelin said:

Has anyone who sails once every couple of years for less than $2000 every gotten that 7-10% back? Those of you who are getting those breaks usually go on to indicate frequent cruises. Sure if you are going on several a year, even if some are low cost, you will get breaks.But I have talked to many TAs and not found one yet who will give a break on a single cruise. Did get $50 once though from a big box.

Just returned from a cruise for which the TA booked 44 people in a group and we received a cocktail party from her on the last day of the cruise. They offered pre mixed rum punch, sex on the beach, and screwdrivers. That was it!

I did not choose this TA but was forced to use her because of the nature of the group and she made many screw ups in spite of her claims of having booked lots of cruises. She will not be used again by any of us.

I use a site that lets TAs quote on my cruise and so far I have booked with a different TA every time, so from the TA's perspective it is a 'single cruise'.  No one is giving me anything because of repeat business.  Nevertheless I have gotten great deals with significant perks - even on MSC which some people say their TA won't deal with.

On 1/9/2020 at 8:21 PM, neptuno said:

MSC  is cheap for a reason.  Poor website, poor customer service.  You pay for what you get.

I'm not paying my money for their bad website or bad service, I pay it for a wonderful cruise - and they deliver, IMO.

However, while you cannot stack the internal MSC discounts, you CAN stack them with outside discounts and perks provided by your TA.

10 hours ago, KennyFla said:

When after booking/paying for the cruise have people received upgrade emails?  And are you offered different upgrade choices or just one?

You may not get one.  I haven't, with 2 MSC cruises so far and another booked for next Nov.

On 1/7/2020 at 1:18 PM, Itchy&Scratchy said:

seriously, it's Southern Caribbean - ABC islands, and it doesn't excite you?????

 

 

- that's a Western itinerary, not Southern Caribbean.

By all means criticize and correct the newby Brit for not knowing what we experienced folks in the States call different parts of the Carib, while offering them nothing constructive or of value.

On 1/6/2020 at 8:07 AM, Amion68 said:

Thankyou for responding and for your advice.  I must confess I was sceptical about Vegas for the kids, and given that I have been there myself once before perhaps I should instead tick it off as done (and I did enjoy it :-)).  However the flight times to the west coast from UK are only approx 1 hour on top of flights to the East coast, and surprisingly cheaper to LAX compared to Miami.  

 

Re the itineraries, for the Caribean cruises.....

The Southern itinerary on MSC is 7 nights: Miami, Costa Maya, Belize City, Islka de Roatan, Ocean Cay Bahamas, Miami

The Southern on Adventurer is 8 nights: Fort L, Aruba, Curacao, Kralendijk with more sea days either side

The Western is on Harmony out of Port Canaveral (which I failed to point out in my post) and takes in CocoCay Bahams, Puerto Costa Maya, Roatan, Cozumel

Don't worry about Vegas, it has regeared itself to be very family friendly - at least some of the hotels.

14 hours ago, clo said:

Thanks. I'm going to dig into it. And not just for cruises which will likely not be our only mode of travel.

There is a huge forum site called Flyertalk that has a forum where the various credit cards and their benefits are analyzed and discussed 6 ways from Sunday.  

23 hours ago, new.b.cruiser said:

Hello, 

Can someone tell me the gratuity breakdown on msc sailing to the Caribbean? I cannot for the life of me find it on their website and would like to know how it gets split among the staff.

Thank you! 

Why?

On 1/4/2020 at 5:03 AM, Markanddonna said:

We found that to be very true in the Med and one third were from China. It was a surprise when we overheard passengers speaking English.

On a 14 day Baltic/Fjords cruise last April/May on Meraviglia, we were the only identifiably American couple in the Yacht Club.  There WAS another American couple - a true Southern Belle, and a charming Iranian-American.  They lived in Iran for 10 years before barely getting out with their kids when the '79 Revolution came. Between themselves they spoke Farsi, so it was hard to make the national identity.  We figured it out when we heard her speaking English to one of the staff.  Lovely couple.