grandgeezer

The current SOFR rate is approximately 5.34% which would make the loan rate of 6.8% if it happened now. God knows what it will be in 2025 though. This will be new debt added to the total balance at the time. If there ever is a dividend paid again, it will be several years down the road and it will be much less than the $3.16, per share that it paid before. I played this game about 30+ years ago when a company stopped the dividend and restarted paying it when the got solvent again after several years.

If it’s not exactly what you want, why would you settle, to most people cruising is not a necessity but a nice to do. The only thing that will lower the price, and maybe slow down the cutbacks, is if the demand is substantially lowered. Even if/when the debt is lowered to a livable amount, they would be fools to lower the price.

The amount of auto gratuities is set by the cruise line. That tells me that is the appropriate amount for the services performed. If they would do something above and beyond their normal duties, then maybe something extra should be rewarded. Smiling and knowing my name doesn’t count.

I don’t care what other people do. If I’m the only one in the world that uses Blu Ray players, I’m fine with that. Check Best Buy’s financials and reviews, based on that, I would take their decision with a grain of salt. Best Buy is the last place I would spend my money. I make my decisions based on my wants and needs, mostly by my previous experiences not what I read or hear. The last thing I would ever do is go an an open forum and ask for opinions, on anything from perfect strangers.

Your first point backs up my statement of making price comparisons on things that aren’t the same, like comparing apples and oranges. i didn’t say cruising were the only ones doing it. Point two, not everybody streams or wants to. I get all the Blu-Ray CDs we want to use for free, from the local library. The selections offered are of everything and there are several hundred of them including new released.

How many experiences have made the cutbacks and negative changes the cruise lines have? You are not getting the same product so a price comparison would not tell the whole story. Some things have gone down too, namely some electronics. I recently bought a Samsung Blu Ray CD player for $64, if. I recall right, the one before that was about $100 more.

Where do you get the idea people can’t afford to tip? I don’t recall seeing any place where someone said they couldn’t afford it. It’s their money to spend as they see fit, and it’s nobody’s business but theirs.

It is up to the cruise line, not the customer, to make sure the employees make a livable wage. They can do that by raising their base pay or find a way to make tipping mandatory. Until them it’s between the employee and employer, the customer has no responsibility in this case.

We jumped to not cruising at all. From all our experiences, we divided no cruise lines gave us value for the price paid. Do we miss it, from pre 2013, immensely, from anything after that, suites a little bit. All the other classes of cabins, not in the least.

I recall many complainers that still sail but don’t recall any that said they would never sail again, but did. Our last cruise on Celebrity was August of 2019 and here we are in December 2023 and the streak is still in tact. That was in a suite on the Equinox and though nice, grossly overpriced. We did it to see what all the hype was about, and after a couple of days we had our answer. Our last regular cruise on Celebrity was in December 2016, on the Silhouette, and that was the final nail in the coffin. Before that we cruised alt mostly on Celebrity and RCL. We have almost 1300 points on Celebrity and 85 on RCL. Total 47 cruises and 494 days at sea, which includes Princess, Holland America, Norwegian, and MSC.

You have only have a profit or loss, when you sell the stock. It could go up or down tomorrow and the number would change. In the last three years, I have taken a profit of about half of your paper profit, and it is sitting in the bank drawing 5.4% interest, taking part of it out to make sure our son and only grandson can access it right away when we are gone. No since of us spending it just to spend it, we’ve got everything we want and done everything we want already.

We’ve done 48 cruises between March 2003 and October 2019, with 36 being on RCL and Celebrity, we thought the same on cruise #48 as we did on cruise #1. Fools gold then and still and that hasn’t changed. Most of the people on this forum might still cruise but that doesn’t mean the bought stock just to get the obc.

I thought I read on a previous post that the put in laundry machines and one of the washers sprung a leak and flooded out the ceiling in the casino. I can’t imagine how the laundry could keep up with all the passengers and crew sending all their dirty clothes to them. I can picture, since it’s included, a lot of bags being sent with just a few items. We are Elite+ on Celebrity so we each get two bags per regular cruises. When we cruised we got by just using two carryons and sending laundry in every other day or so.

In my opinion shareholder’s OBC is fools gold. It is money you have to spend on greatly overpriced things, or lose it. Somebody will say they would have bought the product/service anyway. Others say, me included, I wouldn’t pay the high price no matter what. Also, you have to book a cruise every time you want to get the OBC. With stocks you get the dividends every year to spend as you please or save it. I have a couple of stocks that I have completely recovered the money I paid for it and still have the stock. I’m no expert either, I got the bug in the late 80s and it has allowed me to retire at 55 and live a life style I never would have imagined.

On January 17, 2020 was at $132+ a share and paid a $3.16 per share dividend. Then the pandemic hit, and within a few months, the share price fell below $20 and the dividend was eliminated. It is December 8, 2023 and the share price is about $120 and still no dividend. That doesn’t look like the coming back is faster than the descent to me.

If Blu became a specialty restaurant, any bets that the Aqua price wouldn’t change? Sort of like the gratuities removed from A.I. and I don’t believe that price changed. It would also add to the burden of the MDR.

Thanks for asking, everything worked out well. This happened two years ago while I was mopping the bathroom floor which I’ve done almost every week for fifteen years. We have all tile floors so I do them all. It’s eerie, The rest of the house I just cruise through it, when I get to the master bath it’s like I’m walking on ice.

I never day traded but, in the mid 90’s I got hooked on low cost stocks, say between $1 and $2 per share. Buy a couple thousand shares, wait until it went up, say $.25 and sell. I was turning a net profit of about $2,000 per month. After about six months I gave up, just too much work and my other regular investments were going through the roof. I had a full time job so the extra money wasn’t really needed.

I also had a boot on for a month. My doctor told me it was ok to walk around within the house to do what I had to but for extended walking, especially outside, he recommended that I should use the scooter. I too had a 4” plate, with screws, put in my leg.

Several years ago my wife made that one bowl with the wavy edges, I don’t recall what the name of it was. It was $100 at the time. The staff person walks you through it and does the critical steps. For whatever reason, it didn’t turnout to the staffs liking so broke it, put it into the scrap bin and told her to come back at the end of the show and they would remake it. The second one turned out great. She still gets positive comments about it to this day.

Two years ago I fractured my ankle and using crutches was not a good idea. My neighbor recommending renting a knee scooter from a medical supply company. It was one where you put your bad leg on the pad and pushed away with your good leg. It had hand breaks just like a bike. Worked really slick and was a life saver. It was $40 for a month. It was light weight a narrow enough, and light enough that you could go anywhere. It fit easily in the back seat, but I don’t know about flying or anything major. If you do decide to go this route, make sure you get one with a basket.

I can’t believe they didn’t know they were over booked until the day of sailing, or the day before is not believable. The dozen, or so. guarantee bookings without cabins assigned should have been their first hint. It just reeks of overwhelming greed. If people are a no show, the cruise line keeps all the money except taxes, fees and prepaid extras. Look up the word guarantee and see if they lived up to their promise. If they didn’t/couldn’t, an ethical company would still try to make it up to their loyal customers, especially to the ones who had to fly to get there couple of days warning would have made the world of difference to them. They fit in to the same category as used car salesmen and ambulance chasing lawyers. When I spend my money, my decision is based on the total experience, from the time I decide to do it until the time I get it completed, which includes customer service and how they handle it if something goes wrong. they were forced into doing something because of the bad publicity, but maybe it was too little, too late for some. This fiasco could happen to anyone.

Jack Daniels is our drink of choice and have never seen it available on the classic package. Our last Celebrity cruise was August 2019 so if it was, it happened after that.

Unless one of the people has to get right away, I see nothing positive in going. What does that person do, wait at the airport, for god knows how long, or go home and wait for a call from the stranded one saying what time they should arrive at the airport to be picked up. We live an hour away and it’s cheaper, easier, and a lot less stressful than driving. I would send my wife, but would have to take the shuttle because she refuses to drive in Phoenix, especially the airport. I asked her and was told we left together so we’ll come home together.

If you have assigned seats, what’s the big deal of checking in at the airport? Unless you have Luggage Valet you have to drop your bags anyway, if you have to drop off bags.