RetiredandTravel

We've been to Antigua ~20 times on land based vacations. If I were looking for a beach day from a ship I'd find a quality hotel that offers day passes and ask them to set up a car service. We've only had good experiences with the car services offered by the resorts. I'm not sure how accurate the below link is but it shows resorts that offer day passes. You'll have to check with the resorts. We've stayed at Carlisle Bay 7-8 times, it was a premier resort when it opened but has slipped some, should be fine for a day. People on private boats would often come ashore and use the beach, restaurants & spa. Curtain Bluff (3 visits) has a very country club feel also a "luxury" resort. Curtain Bluff was one of the original "luxury" resorts in the Caribbean. They are both a bit of a drive. Galley Bay (2 visits) is closer and also ok. Using cruise line comparisons, Carlisle Bay & Curtain Bluff are like Seabourn, Galley Bay like Viking. This has no relevance but Coco Point Lodge in Barbuda had possibly the most beautiful beach in the world. Unfortunately destroyed by Hurricane Irma. Hope it all works out, have fun. https://www.antiguanice.com/accommodation.php?cat=145

I used to go to Banc One in Columbus from time to time. If I recall Mitchell's Steakhouse put blue cheese in the olives for their martini's. Awesome. Fed is just following the data like we are at this point. The S&P did hold the 200 day MA so at least there was some good news. February is historically one of the worst months of the year. Link to Ed Yardeni's work on the topic. https://www.yardeni.com/pub/stmktreturns.pdf

Our cruise was in 2019 and the ship was 100% full. In most cases the full buses didn't bother us, we would just explore on our own if necessary. Again the enrichment speaker is very important. Rachel is correct in that all the buses aren't going to be full in many cases some may have as few as 10 people. Everyone has their own interests in the process. .Sounds like you are looking for smaller type tours with constant interaction with the guide. I'm not sure you can be assured of that in the "free" excursions. Another caution is smaller ports with a high interest level and few interesting locations to visit like Hiroshima. Everyone is interested in Hiroshima and there is really only one main point of interest, the museum and the park . Regent should do a better job staging the excursions IMO in these situations. In our case not only was the museum crowded with school kids but a large percentage of the Regent ship descended on it in a short period of time. Several rooms in the museum were packed like sardines, Grand Central subway, the "Lex" line at 5PM. We were eight - ten rows deep in most rooms so the experience was greatly diluted. Our tour guide was great and did a great job outside the museum but there was nothing she could do inside. You may want to check here for other peoples experiences on the ports you visit and try to use private (semi private) guides that leave before the crowd in these situations.

We have actually every bus on our Japan tour was completely full with probably 50-60 people. Four people across 12-15 rows you do the math. I'm glad you agree with my lower range.

S&P 500 just down a touch on the week. Not bad given the poor information flow. Its Fibonacci Friday (SPX) 38.2 - 4002 , 50 - 4159 & 61.8 - 4315 (close to Aug 22 high). Commodities had a tough week. Two year held 4.72 for now. Cheers!!

I think its important to understand that the Regent "free" excursions are large (30-60 people) group tours, they aren't semi-private or private. So IMO Regents responsibility is : 1) That the bus is clean and works correctly (motor/AC/bathrooms etc) 2) The driver is nice and gets you to to your location and back to the ship in a timely and safe manner. 3) The tour guide speaks decent English and is knowledgeable, engaged.& friendly. They should also keep the group organized and on time. In most situations Regent isn't responsible for large crowds and the quality of excursion site you selected to see. In our experience on most "free" excursions Regent has delivered a good group tour product. Private tours are of course better but I don't feel that some ports have enough of interest to warrant the extra money. Slidebite is correct that in many of these "smaller ports" you can just treat the excursion as a ride and explore on your own If having a dedicated private tour is of paramount importance spend the extra $400 - $1000 per port. Personally I would do some home work on each port and use the private tours (Rome??) where necessary. Example we were on a Regent "free" in Kyoto. The Golden Pavilion was so crowded we lost the tour guide and had to do it on our own. We laughed because 30 yards away was like 20 guides holding signs. IMO this doesn't mean Regent did a poor job, they did everything I mentioned, but we should have gotten a private tour for a better experience. One important point is if you set up your own private tour independent of Regent and they don't get you back to the ship on time the ship is probably leaving. Regent tours they wait, or so I am told. Never been late. Another very important note is that the enrichment speaker quality is a major factor in the excursion experience. We had a woman speaker from the Smithsonian on one cruise who was phenomenal, every port we had a great knowledge of the history before we got on the bus. Made a huge difference. We also had one that IMO was horrendous of virtually no value. I'd also recommend doing some home work on your own before hand. Enjoy your trip.

Thanks again everyone. Terry this is our first trip to Australia/NZ. It takes 25 hours to get there and costs 15-16 k for tickets so we want to make the most of the trip. We max out at 4 locations for land based trips so in this case it depends if we can fill 3-4 full days (4-5nights) with fun & interesting events. I do think from Silver & Taxatty's comments that we would probably focus on SE Australia and not go to Qualia. It looks beautiful but 3-4 beach type days probably aren't in order here. We have to dig into this more but our initial take is that there may not be enough of interest to us to fill that many days. Here is the SS Eastern Australian Nov '24 cruise, it has seven sea days and doesn't go to Tasmania. Not Optimal. https://www.silversea.com/destinations/australia-new-zealand-cruise/cairns-to-sydney-sn241118016.html We aren't hardcore "outdoors" people. We are both very fit but my wife has serious arthritis in her knee, not all the time but when it flares up its a major issue. Honestly we like do some outdoors type stuff but we aren't seriously into it like some folks. Terry our initial idea was to spend several days in Australia and then do the Sydney>Auckland cruise like you recommended. What are your thoughts on how the traditional excursions on a cruise in NZ represent the country? I may be overthinking this. I haven't looked into Sydney lodging extensively but do like to look of Spicers Potts Point. Thanks for the suggestion. I was actually comparing Spicers Sangoma Retreat in the Blue Mountains with the One & Only. https://spicersretreats.com/retreats/spicers-sangoma-retreat/ I have noticed that the Park Hyatt is 2x the price of The Four Seasons & Langham, I guess the location is one of the reasons. We would probably go with the cheaper choice. HPD I'm looking into if I can use Amex points for Qantas flights looks like each trip is 1k+ for two. Adds up. We definitely won't be driving. I will read that book thanks. Thanks again all.

Bloomberg has been on this story that heavy trading in one day options has been a major catalyst for the recent intraday trading volatility. One person said the market can get over bought or over sold in a very short period of time and that the VIX doesn't reflect it because the VIX only counts options with 27+ day expiration. I thought one of the Bloomberg commentators nailed it when he said " Where are the regulators? This sounds like a train wreck in the making" Thanks everyone for the great input on Australia I'll be back later. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-02-15/one-day-options-binge-making-market-macro-tea-leaves-unreadable?leadSource=uverify wall

Thank you. Hopefully Wolgan Valley will cover the Blue Mountains. I'll check, thanks for the recommendation. We are probably going next Feb/March so I think Uluru will be too hot. Did you go to Tasmania? I'm wondering if Hobart is the place to base out of there. Thanks again.

I'm working on our 2024 travel plans and would appreciate your thoughts & experiences. We are looking at two trips, Athens>Turkey>Israel and Australia. The SB 14 day itinerary seems preferable because it includes more of Greek Islands and Turkey while SS goes to Egypt. We would like to go the first half of next year and unfortunately the SB cruise is full in the first half only Sept available, one SS is on the Spirit which hasn't received very good press lately. thoughts? When it comes to Australia we are thinking we will concentrate on Australia and not do the traditional Sydney>Auckland trip. Thoughts?? Our debate is between a land based trip (Wolgan Valley, Hobart, Great Barrier Reef & Sydney) or SS 16 day Eastern Australia cruise from Cairns to Sydney (Nova - 7 sea days). We would also stay in Sydney a few days. Thoughts? Does anyone has any preferences between Qualia & Lizard Island Resort? The two year treasury approached the recent 4.72 yield today touched 4.70 today with a high 70 9 day RSI. Then backed off which was good sign. I would have preferred a new high and serious a reversal, I've seen too many high RSIs turn into sideways trading and then continue the trend.

OK thanks. Do 30 day cruises get any more in Deluxe Veranda?

I'm sure it works but the specialty reservation process seems too random. I would think some pre boarding priority system with a least one reso per room would be better. Then fill it out on the ship but I'm sure they have their reasons. My Aunt & Uncle lived in Skaneatles, but that was a long time ago.

Thanks. I know this is a tough question. If you had to guess how many reservations at Manfredi's would I be able to get on a 30 day cruise. That is if I were willing to eat there every night (just for arguments sake). We like a bottle of wine with dinner so going with the bottle of wine looks like it makes sense. I saw a list that must be a little older but it had several nice selections for $25.

We've been very fortunate in our land based vacations since Covid. Initially staffing was a little light and menus more limited but in 2022 we felt things wee back to normal. In certain geographical areas cruising just makes sense and there only a few lines that work for us. On our 2019 Regent cruise some frequent cruisers told us that they felt the quality had declined since Regent was acquired. "The bean counters are in charge" was the phase they used. It sounds like the quality has continued to decline. We have some cruises in 2024/25 so we'll judge for ourselves. I worked with young person who in 2007 told me he took out a no money down Interest Only Mortgage. OK. So lets issue mortgages to people have no skin in the game, then create highly levered derivate MBS, then trade those securities with Broker-Dealers also with highly levered Balance sheets and then trade the securities to levered CDOs. What could go wrong? We also love the smaller hotels & resorts thanks for the Ava suggestion.

Many thanks. So there is usually a decent amount of availability once you get on board?

Hello We have never cruised on Viking and are considering a 30 day Australian cruise. I've looked around but cant find answers to these questions. Anyone's help is greatly appreciated. 1) Main Restaurant - Dinner Main Course Menus - The pictures I've seen quite often show three selections. Are there other main course choices? How often does the menu change? 2) On a 30 day cruise in a Veranda Suite how often do I get specialty restaurant reservations and how are they allocated? 3) Does anyone have examples of the wine lists - Included, Silver Spirits & Connoisseur? Thanks Again.

It definitely is. We took a private tour from Positano, very close. The tour guide also took us to lunch at this small local restaurant owned by an Italian lady. One of the best Italian meals we have ever had. I'm sure you know this but almost the entire town was preserved by the Mount Vesuvius volcano lava. Amazing. Hope you get to see it.

Either way I would highly recommend a serious tour of Pompeii. We found Pompeii absolutely fascinating.

Its not like they need the money or anything.

If you are new to Regent one of the biggest benefits of the Concierge Suite (and higher) is it gives you priority for excursions & specialty restaurant reservations. This is quite important, so if you can swing it go with Concierge over basic Veranda. Our experience is that a vast majority of Regent cruisers and very nice and friendly. We have met a few that seem to think they are further up the food chain because they have cruised many nights on Regent. I would guess that's true on any cruise line. Easily ignored. The demographic is on the older side. I'd guess 80% above 60 and 90% above 50. I doubt many would treat someone younger differently but its important to know. We have had good experiences with Regent included excursions but they are on a bus with 30-60 other passengers and a tour guide. In most cases the bus takes you to the destination and you walk around with the group and tour guide. There is a wide variety of food choices and they will cater to your requests. enjoy.

The "risk on" trade in stocks, corporate bonds and high yield YTD indicates the market is leaning towards the soft landing camp. The spike in two year yields this week is a little disconcerting, Feb 2 low 4.04% yesterday 4.52. With Covid this seems to me to be a very unique economic environment, very hard to predict. Economic data is always important but even more so at this point, big economic week this week. I only make long term asset allocation decisions at this point and my big question is are we going back to the low inflation environment we had for ~ 40 years (couple of bumps 🙂). The rise in productivity because of technological advancements was a key driver of the low inflation. Will these advancements continue and are there any other potential negative drivers. Here is an article by the St Louis fed on long term inflation pre - Covid (2018) and a comment (somewhat dated 2005) by Chairman Greenspan. "Alan Greenspan, then chairman of the Federal Reserve, stated in testimony before the U.S. Congress in 2005: “The past decade of low inflation and solid economic growth in the United States and in many other countries around the world … is attributable to the remarkable confluence of innovations that spawned new computer, telecommunication, and networking technologies, which, especially in the United States, have elevated the growth of productivity, suppressed unit labor costs, and helped to contain inflationary pressures.” https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/first-quarter-2018/why-inflation-so-low I guess a potential negative driver is how the energy transition will be handled. Will it be done in a manner that maintains our current standard of living and doesn't make us less economically competitive with our competitors that aren't as aggressive in the transition. This isn't a political statement but the US still doesn't have what I would consider a viable long term energy transition policy from either party. I would have to think that RCL long term barrowing cost has decreased quite a bit in the last 3-6 months. The stock is up and there has been a solid rally in high yield. Oil prices are down and the vacationing consumer remains strong, all good. How you value RCL stock at this point is way above my pay grade. I don't think the bookings are "pent up" anymore, people have cash and like to vacation. Will the service & food improve? You tell me , I hope so from what I've read. Not luxury IMO in many cases. S&P 500 chart still looks ok to me, I'd like to see the Russell 2000 get above 2000.

We liked the Gritti Palace. Nice restaurant on the canal, very pricey these days. I think its now owned by Marriott but many luxury resorts in Europe are. https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g187870-d230427-Reviews-The_Gritti_Palace_a_Luxury_Collection_Hotel_Venice-Venice_Veneto.html

We haven't been on the Mariner since 2019 but I can confirm we had a major issue issue with backed up toilets with water and sewage pouring into the room. This issue had nothing to do with our actions. Attached is a recent review (not ours). We were also on 8. We did have a great time at Prime 7. https://www.cruisecritic.com/memberreviews/memberreview.cfm?EntryID=694244

If you have never been to Europe I would say London, Paris & Rome are must sees and IMO a cruise (ocean or river) isn't the best way to experience these cities. One of the best parts of these cities is experiencing the culture, food & wine, this is a big limitation of ocean cruising. Also a one day excursion just doesn't do these cities justice. At least start the cruise in Rome and spend a few days there before the cruise. Either way I hope you have an enjoyable and memorable trip.

More like a game of pong (which I had in college)😎. Considerable US borrowing is based off the US Treasury curve, they did a nice job of pushing Treasury yields back up. 10 year started the month at 3.40 now 3.60. It appears that recently there hasn't been as strong a correlation between Treasury prices and stock prices. Upcoming Inflation and employment data will be key IMO.