Baron Barracuda

Libor was discredited by a rate rigging scandal, has not been relied upon for several years and is scheduled to go away entirely very soon. Even prior to being discredited it only served as a benchmark for short term borrowings. Fixed rate term facilities are most often priced as a markup over matched maturity $UST.

last offer I received was good on almost 70 sailings including Edge. Some were 10 or 11 nights. Kinda makes you wonder how many paying customers are actually on board and puts an asterisk on Jason Liberty's claims of strong bookings.

Assume these offers are cruise only. If you call can you upgrade to AI cheaper than purchasing bev, grats and wifi individually on the cruise planner?

DW is looking to visit Antarctica so recently began my research and am troubled by the 100 / 500 passenger rules. Have enjoyed VO and VR sailings so want to consider Octanis but with just under 400 passengers wonder how much land time we'd get. Smaller ship would avoid this issue but 100 passenger Celebrity Xpedition in calm Galapagos waters still rocked more than I liked. Anything larger than Octanis would result in a less desirable drive-by sailing. Anyone have first hand experience?

If you cancel what happens to the $200 ?????

Assuming you booked with non-refundable deposit If price drop is greater than than your forfeited deposit it makes sense to cancel and re-book regardless of insurance issue. If not, since you have no pre-existing conditions there is no reason to cancel. You can buy good coverage today. Recommend a quick call to Tripinsurancestore or Squaremouth. Either would be happy review your options and recommend coverage.

Probably not a meaningful comparison. Last year a number of ships were not yet back in service and all were sailing with reduced loads.

Wonder how municipal budget (and local taxes) will be impacted by big drop-off in port charges.

All travel insurance (like all homeowners insurance, all health insurance and all auto insurance) isn't created equal. That's why I rely on the pros at Squaremouth and Trip Insurance Store which are both highly recommended on CC. If OP has some free time should check out CC's travel insurance forum which has lots of good info.

Report seems pretty clean. Thought it a bit ambitious to predict '25 earnings exceeding '19 given all that debt they have to service. Speaking of debt, they were modestly cash flow positive for the quarter but despite 95% occupancy still aren't bringing in enough cash to make a dent in that mountain of debt they've accumulated the last three years. They did succeed in extending the maturity of much of what was scheduled to come due in '22 and '23 but with interest rates rising their adjustable rate debt is going to cost them quite a bit more. An analyst on CNBC was just speaking of how expensive it's becoming for bbb companies to roll over debt and how higher interest cost is prompting downgrades from rating agencies. Potentially makes for an ugly viscous cycle.

My brother is aboard. Haven't spoken to him but since embarkation but he had told me his group on that other web site has 750 members aboard. Properly coordinated that sized group could raise quite a stink.

Was in a group of 23 on Liberty split across three tables. Group leader made big mistake of booking mtd instead of traditional. We had same tables each night but different people dining ahead of us eating at different speeds. Each night couldn't get our entire group seated until all three tables of earlier diners finished and tables were reset. Sometimes waited almost an hour. With traditional would have been no problem.

Suggest everyone put a pin in this discussion for a week as RCL is scheduled to report earnings and update their business outlook on 11/4.

Many companies sell travel insurance. At a casual glance most look similar but the devil is in the details of the fine print. That's why we rely on a pro like Steve. For a real education visit CC's travel insurance forum.

Lengthy piece on cc a number of years ago by a poor guy who missed ship in Nassau. Had gone to Atlantis with family. They had agreed on meeting point but at appointed time one son was missing. He sent rest of family back to ship and waited but son never showed. Later discovered the boy had returned to ship early with friends. Father ran down pier to find ship sailing away. Had drivers license and credit card but no passport. Royal port agent not helpful. Took him three days to visit American embassy, obtain replacement passport, find a plane to Haiti and take a taxi across the island to meet ship at Labadee.

We've been using the same big online outfit for many years (they advertise on CC's "find a cruise" section}. On Royal sailings usually receive free grats plus a small group credit. Never paid a cancellation fee. Others have reportedly received more generous percs but we've been happy with the service and 24/7 customer support line.

Watched the first episode, which was enough for us. Just another phony "unscripted" "reality" show. What makes no sense is putting The Amazing Race at 10pm, too late for most young viewers. It's won many awards and is very family friendly. Belongs at 8pm.

The cruise lines have gotten back to roughly cash flow neutral so can cover the interest on all that accumulated debt but with little left over to pay down principal. That means when due they'll have to roll over their borrowings at today's (and tomorrow's) higher interest rates. Also, oil which is a large expense for them looks to have bottomed so fuel expense trend may go from a help to a hurt.

In a liquidation scenario do you think Carnival's fleet would fetch anywhere near it's $40B book value?

Haven't done a VO sailing since cruising resumed but we did the Grand European on VR this summer and family have done several recent sailings on Royal and Norwegian. Everyone noted inconsistencies from the large number of new, inexperienced crew. In the past Viking had benefited from a low level of turnover but it's not surprising that during the long industry shutdown many veteran crew were forced to seek employment elsewhere. Maybe at some point they will return but in the interim we'll need to be patient as their replacements settle in. They all appear to be hard working with a great attitude.

Troubling that CCL occupancy now up to 90% yet still cash flow negative for quarter. For q4 they're forecasting weaker volumes at lower pricing partially due to fcc's. Debt service requirements dwarf that little bit of positive EBITDA.

This has happened to us a number of times. At embarkation there is a hw stationed at entrance to mdr to handle these kinds of issues. He/she will be happy to take care of you. If you're in Traditional it's not a bad idea to check out your table location as well and if unhappy ask to have it changed.

"The cruise operator's cumulative advance bookings for the current quarter are below the historical range and at lower prices" Meanwhile over at X, despite not being a gambler Blue Chip Club keeps sending me free cruise offers. Last one was good on 70 4q '23 Caribbean sailings. Must be lots of empty cabins.