grandgeezer

If people are that gullible, they deserve what they get. When you price a cruise on line, you are asked if you want to include gratuities now. Right there yo know the difference, it stops looking better and you move on one way or the other. As far as the drink price deal mentioned, I don’t have a comment except anything over free is too much. You can fool some of the people all of the time.

Looks better? The only one you’re fooling is yourself. A person could book the $1,000 p.p. and remove the grats at the front desk at the end of the cruise like they are currently doing. Your example gains nothing.

I’ve been on these boards for over twenty years, and the tipping situation has been a subject the whole while. It seems like an easy fix, just roll them into the total price, so why hasn’t it been done? I’m betting it has something to do with $$$$ in the cruise lines bottom line, what it is I couldn’t even guess. Until then nothing is going to change. Can anybody say, with certainty that the cruise price dropped when the prepaid gratuities was taken off the AI and suites and passed on to the customer? Why not? I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count.

Who would write yoy, this year? That makes it this year only. Where did I say I watch every single stock on the stock market? If I find one I might be interested in, I do a deep dive, and it confirms my feeling I buy, if not I pass. This strategy has worked very well over the past 35 years. It allowed me to retire at 55. I’ve not paid a penny interest on anything since 1985, and my mrd from my 401k, investment income is almost double the total of my pension and my wife’s and mine social security. And we lived the “life of Riley” the whole time, we have everything we want and did everything we wanted to do. Amazing!

What’s yoy? I’ve been active in the stock market for over 35 years, and with all the due diligence I’ve done, yoy has never shown up. ?

The way I understand it, a courtesy hold is just that. Normally it’s 24 hours, then if nothing happens it just goes away. We’ve done several and never had to put down a deposit. Maybe things changed since our last cruise in October 2019.

One of my favorite quotes, “The harder you work, the luckier you get.”

I have as much right to post my opinion on this board as anybody. Just because they don’t jive with all the other ones doesn’t make we wrong. The cherry on top of the cake is irritating know it alls that can’t accept that someone feels different than they do.

I doubt a high ranking officer in the military and a cruise ship captain have much in common. He has his right to his opinion but that’s all it is.

It sounds like a mechanical issue on the container ship, height wouldn’t make a difference. They have had ships going in and out of the port for years.

The number is the minimum amount you have to withdraw without paying a penalty of 30% of the shortcoming. I agree, you are far from being an expert.

What makes you think I have $2,000,000 in my 401k? Not even close. The RMD is based on your age and account balance at the close of business on 12/31 of the previous year. Last year it was only $47,000. I have never owned RCL stock and never will, even when it dropped below $20. I’ve been doing stocks for over 35 and have been successful far better than I ever imagined. For me to buy a stock, it has to be a product I believe in and the management team has past experience in fairly treating their employees and customers, RCL is O for 2.

I don’t know, but we are Elite+ on Celebrity and we sort of like the two bags of free laundry, and 240 minutes of internet, per cruise, is nice.

We never get the drink package. We are Diamond on RCL and Elite+ on Celebrity so we get more drinks, for free, than we normally drink. It’ll be a cold day in h - ll before we change our habits just to get “our moneys worth”.

Potato chips just went up to $2.99 recently, it had been $1.99 for years. The weight is down to 8.5 ounces. Still not fine dining in my book. This is in Phoenix.

Where does it say they couldn’t afford it?

This is not comparing apples with apples. You are comparing it to the S&P 500. I’m comparing it to my S&P 500 Index Fund. There is a huge difference, the S&P 500 is based the cost of one share of each. The S&P 500 Index Fund has to own at least one share of each stock but they can load up on the ones they think will make them money. some of their biggest holdings are well into

Here’s some new data for you. RCL stock since IPO in 1993. Up 1,235.27 %. S&P 500 Index fund since first offered in 1984. Up 3,141.97%. These numbers are updated as the price changes. This is on msn.com. Where do your numbers come from or are they skewed in your favor? I don’t how you can count shareholder obc as you have to pay a ton of money to get it.

Where is the dividend coming from? RCL hasn’t paid one in several years. I’ve been in the stock market for over 35 years and reached financial gain way beyond my wildest dreams. I have a 401k, and by law, I have to take a minimal withdrawal every year, for 2024 it’s $58,000+ and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. For those that bought the stock below $20 and held on to it, good for you. But like an economic professor said after someone brought up a similar situation many many years ago “Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in awhile”. Long term, cruise line stocks have not been a good investment. Five years ago, if you stuck equal amounts in RCL stock and a S&P 500 mutual fund, as of close of business today, the RCL stock would be up a total of 1.35%. The mutual fund would be up 82.16%. Finally, to get the shareholder obc you have to book a cruise each time to get it. The mutual fund pays capital gains and dividends without another penny out your pocket. You can take it in cash, or reinvest it.

You think the couldn’t learn from the airlines and any other business that do this? The tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, available for all the cruise lines, would be worth the temporary headaches that might occur. What other options are available besides the usual raise costs and cutback on all the other pieces of the product being offered?😂

How about charging luggage handling fees, like the airlines? According to Forbes magazine, they made $32,000,000,000, yes billion, last year. Only allow carryons, the same size restraints as airlines, to be brought on the ship. Start at $25 for the first bag and $30 for each additional bags, which is less than the airlines do. $$$$$.

We came to that conclusion even before the shutdown, and no regrets.

We get two prime Rib Eyes at Sam’s Club for about $34, they are about one pound each. Put them on the barbie, doesn’t get any better than that.

“Affordable” is in the eyes of buyer, just because that’s your opinion, believe it or not, not everybody agrees with you. We buy based on “value” for the price asked, and for the last several years, none have.

Why today, on the day they revealed their earnings report, just a coincidence? I think not, 81% of the stock is held by institutional investors and they do it to make money. If they were so enamored with the report they would have did nothing or increased their holdings.