gcornell

Exactly. Can’t imagine why anyone would chose to be a kid. I skipped right over those years. I sure most on here did too judging by the comments. 😜

What I enjoy as well is it’s always the wives asking for their husbands. My wife wouldn’t have to ask as she would refuse to dine with me if I couldn’t follow the rules. 😂 p.s. I would love to wear shorts but when in Rome…

My favorite part of every one of these threads… “but they are designer jeans”. Have you seen the $20k jeans that Blake Lively wears? 😂

Same but when I chose a different state of residency the option returned.

I book all my domestic and international flights the day they are released (330-355 days in advance of the return). We generally fly business class for flights over 4 hours and get the bulkhead economy for flights under 4 hours. I then set up Google alerts for price changes. Not once have the fares gone down since I’ve been doing this. In fact, on several trips the fares were 2-4 times more expensive just a few months out which, for 4 tickets, is thousands of dollars and in a few cases tens of thousands. Plus I always get the exact seats I want. Keep in mind my kids are in school so our travel windows are limited and popular.

Yes. Those were crazy times. I ended up with a $24,000 FCC from silverseas because I had a bunch of cruises cancelled before they realized that it was going bankrupt them.

Sure. In the US. Paid non refundable deposit. Booked with a Virtuoso agent. I set up a price alert on shipmate which isn’t very accurate but provides direction and prompts me to do dummy booking to check actual prices. Then I email by TA and about an hour later he sends me confirmation.

Couldn’t edit but wanted to clarify that I did the math and today’s repricing dropped the rate another $1,300 for a total now of $6,500.

Bumping this as another PSA to keep checking prices. I repriced again, lost count (maybe 7), and saved another $350.

I don’t know about the notice but we did the tour a few years ago. While we enjoyed it and still thought it was worth it, I wish we paid a little more attention and added up all the time on the bus. I can’t remember exactly how long we were on it in total but do remember many, including us, thought it was lot more than expected. I believe each segment is detailed in the description but no one added it up before hand.

Well since we are sharing… I tip once. Never twice.

I can’t imagine why anyone would choose a career in the hospitality industry. I wouldn’t last a day.

Can’t tell if OP is humble bragging or serious question?

Agreed. What I see as the big difference is going back in history, the potential impact for jumping to conclusions was limited to the family dinner table. These days a “erroneous conviction” has the potential to reach hundreds, thousands, maybe millions within hours.

Heck ya. That’s practically a professional sport these days. Judge, shame and finish up with some virtue signaling before the facts come out. Timing is key. Must be done very quickly.

Correction: No CRIMINAL or CIVIL charges but the Captain was tried and convicted within the first few hours here on Cruise Critic. 😉

Japan, July 1, 2025. 2 AquaClass cabins. Repriced bunch of times saving $600-$1,800 each time. I have a feeling I have the best price now. Let’s see. I do this with all my trips. Going on Silversea next month and repriced that a few times saving at least $8,000. I’ve had a lot of luck repricing hotel rooms as well for savings of 30%+.

Agreed. I’ve repriced 5+ times for a savings of over $5,000 so far.

I got you. Hoping to do those trips when kids are gone. Not rushing it though. I would really hate to give you wrong info especially with that much money involved. Perhaps check the website as I found calling just has them read the terms and conditions verbatim over the phone with absolutely no variance from the script. I guess I understand why. They are great cards and I think they have gotten better especially for frequent travelers such as yourself. I take advantage of pretty much every benefit it offers and easily get a return of 20x the annual fee each year.

$20,000 per trip for each card which generally covers or almost covers all of the non cancellable, non refundable or non future credit part of the trip. In 55 years of traveling I have never had to cancel so I look at it this way…. Even if it cost me a few extra bucks because I wasn’t fully covered I am still tens of thousands ahead.

I’m in Aqua next year on the Millie and published prices for veranda are actually $10 more than concierge and Aqua is just $10 more than Veranda

I always book my flights 330-355 days in advance of the return depending on when the airline releases flights. Economy for under 3-4 hours and business for 4 plus. I then set up a google alert so I can track and learn for next time. Every case, I got the best fare. In some, the fares went up 3-4x what I paid even a few months out.

Oopsie. Misread that. Thanks.

Hope it works out. I went to Fiji for a week years ago. It was my first vacation ever, out of 100+ all over the world, that it rained every single minute of our trip except for a few hours before we left for home.

Where’s the fun in that? That means we can’t judge, shame and top it off with a bit of virtue signaling. Boring! I’m going back to the tipping threads. 🤪