gcornell

Don’t forget I need 2 cabins.

Glad you had a great time. I really wanted to do SS Japan next year but the timing doesn’t work out with the kids school schedule so went with celebrity as they go in July and SS doesn’t. The one good thing is it’s well over $20k less so that helps.

I’ve done a bunch of SS cruises, with my kids (sorry lol) and doing our first Celebrity July 25 so can’t compare yet. Like many lines SS, is slowly cutting back while still charging a fortune. Sure the excursions are “included” but they recently made a huge cut back on the included excursions whereby most are simple walking tours from the pier or similar. They select excursions are the better ones and cost has increased dramatically. If you were to go, choose the most basic fare without the extras is my advice.

Sorry to hear that. Frustrating. I booked through an outside TA. I’ve emailed him 3 times and got a repricing within an hour or so. I think he does it online without any calls.

lol. Okay. That took a turn. Same as when we travel every summer. We manage just like the millions do every single day. Anyway I travel with my family so the kids school schedule is not flexible.

At a time where it seems like everything is getting more expensive and companies are figuring out new and creative ways to get more money from our pockets for the same or less product/service I curious it’s common that my July 25 Japan cruise has dropped 3 times? I booked 2 Aqua Prime cabins in December 2023 and have now repriced them 3 times for a total savings of over $3,000.

Agreed but it wouldn’t be the internet if people didn’t judge and criticize unfortunately.

As follow up, if your kids have only experienced one type of vacation, it's challenging to know if they will like a different type until you try. They don't know what they are missing because they haven't experienced it. As I said above, we were doing typical kid vacations until we decided to introduce something different to them. Looking back, there were no signs my kids were ready for adult type vacations. We gave it a shot, built up the excitement talking about the new experiences and places. They talk about it every day at school with teachers, their friends and with us. The maturity and confidence level of both my kids, but especially my midde school age daughter, has been incredible. She dives with sharks, drove an ATV through the packed streets of Cairo, rapelled down 250ft waterfalls, viewed Lions within just a few feet, etc. Priceless. So again, my suggestion is to go for it and expand their world.

Do it! When my kids were very young (up until age 8 we did the normal Disney trips, resorts, main line cruises, etc. Since that time, 6 years ago, they have travelled the world on what would be considered adult type trips - Africa a few times, Galapagos, Egypt, 3 Silversea cruises in which there were no or only a few kids and multiple scuba liveaboards where they were the only kids on the boat every time. They loved every minute of the “adult” trips and learned a great deal about the world and other cultures. On each trip I found the other adults severely underestimated the value of brining their kids on those types of trips but afterwards regretted not doing so after seeing ours.

In my case the credit was $93 per person for a total of $186.

Yes you can. When you get the link to book your ride you can choose an SUV. Obviously pickup all has to be from the same address. I did it last year as we had 2 cabins and I took the credit on one and the Blacklane on the other.

Please don’t misrepresent what I wrote. The topic was “volcano insurance” which I lump in with various other policies that insurance companies love to sell us for low risk/cost occurrences. I clearly said have insurance for health needs.

Personally, I insure only what I can’t afford to lose and will have a big impact on my finances - life, health, liability, home and autos. Everything else I self insure. Even better, take 10-20% of those expensive premiums you aren’t spending, put them in a savings account, and there’s your insurance policy for the future. Most likely you will have a nice size savings account in a few years. Sure every 1 in 10 make out on those policies but it’s the same at going to Vegas. No one tells you about the time they lost money. Only the winners

Wow! So it did come from corporate. Another money grab from companies providing the same (or less) goods/service and trying to get more money from my wallet. Hard NO.

If they leave a letter like that in my cabin the chance of me tipping twice goes from 1% to 0%

I always do the math to see what works out better. For our Med cruise last year (family of 4) we paid the deviation fee and an additional fee because we wanted certain flights and it was still $7,000 or so less than booking ourselves. We paid Blacklane for an 5 extra miles and again it was still less than the credit offered and booking on our own. For our upcoming Iceland cruise we choose P2P and did our own arrangements as SS D2D would have been significantly more.

Sorry if I was not clear. I still have the original price when I booked for the Select. For now at least! I think the post before yours nailed it. They underestimated the cost a year+ in advance and are now trying to pass it along to clients.

Update: I had my TA reach out to his contacts and got a canned response that excursions aren’t guaranteed…. I called customer service and well you know how that went. I then resorted to what I call the nuclear option and emailed every VP and up. Got a very prompt and courteous reply that they will review and get back to me by end of week with a “fair outcome”. Also, just and FYI, I did book some Select excursions originally and the published price is up 30-40% since I booked. Thankfully, I still have original price. I know inflation is still a little warm but that’s it’s nowhere near that hot. When will the money grabs end?

It gets worse. They have now started cancelling my grandfathered Included Excursions and but they are still available under Selected Excursions.

Wondering if anyone has had similar issue and resolved successfully. I booked my 7/3 Iceland cruise a while ago and immediately booked shore excursions. 7 of 8 were included so no additional cost and a nice variety as well. Since that time SS moved 6 of the 8 to Select excursions but since I booked prior I was honored the original cost ($0). So far so good. SS cancelled 2 of my excursions yesterday and because the vast majority of excursions are now Select (except some walking tours) the additional cost is $2,100. We are a family of 4 so it adds up fast. Anyone successful in getting them to at least give a credit for the cost of the originally booked tours? Frustrating because it seems like every day companies are figuring out new and creative ways to get more money out of their customer's wallets for the same product or service.

Crazy. I was recently on a liveaboard (scuba boat) with my family for 7 nights. They added on a $2,000 service charge or $285 a night. It was a lot but the service was amazing and the staff to guest ratio was 1:1. At the end of the trip the was an envelop in our cabins for extra tips on top of the $2k. It remained empty.

Since we are all sharing…. I tip once! When did tipping twice become the norm? Would tipping 3 times be even better? When will it end?

My kids still love Disney and their favorite cruise line is Silver Sea. Go figure.

I think you are underestimating some kids. We have been traveling with our kids to remote, mostly adult destinations with no dedicated kids activities and no entertainment or other kids - Africa, scuba liveaboards, expedition cruises, etc. Not once did they say they were bored, they interacted with other adults and are much smarter, mature and worldly as a result. In fact, we refuse to do normal family vacations. Boring!

Update. I heard from my Virtuoso agent who received my email at the same time he was having lunch with a VP at Silversea and confirmed that once booked as Included there should be no charge.